The Dragon King's Substitute Bride

Chapter 90

The Dragon King's Substitute Bride

CH90 Morgan

I opened my eyes, the sunlight filled my eyes and made the sea sparkle. The clouds gathered and condensed into the form of a bird that. simply drifted on the sea wind. The clouds caught fire, turning into a beautiful, glowing phoenix. It was like something from an old ta try. Sunlight danced through the clouds partings. I heard water.

The Phoenix stood before me, taking on my appearance, but her eyes filled with a knowing glint of gold.

"They were your past lives, weren't they?"

"Our," she said with a smile. "Our past lives."

My heart leaped into my throat. "I don't understand... all the pain, all the suffering."

The Phoenix nodded, her eyes filled with compassion.

"It is a heavy burden to bear," she said, her voice filled with a sense of understanding. "But it is a burden we carry."

"Why?" I asked, my voice filled with a mixture of confusion and despair. "Why did we have to

suffer so much?"

The Phoenix smiled. "Because there is no joy without suffering."

"But why must it be me? Us?"

Of the hundreds and thousands of creatures in existence, why did it have to be us?

She sighed. "We were born in war. Born of war... Born of the suffering caused when those three are left to their own devices. We were also born of hope. And loneliness and despair. She chuckled, shaking her head. "Haven't you read the Loneliness of a Single Flame?" recognized the phrase. It was a book of poetry that my dad used to read to me. I had always. thought that it was so sad that there was hope in it, too.

It dreams of kindling, of a warmth so bright,

it

1/4

CH90

a single

Without dark to illuminate.

of flame remain, grow,

Without kindling?

sun beneath

sun without

better that we suffer a few moments of

my-jaw. I

"Do you? You are the one who will

"What?"

a cousin was chosen. That circumstances aligned just so that you were the one to take that trial in

mean to say that my dad had

who cannot cross that veil, like our husband and his troublesome in-laws, how could they ever hope to rule over creatures who do? How can

have an answer to

"Come. I'll show you."

me. The scene I was shown glowed with an ethereal light. There was a mari seated among the clouds, draped in a robe embroidered with ethereal light. The soft, golden radiance that filled the air was filled with a strange, comforting peace. I wasn't sure what I was watching, but I felt no fear. As a scene drew in closer, the light grew brighter, and soon I found myself standing on one of

into a grand, prayers ancient tree, its branches reaching up into

2/4

CH90

as I recognized the sound and the man

It was my father.

mortar and pestle, humming to himself, 1 recognized his medicine-making technique anywhere. I could almost smell it. There was a long line of faceless people near the cloud. I flew over them and hovered just above the line as one of them drifted down onto his oud. The soul came to him, faintly glowing. The forms suddenly turned into a little girl. His

one. How

stung as I watched him. He didn't look up, but I didn't need him to. I was close enough to see

watching him the way I used to as he prepared medicine.

my eyes. My heart swelling with a mix of

what then? Hundreds of young women would have been sacrificed still. And he would have continued living with the woman who didn't love him, a brother who plotted his death and still. completely unable to do what he loved. To see him able to do that to be as selfless, devoted, and caring as he had always been and could never completely be in life, eased my heart. I had never seen him so happy. I knew his real love had always been healing. I had always