CH3

“Lady Ari, please be respectful,” an attendant said firmly. “She had passed the Trial of Fire.”

She sneered at me. I returned her dismissive look. Ari flushed.

“Even if that’s true, my brother deserves better,” she snarled. “You have no right to wear the queen’s colors, human!”

I narrowed my eyes. “Is that because you want to wear them?”

She snarled and drew a sword.

The attendants went still, but I darted forward, striking her in the wrist. She let the sword go, and I snatched it out of the air. Ari stumbled and tried to swipe at me, but I dodged and shoved her back into the wall, then pressed the blade to Ari’s throat. Ari gasped and flashed her sharp teeth.

“Your Majesty–”

“Let me make something clear,” I said. “You may have run around being a terror before I arrived, but I’m not one to be bullied.”

She snarled. Her eyes flashed with light. “You human wretch. You’ll regret this.”

“Not as much as you will.” I pressed the blade closer to her neck. “The next time you pull a sword on me, I’m going to take your fucking arm off.”

She snarled. “My brother will never accept you.”

I scoffed and stepped back, dropping the sword at her feet.

“I’m not asking him to. I didn’t ask to be here. Send me back.”

The attendants looked nervous. “That’s not possible.”

Ari snarled, snatching the sword up from the ground. “You…”

“Lady Ari, you’ve attacked Her Majesty,” the attendant said. “Under the law…”

I smirked and held up my hand. “Don’t worry about arresting her. Just… report it to whoever the powers that be are. Whoever is going to get her in the most trouble.”

Her eyes bulged. She went pale.

“Aren’t there officials? Elders?”

“The Imperial Elders will want to know about this,” the attendant said slowly, glancing at me. “They will also want to meet you.”

“No, thanks.”

“That’s not an option.”

“Do I have any options?”

Their eyes glinted. “No.”

I scoffed.

Ari snarled at me. “Just you wait…”

She turned and stomped out. Two attendants followed after her.

The attendant looked at Maya. “I have to report to the Elders about you. Maya, please look after Her Majesty.”

I looked at Maya. She smiled as a gong started to ring through the palace.

“What is that?”

“It marks the time,” Maya said. “It’s just past dinner time, heading into the sleeping hours… As the new queen, it’s your duty to bathe the King and change his clothes.”

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “You… expect me to change a man… twice my size? Who I have never met? Seems a bit odd to be so… careless with your king.”

Maya chuckled. “It is your duty.”

“I could kill him.”

Maya went still. “Please don’t… joke like that.”

“Why isn’t that a concern?” I asked. “He’s essentially forced me through a wall of magical fire and slapped a title on me for what?”

“W-Well, the dragon lineage has to continue.”

I snorted and jerked my thumb back. “She seemed more than happy to take up that duty.”

Maya dropped her gaze. Her lips twitched into a smile. “Lady Ari was found… wholly unbefitting of the crown.”

I snorted. “Great. An enemy I didn’t ask for. Why aren’t there attendants to bathe him?”

She chuckled. “It is tradition. You will understand the longer you are here.”

“Highly doubtful.”

I remembered the scent of burning bodies and shuddered. I watched Maya walk into the attached room. She brought back a bowl of hot water and a towel.

“I’ll leave you. Please call me if you need me.” She bowed out. “Until morning, Your Majesty.”

“Wait a second!”

The door closed behind her. I went to it and tugged on the door, finding it locked. What the hell? Was this some odd idea for a marriage night? I shuddered, feeling more sick by the second. I looked down at the bowl of hot water and et on the bedside table.

I turned around to look at the man.

“This is dumb,” I said, looking at him. “I was forced through a wall, and I have to bathe you?” She scoffed. “All the staff in this palace, and I have to bathe you? Does that mean you haven’t been bathed all this time?”

I chuckled and ran a hand through my hair. It was too short for any of the fancy pins in the room.

I looked at him and frowned. There were smudges on his chest. I leaned forward, tugging at the collar of his robe. My face heated at his chiseled chest. He was rather well-built for a man who should have been asleep for centuries, but more than that, the smudges spread down his chest.

I passed a hand over the spots on his neck, and I went still. They were raised.

“What happens if I don’t bathe you other than me being trapped in here all night?”

The man didn’t answer. I sighed, lifted one of his arms, and winced. He would be way too heavy, to move. There was no way I was going to be able to move him enough. She went to the window to see if it opened, but it didn’t. I tutted and turned back.

I guess there really is no way to get out of this.

“What the hell,” I said, throwing my hands up. “Killing women for centuries one at a time just to find a caretaker? No one even cared to ask if I wanted to take care of a man!”

I sank into the chair and propped my feet up on the edge of the bed.

“I want you to know, even if you can’t hear me, that this is fucking ridiculous,” I said. “And I would just as soon dump a bowl of water on you than try to bathe some stranger.”

I huffed and leaned forward onto the bed.

“No… I wouldn’t. That would be abusive, and you probably aren’t the one that started this whole Trial thing, being asleep at all.”

I sighed, grabbed a towel, and dipped it in the bowl. I passed the towel over his neck. The marks on his neck didn’t move, but they glistened with red light in the deep darkness.

Then, I realized they were scales. My face heated, and my eyes drifted down his bare chest. They were scales. This all sucked, but I finished wiping his neck and face. Every pass pulled something from his skin, a bit of darkness like dirt.

I guessed he really hadn’t been bathed in all this time. I worked his robe open a bit to wipe his chest. I bit my lip as my stomach jumped. I’d never been this close to a man I wasn’t related to before, and though I knew he was sick, that didn’t stop me from feeling like this. He was handsome.

I lifted up to reach the other side of his chest. I caught myself with a hand on his lower stomach. I clenched my fist in the belt of the robe. Then, a large, warm hand clamped around my wrist. Before I could scream or pull my sword, I was pulled forward and tumbled across the bed. Another hand clamped over my mouth, and a sharp edge pressed against my chest.

His eyes were like dark opals above me, narrowed and glinting with fire.

“Don’t make a sound, or I’ll kill you.”