Chapter 99

　　Oh, I thought with wistful sadness. I loved him. I wanted to be the brethren wife with whom he filled the cavern with family and laughter, I wanted the golden-haired dragon babies, I wanted warm nights in front of the kitchen fire discussing poetry, I wanted baths in the magically heated natural spring pool and the evenings combing his hair… I wanted to be his wife.

　　But I was not. I was not what he wanted. I was not brethren, except for an ancestor so far removed that she had been all but been forgotten. And my destiny had me fighting a battle against my own people for a throne I did not want, not making babies and a home in a dragon’s cave. As I fell and he lowered over me, I felt the cold slide of tears across my cheeks into my hair. I pressed my lips against the crown of his head and clung.