Page 45 of Dragon Heir

“Okay then, not your father…”

“I was moved around too,” she says. “First as an egg, and then as a hatchling. I was never at any one court too long—but I was raised in royal courts, not out there with humans like a beast.” She wrinkles her pretty nose before looking down it at me.

“If it pleases your grace…” True mutters.

Shynia clicks her diamond-encrusted nails together. “I’ve lived with tutors who trained me to take the throne in case I was the fated queen for almost a century. Turns out, I’m just the spare. You’re the heir.”

“Lucky me.”

“You are lucky,” she snaps. “With me here, you won’t have to worry about our people. You can rest easy knowing dragonkind will be well led if something were to happen to you. Our queen hasn’t had that luxury for centuries. She was thousands of years old when her oldest sister died. That’s why she’s had to be so cautious and hide away so completely while she waited a thousand years to leave the kingdom in capable hands.”

She looks me up and down with an arched brow that says, “And look what she got.”

I can’t really blame her. Shynia has felt the pressure to measure up for a hundred years now, only to learn that the queen has been hiding another egg this whole time. I almost feel sorry for the princess.

“The queen is thousands of years old?”

“Three thousand, eight-hundred and forty-three,” Sinetar informs me.

“That’s a long time to be responsible for dragonkind.”

“As I said, you won’t have to live under that type of pressure,” my sister says with an artificial smile. “Now that the queen’s heir has matured, the Sun King lost. He didn’t succeed in kidnapping you or killing off all the other eggs, so now we can secure the throne for another thousand years.”

The next thousand years. Suddenly, my breath comes shorter. I don’t know if I can do this. The whole kingdom is looking to me, and I don’t even know if I can shift into the dragon I supposedly am.

I clear my throat, suddenly exhausted by this exchange with my so-called sister. “It’s been interesting meeting you, Shynia. However, I need to get back to my studies.”

“Mama wants me, so I’ll be attending the queen,” she says after a long moment. Her chin lifts even further, and she glares down her nose at me like I’m a commoner trying to usurp the throne from a real princess. It’s kind of true, even though my only other choice is probably death.

With that, the porcelain princess turns and steps through her line of guards, which parts for her like a field of grain. They follow her back through the door from which she appeared.

“You’ll do fine,” Pax murmurs, stepping close again. “We’re all here for you, Nessie.” It’s as if he can read my mind and knows I want to lean into him, hug him, hold him.

But I can’t.

“I know, Pax, but I’m pretty sure my sister just not-so-subtly declared she’s going to kill me,” I mutter, before remembering that my ladies might be gossips at best, traitors at worst. How do I know they’re not going to conveniently dispose of me to put Shynia on the throne? They’ve known her for winged-lions-only-know how long.

And then there’s Sinetar, who looks at me like he’d like to rip off my clothes and devour me alive, whether or not he’s allowed to touch me. Shynia addressed him by occupation, with no honorific, so I assume he’s as low status as Pax and therefore as forbidden to “taint my royal blood.”

Still, he’s from the Wysongue court. He knew all along about the queen, about my dragon blood. She sent him to educate me before I arrived. Which means he belongs here, with the queen. Same as True. They’ve all been around each other for a very long time. Who know what alliances exist between them?

Pax’s hand finds mine and squeezes. He’s been lying to me for the past, oh, fifteen years. I want to trust him, my heart does. But my head keeps going back and forth. What was real, and what was he ordered to do? Did he really want to be friends with me all those years, include me in games with the other boys? Or was it an obligation? My mind is swinging one way and then the other at a sickening pace.

“I could use a little quiet time to rest,” I say, detaching my hand from Pax’s grip. “This is a lot to process. Two weeks ago, I was a human. Today I’m a dragon, and a princess, and people want to kill me.”

I’ve been in this palace for two weeks, maybe longer. I’m not even sure how much time passed while I was unconscious. Does my family even know I’m gone? If so, waht do they think happened to me? Did someone notify them, or leave them to go out of their minds with worry that I disappeared without a trace?

It’s certainly not rare in the world I grew up in, even with humans. In poor little villages like ours, life is rough for everyone. With so many supernaturals and humans sharing the same world, our coexistence is peaceful less often than not. There are many smaller cities, nations, and clans, and though dragons are supposed to keep order for all, now that they’re so scarce, wars break out more than they used to.

When we reach my door, I turn and take a deep breath. “Thank you,” I say. “For escorting me. But now I’m back at my room, and I think I’ll just do some thinking. Surely I can’t hurt myself doing that.”

“Nessie,” Pax says, giving me a pleading look. “We’re not allowed to leave you alone.”

“What if you checked out the room and just gave me a couple minutes,” I say, pressing my palm to his chest.

“I’m sorry. I can’t leave you alone. Not ever,” he says softly, his eyes locked on mine. I don’t know if he means that they can’t because they’re not allowed to, or if he can’t because he needs me the way I need him. My gut twists inside me despite my tumult of emotions.

I nod, not trusting my voice.