The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 19

MIDAS

"I swear on my honor as immortal king of the fifth realm that I will never again send you to that place. I promise."

He wants to kiss away her tears but instead Midas lets go of her chin and she wipes hurriedly at her cheeks.

"Do you mean this my lord?"

He nods once. "But do not think you will not be punished for your actions. You disobeyed me and that is something I cannot allow to go unanswered."

"Your great punishment is that you wish to bed her? You are slipping dragon king."

Midas growls out loud at his dragon. "Shut up."

She gazes at him curiously and in confusion. "What?"

"Not you."

"You know dragon King that is not the reassuring answer you think it is."

He raises one perfectly shaped brow. "How is it that you can manage to make my title sound like an insult?"

She remains quiet for a while, thinking.

"What do you intend to do to me?"

His eyes drop to the plump redness of her lips.

Again with that question, by all the gods, one more time and he would not be held responsible for his actions.

He drags his gaze back up. "I will think of something."

Her gaze drops worriedly to the floor again.

"Dragon king...they are nearly here."

Midas clenches his jaw. "Look at me."

She can't seem to bring herself to so Midas cradles her face in both his palms. "Hera"

Somehow he can't manage to say her name in anything other than a gentle whisper and she meets his eyes.

"The forest thins out to the right and we are not very far from the edge."

Her brows draw in confusion. "I do not understand my lord."

"Do you remember the purple river you crossed at the border of the forest?"

She nods but he can see she is still very confused yet he has no time to explain.

"When I give you the signal, you are to run straight in that direction. No matter what you hear, do not stop running until you cross it. They cannot pass beyond its bank. Do you understand?" There is fear in her confusion now and it shows in her voice.

"My...lord..."

But Midas' voice is insistent, giving no room for questions. "Do you understand?"

She nods again.

His lips tug up for a flickering second with the ghost of a smile. "Good girl."

"They are here dragon king."

He steps back from her.

The smell is beyond strong now, lining the back of his throat and he resists the urge to gag.

It seems to be coming from the east

He pushes her behind him and turns towards the direction. The bushes rustle slowly.

"You want me to leave you to face whatever is coming on your own."

He answers without turning to her, his eyes darting from point to point. "I am asking you to run away from me. I would think you'd be leaping for joy."

"I can't exactly leap my lord, my ankle hurts."

He almost laughs.

The first two arrive from the left and right, stepping out of the shadows as if materializing from nothing.

He hears Hera suck in her breath in surprise but he isn't fazed.

He has seen their kind once before.

The memory returns unbidden.

Little Midas running through the moonlight darkness appears in his mind again. Tears and blood running from different openings, he staggers, trips, his mouth filling with blood.

He tries to fight them off but he is barely ten years of age and no match for their strength or their cruelty and when the dagger slices through his skin, white hot pain nearly blinds him. He shakes the image away.

Now is not the time to get distracted.

The next two follow closely behind and then two more appear from the rustling foliage straight ahead and Midas and Hera are soon surrounded.

The would be attackers are as tall as dragonkin.

Except while people of the dragon realm are brawny and brash, as if forged of steel, their strength visible in their hardness, Elves are the complete opposite.

They were wiry and lithe, full of sinews and lean muscle with stark white skin and pointed ears, long limbs and dexterous slender fingers.

Moving through the foliage and trees with as much grace, silence and speed as the forest animals they controlled.

They are also breathtakingly beautiful with soft beguiling features.

Speaking a different harsh sounding tongue only they and the animals of their forest can understand.

And they most definitely did not belong in the dragon realm.

But dark elves did not follow the rules.

They were distinguished from their kin by the shiny amber and jade runes and spirals that danced and jumped beneath their white skin.

Driven out from their own realm by their people for following after the Fallen one, dabbling in dark magic and worshiping the shadows, dark elves had chosen to hide here in the dragon realm and they made the Elder forest their home. Coming out to hunt at night and corrupting everything around them with their evil magic. Midas hated them more than anything.

Hera says nothing behind him but he can feel her hands clutch his arm fearfully.

The elves stand completely still, their faces devoid of any emotion and Midas says nothing to them.

The two in front step aside and something begins to materialize from under the shrubs between them.

It would have been described as smoke but it was much darker.

It has a thick cloying smell that is strangely sweet, almost citrusy yet you could feel the malignancy at its core.

The inky black smoke that is not truly smoke starts to rise steadily in the air and begins to take shape.

The outline of a head appears first covered beneath a dark hood.

Then a slender, graceful neck follows attached to a narrow, sensually curved, willowy body. Thin sinewy arms with bony fingers and sharp curved nails.

The outline begins to fill out, until standing before him is the most beautiful woman Midas has ever seen.

She takes off her hood and pitch black hair falls down to brush the base of her neck.

Her blood red lips, startling against the paleness of her skin draws into a creepy yet strangely seductive smile.

"Dragon King."

"Hermani"

The woman smiles wider, revealing two very sharp, very bright canines. "Long time no see."

Midas stares expressionless at the queen of the dark elves. "Not long enough."

"Oh come now, don't be like that. One would think we aren't friends."

Midas clenches his jaw but says nothing.

The elf queen laughs, a strange lilting sound, unnerving in the dense quiet of the forest.

Her long blue gown has long slits cut out in the sides and when she steps forward, sylphlike with her long, beautiful legs crossing each other, she's as alluring and captivating as she is dangerous and evil.

"I was starting to think you had forgotten all about me. My feelings were hurt."

The pain of memory flares up from the wound in Midas' thigh. "Trust me; it's not from lack of trying."

"You wound me dragon king." Her words are soft but her smirk is anything but. It is a predatory gleam that lends an air of viciousness to her otherwise striking appearance.

Her eyes, an odd, vivid shade of dark green widen with amusement as she notices Hera. "And who do we have here?"

He moves in a single protective step to completely block off her view and hide Hera's small frame entirely behind his solid body.

Hermani c***s her head slightly at his actions, raising one perfectly arched eyebrow. "Interesting."

"Let us pass Hermani."

The woman takes a few steps back to stand behind one of her stoic companions.

She wraps her arms around his chest so her fingers are splayed across his front and peeks over his shoulders to stare at Midas and Hera. She lets out a small giggle. "You broke the bond."

Midas is alert and calculating and he can feel Er'gan at the very edge of his consciousness but he makes a deliberate effort to keep his voice level and disinterested.

"I have broken nothing. Not yet anyway."

She clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, her voice taking the tone of one addressing a wayward child "Tsk...tsk...tsk...Now dragon King let us not lie to each other."

"I have no need to lie to someone who can do nothing to me."

Hermani throws her head back and laughs long and hard. She steps out from behind the guard, Her unnerving green eyes very slowly running the length of Midas' body, dropping down...down below his waist and he fights a wave of disgust. She points one bony, red tipped claw at his thigh. "The dark magic used on the blade that caused your wound still calls to me." She rotates the finger slowly as if screwing something tighter.

And as she does this, Midas feels searing pain so intense running up his thigh from the old scar, burning and scalding at the same time.

It clouds the edges of his vision and threatens his concentration.

Er'gan growls in response to his pain.

"Let me out."

Not yet.

He clenches his jaw and refuses to show anything beyond cool disinterest.

The dark elf is not fooled.

She drops her hand and her lips pull back in a smirk of pleasure at the pain she has inflicted. "I believe that was enough to jug your memory."

She takes a step back, arms outstretched. "When you came here that night oh so many years ago, our people found you and in exchange for your life, your father made a blood bond with us, he gave us the elder forest at night to do as we pleased..." The smile disappears."...You have no right to be here."

Midas stares unflinching at her like he has heard nothing she said. His voice drops to a low, controlled timbre. "Let us pass Hermani."

Hermani lowers her head and stares up at them, the pupils of her green eyes dilating so that her eyes were now nearly black.

Her fangs gleam in the moonlight and her lips stretch into that creepy smile once more.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that your highness."