The Dragon King's Substitute Bride

Chapter 71

CH71 Morgan

ely whispered. His whole body thrummed with energy. The

Tsuneo's words carried through the room as if he had shouted them, though he had barely shadows of the room seem darker and I realized that this had to be why black dragons were so feared.

I reached out to put my hand on his shoulder. I felt the heat radiating off of him flowing into me. It was an odd sensation, but he turned to look at me slowly. The beat in his eyes was still there, But he didn't look so murderous. Slowly, I watched him calm down and I smiled at him.

"It's all right," I said. "I don't think you'll have to kill her."

Across the room, Ari turned bright red, but she said nothing more and neither did L.

The king looked almost amused. "Very well," he said, his voice carrying across the room. "As Ari has refused to reconsider and this matter does need to be clarified, a lineage test it shall be."

Tsuneo was rigid beside me, bracing himself. I took his hand gently and squeezed. The heart was light. It was harder to hold back a smile than I first imagined. Honestly, I really seem to think that just because the Elders were going along with this and everyone else would.

The Elders made their preparations, and I got a strange sense of... familiarity. As if I had been here before, as if I had watched this ceremony before. The test began with a swirl of light around Kai. It flashed and flickered before turning into a golden crown above his head.

For a moment. And Kai's place was a much smaller child with Tsuneo's dark hair and eyes, I turned my hair just slightly and saw the image of a woman with a coming smile, and a superior expression. She was draped in the Queen's colors. Was that his mother? Was I seeing some tone of vision of her?

I have

quiet. The Elders, their faces a mixture of shock and awe, exchanged hushed whispers. Finally, the eldest of them stepped forward, his voice

he announced, his eyes locking with mine. "The child is of royal

gasp swept through the crowd, the implications of the revelation sinking in. I breathe a sigh of relief. It was exactly as I expected, which meant that my plan could go into

old man with a sharp gaze, stepped

Ari

bitch was going to be out of here within

I've already made my demands known. Get

not comport himself in this manner," one of the Elders said. "If you had simply told us that you, and maybe I were

no one did. Tsuneo didn't even look at me. That human looked smug almost. Or rather, she looked completely unbothered, which felt smug. It was almost, as if she knew. A cold dread settled in my stomach. did she know? even if she's suspected, what

frighten, to have said much of anything. And even if he did, what could he possibly have said? To my understanding,

have the human taken back

darted in between the human and the Elder. She lay

asked. "The only reason I am here is because you all initiated the Triall in the first place. Let's not pretend that I wanted to be here:Tumen went still, and the human squeezed his shoulder. "Let's not pretend that I had a choice, and let's not forget

CH?1

it will be in honorable service "And how convenient of you to say that when it's no one in your family that's trapped on the other side." He flinched. "I think a lot of people would disagree

"What-"

as easily be keiji's child as Tsunro's. The king could have had

King snorted, and the