Page 39 of Lady Dragon
Then she remembered—pain, red light, burning, thrashing, falling,flying—and she threw herself into a sitting position with a gasp of horror.
She couldsit up. In her own human body. She put a hand to her breast when she felt a sharp tug and then jerked it away when pain stabbed through her. Looking down, she found her chest was crusted in blood. And wedged within it, barely peeking through torn, angry skin, was a shining shard of red stone.
Revulsion gripped her, but not enough to keep her from poking at the shard with the tentative tip of a finger. It hurt nearly too much to touch and didn’t move, as if it was stuck in the bone. It was certainly embedded deeply enough for that.
It would have to wait, then.
Only then did she look around—and she nearly screamed.
Crouched right next to her was a huge, shimmering, purplish-gray dragon. And the dragon was staring at her with slitted, silver eyes.
“Kirek?” she shrieked. “What happened?”
The dragon closed her eyes almost sullenly.I haven’t the faintest idea, she said.Other than that we’re cursed.
Samansa could hear her—adragon, her voice more of a presence in the princess’s head than a sound, but it was Kirek, nonetheless. Relief washed over her that it was indeed Kirek, and that Samansa could understand her. Not that the princess liked what she was hearing.
“But—but,” she stammered, and then continued with rising hope, “you’re a dragon again, and I’m human! It’s all back to normal—”
The dragon turned her head away.No, it’s not. I simply woke up like this. I neither made it happen, nor can I change into human form at will. You can understand me, and I’m still pair-bound to you. Much to my disappointment.
Samansa’s rising spirits crash-landed into the ground. “But that’s not the worst situation, is it? It’s better than it was. We can figure this out.”
Did you not see the piece of Heartstone wedged in your breast?Kirek asked as if addressing a child.
Samansa looked down, her lips pursing. “Yes, well, the last thing I need is for the wound to go sour.”
I think that’s the least of our worries, but your reactionsdoalways manage to surprise me.
“And how would you have me react?” Samansa demanded indignantly, dragging herself to her feet with a wince. Her gray cloak and the yellow skirts of her gown were an absolute wreck, torn and stained with dirt and blood. She could only guess how the rest of her looked. “How do you want me to behave? I only turned into adragonand then found out that when I wasgathering my courage to kiss the girl I favored, she was plotting tokillme.Much to my disappointment,” she echoed bitterly.
No, she hadn’t forgotten that. She’d just been trying to.
For a moment, Kirek was silent, unmoving. And then:I’m not a girl.
Samansa scowled. “Oh, to theratswith your dragon logic.”
At the very least, Kirek was sounding more like herself. Not like the broken, despairing girl-creature of last night. Samansa didn’t like that version of her, either.
Those giant silver orbs narrowed as they turned back at her.What doratshave to do with anything?
Samansa rounded on her in fury, trying not to think about how big the dragon’s head was, how easily Kirek could bite her in half as she demanded, “Would you have done it, if I hadn’t kissed you? Never mind if the Heartstone hadn’t broken and changed me into one of your own kind—would you have killed me?”
The dragon blinked slowly.I don’t know. That was my plan, by my mother’s order.
“To the rats with your mother’s order!” Samansa had no idea why the dragon queen would want such a thing and didn’t want to ask, because it couldn’t be good. Suddenly, everything was too much to face. She covered her eyes and said, “Just kill me now and be done with it, if you have any doubt.”
The dragon’s implacable voice permeated her skull.No, I don’t have any doubt.
Samansa dropped her hands in frustration. “It’s just the silly bond that’s making you say that!”
She didn’t think it was silly. But after everything that had happened, it seemed less miraculous and more flimsy, especially since she couldn’t feel it herself.
Or worse, it seemed cursed.
A long hiss escaped Kirek’s jaws that made the hair rise on Samansa’s arms.It’s notsilly. It is the one thing that forces us to protect the vulnerable among us. The one thing that lets us trust in each other above all else.
Samansa forced a scoff. “It’s not like I’mbrooding, and none of that means anything to me anyway! I already felt about you how I feel now. What matters to me is that you wanted tokillme!”
