The Dragon King by Candace Blevins Read Free Book Online Page B

person.
    “If that wasn’t true love’s kiss then the real thing might be enough to give someone a heart attack,” I said into his chest. “I had no idea, Aaron. Is it always like that?”
    He kissed the top of my head and his voice rumbled on my cheek through his chest. “No, that was an exceptionally good kiss. We have chemistry, Soph. I knew we would, but it’s nice to have reality live up to what I’d hoped for.”
    Something occurred to me, and while I was sure Aaron knew everything there was to know about swans, I told him anyway. “I asked one of my governesses why swans had to be flogged to change until they were no longer a virgin, what the purpose of it could be, and she told me it’s so parents can protect their children during the vulnerable time between human and swan. She said we can be taken over, shifted into another species, during this critical time, so we must have someone close by to protect us until we have a husband or wife to be there for us.”
    Aaron looked at me a few seconds and said, “I’ve never heard that. The reason is actually attributed to a curse, likely whatever curse was the origin of the Swan Lake story.” He looked at me a few seconds and said, “Sometimes, the old women of a species know more than the books, though. It might be something for us to keep in mind at some point in the future. I’m glad you told me.”
    I nodded and leaned away from him, needing to break the physical connection, though I didn’t want to. I wanted to stay in his arms forever, but it felt naughty and good and…I needed some time to sort through everything I was feeling.
    Aaron let me go, grabbed two bottles of water, and aimed me towards the living area. When I was seated, he handed me an electronic gadget and said, “This is called a Kindle, it has more e-books loaded on it than are on one wall of your father’s library. I chose them carefully while you were sleeping, and had Brain gather what I needed and send them down so I could load them onto the Kindle.”
    He showed me how to turn it on, and then told me to open the first book listed. I touched it as he instructed, and it opened. Aaron quickly talked me though how to go backwards and forward, how to look up words, highlight text, and make notes.
    “The future King,” he said, “has been learning politics and strategies all of his life, and the current King was given the same education and has spent nearly two hundred years using those lessons. However, these things were purposefully left out of your education. If I’m to help you become Queen, with the power that goes behind it, I need to give you a crash course.”
    “I’ve learned politics and strategy,” I told him. God, all those hours of chess. It was one of the few things my father did to spend time with me, though, so I’d learned all I could, trying my best to learn how to best him. Eventually, I could beat him more than he could beat me.
    “No,” Aaron disagreed. “You’ve learned chess and social skills. These are a good foundation, but we have our work cut out for us.”
    “What are you saying?”
    “I’m saying I don’t mind being your bodyguard and advisor, but you’re gonna need to be the one making the decisions. You haven’t been prepared for that kind of responsibility though, and I need to do what I can to rectify this in the next two and a half weeks. You’re a fast learner but we need to get started.”
    I looked at the Kindle a few seconds and then up to him. “Okay then, let’s get started.”
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Five
     
     
     
    Aaron
     
     
    As always, Sophia absorbed knowledge quickly, grasped concepts immediately, and often figured out the next lesson before I got to it. I understood Raul’s grief at his wife’s slaughter, and why he wanted to protect his only daughter, but he was an idiot for not understanding she could’ve been groomed to be Queen.
    Several hours into our first day’s lessons I saw the moment when her