Chained to old wounds

The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride

CH11

Morgan

It was like time stopped. Tsuneo looked ready to catch me, but before I could drive my sword through his face, Doctor Shang caught me in his arms, lifting me off my feet. I couldn’t speak. The fury, the frustration, the pressure of everything that had happened exploded. Tsuneo looked up around, looking at the way the walls shimmered. I could see people in my mind’s eye freaking out, running around in fear. I saw the shimmering sky starting to shift and turn red like the sky was on

fire.

Tsuneo’s eyes widened as he stared at me.

“I’ll kill you!” My voice echoed and roared. “I’ll kill you!”

“I can’t allow you to attempt that,” Doctor Shang said, restraining me no matter how I twisted. I rammed my knee into his chest, but it felt like hitting a solid brick. I twisted, aiming higher for his face, but he tossed me, twisting me back over his shoulder and pinning my legs to my chest.

“Let me go!”

“Think of Hiro,” he said. “You attempt to kill him, you succeed, and you’ll never see him again. They will have you killed if it’s found out.”

I strained against his hold, glaring at Tsuneo through the tears. I could barely breathe around the

fury.

Tsuneo snarled. “Who the hell is Hiro?” He scoffed. “First Ren, now Hiro. The realm is in more

danger than ever if a woman like you was chosen.”

“A woman like me?!” I elbowed the back of Doctor Shang’s head. He hissed and adjusted his grip

on me.

“His Majesty will apologize,” Doctor Shang said, clamping his arms around my legs. He sounded in pain every time I kicked and twisted in his arms, swiping through the air, trying to catch Tsuneo with my sword, but he was just out of reach of the blunt, broken end.

That didn’t stop me from trying. I screamed, throwing my weight against Doctor Shang’s shoulder. He stumbled back enough that I cut through the front of Tsuneo’s robe.

“Your Majesty, please!” Doctor Shang yelled, walking until we were too far from Tsuneo to even hope I’d get in a hit. “I promise that your sword will be repaired. You must calm down.”

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CH11

I pushed at his shoulders, still wanting to tear Tsumeo’s eyes out.

“Please,” Doctor Shang said softly. “Starting your marriage out like this is-”

“I never wanted this!” I screamed at him. “I was happy enough with the thought of dying in that Trial! I didn’t ask for this, you self–righteous bastard! You know nothing about me!”

“Your Majesty, you’re misunderstanding–”

“What?” I cut Doctor Shang off, shaking with fury. My vision blurred with tears. “Tell me how I can possibly misunderstand a good–for–nothing, arrogant, selfish idiot who pretends to sleep all

day 7”

|“You=”

“You think being the Dragon King makes you too good to be wrong? You’re not. You’re no better than human nobility and twice as childish with all your snarling!”

“Says the wife, running away from her husband and threatening to kill him over a trinket.”

“Says the asshole who couldn’t get a wife without kidnapping them!” I yelled. “And the child breaking family heirlooms because of his pride!”

I sniffled, glaring at him. “I will never forgive you. To hell with you and the veil and whatever

else.”

Tears streamed down my face, and a sharp sob of agony escaped me. The light from outside spilled blood red over the floor as another sob escaped me, and my anger, as hot as it was, started

to turn hopeless.

Tsuneo didn’t move. His eyes widened, and his gaze drifted over to where he’d thrown the other half of my sword. He bent and picked up the blade, his brow furrowed as he looked at the blade.

“Daughter of the Dragon’s Mountain…” He read the phrase in that old language that no one spoke

anymore.

I sobbed. The words sent me back through time to when I was just a girl, and my father had promised me the sword as my birthright. He’d read those words to me, and for a long time, I lived by them. I had tried so hard to be a daughter and heir that my father and his father before him could be proud of.

Tsuneo looked at me. His eyes were troubled, glittering with shifting colors. He writing desk and picked up a page. He frowned down at it.

went to the

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“Mizuki Ryuvama is not the daughter of the head of the Ryuyama family,” h

at me, searching my face. “Who are you?”

“Why does it matter?” I croaked, “What difference does it-”

said and looked back

I gasped, scrambling for the other end of the sword as it floated out of my hand.

“No! Stop!” I pushed at Doctor Shang’s shoulders, more desperate than before. “Stop it! You’ve done enough!”

Tsuneo took the hilt of the blade and the broken end and pressed them together. Light flowed in an endless wave over the blade, and then it was whole again as if it had never been broken. The blade lost its silver sheen and took on glowing opalescent colors. The hilt of the sword went from an antique copper to a deep, rich gold. The scabbard floated out from within my shirt and into his hand, and the tarnish faded from it again.

It looked the way it had in all of the paintings of all my ancestors who had carried it before me. I sniffled. The sobs felt stuttered and painful in my chest. He sheathed the sword and looked at me.

My anger puttered out, staring at the sheathed sword. I could see the paintings and hear my father’s voice, a promise I’d made so long ago.

I’ll find a way to restore it to its former glory.

The days of polishing it just to get some of the darkness out of the hilt, the care I’d taken with the blade, all of it flashed through my mind. I closed my eyes, feeling an unexpected wave of

peace wash through me.

It was restored, and the grief I’d been ignoring settled heavily on my chest, weighing me down and forcing the tension out of my body. Slowly, Doctor Shang put me down. I sank onto the seat beside the writing desk, staring at the completely restored sword. Tsuneo approached me, kneeled, and placed the sword in my trembling hands. I closed my hands around it, gripping it so tight my knuckles were pale, and my arms shook from the tension. He placed his hands over mine gently

and looked up at me with questioning black opal eyes. The scales on his neck seemed darker than

black, and his face was flushed.

“I am sorry,” he said. I sucked in a breath. Suddenly, I felt cold. The chill of the rain finally hit me as I stared into his eyes. “I was wrong for saying such things about you–to you. And you are right. I do not know much about

YOU.”

Something settled around my shoulders. It was heavy and warm, but I couldn’t look him. I sniffled again. He reached up, wiping a tear from my face.

away from

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CHIT

“But I know that only the head of the family could have given you this as a show that you were to succeed them…” He looked down at the sheathed sword. “And we’ve established that you are not Mizuki Ryuyama, so who are you?”

Chapter Comments

Kitty W

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lord a whirlwind of emotions from this chapter, he had me just as mad as her till he fully restored the sword and apologized.

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