The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon
Chapter 27

MIRA

I move to the table with the beverages and slowly walk along it pretending that I am choosing, but in reality, I am checking the room and people inside of it. Lord Derwood is nowhere to be seen. Lord Dargen is not here as well. Which is probably for the best.

I notice that the lords are standing in groups and no girls are yet next to them. Lady Cecilia did tell us not to initiate contact because they hate this kind of behavior. I can’t hide the grin that’s forming on my face however much I try to.

“Something funny, lady Mira?”, familiar voice breaks into my mind and I see Derrien pouring wine at the opposite end of the table.

“Nothing funny, lord Derwood”, I curtsy and almost snort. Gods, I need to learn to lie better.

“Oh really?”, he raises his brow at me and smirks, “And you are not planning anything for tonight?”

“I didn’t say that”, I chuckle and put a grape into my mouth. For a second there it seems like he can’t take his eyes of my lips, but then she just takes a gulp of his wine and offers the second goblet to me.

“Thank you, my lord”, I smile, “And now I am afraid I have to leave you and go and introduce myself to… well, everybody!”

“Haven’t you learned the rules yet, little mage?”, he asks casually.

“I have”, I raise my glass at him and smirk. The change in his facial expression at that was worth all the effort even if all of this doesn’t work.

“Good evening, dark lords”, I curtsy briefly adding absolutely no respect to that movement.

The three lords I came up to stopped talking, looking at me in surprise. One of them seems particularly angry with my behaviour. One is still standing with his mouth open and only the third one smiles politely, although he looks at me as if he is going to strangle me.

“Lady, have you decided to come to us and speak to us freely just because our status here is lower than everybody else’s?”, he lifts up his chin as if I have insulted them gravely. Good. Very good.

“I am sorry”, I make a shocked expression, “I knew at once that you were just mere commoners, I wouldn’t have come up to talk to you. Would you maybe be so kind as to tell me which group of lords here are actually lords? As in with high titles and all?”

“How dare you?!”, the other man almost shouts at me.

“Oh, no offense!”, I flap my eyelashes, “There are plenty of commoner girls here and I am sure you would be happy together if…”

“What did you just say, spoilt wench?”, the same man takes a step in my direction, but his friends hold him.

“You’d better leave, lady, or this is going to end badly for you”, the third one says coldly.

“As in the empty jewellery box badly? Can you afford that?”, I stare at them innocently.

“Go and wait for your boxes!”, one of them shouts and I quickly retreat to the table with snacks.

Well, this was easy. And I was sure that the commoners would be the hard ones since they have the lowest chance of obtaining a wife for themselves. But I guess, sometimes it’s a matter of principle.

“That was brutal”, Derrien comments as he is still at the same place where I left him. There are some girls nearby, but after my show just now they don’t dare to come closer to him and just pretend that they are choosing their beverages.

“Three down, forty-six to go!”, I smile at him and hear Isidore’s voice right behind me.

“She has absolutely no shame! And no manners!”, the blonde says so that everybody can hear her. And she probably expecting some kind of reaction from me, but I am way too busy choosing my next victim.

The next group of lords is much bigger – around 10 gerdians and they all turn out to be nobles. They accept me into the conversation leniently, most of them eyeing my body up and down. The way you would check out a new dress in a shop window and decide if it’s good enough for you. But when I c***k a joke about their little problem of not being capable to produce female offspring, the mood changes rapidly. Yes, Gerdian Empire is a man’s world and they cannot admit that there is something they cannot do. A glass breaks into a hand of one of them and another is stretching his hand to my throat when…

“Would you forgive me, lords,” Tristan appears out of nowhere, “I need to urgently discuss something with Lady Miradora.”

They don’t reply and he takes it as a yes, pulling me away by my hand.

“How could you do this, Mira?”, he grits through his teeth and I prepare myself for a long and boring lecture of how a lady should behave. Especially in front of the gerdians.

However, to my surprise, he points at Fawn, who jumps up at that and turns away quickly.

“Did you do this on purpose?!”, he asks me again firmly.

“Do what?”, I raise my brow, “Speak clearly for I do not understand what you want from me, sir Tristan!”

“Mira”, he is holding me by my shoulders, grasping them tightly, “Did you dress that girl into your engagement dress and did the same hair you had on the day to stab me?”

He looks at me strangely. He never used to look at me like that. And it makes me shrug.

“Let go of me”, I say quietly, ”People are watching.”

My words have an effect on him and it’s just as if he woke up from a dream now.

“Mira…”, he says quietly.

“Sir Tristan, there was no special reason for lady Fawn to wear my dress. She didn’t have any and I let her choose one of mine. And the hair is just a coincidence. And, honestly, I am surprised you even remembered how I looked on that day. You haven’t bothered to have a decent conversation with me back then and…”

“I need to go,” he interrupts me and bows politely, “Please, excuse me.”

And that’s pretty much how every our conversation was finished back in the day. And no surprises now. For a second I am even happy that my old life is gone…

I turn around to look for my next victim but suddenly my eyes fall on Derrien. He is standing at the back of the hall with his friend Brandon, surrounded by Isidore and her two minions – Ariadna and Alexandra. And something strangely prickles in my heart…