Page 127 of The Dragon Queen

I couldn’t muster a response to the duke’s monologue, because that was the moment another stab of pain washed through me. It took everything I had to stifle a scream, my breath forced out from my nose. Wave after wave hit me, and that’s when my hands closed around the stone eggs in my pockets.

That’s what this was. I could see Cynane, Hadrian and all of her mates surrounding her, as she laboured, just like Drathnor had. Her colour was terrible, little more than a dull brown now.

You’re doing well, my mate, Hadrian said, his neck wound with hers.Another push when you’re ready.

I can’t!

I felt Cynane’s wail in my soul. That feeling of hopelessness was all too familiar. The pain was smashing into her like waves, but the undertow threatened to pull her under and drown her.

Yes, you can,Hadrian urged.You fought Kaida with Inara on her back. You hammered out the conditions of the Treaty of Two Queens. You havealways been glorious, my love, my queen. I would take this pain from you, but I cannot.

I can’t!Cynane’s protest felt like it echoed throughout the cave.You’ll need to cut them from me, Hadrian. Our daughters must survive. Promise me this, my love. Promise me!

He just stared at her, unable to even conceptualise what she was asking for, even as primitive instincts told him he must. His mate was fading. She was too old to bear another clutch, should not have rose to mate again, but she did. This was the only way forward, that had become clear in the conversations they’d had with Glimmer. Cynane would bear queens, only queens, and the future of dragon kind would be assured. The trouble was her body was failing, and so was her strength. Pain was a parasite, sapping her strength until she could no longer bear it.

But I could.

My hands shook as I raised the crystal eggs, it requiring both hands to hold them all now. Everyone stared as blood dripped from my nose onto them and that forged the bond between us.

I was Cynane. I was Glimmer. I was the little dragon queen stuck in the shell, terrified and not knowing why. They’d been trying to make me a queen with gowns and tiaras and parties, but none of that made you one. It was this: sacrifice so that others might live. A queen needed to serve her people, human and dragon both, and that’s what I would do.

“I need to go,” Draven said. “I’ll finish this thing with my uncle and then we’ll need to ride hard for the capital. Look after Pippin and Glimmer,” he urged. “If I fail…”

“You won’t.” Flynn gripped his sword hilt tightly. “But we’ll be right behind you if you do. One way or the other, the duke will face justice tonight.”

He would, because if we failed, that would mark the end of dragon and humankind living together on Nevermere.

Chapter 61

It wasn’t just my legs that carried me up the stairs after Draven. Not just Glimmer’s or Cynane’s, because I held something more than just the three of us in the eggs.

You hold our history in your hands. I turned to see Tanis beside me, all while knowing that wasn’t possible.And our future. Beyond this point, I could not see. It’s up to you and Glimmer to decide what happens next.

A duel, apparently.

We were no timid servants sneaking in and out of a room with cleaning buckets in hand. The lot of us burst out of the door, the screech of the hinges alerting the duke to our presence as he stumbled up the steps, then stopped.

“You little bastard…” He snorted when he saw Brom, looking my husband up and down with thinly veiled scorn. “Brought your little butt boy along, did you?” He peered past the rest of my men at me. “And your boyish whore. I see now where I went wrong with Beatrice.” The woman herself stumbled to a stop, watching the scene unfold warily. “A wife with all the curves of a woman would never appeal to the likes of you. Mannish things like your ‘queen’ are all that stirs you.”

“Are you going to stand around critiquing my choice ofromantic partners?” Draven was always at his most dangerous when he sounded bored. “Or are we finally going to finish this?”

“Finish this? Do you think I’m going to waste time in a duel, boy?” The duke pulled out a sword, holding it pointed at his nephew. “There is no need. You fell right into my trap, deploying your entire host, leaving your capital and the throne unprotected, ripe for me to claim.”

We all spun around as a dragon swept in beside the balcony, but Glimmer was already there.

GO!

This wasn’t an order. Instead, she overruled whatever the dragon, its rider thought, replacing their will with hers. The duke stumbled forward, a gleeful smile on his face, only for it to fade entirely as the dragon took off. He followed its path with wide eyes, as if unable to believe what he was seeing.

Draven had no such difficulties.

“You were saying, uncle?”

The duke’s grip on his sword firmed, even as explosions rocked the city. Beyond, I heard the screams, the roars of dragons locked in a fight. Gouts of flame, of lightning, of ice, shot through the air, but all I could focus on was this.

“You killed my brother.” Draven advanced, sword at the ready. “You and my mother both. You hollowed out my father’s skull, until he was little more than a pawn. Your greed couldn’t be contained to simply being the power behind the throne. When I didn’t prove to be as pliable as you hoped, you sought to take it yourself, and it didn’t matter how many people you killed in the process.”

“My father…” Flynn’s voice broke on that. “My brothers. Their wives. Their…” He swallowed hard. “Their children.”

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