Page 43 of Dragon King’s Duty Bride

The musician lowered his flute as Lucas stepped into the clearing. The crunch of leaves under his shoes snapped Sia’s head up.

Her smile vanished as the musician instinctively shifted closer to her, almost protective. Protective of his wife.

“Lucas.”

The man dropped into a bow. “Your Majesty.”

His name on her lips sounded less like welcome and more like warning. Lucas didn’t raise his voice; he didn’t even frown. He simply lifted one hand, a small gesture that commanded authority.

The musician stilled and Sia’s brush hovered in midair.

“Leave us,” Lucas said evenly. The authority in his tone was quiet but absolute.

The man hesitated and his gaze flicked to Sia as though awaiting her permission. She gave an almost imperceptible nod.

A beat passed. Then another. Finally, the musician inclined his head slightly, whether in acknowledgment or reluctant retreat, and stepped away. He didn’t look at Lucas again, only at Sia.

Lucas watched that look, memorized it, as the man hurried away.

When the clearing emptied and only the whisper of wind through the pine trees remained, Lucas walked closer until he could see the detail in her painting. The mountains rendered in sweeping strokes and the light caught along their ridges in a way that felt almost defiant.

“You never told me you painted,” he said. It was not a question.

Sia set the brush down slowly.

“I used to,” she replied.

The breeze stirred her hair. The air between them felt different here. It was less structured, less arranged.

“I’m not used to being ignored when I give an order. And yet he needed your permission.” He gestured toward the space the man had occupied.

“I’m sure Orion’s not used to having a king show up in the middle of the woods.”

“He loves you.”

“He had a crush on me when we were kids. Now we’re just friends, and he’s good with that. Nothing inappropriate is happening here.”

His admiration said otherwise, but Lucas let it go.

“How’s your leg?”

“My ankle. It’s healing. The boot helps.”

Lucas studied her face, searching for something friendly rather than the compliant calm and the careful attentiveness. Instead, he found distance.

She let out a long breath. “What are you doing here, Lucas?”

“I came to bring you home,” he said.

And though his voice remained smooth, fear crept up his spine. He could almost see the shutters replacing the happiness he had observed in her eyes. He could see the walls rising that robbed her of peace.

For the first time in a long while, Lucas felt that he was not entirely certain of anything.

Chapter 16

Sia

After the first note Orion played slid through the trees like a sigh, Sia had closed her eyes. She shouldn’t have asked him to come, but with her time growing short before she returned to the castle, she wanted to hear as much of his music as she could.