“Everyone there confirms a dragon was in fact the culprit of the crime. They don’t know how this creature came in, but some... some are very certain how it left.” The queen’s dark eyes are on me. “Some say it shifted after my daughter’s tragic death. They say you shifted from dragon to girl right before their eyes.”
I process that information but don’t reply. My words are going to seal my fate, and I’d rather use them sparingly in this moment.
“The High Hell adamantly state that you were unconscious when they found you in the garden maze.” Her voice carries on, and I want badly to fling my attention back to the three men who most certainly know what happened that night.
But I don’t.
My shoulders straighten, and I keep my attention trained on her majesty.
“On very reputable witness claims, it was you who took Vanitee’s young life.” Creatchin tilts her head at me, and that faint smile widens to a full display of pleasure.
I don’t understand her manic amusement.
“I—” Once more I try to use my words carefully, but it doesn’t matter because I’m cut off immediately by a rush of accusations.
“Cersia killed her,” Nyra blurts, her lower lip quivering, but she clamps her jaw shut against the apparent rising of her sadness and continues on. “She’s a rare beast that all the realms have heard of but seldom have seen. She’s a dragon. Just like our father.”
The breath in my lungs leaves me in a cutting surprise of bitterness.
I should be bitter. I should be outraged by the turn of my sister’s loyalty.
But I lost her loyalty a long time ago. Creatchin wanted that. She wanted me alone and lost. And I didn’t even realize it until now.
Ravar said she’d kill me.
She never wanted to kill me. She wanted me to lose everything I love, and that might be worse than death. What’s life without love?
It may as well be death.
But she didn’t realize I had love, lust, and adoration hidden away within her very own High Hell. Whatever she’s prepared me to suffer, she already failed.
“Cersia of the upper realm, I am displeased with your use of your shifter.” Creatchin sweeps her gaze across my deliberately vacant features. “I should kill you on the spot for the death of such a kind and honorable soul as my daughter.”
And yet... she hasn’t.
She left me alone in a cell all night to really drive home my isolation.
But I wasn’t alone.
Will she drag out my loneliness for all eternity? Will she lock me up in the tallest tower?
I’m a fucking dragon. I’m the reason fair maidens in towers exist.
So whatever it is this conniving woman has planned, I’m here to shut it the fuck down.
“I think the kingdom of Hell will use you, Cersia. You’ll serve a life sentence as property of the greatest kingdom in all the realms.”
I blink at her. Those words pass over and over through my mind as I try to understand, but the whispers around me scuttle about like cockroaches.
Dragon.
Traitor.
Queen’s pet.
Slayer.
And that’s the one.
