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Chained to old wounds 12

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The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride

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Tsunco

Seeing her in such pain set an ache in my chest. It had been shocking, but the way her mind had exploded with grief and rage when I’d broken the sword had unlocked the depths of her mind to me, leaving me breathless. I saw the charred bodies of the women who had gone before her. It was so vivid 1 could almost smell the scent of burning flesh. I could taste her fear and feel my heart

grave, and racing the way hers had when she was brought up to the podium. I saw an older man, a grave, a young boy who lay in bed, pale as death and unmoving. I saw paintings of young women carrying the sword.

My father had commissioned the sword as a gift to the Ryuyama family for their daughter’s skilled work on my mother’s coronation robe. I remember playing with the golden chord she wore around her waist when I was a child. It was the one piece of her coronation garb that she always wore.

I watched her face, every shifting emotion in her eyes, and the way her emotions swelled and gushed forward. I heard ringing bells, screaming a warning. I saw a woman’s face staring at her in shock. Who was she? I saw another older man sitting in front of a room with people facing him. The room reminded me of the throne room of my youth. She was furious and hurt. The memory

felt sharp with her emotions.

Slowly, her emotions ebbed, and her mind came to the forefront. The images faded, but I could hear her thoughts.

Why does it matter? I can’t get out of here.

“No,” I whispered. “You can’t… and neither can I.”

She blinked. I took a deep breath and met her gaze.

“Every Dragon King’s queen has been chosen through the Trial of Fire. It marks you and me just the same. You could return to the human realm and never return, but you would be bound to me

until the day you died…You would seemingly cease to age and watch your family grow old and fade to memory. It is not a fate we would have placed on a human, especially not one with family if we had any other choice.”

I met her gaze. “Again, I am sorry. There may never be a time when you can forgive anything that has been done, but I hope you can at least understand that it has been a choice of necessity, not spite.”

She swallowed. Her lips trembled, and it took everything in me to stay where I was. Her scent was pulling me in, making me dizzy. The anger of earlier had turned to a low burning heat in me.

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She sniffled and looked away. Then, she looked up and past me. I assumed that Doctor Shang was

behind me.

“Is it enough?” She asked.

“I need no payment from you, Your Majesty. It is my duty to serve you and His Majesty in

whatever way I can.”

She sniffled. “I don’t believe in free work.”

He chuckled, and for a moment, I saw a little girl scrubbing a floor. It wasn’t her, but someone

else.

“I assure you that the throne pays me, but if it will ease your heart, we can trade favors.”

She sniffled and nodded stiffly.

“A–Ael said that you’re the best healer in the realm. The youngest imperial healer since your father?” Doctor Shang kneeled beside me, looking up at her. We glanced at each other. “Ael said.

you could do it. Can you?”

“Yes.” He pressed his hand to his chest. “I’ll start reviewing the documents you brought me today.

I’d like to have a treatment devised within a few hours.”

“I was only here half a day, and t–three weeks passed.” Her voice cracked. “I don’t know that he

has the long.”

He murmured to himself. “The timescale has stretched.”

He stood. “I’ll go now. Maya should be here soon. I would appreciate it if you’d let her get you cleaned up. I’ll send a calming remedy for you.”

He glanced at me. “Will you stay with Tsuneo?”

“Why?”

“His Majesty is coming,” he said. “He’s more likely to cut his visit short if you are here, giving you… time to speak to Tsuneo personally.”

She looked down at the dagger and nodded. Doctor Shang nodded, glanced at me meaningfully, and headed to the door. I watched the door closed and the shimmer of jade and green, the queen’s privacy barrier, cover the wall. My stomach flipped, and my heart fluttered. It was amazing that she had already gained such control over it.

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The red light of the sky started to fade, turning that shimmering blue of calmness. I felt the

palace relaxing around us, bit by bit. How could a human woman be embraced so completely by the palace so quickly?

She took a deep breath as her hands shook.

“My name is Morgan Ryuyama,” she said and closed her eyes. “My father was murdered by his wife and brother so that he could take over the family.”

“My younger brother was in the accident that killed my father…They’d planned for it to be me.

younger brother is actually Goro’s son. It would have been a matter of time before Goro found a

way to kill me, and I didn’t want to be the head of a family of snakes. Goro had already decided to send me…” She looked up, and another tear streamed down her face. “The summoning is probably why he decided to kill him so messily.”

My stomach twisted into knots.

“And… this Ren?”

“My dad called me Ren. It’s a nickname.”

I tried not to wince, feeling foolish. I pushed my hand through my hair and shook my head.

“Mizuki is Goro’s daughter.”

you’re nothing a

“No.” She let out a watery laugh. “She apparently ran up a bunch of debt, and Goro bankrupted the family, paying it off. The family business is in danger because of it. I guess I’d call it karma.”

I nodded again. “What fåvor are you trading?”

Her lips twitched. “So many questions.”

“You will come to understand the nature of dragons the longer you are with me, but I will tell your this now: we are possessive–fiercely, furiously, jealously possessive. We protect what is ours with fire.”

Her cheeks darkened with a flush, and I smiled. “And you… in every way, regardless of how it came to be this way, are mine.”

She was embarrassed. She glanced away, but there was a womanly sense of flattery beneath that

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embarrassment that was encouraging. A knock sounded on the door.

“It’s Maya,” she said and looked at me. “I guess… you should go play dead, hm?”

I scoffed and stood. “Don’t leave.”

She nodded. I turned to walk to the bed, but I stopped when she called out to me.

“Tsuneo.” I closed my eyes, suppressing the shudder of pleasure that rolled through me at the sound of my name on her lips. “Thank you… for fixing my sword.”

She looked up, meeting my gaze. “And… for apologizing.”

I tried to resist, but I couldn’t. I cupped her face, drawing my thumb across her cheek and savoring the warm smoothness of her skin.

“That… will be the last time you thank me, wife.”

Her eyes widened, and I pulled away from her and headed back to the bedroom. My hand tingled, and it was hard to force the smile off my face.