Page 74 of The Last Dragon King
Adaline pulled back to peer at me with wide eyes. “Lady Adaline?”
I nodded and she grinned.
“This is so cool.”
My mother hadn’t moved. There were tears in her eyes, which I didn’t know how to interpret.
“Lady Adaline, would you like some chocolate cake?” Narine offered upon seeing the awkward moment between my mother and I. “I can show you the main palace kitchens and the library.”
Adaline glanced to my mother, who nodded, and then she left with Narine.
I looked up at my mom then, and a single tear spilled over her cheek.
“I… I’m not sure what they told you,” I fumbled. “And I’m sorry you have to find out I’m getting married like this. It’s just that—”
“You look beautiful.” She stepped closer to me, reaching out to grasp my hands. “King Valdren greeted me a few hours ago as our transport party arrived outside the city, and told me his intentions with you.”
He did?
“His intentions with me?” Now I wanted to know what he’d said.
“He told me that he knew about your lineage and that he would never hurt a hair on your head. That he loved you and wanted to take care of you. To have a family with you.” She was smiling and I realized then that her tears were happy tears.
A family… of course he wouldn’t tell my mother about our arrangement. He couldn’t have a healthy family with me, that was the problem.
“Mom, sit down,” I said, and her lips pulled into a frown.
She joined me on the couch and I sat next to her, careful not to mess up my dress. I loved Drae, but I was still saddened with our arrangement, and needed to unload my problems on someone else. I needed my mother’s wisdom.
“Drae needs an heir or all of the dragon-folk will die.”
My mother gasped, her hand going to her mouth. “Adaline.”
I nodded. “His people are linked to him through a special magic that gets stronger when you reproduce but dies out if you do not by a certain age. The line must continue to carry on, no matter what.”
My mom dipped her head. “I understand. Now the quick engagement and wedding makes sense. You do what you have to in order to save the people, Arwen.”
My heart pinched. “That’s the thing, Mom… Drae is a dragon from the Dark Night Dragon clan, I am a full-blooded dragon from the Eclipse clan.”
She stilled, as if sensing this was going somewhere she wouldn’t like.
“And we recently found out that my magic and his magic don’t—” My throat tightened and I suddenly couldn’t speak; tears filled my vision.
“Oh, honey, what is it?”
My mother was a midwife; she’d seen the worst of the worst when it came to child-bearing.
“A midwife journal was found of a royal couple like us, one Dark Night clan royal, one Eclipse clan royal. They had a child together, but… it was born severely deformed, with organs outside of its body, and only lived hours.”
My mother folded in on herself then. The hopes she might have had to have a grandchild to help raise were crushed in that moment. I could see the light die in her eyes.
“Why is he marrying you, then?” My mother looked up at me, surprised.
That simple question brought tears to my eyes, and was a true testament of Drae’s love for me. “Because he loves me.”
My mom nodded.
“Mom, remember when you told me that dad let you lie with another man to get Adaline?” I asked her.
