The Dragon Queen Selection Chapter 76

CASSIAN

The door closed behind Lira with a softness that unsettled me more than any slammed gate ever could.

For a long moment, I stood there, alone in my chambers, the lamplight flickering against the stone walls, listening to the echo of her footsteps fade down the corridor.

I dragged a hand through my hair.

You spoke too freely, I told myself.

The vault was not something I discussed with anybody. Not with my sister. Not with my friends. Not with courtiers. Not with my brother. Not with the women in the selection.

And yet with Lira, the words had slipped out with alarming ease.

“She asked,” I muttered to the empty room. “That’s all.”

But that wasn’t the truth.

Something about her always made me… careless. Made me forget the weight of what I carried. Made me want to explain rather than deflect. Trust rather than guard.

I turned away sharply, as if the thought itself offended me.

A knock sounded at the door.

Once. Sharp. Urgent.

“Yes?” I called.

The door opened just enough for one of my guards to slip inside, breathless.

“Your Highness,” he said, bowing quickly. “It’s Taheer.”

My chest tightened. “Taheer isn't in the Dragon's Keep.”

“He’s in the palace courtyard,” the guard corrected. “He came alone.”

That wasn’t possible.

Dragons didn’t leave their home without cause. Taheer least of all.

“I’ll come,” I said immediately.

The courtyard was bathed in afternoon light when I arrived. A few guards were already outside, watching the massive beast with weary eyes.

Taheer stood at its center, massive and still, his obsidian scales dulled as though dusted with ash. His wings were folded tight to his body, not in rest, but restraint.

The moment I stepped onto the stones, I felt it.

A heaviness. A wrongness.

Cassian, Taheer’s voice rumbled into my mind, low and grief-laden.

“What happened?” I demanded aloud, ignoring the way the staff scattered at the sight of him.

Taheer lowered his massive head until his golden eye met mine.

A dragon is dead.

My breath caught. “What?”

Fallon. The Dragon King’s dragon, he said.

The world tilted.

“That’s not possible,” I said hoarsely. “How is that possible? The Vaelkar Ridge is the safest place for your kind."

It was, Taheer replied.

I staggered back a step.

“The King..." I started.

He will already feel it, Taheer said. The loss of one's bonded dragon travels faster than wings.

I clenched my fists. “How did this happen?”

Taheer’s tail lashed once against the stone.

It's not time to tell you yet.

“Taheer...”

The others are in mourning, he continued, cutting me off. They sing the old songs. They will not fly. They will not eat.

“Are they safe?” I asked.

One dead, he said. All broken.

My throat tightened. “And you came here instead of staying with them?”

I had to tell you the news. And warn you.

“Warn me of what?”

Taheer’s gaze sharpened.

Something is wrong. I can feel it in the air. A wrongness of some kind.

“That’s not an answer.”

It is the only one I will give.

I swallowed my frustration. “How long will you mourn?”

Seven days, he said. Then I must return. The others will remain to finish the mating season.

“And after that?”

There was a pause.

After that, Taheer said, the world will change.

Before I could press him further, he unfurled his wings, the wind of their movement scattering leaves across the courtyard.

Tell your king, he said. Tell him the clock is ticking.

And then he was gone, rising into the sky with a single, powerful beat, leaving behind silence and dread.

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

I rushed back to the throne room. And Taheer was right.

My father felt it before I spoke.

The moment I entered the throne room, he was standing rigid by the window, one hand pressed to his chest, his face pale.

“Something has happened to Fallon,” the Dragon King said quietly.

“Yes,” I replied.

My mother turned sharply. “Cassian what went wrong?"

“Fallon is dead.”

Silence fell like a shroud.

My mother sank slowly into a chair. “That’s… that’s impossible.”

“It happened,” I said. “Taheer came himself to tell me the news.”

My father closed his eyes briefly. “I could feel it. A tearing. Like something ancient snapping.”

“What does this mean? Fallon was healthy, what could have gone wrong?” my mother asked.

“It means we are weaker,” my father said grimly. “And our enemies will sense it soon. The loss of the Dragon King's dragon is regarded as a very bad omen."

“They must not,” my mother said sharply. “This news cannot leave these walls. The people would be thrown into confusion!"

Cassian’s jaw tightened. “The dragons also sense something is wrong."

“And something definitely is wrong,” my father said. “There has not been a successful mating season in over a decade. Now this.”

My mother’s voice trembled. "What if what the Priestess said was true? The bonds are fading."

My father turned to me. “The egg.”

I stiffened.

“You must go to the vault,” he said. “You must try again with the egg. A new dragon will bring hope, it would change the tide."

“I have tried,” I snapped. “Everything.”

“You have not tried enough,” he shot back. “That egg is our future.”

“It doesn’t respond,” I said. “It never has.”

My father’s eyes burned. “Then make it. Force it to respond to you. Aren't you the most powerful in the kingdom? Put your powers to good use."

“I can’t command life, father," I said.

“Watch your tone.”

“I’m telling you the truth,” I insisted. “It doesn’t answer to me.”

“Then why are you its keeper?” he roared. “Why does the vault only answer to you if you cannot wake what’s inside it?”

I clenched my jaw.

“Go,” he said coldly. “Now.”

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

The vault opened for me as it always did.

The stone parted. The wards receded. The air changed.

But the moment I stepped inside, I felt it.

The absence.

The black egg sat upon its pedestal, its surface duller than I remembered. The faint glow that once pulsed beneath its shell flickered weakly now, like a dying ember.

I approached slowly.

“Answer me,” I whispered, pressing my palm to the shell.

Nothing.

No resonance. No answering hum.

I pushed more power into the bond.

Still nothing.

My chest tightened with dread.

“No,” I murmured. “No, no...”

I staggered back, staring at the egg.

Its energy was… thinning. Draining. As though something vital were slipping away beyond my reach.

“This isn’t possible,” I said aloud.

But deep down, I knew the truth.

The egg wasn’t merely dormant.

It was dying.

And it wouldn’t last a full moon.