The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 86

HERA

The thing no one tells you about free falling to your death is that you are moving so fast, it can actually begin to feel like time has somehow stopped. Slowing down to one trickling moment after another.

As a matter of fact, if I close my eyes, and try to ignore my pounding heart.

If I somehow managed to forget about the numerous, razor edged rocks below and my imminent demise...

It almost feels like flying.

Almost.

But then just as quickly as the illusion had appeared, it fades, the panic returning with full force.

And all at once I am no longer flying.

Who would have thought that with everything that has happened, this is how it would end, with me plummeting to my death.

But it is not the thought of dying that scares me the most.

It is knowing that I am never going to see him again.

If I had known that the last time I saw him would be the last I would have...

Would have...

I do not even know what it is I would have done.

I had never settled down long enough to figure it out.

My feelings scared me and so I avoided them, refused to think about them.

And now, I would never get the chance.

And it is that thought that makes my eyes start to sting, tears falling, blurring my vision of the misty floor down below.

Even as I close them for the last time, his name is the last thing on my mind.

But the imapct never comes.

Instead inches before I can reach the ground and shatter every bone in my body, I get the wind knocked out of me as what feels like a large hand snatches me out of the air. A very large, clawed hand.

And that ironically, is when I begin to scream.

The dragon itself seems entirely oblivious to the bone crippling fear that being caught up in its talons is causing me.

.The sound of my screams are lost in the roar of his massive slate grey wings.

Frightening, scythe shaped, membranous things that cut effortlessly through the thickness of the night's air like a knife through butter.

Each flap bringing it and me in its grasp back to the darkened entrance I had fallen out off.

It flies up until it's feet are level with the door and then it tosses me throw the air.

I scream again, landing roughly on the floor of the kitchen.

Skies...oh dear Zeus...

My brain is still trying to comprehend the fact that that I had almost died and I am so shaken up that I can barely breathe.

So I push back thinking about it, delaying the panic for as long as possible.

I scramble to my knees and crawl towards the door.

The dragon hovers in front of the door but it so impossibly big that only the side of it's face is visible through the doorway.

I grip the door with one hand and drag myself shakily to my feet and stare out at my saviour

A bony face covered in scales the colour of stone and one lone eye, with slit thin pupils, blink slowly at me.

My mouth hangs open, my breath coming out in raspy gasps.

And it is not just because of the fact that I had just almost died.

It is the sight before me.

Frightening and scary and beautiful.

Breathtakingly beautiful.

This is not the first time I have seen a dragon.

I remember seeing the one Called Meirsul in the cellars, a time that feels like it was forever ago.

But this dragon...

This one is different.

Not only is it almost twice the size of the other, it is shaped different, more bullish than Meirsul whose body had been long and serpentine and multicolored And that eye...

Grey and sharp and piercing.

It feels familiar...

Almost as if it can see through me.

Just like...

I gasp, my hand flying to cover my mouth.

But before I can call out his name he is flying away.

Down to the mountain floor that had quiet nearly been my grave.

My cloak had come undone when I fell and the wind outside is sharp and biting.

Or it would be, if I could feel it.

I inch closer just in time to see the it fly around the mountain.

I do not even remember to close the door before running out the kitchen.

Leo.

I have just seen Leo's dragon form.

And he had just saved my life.

How did he even know to replace me?

I know he would have landed somewhere to change back and since the main castle entrance would be locked by now, I head towards the nearest open space i know that is not outside of the castle. A barely there flash of light to my left tells me that I am right and I make my way through the path lined with trees.

I see him in front of the fountain.

"Leo..."

He turns sharply to look at me, his top half bare, one hand still pulling up his pants.

"Your highness..."

"Leo what..."

The words never even finish forming in my head.

He crosses the space, pulls me to him and crushes me to the bareness of his chest.

I can hear how fast his heart is beating, can feel the left over tension in his muscles and back.

And that is how I know that he is just as shaken up as I am.

"I am fine Leo. I promise"

He pulls back to stare at me.

His hands gripping my arm like he wants to shake some common sense into me.

"What in blazes happened, what were you thinking?"

"I..." I open my mouth then close it again.

A fish in very very murky waters.

What had I been about to say?

That I fell?

But is it truly falling if it were no accident?

Someone had sent that maid and lured me to the kitchen.

Someone had left that door open and someone had shoved me out of it with no hesitation whatsoever

Someone wanted me dead and with every passing heartbeat, it is becoming increasingly clear to me just how close they had come to getting their wish.

If I were not so afraid and shaken up, I would have been quite seriously ticked off.

They could have poisoned me... or something, anything infinitely less painful than having me bash my head against dark, mist covered rocks at the base of a mountain would have been better. But no, they had chosen to get rid of me in one of the most excruciating of ways possible.

Whoever that are, they hate me enough that they wanted me to suffer

And at the same time they also wanted to make sure there would have been no chances of my surviving.

The more I think of it, the angerier I become.

What in all the realms did I ever do to these people?

I had thought the inhabitants of the castle were... warming up to me, I thought we were making progress.

Well fool on me.

This just goes to show what happens when you let your guard around dragonkin.

But even as I think it, I realize that I am being unfair.

Irrational even.

Henette...Midas...Leo...

They were all dragonkin.

The only ones I trust.

And If Midas gets wind of this, I have no doubt that he would punish and t*****e the entire castle until the truth came out...Henette included.

and if the culprit is who I think it is then I know the t*****e of a few castle slaves would mean absolutely nothing to her.

And I could not let that happen.

And that is why I inhale deeply and stare up into Leo's worried face and Lie.

I tell him I was unable to sleep and that I wanted some fresh air and that I wandered into the kitchen, opened the door out of curiousity and then I tripped.

He stares at me for a long time.

And then he tells me I'm lying.

"What makes you think I am lying?"

"Forgive my impropriety your grace but if one wants "fresh air" they go to a goddamn window not open a door that drops hundreds of feet to certain death." "But you know how clumsy I can be. I fell out of a window once Leo. Is it that far fetched to think I would trip and fall out of a door."

"But I saw the way you jerked out of the door and over the ledge. It was almost like..."

"Like I had been pushed? Don't be ridiculous"

I walk around the fountain.

To put some distance between us and avoid his gaze.

"Who would dare make an attempt on my life while the dragon king sits barely a few steps away and for what reason?"

All questions I would very much like to know the answer to.

Leo shakes his head but he is quiet in a way that makes me think he agrees with me.

"Still your grace..."

"I am fine Leo. I really am."

"So it would seem"

"How did you...how did you know I was in danger?"

He sighs and reaches for his shirt that is lying on the lip of the fountain.

"I did not."

"Then how..."

"I was unable to sleep..."

It would appear no one in the castle is asleep this night.

He slips the shirt over his head, the muscles of his arms and shoulders bunching and rippling.

"and it has been a while so I decided to...change, stretch my wings if you will. That was when I saw..."

He stops and I nod, understanding what he means without his having to say it.

"You scared me Hera."

He is walking around the fountain, the space between us getting smaller with each step until he stands directly in front of me.

"When I saw you fall I thought I would not reach you in time...I didn't..."

He swallows hard and looks away.

I reach out and touch him, one hand on his arm.

"Leo, what happened tonight, I need you to not tell Midas about this."

He does not frown but his eyes have taken that stoic serious expression of his.

"You wish for me to lie to the king."

"No I only..."

I exhale, trying to replace the words to convince him.

"It is s just he has so much to worry about. With the dark elves and the opened portal and the wolfsbane....I simply have no desire to make things any worse than they already are." "You almost died Hera, do you not think you are more important to him than any of those things?"

"I believe that he does not need to worry about something that did not happen. Especially not with all that is going on. So please, do not mention this to him. Please"

"I will do as you wish your grace."

I reach for his hand, gripping it between both of mine. "Promise me."

He looks at me, then at the point where our hands meet and then back at me again.

Our gazes lock for what feels like an eternity and then he sighs.

Long and hard and deep.

"You have no idea Hera, how hard it is to refuse you."

I throw my hands around his neck.

"Thank you...oh thank you so much."

He catches me and holds me against him with one firm hand around my waist.

"But If he asks...I will not lie to him. You know that don't you?"

"I know and He won't."

Leo sighs into my hair, holding me for a heartbeat longer than he needs to.

Then he lets go.

He walks me to the base of my tower.

"Leo."

He stops, turns back to look at me. *Yes your highness?"

"Thank you for not letting me die today."

He smiles softly "I just wish..."

The rest of the sentence never comes.

Instead he stands up straight and bows his head and when he raises it again, the mask of the chief Ryder is back in place.

"Never mind your grace. Have a good night's rest."

"You too Leo. Whatever is left of it."

Come tomorrow, we would both need it.