The Dragon Bride | ✔️

Chapter Forty-Four

Kora's POV

The world seems to glow today, like the earth itself is happy to be here.

Everyone who's anyone seems to be at the palace, chatting about the most unimportant things. I wish I could be one of them, able to freely talk about anything at all. But I can't.

Things as simple as conversation seem like a chore, keeping my eyes open seems like an impossible task. The sun is of course shining like never before. The King must have paid the Elements to keep the weather perfect today. Not like they'd do anything without cash first.

Many royals I recognise from years of drooling over Holographic Television and newspapers, but some I've never seen before.

The Emperor and Empress of Lynwan. The Queen of Dragerike. The President of Weregild. The Prime Minister of Jadalis. The King and Queen of Ampiria. The Emperor and Empress of Shravasti.

All of these royals and world leaders and many more, all along with their children and their grandchildren.

Not to mention the highest Ignatian nobles are attending too, along with any distant relatives of the Ametistas.

I've only invited Azura, Zac, Elowen and little Dale. And that's it. Anyone else who lives in the palace as anything but a member of staff is automatically invited anyway.

I heard that Synn's invited Dahlia, but I couldn't care less. It must be for formality's sake anyway. But even though I tell myself this, I can't help but worry about how she'll act today.

"Kora?"

I ignore it. I've been sitting crouched on the window sill since six o' clock. In the morning. The world seemed to have drifted by since then, time flowing rapidly like a river going downstream.

"Kora, I know you aren't speaking to Azura, but maybe it'd help to give her a few words of reassurance..." Delphine's low whisper repeats itself in my mind a few times before I actually manage to understand it.

"I want to, but... I'm in no mood to reassure anybody right now. I'll only make things worse in my current state. I just want to get this over with." I sigh, and turn around to meet her gaze.

Delphine frowns, "I understand. I just hope things get better between you two. You and I both know how much she loves you, Kora. She considers you closer than any family she's ever had,"

And with that, Delphine disappears through my chamber doors, leaving a heavy feeling in my heart and butterflies in my stomach. As if there weren't enough already.

I begin to get up. I managed not to crease my gorgeous turquoise gown while sitting on the window sill, so it's still perfectly pristine.

I can't say the same about my hair or makeup, though. I sit by the dresser and try to redo them. I could just get Raven the maid to do it, but she probably wouldn't be able to recreate the same style Azura used to be able to do.

I shake my head. I'm being ridiculous.

"Raven! Could you please redo my hair and makeup? If the Queen sees me like this, she'll have my guts for garters," I call through gritted teeth.

It's all her fault. It all leads straight back to that evil, conniving serpent that everybody else refers to as Queen Alexandria.

If she hadn't enlisted Crowned Concubine Aria's help in poisoning Velia's tea, then Azura would never have been framed, never have been put in the dungeons, never have met Kyros, never have spent the night with him, and we never would have fought.

I frown.

But that would also mean that Azura wouldn't have met the man she seems to feel so deeply for. I wonder what my life would have been like if I was never chosen to be the dragon bride. If I'd never met Synn in those stables, if we never went to those caves together.

What would things be like for me now?

I would probably marry Zac, end up taking my uncle's place in the kitchens, and if I ever got pregnant I'd be kicked out of the palace to stay at home and look after the children, while Zac would slave away at the City Square building as an attendant of some sort.

Looking at it now, my life would mean nothing. All I'd be is some measly, poor human housewife with no escape, no influence, no way of changing anything in her life or anybody else's.

She'd be shackled for eternity, with no strength or courage to break out of it. Even Zac would be helpless to change things.

But is this any better? Incarcerated and forced to become a powerful royal with everything, and yet nothing?

It's like having everything anyone ever wanted; fame, wealth, respect. But what are all those things when you can't change things around you? When you can't interfere with council because you're a woman, or when you can't talk too much at the dinner table because you're surrounded by magiks creatures, and you're not one of them.

What good is money and fame when you can hardly step outside of your own house without someone pointing out how "proper ladies wear their dresses to the ankle"? What good is money and fame when there are humans, being raided, brutally beaten and murdered, for no reason other than the amount of magiks they possess?

This isn't the life I want. Hell, this isn't the world I want to live in. I'll never allow myself to forget that.

"Kora! The ceremony is starting soon! Make your way downstairs in five minutes,"

It's now or never, I suppose.

You can do it. You can escape this place. I can take Zac with me. He'll want to take Dale and Elowen, no doubt. That's OK. I can run away...

Run away...

Just like Seraph said.

I won't last a day longer in this palace, whether Synn chooses me or not. But is running away really my only option?