The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 63

HERA

Oh skies...dear Zeus.

I am so absolutely screwed.

I swallow and mumble against the hand pressed over my mouth.

"mmmlet mmeee gomm"

"I am sorry your highness, you're going to need to speak up."

I roll my eyes at the obvious jest in his voice and repeat myself again, the words merging together incoherently.

But he gets the message, although I suspect he got it well enough the first time around

"If I let go, do you promise you not to scream?"

I bristle.

Of course I bloody well will not but considering the hand slapped over my mouth and the precarious position I seem to have found myself, I simply nod.

He holds me for a second longer than he needs to and then, he lets me go.

I whirl around to glare at him, my head spinning so fast, I nearly hurt my neck.

Of all the blasted luck

I keep expecting him to throw me over his shoulder and lock me up again but he simple stands there with his hands folded, staring at me.

He looks completely at ease, amused even, that is until his eyes take in my bare feet and how little I am wearing and I can swear I see him swallow gently, his eyes darkening by just the tiniest of bits.

We are standing ridiculously close, his eyes a cool steel sliver in the semi-darkness of the night.

He backs away from me.

One step, then another.

"Your highness."

I sigh. "Look Leo, this is not what it looks like."

This brings the amusement right back into his features.

"So you are not, at this moment standing outside of your room with a door that I myself made sure was locked?"

"Okay maybe it is what it looks like. But I swear I was not trying to escape...far. Night walks clear my head."

His eyes drop. "Barefoot?"

I wiggle my toes self consciously.

"Brings me closer to nature."

He laughs and I frown.

"Wait... you do not seem angry or even surprised. Are you not going to ask me how I got out?"

He shrugs and turns away, stepping out of the passage and towards the small courtyard garden.

"I saw the scratches on your door knob."

"What?"

I nearly trip over myself, my mouth hanging open in astonishment.

He glances at me over his shoulder. "You are a terrible lock pick by the way."

I hurry to catch up to him, dark wet soil getting in between my toes and staining my feet before I step unto the smooth terracotta path leading between well kept hedges of roses and marigold and small rounded trees, their leaves dark green in the wane light of the

moon.

"You knew?"

"I did."

The air smells crisp, sweet and it would have been enjoyable if the situation were completely different.

I bite my lip, chew on it.

"Why?"

"Why what your grace?"

"Why did you not stop me? Why did you let me escape? Why did you not tell him?"

I am unable to stop looking at him, my voice thick with disbelief, eyes narrow with suspicion.

What absurd, cruel plan have they come up with now?

"So many questions your grace, I am unsure which you wish for me to answer first."

And with that wise crack, he turns left, leaving me to glare at his back as he steps off the path and disappears between two tall trees.

I follow him and end up in a small enclave I have not seen before and I momentarily forget my interrogations

and the fact that I have just been caught breaking out of my room.

A grove of trees form a sort of round wall, their braches and leaves extending overhead in a dark canopy of green vegetation, leaving an almost perfect circular patch of midnight sky through which the moon shines brightly. And in the centre of the space is a large marble fountain, glowing a pale, ghostly white.

It is the statue of a woman holding a large jar from which cascades an endless stream of water.

At least I think it is water but considering how it is such a vibrant shade of sparkling blue, I would not be surprised if it is not really water at all.

The chief Ryder is standing in front of the fountain. His hands clasped behind his back.

He does not look at me when I come to stand beside him.

"I do not want to speak to you Leo."

"Why not?"

"Because I know you'll go right to him and tell him everything I say."

"I won't"

I glance up at him, surprised. "You won't?"

He finally turns to look at me, his eyes meeting mine...holding. "I won't."

He turns away a second too late.

"Except of course you are planning to harm him in which case I would have to kill you first myself."

I scowl at him. "You must think yourself insanely hilarious"

He grins, an unexpected action that softens the hard planes of his face. "I do actually."

I shake my head and turn away to hide the smile on my face.

I sit on the lip of the fountain bowl. The liquid in it is so clear, that I can see all the pink and grey pebbles littered all over the bottom.

I run my hands through it and sigh.

It feels like water, cool and calming between my fingers.

Leo watches me quietly.

"You are exhausted"

A statement, not a question.

I shrug. "You can thank your king for that."

"Hera..."

I do not care for the warning in his voice and I tell him as much.

"He is not asleep you know."

"What?"

"The king. I tried to convince him to go to bed, but he refuses, says he is unable to."

"There is this saying we have in Averia. There is no rest for t he wicked."

The way he stiffens and his eyes flash tell me I may have gone a little too far but I do not care.

"He locked me up Leo. You will forgive me if I am not exactly willing to feel sympathetic at the moment." "Did you leave him any choice?"

I glance away, ignoring the prick in my chest.

He sighs, so quietly that I barely even catch it. "He does not enjoy doing this to you."

"Did he ask you to say that?"

"No."

"Then why do you speak for him?"

"Because he is much too stubborn to admit it and you are too stubborn to listen."

I look away, chewing on my bottom lip, hating the way his words are able to so easily weaken my resolve.

"Your grace..." He reaches out and turns my face back towards him with the tip of his finger.

"If the only people you ever learned to love let something in your care, something they would have given their lives for.

If that something was all you had left of them, are there any lengths you would not go to care for it?"

"No..." My voice is tiny, a whisper in the darkness.

But he hears it.

"And if you thought something or someone might be a threat to it, how would you protect it?"

My eyes drop and the answer leaves my lips before I can stop it. "With my life."

"Then surely you understand.

I raise my head, meet his gaze. "What he asks of me is hard Leo. He asks me to bring up memories I have fought so hard to forget about."

My voice cracks and Leo leans in, closing the distance between us by another inch.

"Locking you up in that room was much harder for him and you may not understand it yet but whatever pain it is that you are feeling... he feels it too." "How would you know that?"

His eyes roam my face and for the first time I notice that the grey of his eyes have flecks of blue in them.

"Heck I am not your tether but even I can feel it..."

Then his voice falls an octave lower, his gaze dropping from my eyes to my mouth and then back up again "...He'd have to be blind not to."

"What is a tether?"

He seems to suddenly realize how close we are because he backs away.

"If he is yet to tell you, then. it is not my place."

I sniff and stare at him. "You say he is in his study?"

"Yes."

I nod and take his offered hand, stepping down unto the cool floor.

And with one last nod, I turn away, heading through the trees and back the way I came.

The door to his study flies open before I can even raise my hand to knock.

He is standing there, chest heaving, looking at me like he wants to hold me and shake me all at the same time.

"Hera..."

"Midas..."

He opens his mouth but I beat him to it.

"You were right."

He says nothing, almost like he knows how badly I need to speak before I lose whatever courage I have managed to muster.

"I can't...I am not....arrrgh..."

The words refuse to come, preferring instead to clog up my throat until it hurts to breathe.

I groan, clenching my suddenly sweaty hands in fists, wiping them on my bare thighs.

He reaches for me, whispering my name but I back away from him, stepping out of his reach.

"You know how you said that we humans are all the same. Always ready to blame someone else for our misfortunes, never willingly to see our role in it."

He does not need to say anything. His eyes tell me he remembers.

I sigh. "Well you were right. And the reason I could not tell you about why I was in that alley is because..."

I blink rapidly, my eyes brimming with tears that threaten to spill over.

But if I start crying, I will never be able to get through this.

So I fight It. Fight the tightening in my chest. Fight the crack in my voice.

"The reason I could not tell you how I knew what was going on in that alley is because it would mean admitting that I sometimes see things before they happen."

I exhale, gasping "...And if that is true then your Ryders may have been the ones who burnt down my village...but I......."

My vision blurs and the tears win, rolling down my cheeks to drop at my feet.

Tiny wet spots on the stone floor between us.

I raise my head, meet his eyes through the haze of my tears.

"I may not have struck the match that started the fire but I was the one who really killed them. Because I saw it, I saw it happen in my dreams and I could have warned them, could have saved them but instead...instead I ran... I ran away, and I let them die."