Page 76 of Lady Dragon
The time had come for the princess to save the dragon.
“I love you,” Samansa gasped with her last breath.
Finally, she’d managed to say it—just before she toppled into silent, unfeeling darkness that had no end.
20
KIREK
Kirek was screaming, and she couldn’t stop. It was as if her throat could somehow release the pain that was tearing her apart—expel it like dragon fire. And yet she wasn’t a fierce dragon, but a fragile girl falling to pieces, and there was no escaping the realization consuming her from the inside out, as much as she wanted to run from it.
Samansa was dead. Her amber eyes, once sparking and now dull, stared blankly up at the cave ceiling from where Kirek had lowered her body to the ground, cradled in her arms, the princess’s red hair spilling across the stone with her heart’s blood. Kirek couldn’t stand looking at her, and yet she couldn’t seem to let her go, even though she knew she was gone. Could feel it in Samansa’s lifeless flesh, now only an empty casing for the vibrant being who had once dwelt within.
Kirek curled over the body, pressing their faces together, and she screamed again, sobs racking her hard enough to shake them both. Hot tears fell onto Samansa’s too-pale, freckled cheeks in a bitter rain—like the princess’s never would again, even though she had always been so ready to cry.
Kirek’s love, in the form of Samansa, was gone. The love that Kirek still felt for her was eating her alive.
How could you?was her only coherent thought.
How could Samansa have done this to her? Left her bereft and alone like this? Kirek’s heart was far more broken than the Heartstone could ever be—a shattering inside her beyond repair or reprieve, a rending so complete she’d rather be dead in Samansa’s place.
Her grip only tightened on the princess’s unmoving shoulders. How could Kirek ever let her go?
What has she done?
The voice was not Kirek’s own internal cry. She tore herself away from the body and spun, snatching her sword up off the floor from where she’d dropped it, the scrape of steel on stone ringing out and spitting sparks where the silent words hadn’t.
Pavak’s pale hulk was crouched just inside the mouth of the cave, her orange eyes glowing as brightly as the lava pool at the center. Valraka’s dark shadow loomed behind her, bloodred gaze drinking in the scene as well.
“Cousin,” Kirek hissed through the tears and spittle and filth streaking her face. She didn’t care how she looked, only that she wanted to die. “Have you reconsidered? Come to end me after all?”
She welcomed it.
Valraka slunk around her mother along the crescent of stone bordering the lava pool, drawing closer to Kirek. Kirek didn’t back away. She would not leave Samansa.
I tracked you until I understood you were coming here, Valraka said calmly.I informed the Queen Mother. I helped her fly, boosting the air under her wings as I flew beneath her the entire way.
“So you falsely tried to warn us away from this place. Forthat”—Kirek grinned at her, toothy and stretched—“I would watch you die in agony.”
I did so because I knewyouwould be false, Valraka said, her tone sharpening.That you would come here anyway. And I needed to see.
“See what?” Kirek spat. “That Raka is real? That’s all that’s left of her.” She gestured at the empty skull with her sword, wishing she could cleave straight through it instead.
Pavak shifted closer. Eagerly.And I will take her in.Iwill become Raka’s vessel, in the girl’s place. She was never worthy, but she served her purpose. I can swallow the Heartstone now without being tainted by human life. What is left in the half within her is only draconic—and still an opening to Raka.Her hungry gaze found Samansa’s body on the ground.I will eat the girl.
“You willnot,” Kirek snarled.
And yet, through her wave of fury and revulsion, she distantly supposed her aunt couldn’t eat Raka’s huge skull, and so the shard of stone was the next best thing. But perhaps there was more to her intent than rabid, unfounded fervency. Kirek glanced back herself, skipping over Samansa’s sightless eyes to the Heartstone in her chest. It was glowing red.
Which meant it might yet be the key to unlocking Raka, as her aunt believed.
Perhaps the skullwasn’tso empty.
On a frantic whim, Kirek tried to shift back into a dragon—and couldn’t. She was still trapped in this form. Which meant Raka was still blocking her from the dragon half of the stone.
Which wasstillin Samansa, tainting her even in death. Maybe, from within the stone, Raka retained the power toreach out and seize control of another body. She needed life, since she had consumed the human lives given to create the stone, and Samansa had ended her own. Broken Raka’s vessel.
And here Pavak was to replace her.
