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
been
my handmaiden or
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CH15
not ask
more. Is Maya...
smirked. "You have sharp instincts. Technically,
cousin."
why isn't she a
said. "Her mother
been banking on her being
chuckled. "You'll meet them soon
on me, then he's insulting me." I
run in the family." He sounded amused. "To be fair, you are
a way I can keep you
would I tell you?" He smirked.. "And
others read
upon a time,
darkness."
"That have something to
is younger than me and resentful of me being chosen as the next heir. I am sure that
- nower:
to the
paused. "Her handmaiden was meant to be ensuring she was taking the potions necessary to keep her from becoming pregnant, but she was bribed by a concubine and later dismissed. My father says that my mother
the thought. "I don't think I want to know what would cause the destruction of a room
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CH15
He went still.
no
www
family. It was expected that either I'd have a child to succeed me or
..
never had a
at him. "Get out
"I cannot."
my head. "It hardly matters
His eyes were
up, startled by the sound. blazing with desire. His hands shook, suspended in the air between us as if he wanted to
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