Page 49 of Dragon King’s Duty Bride

“We are ridiculous.”

A breeze rustled the canopy above them. Somewhere, a bird made an indignant chirp, as if even wildlife disapproved of their coordination.

Sia’s laughter softened into breathless giggles. She looked down at him, her expression warm and a little sheepish. “Thank you for twisting so I didn’t hit the ground.”

“You were already injured from your own clumsiness,” he teased. He shrugged as much as he could with her still sprawled across him. “I’m nothing if not committed to dramatic sacrifice.”

“You’re very brave. And very flat right now.”

“I would appreciate being slightly less flat.”

She eased off his chest and rolled to the side with a small wince as she protected her ankle. He sucked in a full breath at last, the sweet, miraculous gift of oxygen flooding his lungs.

He lay there for a second and stared up at the canopy. “I think I saw my life flash before my eyes.”

“Oh? Anything interesting?”

“Mostly the girls dancing around telling me to do it again, Papa, do it again.”

They both dissolved into laughter again, softer now, the kind that left them a little wrung out and lighter than before.

After a minute, he pushed himself up onto his elbows. “Okay. New plan.”

“No more heroic carrying?” she asked.

“Oh no. I’m still carrying you. But I’m going to look at the ground like it personally offended me.”

She held out her arms with exaggerated regality. “Very well. Chauffeur me onward.”

He rose carefully and stretched to make sure nothing was injured other than his ego. He brushed leaves off his back, and crouched beside her. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

He scooped her up again and she settled against him, quieter now, one hand resting over his heart.

“You sure you’re okay?” she asked.

He started down the path; eyes narrowed at every potential hazard. “Yeah,” he said, and meant it. “I’ve got you.”

And this time, he made very sure the path had nothing left to say about it.

She shifted in his arms and her gaze drifted across the trees as he walked. Not flustered, just thoughtful.

He studied her profile, and for the first time, he truly saw her. Not just as the convenient queen or just the woman thrust into a political union neither of them had chosen.

But as Sia.

The girl who had once been promised a life splashed in color and sunlight and open fields. A respectable artist destined for exhibitions and patrons. A future shaped by her own hands that she had set down.

All of it. For him and for his daughters. For peace, while losing her own.

He had known it in an abstract way before. But walking this long road with her weight in his arms, feeling the careful way she masked her pain so as not to inconvenience him, it broke something open inside his chest.

She had never complained.

Not about leaving her passion for painting. Not about the gossip or the coldness he had kept between them like a defensive wall. And yet he had doubted her loyalty because she listened to music in the woods.

Shame burned low and steady.