The Dragon King's Hated Bride
Chapter 106: The Nun

Chapter 106: The Nun

>>Seraphina

I pushed at the door with all the strength I could muster, my palms slamming against the heavy door until they stung. "Let me go back!" I hissed, panic rising like bile in my throat.

But Ariston was a wall—unmoving, impassive. He held the door shut with one hand and reached back with the other, grabbing me roughly by the arm. Before I could protest further, he began dragging me down the corridor.

"What are you doing?!" I shrieked, yanking against his hold which was pretty much useless since the difference in our strengths was massive. The sounds from the other side of the door—the roar of that monster, the eerie silence that had followed the battle cries—filled me with dread. "She’s still in there! Aelin is still inside!"

"I have to keep you safe," Ariston said calmly, his grip like iron. "You are the king’s mother."

"So what?!" I shouted, twisting in his hold, slamming a fist against his shoulder. "So we leave a child to die in there?! With monsters from the darkness?! Are you out of your mind?!"

His steps didn’t falter. His voice remained maddeningly steady. "Desperation is a force that will take her to success." There was no hint of doubt on his face as he said those words.

I stopped struggling only to stare at him in horror. "She’s a human! She’s not like you or me! She’s not made for this kind of fight!"

He hesitated then. Stopping, Just for a moment.

His gaze dropped to my face. Something flickered in those eyes of his. A calculation. A suspicion.

"You can tell?" he asked.

My mouth parted, but I found no words. My chest rose and fell rapidly. Finally, I spat out, "No human has red eyes."

A muscle in his jaw twitched.

"I am human," he said. "Just not a normal one."

My fingers clenched.

He didn’t wait for me to question that. His gaze turned back toward the hallway. The way we had come. The place where we left her.

"And Aelin," he said, more quietly now, almost reverently, "As you said, is not like us. She is far stronger than both of us." He looked back at me and I looked at his stern expressions, "You saw it. You saw what she is capable of,"

I blinked, heart hammering.

"She holds the kind of power no one had seen in hundreds of years," he added. "Let her stand."

The hallway echoed with distant rumblings. The war beyond the palace raged on. But my mind could only focus on that room behind the door, and the girl with sunfire in her blood.

"I know," I gulped, "This is the kind of power people lost when the solwyn clan disappeared."

He eyed me, "So you know about the solwyn people?" He asked.

"Where I am from," I looked at him with suspicion, there was something about this man I couldn’t quite put a finger on, "The legend about the Solwyn tribe still remains."

He nodded but it was much to himself than to me, "Let’s go," He gave one final look back to where we came from

"She has no fighting experience," I said, "What if she loses?" I was still worried, "She’ll lose her life."

He looked ahead and began to drag me with him as he gave his confident statement, "No, she won’t,"

***

>>Draegon

Fighting a war for two years. Having to kill one monster countless times till we figured out what we actually had to do, losing comrades and fighting like crazy was something anyone would call cruel

But those two years had trained me and I knew what to do, how to win. And I had taught all my soldiers well

This is why even with monsters constantly swarming us, and while we had casualties, we still had the upper hand.

The battlefield reeked of blood and rot.

I stood ankle-deep in the black, tar-like remains of the abyss creatures, their decaying matter hissing faintly where it met the scorched earth. Smoke coiled from the ends of broken spears, shattered horns, and twitching limbs. The cries of the wounded mingled with the roar of demons still locked in battle, and above it all rang the clear bark of commands as squads regrouped and pressed forward.

The palace gates behind me were unrecognizable, their polished stone smeared with gore, cracked, and half-hung. Bodies—ours and theirs—lay in mounds along the perimeter. We had held the line. Barely.

And yet, when the first golden thread of dawn cracked the horizon,

And that’s when I felt it—relief.

Why?

The Eye had begun to close.

That grotesque lid stretched and finally began its slow goodbye over the vast, watchful orb in the sky. The same eye that had watched us all night with unblinking hunger. I exhaled, the fire in my lungs briefly rising to my throat.

I lifted the core of one of the last monsters in my hand, feeling its disgusting pulsing against my palm. It was black and icy, vibrating with tainted magic. Without hesitation, I breathed deep and unleashed a jet of flame over it. My fire burned bright and red, with a hint of gold, in the breaking light, eating through the darkness clinging to the core until it disintegrated with a hiss.

"Just a few more hours," I muttered. The end was in sight. Once the creatures were gone, we could start looking into why the gate had opened, who had orchestrated this, and how many desperate souls had been sacrificed to fuel it.

The sky had begun to lighten, from dark black it had taken the color of light blue hue.

The screams were still there, the fight hadn’t ended. Many monsters had invaded some parts of the palace and my brothers went in to deal with that.

I turned to move, another beast—this one covered in blade-like growths—catching my eye. I shifted into a sprint, but paused mid-motion.

!!!

There was something.

???

Someone.

My eyes caught a figure standing just at the edge of the clearing, a few meters away. She was still, untouched by the chaos around her.

A woman. Dressed like a human nun.

I turned to look at her.

Her black robes were pristine, as they fluttered gently in the wind. Her hands were clasped tightly in front of her chest, and tears streamed freely down her cheeks. Her head was bowed—but it wasn’t submission. It was mourning.

I frowned. A nun?

Those clothes were definitely human

But the horns.

Two curled buck horns protruded from her scalp indicating she wasn’t a human. But Demons don’t have nuns.

I watched her as she lifted her head and looked at the massacre. Her tears didn’t stop as she looked at the blood and screams, the look of agony increasing on her face.

What is this?

The moment I turned fully to face her, her gaze shot towards me in a split second

!!!!

Her gaze met mine before she even turned her head towards me, her hands still clasped in front of her chest.

I felt a tingle of anxiety in my chest as I watched her. She was standing in the middle of the battlefield, but the only expression she had on her face was grief?

Plus no monster had attacked her.

I eyed her while she looked back at me with an accusing look.

And then she spoke. Her voice was calm, almost childlike in its softness.

"Why are you killing my children?"

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