Page 22 of Dragon King’s Duty Bride

Sometimes it arrived in crooked braids or lavender silk when a child chose pretty for the first time. And sometimes it arrived when a watchful girl decided she was ready to let someone new stand beside her.

They decided on the way back to the castle that Lucas was not allowed to see the dresses until the day of the wedding. Anxiety riddled Sia in the days leading up to the wedding.

It should have made everything simpler. But instead, it made Lucas's distance sharper.

And then came Liam’s big day.

The entire kingdom buzzed for weeks in preparation. Lucas's younger brother had chosen a woman who laughed loudly and kissed him in full view without shame. Their joy was unruly and unapologetic.

Sia found herself both delighted and uneasy.

The ceremony unfolded beneath a vaulted cathedral ceiling draped in white and gold. Sunlight streamed through stained glass, and the air hummed with anticipation.

Lucas stood beside Liam at the altar, composed and regal in ceremonial black. He wore duty like armor. But when Liam glanced at his bride with bright eyes and barely contained emotion, Lucas's expression softened in a way that stole Sia’s breath.

Not envy, but memory. She saw it then. The ghost of a man who had once stood just as tenderly with her sister.

When Liam’s bride began to cry during her vows, laughter rippled through the guests. Liam cupped her face, brushed tears away with his thumbs, and smiled as if nothing in the world could threaten the fragile miracle of her standing there before him.

Something inside Sia ached.

At the reception, the newlyweds danced without choreography, bumping into each other and laughing, foreheads pressed together. Liam whispered something that made his wife flush pink and swat his shoulder.

It was real. Unpolished and alive.

Sia stood near one of the towering floral arrangements as grief rose unexpectedly. For the woman she might have been. For the marriage that could have been hers, before she became Dian’s shadow.

She looked across the hall and saw Lucas standing alone near a pillar as he watched his brother with quiet, restrained sorrow. Her heart softened at the pain she saw.

He loved deeply. Completely. He had not loosened his hold on Dian’s memory for anything. There was something profoundly honorable in that, but also loneliness.

Their eyes met across the crowded room and for a moment, the music dimmed. The laughter faded. No expectations. No ghosts. Just two people standing in the aftermath of love, one who had lost it, and one who had never truly been allowed to have it.

Lucas inclined his head, a silent acknowledgment. Sia returned it. They did not move closer.

But something fragile shifted between them all the same.

Chapter 9

Lucas

Lucas fidgeted with his cufflinks for the third time and told himself it was about the meeting, even though he was well aware that it wasn’t.

The images of the wedding wouldn’t leave him alone. He could still see the hall full of floral displays with sunlight pouring through the tall windows as everyone was being seated to celebrate Liam’s moment.

When the bride finally walked down the aisle, she had looked…

He exhaled slowly.

Not just beautiful. That was too small a word. She’d looked certain. Like she was walking toward something she’d already chosen a hundred times over in her heart. Her dark hair swept back. Eyes fixed on Liam as though the rest of the room had dissolved.

Lucas had stood beside his brother at the altar and watched Liam’s face change when he saw her. His kid brother, steady, serious, always the practical one, had looked undone in the best way. Open and illuminated from the inside.

It had been almost painful to witness.

Not because he begrudged Liam the happiness. Never that. If anyone deserved that kind of steady, anchoring love, it was Liam. But standing there with his hands clasped behind his back, Lucas had felt the absence of something he hadn’t known he was still hoping for.

Warmth.