Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
“Iam Alexander,” he informed her after a few paces, almost like he knew exactly what she was thinking as she followed him through the halls.
“Alexander,” Ashley repeated and was sure to memorize it. Later, when he found out who she really was, he might be angry with her, but for now, he was the closest thing she had to a friend. At least he smiled at her. “I’m, um, I’m Ana.”
Which was only partly a lie, really. One of the names Valys had rattled off was Anastasia, wasn’t it? A pretty name, but far too grand for her. Ana would work.
“The Opal Castle is tucked away in the mountains just outside of Bucharest, Romania,” Alexander began, his voice taking on a kind, friendly tone as he began to explain more about the place.
At least he gave her information that she could understand, unlike Valys.
“Founded six centuries ago, it has remained in the Tannagen family for generations, ever since the first Tannagen settled the Opal Dragon Clan and claimed the area as their homeland. Just a few miles short of here is the village that the majority of the Opal Clan lives in, which unfortunately lacks electricity and other modern conveniences, but they’ve never had it, and you can’t miss what you’ve never had, can you?
The Opal family is one of immense power, obviously, but unfortunately, wealth has always evaded them.
Everything you see in the castle has been bought using taxes from the dragon Clan.
Each member pays a toll and a portion of their earnings towards the ruling family to continue to benefit from their protection and support, as it is for just about every dragon Clan. ”
Alexander paused to make sure she was keeping up, both physically and mentally. When he saw she was about to trip down a step she hadn’t noticed he took her hand to help her down. She smiled at him, but felt her cheeks turning red.
“The Opal Castle has eight different ballrooms, each with its own color palette and theme. Each, also, has a different dress code,” Alexander revealed, but Ashley didn’t care to memorize any of them or know too much about them.
When Alexander began to explain the different dress codes associated with each ballroom, she quickly checked out, deciding that she didn’t need to know exactly what to wear in each ballroom because she could hardly dance, to begin with.
If you didn’t count a single square dance that she learned in elementary school, and the obligatory twerk that it seemed like just about everyone knew how to do in the late 2010s.
The fact that said ballrooms had been purchased using tax money that may or may not have been taken from the locals made her feel sick, and Ashley couldn’t help but wonder what protections her brother was offering at that moment that would warrant enough money to maintain a castle with eight ballrooms.
But Alexander didn’t seem to care how the Opal Clan came by their money as he continued to talk.
“Most dragon Clans have certain industries that they’re associated with, and the Opal Clan is no exception.
They specialize in horses and fine animal breeding, a lot of which happens in the village nearby.
King Valys happens to know a lot about these topics and spends a lot of time in the village to judge livestock, to make sure that they are up to his exact standards. ”
Great, so she was now a horse girl by trade. Amazing. Ashley hoped that her brother didn’t expect her to know shit about horses because to be honest ? She hadn’t exactly liked the few she had met in person and the idea of facing more of them on a day-to-day basis?
Ashley winced, and Alexander by chance noticed, making him smile. At least this guy had a sense of humor. “The princess is not expected to know about the horse breeding, of course.”
“Of course,” Ashley said, averting her eyes and trying her best not to give away that she happened to be the princess For the moment, at least. She was fairly certain that if her identity was revealed or that the servants realized that she was walking around dressed as a maid, they would undoubtedly tell her brother.
Valys would undoubtedly throw a fit and go on another lecture about how princesses behaved.
Since she didn’t fully trust her brother, she had to take advantage of opportunities like this one to ask all the questions she needed to know. Primarily the most pressing one.
“What exactly is the princess expected to do?” she asked and thank God that Alexander didn’t know who she was because he didn’t exactly sugarcoat things.
“Well, you see, as women can’t exactly inherit anything in our world, they’re expected to be traded off to one of the other Clans to form alliances, used for the fact that she just so happens to have a mating mark of all things.”
“But wouldn’t the mating mark mean they are meant for someone in particular?
” Ashley pressed, furrowing her brows together as she posed the question, only to receive another far too charming smile in response.
She wasn’t sure what a real maid would know, but she was sure that this real butler was far too handsome for his own good and that she was feeling far too many things about him as a result.
Ashley averted her eyes as the man continued talking, swallowing heavily, and trying to will whatever the fuck her heart currently thought that it was doing at that moment to stop. Maybe the world might make sense again if she calmed down.
“Right, while mate marks are formed when someone has a fated mate in this world, they’re not actually permanent.
You can fall in and out of love. And, because we’re all capable of doing that it’s possible for mate marks to fade.
When the emotions are strong enough, things can change.
Someone figured out how to use magic to change a mate mark to bind one to another person, essentially tying their soul with them.
So, then you know where they are at all times, and they know where you are.
In dragonkind, you’re far more likely to produce a child if you have a mate mark,” Alexander said, sounding very scientific at that moment, even if he said magic was real. Was it?
It must be or she wouldn’t be there, she decided.
She was about to say something about that, but decided better of it.
Alexander would realize she wasn’t a maid if she asked about what kind of magic brought her to Romania, to some world that had gone back in time—even if Valys hated her saying that.
But still, the realization that magic was real?
It shouldn’t have shocked her because the apocalypse had just occurred, but it did.
It made Ashley feel like the world she knew was slowly disappearing, and she was finding herself trapped in a fantasy novel.
And Alexander? Well, Alexander made Ashley feel like she didn’t care about the world she was currently in because he had a certain charm.
Especially when he reached down and grabbed her hand, moving her from a ballroom into the next room.
She was pretty sure that Val had called it a foyer or something similar.
She hadn’t exactly cared when he mentioned the name.
But when Alexander said it, everything changed.
“The foyer,” Alexander said, his voice suddenly growing cold and somewhat distant as his eyes steadied on a painting above the mantle like he had a personal vendetta against the person in it.
Ashley was certain that the person in the painting was her grandfather. She’d heard Val say his name in reverence.
“Much of the furniture and valuables in this room were stolen from the Diamond court during the initial gem wars of the dragon Clans. Rumor has it that the Diamond King is still seeking the return of any of these items and that their relationship has been tense from the very beginning. Valys has proclaimed that they are part of his inheritance,” Alexander said, his voice heavy with criticism.
Ashley silently wondered if he had some tie to the Diamond Clan.
Since Jack Tracey was a part of the staff there, it wasn’t beyond reason that there could also be dragons from other families.
With the Diamond Clan being brought up, Ashley saw an opportunity to ask a question that had been plaguing her for a few minutes now.
“And the Diamond King, why is he here now?” Ashley couldn’t help but ask, allowing her eyes to slowly move down and away, willing his answer not to be the one that she was the most afraid of, the fact that the Diamond King might have been coming there to collect her.
After all, she was meant to be his mate.
That would be the only reason why he was coming.
She hadn’t heard any other gem suitors mentioned.
Outside of Jack Tracey, she didn’t know of any other dragon princes, though.
Alexander seemed to take extra time looking at her, allowing his eyes to linger on her features, almost like he was trying to read her response to saying that man’s name. Or, more accurately the man’s title.
Alexander didn’t answer her. In fact, he went completely silent. Ashley had to actually prod to get him to say something.
“I heard he’s handsome,” she said, and the man laughed. It was a wonderful sound.
“Oh, well, at least there’s that. The Princess needn’t worry about whether or not he’s ugly,” Alexander said with good humor, the smile on his face growing wider as he looked at her, a sort of twinkle in his eyes that made her stomach knot.
But it wasn’t a bad kind of knot. In fact, she was certain it was the kind she shouldn’t be having at all. Men you weren’t going to be stuck with for the rest of your life weren’t supposed to make you feel like your stomach was in knots.