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."
him. "By having the
smirked. "You've been talking to
my handmaiden or
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not ask for
it... more and more. Is Maya...
"You have sharp
cousin."
I blinked. "And why isn't she a lady
he said. "Her mother and
"I'd been banking on her being your father's
them soon
insulting me." I glanced over at him, holding back the words that I
think such behaviors run in the family." He sounded amused. "To be
I can keep you out
smirked.. "And it's the least
read my
once upon a time, but
darkness."
head. "That have something to do with
of my father's first consort. He is younger than me and resentful of me being chosen as the next heir. I am sure that Maya told you that it's rare for the queen to birth a
- nower:
due to
dragon child is a hard undertaking." Tsuneo 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
the destruction of
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He went still.
no desire for
www
to the family. It was expected that either I'd have a child to succeed me or choose someone to do so, and if I married, he would essentially be head of
..
never had a desire to marry
at him. "Get
"I cannot."
my head. "It hardly matters now,
His eyes were
desire. His hands shook, suspended in the air between us as if he wanted to touch me.
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