The Dragon Queen Selection Chapter 30

LIRA

The grand hall buzzed with quiet chatter as the girls settled in for another lesson. Scrolls, parchments, and books lined the tables, and I had buried myself in all of them. My eyes stung from hours of reading about treaties, trade disputes, and border negotiations, but none of it seemed to stick. Every word blurred together into one long, impossible puzzle.

I chewed the inside of my cheek and pressed a hand to my forehead. If tomorrow’s test went anything like my last challenge, I would be the next girl sent home without question.

“Lira?”

The soft voice pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up to find Lady Elora sitting across from me, her pale blue eyes uncertain but kind. She always seemed to melt into the background, so quiet I sometimes forgot she was even there.

“You look exhausted,” she said gently.

“That’s because I am,” I muttered, snapping a book shut in frustration. “I don’t understand half of this, and even if I did, I’m not sure I could stand in front of the Queen and say it without fainting.”

Elora hesitated, then leaned in closer so no one else could overhear. “I could help you, if you’d like. Diplomacy… I’ve read about it for years. It’s one of the few things I’m actually good at.”

I blinked at her, caught off guard. “You want to help me?”

Her lips curved in a small, nervous smile. “I was thinking maybe we could help each other. I’ll tutor you with the diplomacy lessons, and in return, you can help me with defense. I’m… not very good with anything physical.” She dropped her gaze to her hands, twisting her fingers together. “I panic too easily. You’re much braver than me.”

Braver. The word made me snort softly. I didn’t feel brave, I felt like a fraud barely hanging on. Still, the offer wasn’t one I could brush aside. Alliances were risky in this place; I’d already seen how quickly the girls could turn on each other. But Elora didn’t feel like a threat. She wasn’t loud or ruthless like Calista or Saphira. She seemed genuine.

I leaned back in my chair, considering. “So… you teach me how not to humiliate myself in front of the Queen, and I teach you how to survive without getting flattened in the defense trials?”

Elora’s eyes lifted back to mine, hopeful. “Exactly.”

I let out a slow breath, then gave a small nod. “Alright. We’ll try it your way.”

Her smile widened, and for the first time since I’d arrived here, it felt like someone wasn’t waiting for me to fail.

The next morning, we slipped into a rhythm. Elora sat beside me with her stack of neatly organized notes, walking me through the mock disputes. “Listen before you answer,” she whispered as I stumbled through one of the scenarios. “It’s not about who speaks the loudest. It’s about who listens best, and who finds the common ground.”

I scribbled her advice down, though my head spun with all the details. She had a calm, careful way of explaining things, so different from my instinct to just throw out the first solution that came to mind.

When the tests came, I put everything she had told me to test and for once, I didn't hear anyone laugh at me. It was the first time no one had laughed at me while I spoke. I was very proud.

That evening, I held up my end of the bargain. We practiced in the training yard, Elora clumsily copying my stances as I corrected her. “Don’t think about strength,” I told her, adjusting her footing. “Think about angles. If they come at you, you don’t fight their force, you use it against them.”

“Like this?” she asked, trying to pivot her stance.

“Better,” I said, giving her a small smile. “You’re starting to get it.”

She looked pleased, and I felt something I hadn’t in days: useful. Needed.

But even as I focused on her and on the tests ahead, something else kept tugging at the back of my mind.

A voice.

Lira.

It whispered like a shadow, soft but insistent, curling through my thoughts whenever the halls grew quiet. I heard it again that night while poring over Elora’s notes in the library, the syllables of my name echoing as if carried on a breath of smoke.

I froze, my quill hovering over parchment.

Come here.

My stomach turned cold. I knew that voice, the dragon’s. The same one from the caves.

I shut my eyes, forcing myself to push it down. Not now. Not when everything was already crumbling around me. I couldn’t afford distractions, not from him.

I gritted my teeth, bent my head back over the parchment, and whispered to myself, “Ignore it.”

But even as I forced myself to keep writing, the sound lingered, curling in the corners of my mind, patient and waiting.

...................

CASSIAN

The air in the dragon's keep always carried a heaviness to it, smoke, heat, the metallic tang of scales and flame. But tonight, it was different. The stones themselves seemed to vibrate with the restless energy of the beasts chained in their caverns. The mating season was near.

Taheer shifted behind me, his great black wings half-unfurled, scraping against the iron bars of his enclosure. His golden eyes glowed like embers in the dark, locked on me. Always on me.

“Easy,” I murmured, laying a hand against the thick hide of his snout as he lowered it. His breath rolled over me in hot waves, carrying the faint stench of sulfur. He didn’t growl, but his silence was worse, watchful, calculating.

Bootsteps echoed through the cavern, sharp against the stone. Aveline appeared at my side, her silver braid catching the firelight. She looked at Taheer with that same mix of awe and calculation I’d seen since we were children.

“The keepers say the younger males are already tearing into each other,” she said, voice low. “By next week, we’ll be struggling to keep them from spilling blood.”

I exhaled slowly. “I’ve seen it. The air’s different. They’re restless. And the worst part is...” I looked at Taheer, his eyes narrowing as if he understood. “...I don’t think he’ll find a mate.”

Her brow furrowed. “Why?”

“He hasn't found her,” I said, my voice tight. “Taheer hasn't mated in decades."

Taheer rumbled deep in his chest, as if answering, and Aveline stiffened.

“Well that can't be good for him," she muttered, glancing at the keepers who lingered nervously in the shadows, pretending not to listen. “If he doesn’t take part in the rituals, his aggression will only build. You know what happens when a dragon’s instincts are denied.”

I did. We both did. Entire villages had burned from less.

One of the keepers, an older man named Corwin, cleared his throat. “Your Highness, If Taheer won’t mate, he may have to be… contained. For the safety of the others.”

I snapped my head toward him. “Contained?”