The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 103

Hera

The first time I got lost was a few weeks after my 8th moon harvest.

My siblings and I had spent all day playing in the sprawling fields behind our manor and it had begun to get late.

The sun already a fiery ball of orange buried halfway into the earth and casting long shadows across the ground.

Mother's instructions before her departure to go fetch my wondering father from whatever tarvern he had found himself had been simple.

And we should have begun to head back inside like we had been told to.

But I had just been crowned queen in our silly games of make believe and as queen, I had decided that I wanted moon daisies braided into my crown of flowers.

The issue with my irrational desire, was not just that play time was already over and that I would not be "queen" for much longer, but that moon flowers did not grow around our home. They did not even grow in the rolling fields beyond our gate.

No, they grew within the borders of the tall dark trees that were already being cast into shadow by the setting sun.

I should have given up.

Should have turned around and marched my tiny feet into the house and washed down for supper.

But even then I did not know how to stop.

Or how to let go.

So I had clambared over the wooden fence meant to keep us from doing exactly what I was about to do.

And deaf to the frantic warnings of my sisters, my brother was much too young then, I had run, tiny feet pitter pattering over soft green grass towards the edge of the forest.

It had taken me barely five heartbeats to realize my first mistake.

I could have sworn the edge of the trees had been much closer when I looked upon them from behind the saftey of my fence.

But even then, even after realizing my error, I had been too stubborn for my own good and not ready to turn back.

My siblings, tired of yelling after their oldest sister, had gone inside and all I could hear was the sound of evening crickets calling frantically to each other.

Loud and irritating over the sound of my racing heart.

Informing one another about the foolish human girl child heading to her doom.

Beginning to get afraid, I had run as fast as my feet would take me.

It would only be but a moment I told myself.

I would be in and out before any one could say fiffle faffle.

And when my sisters saw the moon flowers I had gotten, they would be sore jealous and I would not give them even a petal to hold.

Perhaps I shall let them have a sniff but nothing more.

Yet when I got to the edge of the Forest, I realized my second mistake.

The moon flowers with their luminescent white petals, falling like drops of silk away from ruby red centers, did not in fact grow at the edge at all.

But I told myself that since I had begun it, it was only right that I see it through.

The truth in fact had been much less complex.

My ego would not allow me to come back empty handed.

So of course, I had wandered into the forest.

And of course, I had gotten horribly lost.

They found me crying.

Curled up in the fork between the brown, mottled roots of a massive oak.

Tears and mucus running down my face and ruining the precious daises clutched tightly in my hands.

I would get lost many times after that, but nothing had ever managed to compare to the first time.

The warmth and happiness and relief that had rushed through my body as I threw myself into the open arms of my mother.

The daisies were crushed between us and so lay forgotten on the dark forest floor, discarded in the wake of my rescue.

Of course, I knew I would be getting a good and stern talking to and in all likelihood would have my queen playing privileges stripped away from me for a week, but I could hardly bring myself to begin to care. All that had mattered in that moment had been holding unto her as tightly as I could.

Crushing her between my frail, tiny bones.

And even though we had still been in the middle of a shadow cast forest with snapping branching and rustling, moving sounds, my fear was almost all gone.

Because holding unto her felt like coming home.

It always did.

And that is how I know I have to tell him everything.

Because when he holds me, it feels the exact same way.

It does matter where we are or how frightened I had been moments before.

From the moment I step into the circle of his arms, I can almost feel my fears melting away.

Giving up the fight like spears of ice under the brilliance of the sun.

Perhaps that is why thinking about Averia no longer fills me with pain or home sickness.

Somewhere along the line of this positively insane journey, the dragon king had become my home.

He pulls back, clutching my face between his hands even as his eyes roam around every inch of my face. "You made it out."

"A dragonkin stating the obvious. I must truly have made it back this time around."

"Delighted to see your sharp tongue has managed to follow you out."

I smile but it not a full one.

My head is reeling and my heart is racing.

I want to tell him everything.

About why I had agreed to this marriage and had come into his realm in the first place.

I want to tell him about my initial plans to replace out his weakness and get revenge.

And about how somewhere along the line, rather than hating him, I had fallen stupidly in love with him.

Surely he would understand.

The dragon king of all people must know that sometimes getting revenge is the only thing that managed to keepyou going.

But thinking it is easier than saying it out loud.

He tilts my chin up with a finger, making me meet his eyes again.

"You are troubled. What is it, what did you see?"

I glance behind him.

Somehow everyone had disappeared.

And we were alone.

Again.

I step back, shaking my head.

No, it couldn't be.

I made it out...

I did!!

"Hera...what is the matter..."

Midas makes to come towards me, his brows drawing together when they take in the panicked look on my face.

I take another step back, stretching out a palm.

"No. Stay there!"

He stops, his bewilderedment and confusion only obvious in the way his eyes watch me.

"Where is everyone?"

"I do not know. Perhaps the Fairy Queen has more common sense than I give her credit for and decided to give us a moment to ourselves." "So I am not still in the hall of mirrors?"

"Why in hades would you..." He stops when he sees how worried I am.

"No Hera...you are not. I promise you made it out."

"How did I know that you're real? This, you, could all be some elaborate illusion to try and trick me into..."

To this day, I cannot say how he covers the distance between us in one blink of an eye.

But he does.

Somehow he reaches out across the space and drags me back towards him by the loop around my waist.

And then he covers my mouth with his own and steals the protests from my lips.

It feels like words unspoken.

This kiss that is different from all the others.

Fingers entwined, hearts pounding in tandem.

He kisses me with an intent and a purpose that threatens to set my very soul on fire.

A tenderness that makes my heart ache.

And when we finally break apart I can barely even remember to think.

He rests his forehead against mine. "Still think I am unreal?"

I sigh, breathless, my chest still heaving from what has to have been the most intense kiss of my life.

"By all the gods no."

He laughs and stretches back to his full height. "Come. Let us go home."

"No, Midas wait."

He turns back to face me, brows drawn.

I have to say it.

I have to say it now or I am simply going to explode.

"There is something you should know."

He freezes, then he takes a step back.

Back and away from me.

Somehow I did not aspect this reaction and it almost makes me not want to say anything.

But I push past it, ignore the bells going off in my head.

And I tell him everything.

I say the words in a rush.

Barely breathing, not wanting to stop until I get to the end.

The point where I tell him why I no longer wish to harm him or his people.

The part where I tell him I love him.

But I never get there.

I never get there because as I speak, the dragon king's expression begins to change.

His face remains the same but his eyes.

They become guarded.

And the words get stuck in my throat.

"Midas..."

"So you came into my realm with the intention to destroy it?"

"Yes but you can hardly fault me for that. You and your dragon Ryders..."

"I know and I do not...fault you for it. I myself would have done the same thing."

Relief washes over me like a pitcher of cold water.

But the feeling is short lived for when I reach out to touch him, he remains out if reach.

I swallow and straighten my back. Hiding my fear behind a cool voice and a face devoid of expression.

"Midas. What is going on?"

He watches me for a long moment.

"You say you are no longer interested in getting revenge."

"That is because I am not."

"But what if someone manages to convince you otherwise?"

"What?"

"The one the dark elves worship, the one who is more than likely behind all of this, is a god, a creature of dark and immense power. The one called Azarath the fallen."

I shudder when he says the name.

The hairs on the back of neck standing in end.

"Azarath..."

Suddenly, every premonition of darkness I have ever had comes back in full force, and I struggle to focus.

To focus on the words he is saying.

On what they mean.

"The Oracle of Daphne, the goddess who's powers you hold. She let herself be lured by this darkness and she betrayed everyone else."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"You are her incarnation."

"I am what?"

Too much...this is too much all at once.

I want to tell him to stop talking.

To slow down and let me think but he is speaking again and my throat is refusing to work.

"And now you tell me that all this time, you have wanted to get revenge for what my people...for what I did to you."

"Wanted Midas! Wanted. That is the whole point of telling you. You cannot possible think that after all of this, I still wish to bring you harm?"

I wait.

And wait.

But the words I wish to hear never come.

I stumble back as if struck.

"You think I am going to betray you to some shadowy figure responsible for some much chaos and death, whose face I have not even seen?" "But you have"

I stay silent, my mind reeling.

And somehow I know without him saying it.

The path of lost memories and the face I had seen in the darkness when I bad stepped off.

Oh Gods above.

Fear, raw and primal rushes through me.

But it is nothing compared to the pain I feel as I watch him drift farther and farther away from me.

He still stands there.

He hasn't moved an inch since we began speaking yet he has never felt farther away.

And I know no matter how much I reach out, I will not able to touch him.

Not anymore.

And my heart breaks.

Tiny cracks that spread and radiate until even the tip of my fingers start to hurt.

"Midas..."

But he is already turning away, refusing to meet my eyes.

"We must return at once. The dragon realm needs me."

And by all the gods it hurts.

Hurts more than anything I have ever felt before.

So I do what I always do when the pain gets too much for me to think about.

I get angry