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
"You've been
handmaiden or
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not ask
it... more and more. Is Maya... related to you in
have sharp instincts. Technically, she
cousin."
she a lady instead
said. "Her
banking on her
chuckled. "You'll meet them soon enough,
I glanced over at him, holding back the words that I wanted
run in the family." He
a way I can keep you
I tell you?" He smirked..
others read
able to once upon a time, but
darkness."
"That have something to do with his
first consort. He is younger than me and resentful of me being chosen as the next
- nower:
to the
a 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 later dismissed. My father says that my mother didn't show
I want to know what would cause the destruction of a room during birth, but
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He went still.
have no desire for
www
sat 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 I married, he would essentially be head of
..
never had a desire
scowled at him. "Get out
"I cannot."
head. "It hardly matters
His eyes were
soft grunt escaped him. I looked up, startled by the sound. blazing with desire. His hands shook, suspended in the air between us as if he wanted to touch me. Did he? He licked
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