The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

MIRA

He brought us to my room and this time I didn’t jump away from him the second the flames disappeared. We are both slightly out of breath after the dance and he is still holding me close while my hand is wrapped around his neck. I look into his eyes and see sparks of dark magic going mad there.

I know this is bad but I still don’t find the strength to get away from him. Although I most definitely should.

Suddenly, he looks at me with suspicion on his perfect manly face.

“Mira,” he asks, “How much wine did you drink today?”

“Huh?”, I look at him in a daze. Why is he asking?

“How much wine did you drink tonight?”, he repeats the question.

“I..I am not sure”, I try to remember, but my memory is a bit blurry, “Three or four goblets I think…”

He swears under his breath and steps away from me. Suddenly it feels so much colder and lonely. I realize I want him back close to me…

“I will leave you for tonight, lady Mira!”, he says abruptly and I already see flames of dark magic arising, “Sweet dreams!”

“No!”, I gasp and immediately cover my mouth with my hand. Did I really just say that? This is so not me!

“No?”, he hesitates, looking at me once again, “Are you sure you drunk four goblets?”

“No”, I say honestly, “Maybe it was five. It was a long night, you know. But what exactly are you implying? I am a battlemage, we have incredible alcohol tolerance!”

“Chaos, Mira”, he swears again, “That was a special wine! Five goblets… how are you even standing?”

“Absolutely fine!”, I feel angry, “I know very well when to stop and don’t appreciate your comments!”

“And yet you don’t want me to go?”

“No, I don’t…”, I say it out loud and can’t believe my own words. What the chaos is wrong with me?

Derrien walks around the room at a fast pace and then stops and looks me up and down again, “You need to go to sleep!”

“I don’t want to!”, I stomp my feet, “Don’t tell me what to do! You are not my father and even he never tells me!”

“Gods forbid”, Derwood chuckles, “And yet you need to sleep so that the wine leaves your system!”

“But why?”, I come close to him and put both my hands on his chest. Gods, it’s firm! So firm… like a rock… or…or the Akyrian steel!

“Akyrian steel is not that great!”, he snorts.

“Wait, did I just tell this out loud?”

“Yes, you did!”, he smiles and I notice that this whole time I am rubbing circles on his chest. Oh, gods… what is wrong with me? I absolutely don’t know what is wrong with me, but I am still keeping my hands on him.

“You seriously need to stop that, Mira”, he says, “I might feel like stone, but I am most definitely not made of one, little mage.”

“I really hate it when you call me that, do you know that?”, I ask, trying to take my eyes off his chest. Unsuccessfully.

“I know”, he signs and suddenly lifts me up onto his hands, “That’s why I keep calling you that!”

“Wooow”, is all I say because now as my head starts to spin and so is the world around me. He takes me to my bedroom and carefully places me on the bed, leaning slightly to look into my face. And I look into his… straight lines, perfect features, strong chin and cheekbones, and eyes.. brown with a reddish tint to them. I don’t even notice that this whole time I am touching his face, brushing my fingers lightly over his skin.

“Mira!”, he growls and I feel his grip on me tighten.

“You are handsome!”, I say suddenly and he looks at me surprised, “Very handsome!”

He looks at me so intensely at that moment that I am pretty sure that he is about to k**s me… But he burst out laughing instead!

He laughs and he laughs until he buries his head in my neck and hair and I feel his whole body shaking with laughter.

“What do I do with you, Mira?!”, he muffles into me, sounding … despairingly. I turn my head and his minty scent hits my nostrils as I am practically sniffing his black as night hair.

“You smell delicious”, I say, taking a lock of his hair away from his face when he turns to look at me again, “Like peppermint candy, they sell for the Winter Gods’ celebration…”

“To chaos with this!”, he mutters and slams his lips into mine. He k****s me greedily, madly even, one hand in my hair and another lifting up my skirt, brushing over my stocking and straight to its ties… One swift movement and a few sparks of dark magic and the dress leave my body, leaving me in just a lacy wine bodysuit and my black stockings attached to it.

“Gods, Mira..”, he rubs his chin as he looks at me and takes it in, “You are so beautiful…”

My breathing becomes faster as I take him by his suit jacket and pull towards me again. When his face is close, I lean and k**s him. For the first time… Actually, this is the first time I k**s anyone by myself… And somehow it just feels right that it’s him… He breaks the k**s and then starts showering me with those. My face, my neck, my breast… but then he freezes.

I open my eyes again to have a look at what is going on and catch him staring at my Dark Mark. It’s shining with dark magic and he brushes his fingers softly over it, making me m**n in his hands.

“This is f*****g wrong!”, he swears again and gets my nightgown from under my pillow, lifting me up and pulling it onto me through my head.

“What are you doing?!”, I yell at him. Is he serious?

“It’s time for little mages to go back to bed,” he says and slides his hand over me, creating flames of his dark magic when I realize he is destroying the bodysuit and stockings.

“Hey!”, I protest, “These were mine!”

I’ll buy you new ones!“, he chuckles adjusting my sleepwear on me, “s**t, Mira, why is this so transparent?!”

“I don’t know, you brought it!”, I shrug my shoulders, still in his hands…

“Oh, yes”, he remembers, “But back then I thought I’d be taking it off, not putting it on!”

“You really haven’t thought this through, have you?”, I giggle and wrap my hands around his neck.

“No, I haven’t”, he answers, sounding so serious and looking at me somehow differently… He lifts up his hand and a small bottle appears in it from dark flames.

“No!”, I say recognizing the bottle. Somnium Nox! The potion that can put down a horse. The one he has used on me once already.

“It’s for the best, Mira, trust me!”, he signs, while forcing me to lie down and securing my hands and legs. He pours the liquid into my mouth.

“Don’t live me alone”, I suddenly say as my eyes close, “I don’t want to be alone here…”

“I’ll stay…”