The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 2

HERA

How dare they!!"

I couldn't answer even if I wanted to, not with his hands nearly choking the life from me.

His eyes are a startling red that shake me to my core, his beautiful face distorted with rage and startling clarity I realize that I am going to die.

The exact words that had brought me to this point float like ghosts through my mind.

"Hera the queen has requested for you"

7 little words; how was I to know that those were words that would change and ruin my life beyond anything I had ever imagined?

No, in that moment all I knew was that the queen has summoned me and that could only mean either of two things.

One I had done such a good job of tending to spoilt Princess Cassiopeia's every whim and need, cleaning her room till it glimmered, that the queen was now about to promote me from palace slave to palace attendant

Or I had done something even slightly wrong and was now about to be sent away from the palace or worse, locked up in the cold dank dungeons below.

I had gotten up fearfully from the dirty kitchen floor, my hands chaffed and raw from how hard I had been scrubbing.

"What could the queen want from me?" I wondered out loud and I saw the slap coming before the blow even landed forcefully on my cheek, splitting the skin and knocking me back to the floor.

"You dare...to question the queen's orders?"

Tears brimmed in my eyes, my stinging cheek now bright red but I knew better than to say a word in response.

"If you value your head slave girl, you will do well not to repeat such an act in the presence of her majesty, for while I might be forgiving, she most definitely is not. Now cease your sniveling and come with me."

And without another sound I had followed, all the while wondering if this was going to be the end of me.

What would happen to my little brother if that were to be the case? Every other member of was dead, burnt to ashes in the fire that had razed down my village.

I would never forget that day; the image of my mother, waving at the door to our hut, watching me and my younger brother head off to the capital to sell our last surviving flock of geese for whatever little money we could get. It was the last time I would see her alive.

The smoke coming from the direction of the village was the first sign that told me something had gone horribly wrong. I remembered running as fast my legs could carry me, dragging my brother behind me but even before I got there I knew it was too late. The smoke stung my eyes and the stench of burning flesh and smoldering embers that filled my nose told me exactly what had happened.

The Dragon Ryders had attacked my village; destroying everyone and everything in it.

It didn't matter that the attackers could still be around. I hadn't stopped running until I got to our hut.

But there was no one left, nothing there but a pile of burning ashes, where my family had once stood.

The voice of the head servant broke into my thoughts. "Wait here"

I stood in front of the heavy gold doors that must lead into the queen chambers. I had never been here before.

Slaves were not allowed to roam the palace at will.

I would have preferred not to make matters worse by appearing before her highness covered in soot and dirt from the kitchen but I had little choice in the matter and while I was still trying to wipe off the grime from my hand on my dirty maid uniform as best as I could, the doors swung open and the head servant reappeared.

"Come."

When I stepped into the wide airy room, my heart had nearly stopped as I realized I was well and truly finished.

If only I had known just how much.

Unlike I had earlier assumed, I wasn't in the chambers of her highness, the queen of Averia, no I was in the throne room and seated at the top of the steps at the end of the room beside the queen and princess was no one else but His majesty himself. My lips quivered and tears started to fall, a slave brought to the throne room before the king was either about to be sent to the dungeons for trying to escape or publicly executed for treason.

I had fallen to my knees at the base of the steps, ready to plead for my life.

It was the king who spoke first. "This is the girl?"

"Yes your highness"

The king grunted and nodded his head. "Good. What is your name girl?"

I bit back my sobs, not daring to raise my head. "I am nothing but a slave girl by the name of Hera Your majesty"

"Hera..." he repeated staring at the poor maid shaking before him. "And how old are you Hera?"

"I have seen 21 Moon harvests your grace."

"And your family?"

"All dead... killed by the dragon Ryders, save my younger brother who also works here in his highnesses service." I said, my voice cracking on the last word hoping the mention of my brother would soften their hearts. How very wrong I had been.

"Your brother...do you love him?"

When I failed to respond the king repeated his question, impatience in his tone. "I said do you love him...this brother of yours?" "Yes my king, with all my heart"

I remember asking herself what kind of trial and sentencing this was to be? Where were all the guards and the members of court?

But the king had not finished with his strange line of questioning. "And would you consider any sacrifice too great to save the life of your brother?"

I hadn't needed to even think about it. "Never"

Leaning back the king nodded "It is decided then..."

By the gods, if they meant to kill me for some crime I had wished they would just come out and say it.

"...when the sun rises over the hills of Moria tomorrow, the slave girl Hera will be wed, in place of the Princess Cassiopeia to the Dragon king Midas, ruler of the 5th realm..."

I raised her head, confusion and fear greater than anything I has ever known filled me for what would be the first time of many and my blood ran cold. "My...my King...I do not understand."

But no one had bothered to answer me.

"...For the salvation of our entire kingdom and the life of all we hold dear..." He hit his scepter three times against the ground, in the manner of a royal decree. "I am Avalon the Noble, King of Averia. So I have decreed and so it will be done. Take her and prepare her." In that moment, I wished I had been sentenced to death because this was much worse.

And now as Midas flings me across the room, I note they may not have said it that day but that is what they have actually done.

I fall painfully against the wall, somehow managing to avoid hitting my head, my wedding attire now barely pieces of cloth hanging from my body.

He stalks towards me and I shrink against the wall, biting my cheeks hard but it was no use, the tears would not stop falling

They hadn't stopped since the day before when I was taken out of the throne room and my dirty garments stripped from me.

Not when I was immersed for the first time in a warm bath of roses and expensive sweet smelling spices and scrubbed within an inch of my life, my skin massaged with jasmine and oils from the queen's own armoire.

Not even when I was dressed in layers of the soft crystal blue of my wedding attire, its sheer material hugging my curves and moving like liquid silk when I walked.

The servants around me had held no envy for my position, not for a moment.

Even as they had brushed my hair till the flaming red of it gleamed, falling in waves down my back and adorned me in jewels fit for royalty, they had felt sorry for me.

To be wed to the Dragon king, a man whose cruelty was known and feared throughout the 7 realms, a monster so ugly he kept his face hidden.

It was nothing short of a curse.

Head bowed, my hands folded in my laps, my body shook with fear and rage, I fought the urge to run, to try and escape my bleak fate but I had known even then that it would be no use. This was the price I had to pay.

To save my kingdom and the only living family I had left.

"It is time." A voice announced and they placed the heavy veil on my head and led me out of the dressing chambers and to the large doors of the throne room where my fate had been sealed.

They hadn't even let me see my brother to say goodbye for fear that I would try to escape.

"You must think we are being cruel and selfish." The king said appearing by my side in all his royal garments, crown high atop his head to lead me down the aisle. "But the princess..."

"Is heir to the throne and I am only a slave... disposable."

I knew they could no longer harm me more than they already had, not when I was about to save all their skins and for that I would no longer bridle my tongue. "I have accepted my fate your highness. All I ask in return is that you take care of my brother." "You have my word. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten Hera"

"So I keep hearing"

I didn't care if they remembered or not. They could forget if they so wished but I would not forget and when the time came, I would make them pay; All of them.

When the doors swung open and I was led in, the royal bells tolled loudly but I might has well have been deaf for all my attention was fixed on the one who had remained seated when everyone else rose

It was the first time I had set my eyes on him; the object of my nightmares.

Even with his face hidden behind that fierce armor with its terrifying horns, I had felt his eyes following my every move and my heart banged against the confines of my chest till I felt like it would burst.

My hand was placed in his and I found it cold and hard, calloused from battle. And even though I struggled to hide it, my body soon betrayed my fear, trembling against my wish.

He exuded a palpable power and presence beyond anything I has ever known and it scared me to my very core.

And yet, behind all that fear was curiosity and I had found myself sneaking glances at him throughout the ceremony, wondering if what lay behind was as heinous as his crimes. I knew now that it wasn't.

The ceremony itself had passed in a blur of words and meaningless motions.

When the cords were wrapped around our joined hands as was the custom, it was like the final nail on the coffin and I found herself once again fighting back tears at the unfairness of it all.

I was led unceremoniously out the hall, two Ryder guards at my side and placed alone in a chariot at the head of the procession of the Dragon army and he had appeared moments later hoisting himself up and beside me with a grace and fluidity that surprised me given how large he is.

He signaled for the march to start and for the first and what will be the last time, I was led out of the only home I had ever known.

He said nothing to me the entire way to the top of the hill of Moria, not when dark clouds that were not there before suddenly appeared and the sound of distant thunder rumbled, a bolt of lightning renting the air and striking the crest of the hill so suddenly and forcefully that I had jumped in my seat.

The portal opened, filling the air with a smell that reminded me painfully of the day my village was wiped out.

Not when he dragged me from the chariot and towards the gaping hole in the otherwise darkened sky to whip out a blade and slit the skin of my palm, my blood dripping down, staining the grass below a crimson red.

Not even when pain had flooded my entire body as he pressed our bloodied palms together.

Pain so fierce, my knees gave way, pleasure so intense, stars exploded in my head; the last thing I remembered before I was whisked away.

No, the first time I had heard the voice of the man to whom I was now sworn, I had just come to, lying on the softest bed I had ever slept in, a faint throbbing in the hand that had been cut open.

His large hand around my neck, his lips brushing against my ear in a way that made my stomach clutch and my toes curl with a pleasant feeling that both surprised and disgusted me.

I would never forget the first time I had looked into the face of the monster who had destroyed everything I loved and realized the stories that said he looked like Hades himself were all wrong.

He was the most beautiful, ethereal thing I had ever seen. My finger had ached to brush against his perfection, to trace the planes of his face and run them through his long white hair.

And when he had kissed me, bruising his lips against mine making me gasp and shudder against him, my body betraying me and surrendering to the one responsible for so much heart ache and pain, I had him even more. The same hatred that is even now reflected in his face as he stares down at me "Get up."

I know I should do as he commands but my body is in pain and unwillingly.

"I said... get up."

I force myself shakily to my feet not daring to raise my head.

"Look at me..." The disdain and disgust in his voice clear as day and I raise my eyes to meet his.

They are no longer the color of flames, but they are much darker than the golden gleam I had awakened to see.

"For your part in this deceit...this plot, you will be sent down to the dungeons and come tomorrow you will be publicly executed." the finality in his voice sealing my fate.

When he turns away from me, pain and rage as sharp as the knife that had torn open my skin pierces my heart; I was already dead, what did it matter.

And I charge at him.