Chapter 15
The Dragon King's Substitute Bride
CH15
Morgan
Worry clawed at me. "Isn't it pretty usual for people to leave instructions for their successors?"
He nodded. "In the case of the queen, your instructions are in two parts. One is the journals, but the part you are looking for is held in the Trial itself."
I scowled at him. "I'm just supposed to know because I didn't die?"
His lips twitched. "Because you were chosen by the heavens and blessed by the Phoenix."
I cocked an eyebrow. "Mystic words that mean nothing to me other than seeming important."
He tapped a journal. "Perhaps reading will educate you, then."
I met his gaze. "How can you be so sure?"
He sat on the edge of the desk and looked out the window with a wistfulness in his eyes.
"Because I knew my mother, and she told me many stories about how she came to settle in her power as queen."
I looked down at the journals. "Will you tell me about her?".
"What do you want to know?"
I considered it, trailing my fingers over the cover of the journal in front of me.
"Was she happy with your father?"
"She said she was."
"You didn't believe her?"
her
"I believe that happiness in tion was complicated," he said. "She stirred a lot of
controversy."
looked up at him. "By having the king's
smirked. "You've been talking
handmaiden or
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CH15
not ask for
been thinking about it... more and more. Is Maya...
smirked. "You have sharp
cousin."
blinked. "And why isn't she a
choice," he said. "Her
"I'd been banking on her being your
"You'll meet them soon enough, other than
I glanced over at him,
in the family." He sounded amused. "To
can keep you out of
would I tell you?" He smirked.. "And
others read my
been able to once upon
darkness."
"That have something to do with
is the son of my father's first consort. He is younger than me and resentful of me being chosen as the next heir. I am sure
- nower:
to the risk
becoming pregnant, but she was bribed by a concubine and later dismissed. My father says that my mother didn't show a moment of fear until the day of my birth, My birth
know what would cause the destruction of a room during
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He went still.
have no desire
www
back, wondering what answer to give him. I hadn't ever thought about it. I was a woman and Their to the family. It was expected that either I'd have a child to succeed me or choose someone to do so, and if
..
a
at him. "Get out of
"I cannot."
"It hardly matters
His eyes were
with desire. His hands shook, suspended in the air between us as if he wanted to touch
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