My least favorite of them, Nicole Pritchard, snorted. “She’s the queen. That’s why she has a shot with any of them. Moving on.”
And no, it wasn’t because she was petty or mean, it was because she was dumb as a box of rocks and a fire dragon. She thought fire was the best thing ever and we were mocked constantly for being basic.
Yeah, fire was great. So?
“She has like a million degrees and is a gorgeous woman,” Sam Elorreaga replied.
She was honestly the only one worth anything and had a brain, but she immediately caved on any point. She was more afraid of being disliked—which was hysterical on an opinion show—and having to argue than people thinking she agreed with stupid opinions.
I snorted as she immediately agreed with what the next person said that others were prettier and had better education.
Prettier? Sure.
Better education? Few. Most dragons never left Thovudin for their education and most of mine had been in other countries. That made me leagues above the same everything dragons were taught.
Fools.
“I hate to comment on a woman’s body,” Austin Bunson practically purred.
Mostly because we all knew it was a lie. She loved to be petty, which was also ridiculous because she was always flipping out when people picked on her for having a “male” name. It was something stupid people noted though. I agreed with her.
It was also something stupid she allowed to get under her skin.
“While I was shocked the queen was so well endowed and I would have hidden it as well, our recent polls made it clear that male dragons are all about herassets,” she continued. “It’s not the beauty standard in Thovudin, but apparently breaking the mold in this instance is working for her.”
“Yeah, but she can’t even get a bra here. We checked with the estimates of what she wears,” the last co-host, Kristin Mopps, chirped in. “How horrible for her! She really is just like someone who doesn’t live here or something! Do we really know she’s a dragon?”
They all slowly looked at her, Stacy replying. “We were just talking about how her fire dragon flying around the capital caused a stir.”
“Oh, right, right. Silly me!”
That was one way to put it. Fucking moron would have been better but whatever.
I flinched as they flippantly discussed how I’d lost weight since “coming back to the country.” Well, not that I’d lost weight. That wasveryimportant and unmistakably added to my looks.
No, the flippant part was why I was back in the country. No mention of my parents dying or consideration that my grief was the reason for the weight loss. Just it added to my looks.
And it got worse from there.
If I styled my hair differently maybe I could bump up a level and basically score better to deserve one of the more attractive candidates. Updated my wardrobe. Slimmed my thighs. The size of my ass. Smiled more.
The list just went on and on. There honestly wasn’t one part of me they didn’t find flawed and suggest fixes for.
I watched the whole thing and then again just because… I wanted to torture myself? Then I messaged Myriam that I would get her a response since it couldn’t be ignored, but I needed a bit to think of a plan and how best to handle it.
Right then though?
Right then I went to bed praying to the gods for strength or that I woke up from this nightmare and my parents were alive to be back in charge. It seemed the right way to feel.
It really did.
15
Maple
Reading Sagan’s response to those catty bitches and their pathetic segment on the trap that had been sprung on her had broken part of my soul. I once again cursed out Rhys and Amelia where they were with the gods.
How could they not have protected her better? How could they not have loved her more so she could loveherselfso she didn’t suffer for peace?
