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
been talking to
my handmaiden
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ask
more and more. Is Maya...
"You have sharp instincts. Technically, she is
cousin."
"And why isn't she a lady instead of a
"Her
"I'd been banking on her being your
them soon
me, then he's insulting me." I glanced over at him, holding back the words that I wanted to
the family." He
I can keep
I tell you?" He smirked.. "And it's
read
upon
darkness."
"That have something to
"You asked about Keiji. He 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 that Maya told you that it's rare for the queen
- nower:
due to the risk
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 a moment of fear until the day of my birth,
don't think I want to know what would cause the destruction of a room during birth,
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He went still.
no
www
to succeed me or choose someone to do so, and if I married, he would essentially
..
a desire to
him. "Get out of my
"I cannot."
"It
His eyes were
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
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