The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

MIRA

I look at him for a second and want to smile for some reason, but control myself and just give him a polite nod, “And the last.”

“Now – to the carriage!”, he commands and I know that he is still a bit mad. At me mostly even though none of it is my fault! But it’s way better than what has been happening a few minutes ago.

And that’s when I see our means of transport to the Silver Mountain Chain and gasp. Four huge griffins are harnessed to our carriage. I’ve never even seen them in life, just on pages of my academy books. They are very rare… Half body of a lion, another half – eagle. And wings, humongous in size!

“W-why griffins?”, I look at Derrien.

“Because they can fly,” he answers as if he is already bored, “Otherwise we’d be getting to those mountains of yours for days!”

“Of course”, I feel so stupid.

“Come, Mira”, he takes the bag out of my hands even though it’s not big at all and pulls me to the carriage by his free hand.

It’s luxurious and comfortable inside. Plush purple seats, a few cushions, a table with a set for tea and snacks under a protective magic shield. I take my seat and Derrien sits opposite of me, dropping his coat and my bag next to him. I take off my cape as well, as it is very warm inside, and look out of the window. I don’t want to miss it. I have never flown in my life!

A second – and griffins start to move. They take up speed and jump off to the sky, flapping their wings until we are high enough. Incredible! The enormous castle looks smaller and smaller. The trees look like miniatures from my brother’s collection back at home. The scenery changes so fast. And then I see them… the clouds!

“Oh, gods…”, I whisper, not able to look away. They are like white smoke just hanging there… So beautiful and fluffy. We go through them easily and soon we are above them and I can’t quite believe it! Yet one strange thing, somehow I feel water aura and not the air one that I expected… Strange.

“What are you thinking about?”, Derrien interrupts my thoughts and I see that he looks at me as if he was amused.

“Hum”, I bite my l*p, “I am thinking about how wonderful it is to fly. This is my first time…”

“Oh, really?” he chuckles, “You don’t say.”

“That must be pretty normal to you”, I roll my eyes and look back at the window.

“More than you might think”, he answers.

“I wonder why I feel so much water energy here, though. Shouldn’t it be almost zero up in the air itself?”, I turn to my companion again and see him smiling with the corner of his lips.

“Clouds are actually made out of water, Mira,” he says and my mind is overwhelmed.

“What? But how…”, I stop talking not to look like an i***t, “The rain comes from dark clouds… That makes sense. But what about the white ones?”

“Still tiny droplets of water and ice, but not too much,” he says, “You actually got that pretty fast.”

“I never read anything about clouds…”

“You have bigger problems at the Akyrian Kingdom, I guess…”, he reasons, “You are trying to survive and concentrate on magic, ignoring anything else around you..”

“And you?”

“We don’t need to survive. We just exist and have plenty of time to learn, discover, invent…”, he boasts and I want him to eat it. I feel a bit hurt by the way he speaks of my homeland!

“But you are trying to survive too, lord Derwood”, I say and the way I address him does not go unnoticed as he sits up immediately.

“What do you mean exactly, lady Miradora?”, he retorts and my cheeks flush with anger.

“I mean that something went wrong and now you can’t give birth to enough women, so you have to force them to come from other countries. Otherwise, it would be hard to keep up with procreation,” I cross my hands on my chest and sneakily notice how appalled he is by my words.

“We don’t have to force women,” he says, clearly offended by my words, “Usually they are happy to…”

“How would you even know that? I bet you have never even asked anyone if they really wanted to be a part of the Selection!”, I snort.

“There was no need. They behaved like they wanted to.”

“To survive!”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

“You know, Mira, a lot of girls would kill to get to your place!”, he snaps.

“You know, Derrien, a lot of girls would feel the same way I feel! I am lucky I wasn’t in love with Tristan! Otherwise, that would have been a heart-breaking kind of situation! But no one would care! Because no one here cares about us! It’s all about you and it’s never about us! No one asks us what we want! We are just property! And we are reminded of that constantly! I wasn’t born a slave, I was born free – the same way as you! Imagine how would you feel in a similar situation!”

“If I met you, I would be fine!”, he grumbles and turns away to stare at the opposite window. And I feel a prick of conscience. He may be so sweet sometimes! “Although I probably would be chosen by someone more important.”

Alright, that feeling is gone. He is what he is – inhuman, selfish son of a harpy!

“And I would probably choose someone younger,” I smirk and see the flashes of dark magic from his eyes reflect in the window glass in front of him. There you go!

We say nothing for the next hour and all my excitement about the flying is gone. It’s actually pretty boring up here. We are too high to see anything remotely interesting. I don’t even notice how I drift off to sleep.

I enter a room that I’ve never seen before in my life… High ceilings and luxurious furniture, a desk in front of the window, curtains are closed as it is dark already. It’s a personal cabinet of sorts, with bookshelves taking space on most of the walls. Flames dance in the fireplace and I see Derrien standing next to it with his back to me… I want to walk away, but the me in the dream walks towards him and wraps her hands around his neck and waist from the back.

“You’ve been a naughty little mage”, he says in a lower than usual voice…