The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

MIRA

Clatter of horses’ hooves… Shaking at a steady pace… Strong arms are holding me carefully and help me to stay in the saddle…

For a second there I don’t even realize what is going on. Opening my eyes I only see the darkness around me. Until my eyes adjust to the moonlight and I turn my face to see Dereck concentrated on the road. Two horses next to us, probably Nort and Rick covering in case of an attack.

“Stop,” I whisper and nobody hears me. They just continue their way. “Stop!” I yell in a hoarse voice and feel Dereck flinch at that. He pulls on the reins and stops the horse, our teammates are doing the same.

“Mira!” our leader exclaims, “Thank gods!”

“Di!” my friends say almost in unison.

“Guys!” I cough, my throat is too dry, “Guys, please, I need to get back!”

Their faces change. And something in that change bothers me…

“Mira,” Dereck’s fingers press into me harder, “Everything is all right! You are safe and we are taking you home…”

“No, you don’t understand!” I almost want to cry, my whole body feels tired, broken even, “I don’t need to go home! Well, not anymore. I need to get back to the Selection castle. Guys, it’s hard to explain and we have no time… but I really need to get there as soon as possible! It’s important, it’s…”

They are silent and none of them moves. Only Nort’s horse makes a circle around us… Their faces… something is not right.

“Guys?” I say one more time, “I really need your help! Please!”

“Of course we are going to help you, Mira,” Rick smiles softly.

“Oh, thank gods!” I exhale loudly, “I knew I could count on you!”

“Of course you can,” Rick nods, “Mira, we are your friends. We are your battle partners. We would do anything for you. You know that, right?”

“I do,” I smile.

“We will help you even if you don’t realize you need help,” he continues and I shrug at his words.

“Wh-what do you mean?” I ask as my smile fades.

“Mira, sir Ragnard warned us that…,” Dereck starts talking and stumbles.

Oh, no…

“Tristan doesn’t know what he is talking about!” I interject, “You have no idea what he is doing there! He…”

“It doesn’t matter what he is doing there!” Nort snaps, “Look at you! What happened to you, Di?! Just a few days ago you were crying and practically begging us to take you away! And now what? You suddenly fell in love and can’t live without the gerdian who forced you into all this in the first place?! It’s not you!”

“He is right,” Rick adds, “This is not a normal change! And you… you just wouldn’t fall in love with a gerdian! You hate them and you hate the Selection. Haven’t you forgotten?!”

“It’s their dark magic,” Dereck says dryly, “Everything is because of it. They bewitched you. Your b***d must be intoxicated with their darkness!”

“Oh, gods!” I rub my forehead, “You got it all completely wrong! Tristan.. he…he doesn’t know what he is talking about. And also, you have no idea what kind of business he himself has there! Guys, it’s absolutely crazy!”

“It is crazy,” Dereck agrees, “Everything you say sounds crazy and…”

“Oh, come on! ” I yell, “I fell in love! That happens! And I think that he is in danger! I need to get back to that damn castle now!”

I really hope that they would listen to my authoritative tone and do as I ask but no such luck!

“Right,” my friend sighs, “Listen, Mira. It’s next to impossible to kill a gerdian, so I am sure the love of your life would be absolutely fine! In the meantime, we need to make sure that you are all right! And for that we need to detoxify your b***d and energy! And we can only do that at home!”This is from NôvelDrama.Org.

“Detoxify?” I shrug, “Are you crazy?”

“He is not the one crazy here,” Rick snorts. I look at my friends’ faces one more time and see determination. Unfortunately, I know very well what it means. All too well!

“If you do this right now, I would never forgive you!” I scream the sentence that I thought I’d never tell my friend. This is my last card. But none of them seems impressed.

“Then it means we would have to live with that,” Dereck says calmly, “But at least we would know that you are safe and sound. And that you are where you belong.”

“Ugh!” I roll my eyes. Why does he have to be such a righteous person! Everything is by the book! Always! I know that he thinks that he is doing the right thing here. And that’s bad. It only means that it’s impossible to persuade him to do what I ask! Because he truly believes he is saving me from the evil gerdians right now!

“Listen,” I start talking, carefully choosing the words, “Out of the four of us I am the only one who had an opportunity to get to know the gerdians. Could you just trust me on this one? I am telling you – they are not that bad! And some of them are even good.”

“Save your breath, Di”, Nort interrupts me, “The war is coming. It doesn’t matter if they were good or bad to you. Soon they’ll be our enemies. All of them. You are a battlemage, you know what it means! We follow our orders and fight for our country! That’s the only thing that matters!”

“And what if I can help to stop the war?” I raise my brow, “What if…”

I don’t finish my thought as a loud noise rumbles like a thunderstorm, shaking the ground. We all start turning our heads and that’s when I notice the light far away. It takes me a while to know what I am seeing.

“Explosion!” I exclaim, slightly shocked, “What is this? Where is this?”

“Mira,” Dereck’s arms wrap tighter around me, “This is the Selection Castle. It is gone…”