The Last Dragon King (Kings of Avalier #1)(39)

That was a nice thing to say but it was total crap. “How? How will you figure it out?”

This dress wouldn’t sell, and no more dresses would be coming in. She wouldn’t be able to pay for her sister’s wedding.

She chewed the inside of her lip, almost brought to tears. “I’ll manage, alright? Do you mind if I leave you early today so that I can talk to the buyer and figure this out?”

She gestured to the dress.

I nodded, guilt washing over me. “Of course.”

With a shy smile, she scooped the beautiful emerald-green dress up into her arms and left the apartment.

Leaving me alone to my tumultuous thoughts was a bad idea. My mind chewed on a hundred different things. Narine’s sister’s wedding wouldn’t happen because I ruined the dress. The king was possibly still thinking about killing me. Kendal was sent home. Joslyn and some of the other girls were still here competing for the king’s hand, a hand in marriage that I would be lying if I said I didn’t now want. That kiss—oh Maker that kiss—had confused the Hades out of me! And I was some lost queen? It was too much.

I needed to go for a walk.

Leaving my room, I exited the dormitory wing and headed in search of the library. Maybe I could find something about the Lost Royal or Eclipse Dragons there. I was sure it was this way, just beyond the kitchen, but when I reached it I realized it was a dead end. I turned, remembering that the library was in fact in the opposite direction.

I passed a room with the door cracked open. King Valdren’s voice filtered out into the hallway.

“Which one of them has the best chance of giving me a healthy child?” he asked someone.

“Technically, Arwen has the most magic.” It was Dr. Elsie who answered, and upon hearing my own name, I froze. “But we have no idea what an Eclipse royal and a Dark Night royal would breed. The magic created could be… incredibly powerful or catastrophic.”

No one said anything for a full minute, and I should have walked away… but I couldn’t. I wanted to hear his response. This involved me after all.

“Joslyn is your safest choice, my lord,” Dr. Elsie said.

“But Arwen is a choice I could also make?” The hope in the king’s tone made butterflies flutter in my stomach.

“I’m afraid I have to advise against that, my lord,” a male voice said. I recognized it as the old man with the leather-bound tome from the testing room. He must be a top advisor.

“She is a king killer. A queen of the Eclipse Dragons. She carries the power to completely annihilate you and your entire clan. You must never forget that.”

“I haven’t,” the king growled. “But I have interrogated her and she is blameless. She had no idea of her heritage.”

He stuck up for me! My body was glued to the wall in anticipation of how the conversation would end.

“And yet now that she knows the power she wields, the lands she could lay claim to, what will she do with that information?”

Lands to lay claim to? Did they think I wanted a palace and throne at Cinder Mountain? That was ridiculous.

“It is my advice that you take her out before she does the same to you,” the man said, and I froze in fear.

“Master Augustson!” Dr. Elsie scolded.

King Valdren’s voice was so gritty it could cut glass: “Is that what you advised my grandfather eighteen winters ago? Advice that got him killed and thrust my father into power?”

I wished to peer into the room and see the look on everyone’s faces. I wanted to know for certain if that was how my birth mother’s family died? If Drae’s grandfather killed them, causing my mother to flee to Cinder Village and gave birth to me.

“Joslyn is a fine choice, my lord,” the man concluded, not answering the question.

“I agree. She has more magic than Queen Amelia did. Not much, but slightly more,” Dr. Elsie said.

Silence. The longest stretch of silence I’d ever had to endure.

“Alright, if that is your assessment, I agree. Tell Joslyn I’ve chosen her and start tracking her monthly cycles. We can be married in a moon’s time. I’ll deal with Arwen.” His words simultaneously broke my heart and sent a chill down my spine.

I moved quickly out of the hallway and back toward my rooms.

He’s going to marry Joslyn.

The safe bet.

I should be happy for her, for him, for my sister and all of the dragon-folk who would be saved by the heir they would create, but I was also angry. He didn’t love Joslyn. He wanted a child and was just marrying her out of duty in order to protect her purity and image. I guess she should be grateful he wasn’t just taking her as some mistress whore. For some reason, hearing them speak of Joslyn and I in terms of magical rank really rubbed me wrong.

But could I blame him? His people, all of the dragon-folk, depended on him to have an heir. Would I do the same in his position? Probably. But for a moment it had sounded like he’d wanted to pick me, and that had made me excited. Sure we screamed at each other, and he’d imprisoned me, but… there was something there with him. A deep connection I couldn’t explain, something I never experienced before.

Forgetting my earlier desire to go to the library, I went into my room and curled under the covers of my bed instead. Any minute now someone was going to come tell me I was going home or going to be hung, I was sure of it.