The Dragon's Omega

Chapter 16

Bartholomé P.O.V

The D-day was finally here. Shivers of excitement rack my body as I get dressed for the coronation. Prospects of finally returning in my mate’s strong arms fly in my belly, their gentle wings tickling me from inside and making a goofy smile light up my lips. However, doubts lift their tentacles and rest them around my heart, giving occasional squeezes that made me clench the hoodie resting above my core. Both antithetical entities were battling for my final mood, making me live a nauseous moment.
Everything could go wrong so easily. I could mess this up so bad. It was terrifying.

Those thoughts wouldn’t stop spreading their lullaby in my mind. I take a big gulp of water, nearly choking on it, before feeling it rest in my belly, surely feeding my baby too. It’s low temperature somehow makes me cool down enough to finish dressing up. The coronation will start in a few minutes and there is no way that I would be late. Not on such an important date.
I get out of my room, heading toward the hall where the ceremony is held. Misha and Chloe were already there, having to attend as Gloria’s daughter for the former and as the castle’s librarian for the latter. Their relationship wasn’t known outside of me and Luka, homosexual relationships weren’t well accepted by the high society, even less between a royal and a peasant, which explained Luka’s dad’s reaction to our union.

As if we cared.

Now, however, he had gone too far. It was no secret that the King made a deal with the neighbouring kingdom, taking in their first princess, Selena, to marry our only prince, Luka, and thus uniting both our kingdom. 

However, the deal wasn’t a fair one, as a dowry, Luka was to give our kingdom to our neighbour, while Selena had to stay by his side at all times. Which is why the island’s magic was being drained, the King sending it all to Selena’s father. I had discovered their deal with my servants’ help. They had intercepted all letters between the two old rags and sent it to me. It was really a good idea to win the staff first.

Anyways, I couldn’t let the King have what he wanted, which is the kingdom’s destruction. After it is all over, and if everything goes well, I will ask Luka to put his parents in the dungeon. We can’t spare them another time and risk other lives meeting their end.

I clench my jaws as I come near the huge doors, where the knights were searching weapons on the guests and verifying the identity of everyone. My body relaxes slightly as I see one of my followers among the King’s spies and I head in his direction. You can never be too cautious; I could fall on a knight with an attitude problem who would want to do a full search on myself to humiliate me or make me lose time. I did not need that right now, not at all.

My knight lets his cold facade fall as he starts to superficially search me, a small smile gracing his lips as he soundlessly cheers me up and gives me strength for what I am about to do. I subtly nod my head at him as a silent thank you, before entering the room when he slides to the side to let me in.

The hall was filled with conversations, each one would have passed as a low murmur if listened to individually, but together they formed an ocean of irritable noise. At least it made it easy to blend in with the tide of people the place hosted. The King must have invited all the kingdom to let them see their new shadow king. Therefore, when the time comes to surrender to the neighbour kingdom, everyone will blame my mate, not the King. 

There were a lot of things the King wasn’t, gentle, loving, open-minded, but if there was one thing he was, and good at it, it was cunning. If I hadn't been Luka’s mate, I wouldn't have ever been able to see the way my husband was manipulated against his will. It wasn’t an old magic for nothing. It would be a sophism to say that everything old is necessarily better, but magic was an exception. The ancient earth walkers had closer contact with the gods, their blood mixed with divine essence and their calls immediately answered by the superior entities. Thus, it was easier for them to use transcendent magic that no one in our days would be able to summon.