Page 38 of Lady Dragon

Samansa bent and closed her hands on a loose, head-sized stone. “Lords and ladies, I will not die a cream puff.”

She didn’t know she’d spoken the words aloud until the dragon froze and said, What is a cream puff?

“Something very not delicious,” Samansa lied, raising the stone as high as she could. She would have given almost anything for a cream puff. Almost as much as she would have given to have her mother’s sword in her grip instead of a rock.

Then you should have no worries of that, for you will indeed be delicious. With that, the dragon lunged for her.

The princess hurled the stone with all her might, sending it smashing into the dragon’s snout just as she charged headfirst into it. The resulting crack was loud. The dragon reeled back, stunned, blood dripping from her nostrils.

Samansa ran. The dragon regained what balance she had, head swiveling to track her prey, and then she scrambled forward once more, clawing her way onto the rock formation. The princess dodged and ducked, hoping to find cover. Knowing she wouldn’t.

But just as she felt the dragon’s reeking breath against her neck, the dragon shrieked. Samansa spun as a dark blur barreled right into the creature, throwing the heap of hide and bones tumbling across the sand—a dragon-sized blur that suddenly came into sharp focus as it came to a stop.

“ Kirek ,” the princess breathed .

Kirek was so vivid, so alive , next to the walking corpse of the other dragon.

Out here in the blazing sun, her scales looked darker, like liquid, glittering shadow, especially as her tail lashed and her wings flexed wide.

Her powerful body was an oasis, a shimmering, deep pool that Samansa wanted to dive into—albeit one with teeth and massive claws and skin-sanding edges.

Maybe the princess was just really thirsty, but Kirek looked less like a shark and more like salvation.

One she likely didn’t deserve.

Samansa. But Kirek barely spared her a silver glance before turning back to the other dragon. She blew a stream of fire over her head—enough to warn, if not to singe. Go. I want to see your wings vanish into the horizon.

The other dragon scrabbled away on emaciated limbs that slipped in the sand. Her wings worked in awkward asymmetry as she managed—barely—to get herself aloft. But once she was airborne, they carried her swiftly away.

Kirek waited, her eyes as sharp and shining as blades, as the old dragon disappeared.

Samansa kept expecting Kirek to go after her, but she didn’t.

“That’s—that’s it?” the princess demanded.

Greetings to you, too , Kirek responded dryly.

“She was going to eat me!”

Kirek turned to her, and Samansa nearly flinched from her gaze. So you would have me kill her?

Samansa threw up her arms—which were very filthy and sunburned, so she dropped them. “I would rather she not be able to try again!”

She’s old and weak and, judging by her cut wings, has an illness of the mind. She’s… Kirek looked away. She’s not worth killing, which is how my cousin just referred to me, so pardon my empathy.

“That’s horrible. All of it. Completely awful.” Samansa was including herself in that. At her admission, she burst into tears, as suddenly as a storm in the desert. A very singular downpour. “Kirek, I’m so sorry.”

Kirek’s eyes snapped back to her, and her tail lashed again. I don’t want your pity, too.

Samansa stumbled toward her, rather than away—which perhaps would have been wiser when facing a dragon’s ire. “No! I mean I’m sorry because it’s all my fault!”

Kirek leaned toward Samansa at the same time, and let the princess careen into her massive foreleg. How is that, little one?

It was the first time in a while that Kirek had called her that, and it felt so…

tender, if only because the diminutive didn’t fit her anymore.

A kindness, masking a harsher truth. Samansa wrapped her arms around her as best she could.

“Because I was a raging beast . I feel so bad—for what I said, for leaving you, for what happened to your mother.”

Samansa felt a large snout nudge her head gently. You didn’t gut my mother .

The princess choked on something that was halfway between a laugh and a sob. “No, but she might have taken your aunt down with her if I hadn’t changed then. I was just so angry that you were going to lose her. My anger… took over.”

Or rather, someone took over, at least for a moment. Raka. Samansa shuddered to even think her name.

So, what you’re actually sorry for is that my aunt isn’t dead as well ?

Samansa pulled away to look up at Kirek. The dragon’s huge head was so close she should have wanted to leap back—but she didn’t. She hiccupped instead. “That sounds horrible, doesn’t it?”

No. Kirek chuffed, sending the princess’s hair whipping—amazing, given how much sand and filth was weighing it down. You sound like a dragon. But you’re not responsible—I am.

“Kirek…”

The dragon rode over her. You had the better impulse.

While you were angry, I was… afraid. Afraid to lose her, afraid…

to be queen. And therefore I don’t deserve to be.

With my wavering, I likely caused the shift that made me human and let my aunt tear out my mother’s throat and assume her title.

Powerful emotions seem to be the key to our transforming… or moments of weakness.

Or it was entirely Raka , but Samansa didn’t want to say that.

“Weakness isn’t a sign of being human,” she snapped instead, stepping back a few paces to fold her arms and glare up at the dragon.

And I could say that anger—or acting like a dragon—isn’t a sign of beastliness.

Samansa hadn’t been comparing herself to a dragon when she’d called herself a beast—well, only a very specific one, but one she didn’t care to name, as if to avoid summoning her.

And the last thing she wanted was a fight, so she said more softly, “ And it’s permissible to be afraid of such a heavy thing.

I would be afraid of being queen right now, though that’s not looking likely for me, either.

” She choked on her next words. “My mother may already be dead, for all I know. I want to go to Andrath and rip out my brother’s throat.

” Her jaw clenched as if to sink her teeth into him this very moment .

Kirek’s silver eyes narrowed. I thought you said you didn’t want him dead. Not exactly —your words.

“I’m feeling more exacting ,” the princess growled, staring at a rock on the ground as if she could incinerate it with a look.

I think you’re feeling unlike yourself. Kirek ducked her head closer, intercepting her gaze. Do you want to tell me what you felt, there at High Nest, when you turned into a dragon?

“When I told you that you were nothing to me?” Samansa murmured, tears welling in her eyes again. “You’re right, Kirek, I’m losing myself. Because I would never say that.” She looked up at her. “You’re everything to me.”

But I’m not to Raka . The name was like an awakening slap.

“ Raka ,” Samansa snarled, turning to pace. “I want her out of my head.” But then she stopped, and looked back at Kirek. “How in the blazes did you find me?”

I can feel you, through the bond, though you were too far to sense well. I figured that you might have flown north. The feeling grew stronger as I went.

North. Of course. Samansa had been possessed by some wild urge to fly far away from High Nest, to this supposed cave she’d seen in a vision—a vision she probably couldn’t trust—while Kirek had been painstakingly tracking her, no doubt burdened by grief.

“I’m so sorry about your mother,” the princess whispered.

The dragon glanced away. I don’t care to discuss it.

“I still wish…” The princess’s voice broke again. “I wish I could hug you. I mean, I know I just did, but it’s not entirely feasible like this, and you probably wouldn’t want me to anyway… and now I’m babbling.”

All she wanted to do was to feel Kirek pressed against her once more— her Kirek, the dragon girl, with skin and lips and hands that could hold her in return.

So she could comfort Kirek, yes, but also for Kirek to comfort her.

To remind her how good it felt to be in a soft human body.

Convince her that she was actually something worth holding.

Or that Kirek, a dragon, was even possible to hold.

But it was all impossible, because of the broken Heartstone.

Besides, Kirek would probably be revolted at the thought, and Samansa herself was feeling less soft and deserving by the moment.

She swallowed, hugging herself—a pathetic replacement for Kirek. “I’m not sure how I can live like this.”

Without being able to feel your skin on mine , she wanted to say. Never mind about the ancient dragon spirit trying to take over her.

I have an idea , Kirek said. First, have some water and an apple. She tossed her wide head at the saddle that Samansa only now realized was lying in the sand. Kirek must have dropped it before tackling the other dragon. And before that? She must have walked with it as a human. All night.

Before the princess could ask, the dragon added, And eat the meat .

Samansa crinkled her nose, even as she was diving for the waterskin in the saddlebag.

The ratty horse blanket was also stuffed inside, which she tossed quickly over her head to shelter her skin.

If she made it out of this desert alive, the first thing she was going to do was take an incredibly long bath and then put on the nicest dress she had.

“You should save the meat for yourself,” she said, unstoppering the waterskin with hands shaking in anticipation, and then she was gulping water without another word .

It’s nothing more than a morsel for a dragon.

“It will feed you as a human,” Samansa said, taking a breath from swallowing. There was barely any water left, and yet she wanted infinitely more.

Kirek was silent—probably wondering how soon her transformation might come. And dreading it, like Samansa was.