The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 24

HERA

I awake to a world of pain.

My neck is stiff and my mouth is dry, almost like I had spent the night downing tankards of ale in some gods forsaken tavern. Or fighting for my life.

Sunlight much too bright even to my half awakened brain streams in from the window to my right and I struggle to open my eyes.

Except they feel like they have been glued shut and the bright light makes the headache I have suddenly just discovered I have all the more worse.

I decide there and then that for the reminder of my mortal life in the dragon realm I would not be caught dead within so much as a whiff of the Elder forest. When I finally do manage to open one eye, the light feels like hot coals on my eyeballs and I raise one hand to shade my face.

Any other day, any other place and I would have given up anything to wake up between warm, soft sheets.

To open my eyes and begin my day with the beautiful white rays of the early summer's sun, to hear the happy sound of birds chirping merrily as they call out to each other and the wonderful smell of blue mountain roses filling the chambers, carried in on the cool morning breeze.

But this time around I'm left wishing the birds would just take their racket elsewhere and that I can pull the windows closed.

No sooner have I finished the thought that someone, who to my half open, sleep filled eyes, is of more of a blurry figure than anything, walks across the room and draws the heavy, dark red blinds closed; mercifully cutting off the blinding light entering the room. Well if the dragon realm is full of these mind readers ready to bring my wishes to realization without my even needing to speak then perhaps being stuck here for the rest of my life would not be so dastardly horrible.

I immediately feel much better now that my eyes are no longer slow cooking in the sunlight.

The silky white sheets are warm beneath my hands as I brace myself and try to sit up in the ornate king-sized four poster bed with its heavy velvet draping of a rich plum color decorated with fine silver.

I manage to rise a little before bolts of pain shoot out from every part of my body.

When a cry filled more with surprise at the pain than actual hurt escapes my lips, a voice I recognize calls out to me and the once blurry figure rushes to my side. "My queen."

My eyes are finally adjusting enough to the fact that it is a new day and they cannot continue pretending not to work.

And I see that it is Henette.

"My queen, are you awake?" she asks beside me.

I bite down the sarcastic retort on the tip of my tongue. I really wish she would stop calling me that.

I try to rise again but it hurts so I stop.

She inches closer "I would advise you do not try to move on your own right at this moment, you have been hurt quite badly."

What am I to do then, lay in bed all day like some invalid?

Serves you right for running away in the first place. My mind throws back at me.

Henette must notice the displeasure on my face because she reaches towards me. "If I may your highness."

I grit my teeth and nod even though it feels like my head may have secretly been unscrewed the night before and somehow replaced with an impossibly heavy watermelon just on the verge of splitting and bursting open. She puts her arms around me and helps me slowly to an upright position. It still hurts and I have to bite down on my lip most of the way but at least I am now sitting up.

"Thank you Henette."

She blushes and looks away.

The once emerald bed coverings have been replaced with a different one, and I arrange the soft midnight blue material around my legs.

It feels more lavish than an ordinarily bed covering should be and it affirms what I may have been otherwise too preoccupied to notice since I arrived here.

The dragon King and his castle are in possession of a ridiculously vast amount of wealth.

I have to try twice to make my throat work and when it finally does, it sounds scratchy and hoarse even to my own ears. "What time is it Henette?"

"It is about high noon your highness."

"High noon?! How...how long have I been asleep?"

Henette reaches behind her towards the bedside table, a glided stool rimmed with intricate carvings and sitting on three legs. "A day and a night have passed since your return my queen."

I had slept almost two entire days! Little wonder I felt like run over cow dung.

When she turns back towards me, she's holding up a half filled glass cup.

I recognize the murky green liquid and just like that I'm thinking about him again.

She offers me the glass. "If her grace will take this healing potion, she will be returned to perfect health in no time at all."

"And if I refuse?" I can't resist asking.

She looks down. "His highness has instructed I fetch him at once."

I instantly remember the last time Midas and I were alone in a room with that ugly green drink and my body involuntarily shivers.

But I decide to behave and reach for the glass. Besides, Henette is the only one in this dark castle I trust.

I hesitate. Unless... her helping me escape and the entire horrible night in the elder forest has all been some plot to punish me or teach me a lesson.

Oh gods above Hera, would you listen to yourself? You sound stark raving mad. Might as well tear of all your clothes and run naked in the streets while you're at it.

I raise the cup to my lips and it feels different on my tongue until I realize it wasn't the taste of the potion that had filled my senses the last time, it had been him.

I gulp down the potion and hand her back the cup.

Almost immediately I start to feel my body begin to settle down, the pain slowly ebbing away.

The last events of that night flash through my head, along with it, the eyes of the one who had been Midas and not Midas at the same time.

"You mentioned the King...I take it he is well?"

She seems confused by my question but she hides it well enough. "Yes your highness, the King is in perfect health."

Well that makes one of us.

"Shall I draw you a bath my queen?"

I nod and she hurries to the door.

"Henette."

She stops, turns to me. "Yes my queen."

I sit up straighter. "You may call me Hera."

If I meant to put her at ease, my words have the exact opposite effect.

She steps back as if I have just punched her in the belly and her eyes go wide in alarm. "Your highness I could never. It is forbidden." "Says who?"

She stutters, looking for an appropriate answer and coming up with none. "It...it just isn't done."

I raise my brows. "And if I insist?"

Anymore wringing and she will twist her fingers into unrecognizable misshapen lumps. "You are queen of the 5th realm, wife to the immortal dragon Ryder. If the king should replace out, he will be greatly displeased."

I dismiss her excuse with a wave of my hand. "Oh poppycock, it is my name and I chose to be addressed by it...at the very least you may do so when we are alone."

She hangs her head so low I fear it will fall off. "As you wish my queen....I mean...as you wish Hera. Oh you see, it doesn't sound right at all!"

I cannot resist laughing at the almost adorable helplessness on her face as she leaves the room.

My head no longer feels twice its size and I tilt it back to rest on the headboard.

Queen of the 5th realm....What did that even mean?

How do I rule over and be a queen to the people responsible for almost every bad thing that has ever happened in my life?

And to do all that while at the same time planning my revenge against their king.

Don't forget trying not to kiss him again.

It is enough to start my headache up again.

Especially because I know I want to do so much more than just kiss him.

Henette returns with a brisk knock on the door and I bid her entry.

Four other maids enter behind her, bearing copper iron buckets filled with steaming hot water for my bath.

They curtsy prettily before they start to quietly and with diligent efficiency begin filling up the large bathtub hidden behind the decorated room screen.

Soon the King's chamber is pleasantly steamy and smells sweetly of lemon and roses.

The other girls leave as Henette announces "Your bath is ready my queen."

"Henette..." I say in a tone of mild warning.

She sighs quietly. "Your bath is ready Hera."

"See, doesn't that feel so much easier?"

"It most definitely does not, my queen."

I ignore that last part.

Averia was not built in day after all.

As I swing my legs over the bed, my body feels completely different from when I had awoken; more alive somehow and definitely not like I had spent an entire day cramped up in a wagon and getting tossed around into trees in an ancient forest like some abandoned rag doll.

It's almost unreal how fast the pain has disappeared.

I look down at my clothes expecting a muddy, shredded, straw stained mess.

"Henette..." I call out in a quiet tiny voice.

She turns towards me. I do not look up, continuing to stare at what I am wearing and hoping my eyes are somehow deceiving me.

"What happened to my clothes?"

Her brows draw in confusion at my strange question. "Your clothes...my queen?"

I'm too preoccupied to correct her. "Yes Henette, the attire I wore to...leave... the castle. You should remember it, you picked it out."

"Oh, that was disposed of your grace."

The way she looks away when she speaks tells me one of the servants, most likely her had probably taken it to mend and sell.

It had been very expensive, fine material and would fetch a tidy sum at the market and I would have done the same had I been in her shoes but at the moment I could not possibly have cared less and I tell her as much.

"It is no concern or worry of mine what you have done with them Henette. I just want to know why and how I have come to now be wearing something different."

She visibly relaxes "Oh, when you would not wake up the next morning, we couldn't possibly leave you in those conditions so you were changed."

I sigh and speak slowly. "I know that. I am asking you, who...who changed me?"

Who took off my clothes...who most likely saw me completely naked.

And somehow I already know her answer before she even says it.

She utters the answer like she is unsure of my reaction. "The king did your grace."

Skies above