The Dragon Queen Selection Chapter 165

LIRA

She had the nerve to look good while trying to kill me. 

Even here, in the grey light, surrounded by death and darkness, she was beautiful. 

Her golden hair had been braided back from her face. Her riding clothes were black, fitted, and practical. 

Her smile was sharp as the blade she had just thrown.

"Lady Lira," she said.

"Calista."

"You're harder to kill than I expected." 

I said nothing.

She circled me, slow, deliberate, her boots silent on the forest floor.

"I've waited so long for this moment," she said. 

"Ever since I realized you would be in the Dragon Trials. Ever since I saw the way Cassian looked at you. Ever since I understood what you really are."

"And what's that?"

"A threat." She stopped circling. 

"You're a threat to everything I've worked for. Everything I've *earned*. The crown. The prince. The future that was supposed to be mine."

"I don't want to be Queen Calista. That position has always been yours."

"Liar."

"I don't want Cassian either."

"*Liar*."

I took a step back. She took a step forward.

"You've been a thorn in my side since the moment you arrived," she said. 

"The other girls, they were nothing. Easily dismissed. Easily forgotten. But you.." Her eyes narrowed. 

"You refused to disappear. You refused to *lose*. You refused to die..."

"I didn't..."

"....and made me look like the villain."

"You *are* the villain."

Calista laughed.

"Maybe. But in this story, I will win." She pulled another dagger from her belt.

"This forest is vast," she said. "The dragon keepers don't venture here. Elora is a mile away. No one will ever know what happened to you, Lira. No one will ever *find* your body. Even if they do, they'll assume the wild animals got to you first. You'd be given a befitting burial at least."

"You're going to kill me."

"Yes."

"Because you want to be queen."

"Because I *deserve* to be queen." She stepped closer. 

"And you, you're nothing. I am tired of you taking everything that belongs to me. This ends now."

I couldn't believe it. Even while we were in a dangerous forest surrounded by wild dragons, Calista was still trying to kill me. 

"Calista... You don't have to do this. You are going to win. After that, you will never see me again. You don't have to do this."

"Oh shut up, Lira! You're like a pesky fly that never dies, so no, don't think I'm going to spare you even though I'm going to win."

She raised the dagger.

The blade caught the light.

The second dagger whistled past my ear.

I threw myself sideways. rolled across the forest floor, leaves and dirt flying, and slammed into a tree. At least I learned something in combat training. The impact knocked the breath from my lungs, but I didn't stop moving. Couldn't stop moving.

Calista was trying to kill me.

Actually kill me.

Not threaten or intimidate me. She was after my life. 

"Stay still," Calista called, her voice echoing through the trees. "It will hurt less if you stay still."

"Calista, please..." 

"Please?" She laughed. "You think please will save you? You are so pitiful!" 

Another dagger.

I dodged.

It embedded itself in the tree beside my head, close enough that I felt the wind of its passing.

'Lira.' Luna's voice was frantic. 'You cannot keep dodging forever.' 

I know.

'She is going to kill you.' 

I KNOW.

I scrambled to my feet and ran.

\---

The forest blurred around me.

Branches whipped at my face. Roots tried to trip me. The darkness pressed close, thicker than before, hungry.

Behind me, I could hear Calista, her boots pounding the earth, her breath coming in sharp bursts, her laughter echoing off the trees.

"You can't run forever, Lira!"

Watch me.

I ducked under a low branch. Leaped over a fallen log. Pushed deeper into the forest, toward the shadows, toward the places where even Calista might not follow.

But she followed.

She always followed.

A wall of rock rose before me, too steep to climb, too wide to go around.

Dead end, I thought. I've reached a dead end.

'Lira.' Luna's voice was desperate. 'Turn around and fight.

I can't...

You CAN.

I turned.

Calista stood at the edge of the clearing, her golden hair wild, her eyes blazing. She had no more dagger, I could see that. But she didn't need them.

She had her fire.

Fire blossomed in her palms, orange and red and hungry.

"I wanted an easy death for you. But you had to make this hard. At least when I burn you, there won't be any remains left. So, any last words?" she asked.

"Please don't do this."

"Wrong answer."

She threw the fire.

\---

I dove.

The fire slammed into the rock behind me, exploding in a shower of sparks and stone. Heat washed over my back. The smell of burning hair filled my nostrils. My hair was burning. My hands reached out to put out what left over fire was on it, the impact of my bare bloodied hand on my burning hair sent pain splicing through my hands. 

'Lira!'

I'm fine. I'm... 

Another fireball.

I rolled.

Another.

I crawled.

LUNA, NOW!

Luna burst from my cloak, small and white and furious, and flew straight at Calista's face.

She opened her mouth.

And puffed.

Smoke filled the air, thick and dark and stinging. Calista staggered back, coughing, clawing at her eyes.

"What—what is—"

RUN, Luna shouted in my mind.

I didn't need to be told twice.

I grabbed Luna, shoved her back in my cloak, and ran.

\---

The fire followed me.

Not fireballs this time, streams of it, rivers of it, cascading through the trees and setting the forest ablaze. Calista was behind me somewhere, screaming, laughing, hunting.

"You can't escape me, Lira! I'll find you! I'll burn you!"

I ran faster.

The trees thinned. The ground grew soft. The darkness lifted, just slightly, giving way to a pale grey light.

A clearing, I thought. I've reached a clearing.

Lira. Luna's voice was weak. She's stopped.

What?

I can't hear her anymore. I can't smell her anymore. I think, I think she gave up.

I collapsed.

Fell to my knees in the middle of the clearing, gasping, my chest heaving, my hands pressed against the damp earth.

She gave up, I thought. Calista gave up.

Why?

Why would she... 

"Lira."

I looked up.

Luna was staring at something behind me, her eyes wide, her small body trembling.

'Don't move,' she whispered.

Why?

'Because there is something behind you. And it is very, very big.' 

I turned.

Slowly.

Carefully.

And found myself staring into an eye.