Becoming the Heirless Dragon King's Fated Mate novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Six Tombs

The crypt lay beneath the oldest tower, down ninety stone steps that Perpetua took with the lantern held high.

Cold air rose to meet them.

Aldric came last, silent and pale, and he did not touch Linnea.

At the bottom, an iron door stood chained and sealed with a Frostmere sigil.

Perpetua laid her palm on the rune.

The chain fell away, and the door groaned open.

Six tombs stood in a row in a long vault, each one carved with the face of a woman.

Each bore a date.

Linnea walked to the first and read the stone.

The First Duchess of Skarreth.

Beneath it, in small neat letters, the dates of her life.

"She died the same day her son was born," Linnea said slowly.

"The same night," said Perpetua.

"And the next?"

"The same."

"All six."

"All six."

Linnea went down the row.

A daughter born, a mother gone.

A son born, a mother gone.

The pattern was the same on every stone.

Her breath came short.

"What does the bond do?" she said.

Perpetua sat down heavily on a stone bench.

"It makes the heir," she said. "A Frostmere dragon may only father a child on his true mate. The magic takes, and it draws a price on the day the child is born."

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