Page 41 of Dragon Cursed
Laoch made a sound that might have been a laugh.
"Come now.You have always been the clever one.Use that long old mind of yours and tell me, dragon.What walked into this chamber tonight that has not walked into it before."
The world tilted.
"No," Alsander said."No.She is —"
"Ah."
The shadow leaned forward.The eyes moved past Alsander's shoulder.Past the line of his body.They found Poppy where she stood pressed against the cold stone.
"There she is.There she is.Hello, little daughter.I wondered when one of you would come back."
"Don’t look at her."
"Oh, but Iknowher."Laoch crooned."I know her bones.I know the shape her grandmother's grandmother's grandmother wore when I came up out of the dark and put my hand through her chest."
The chamber went very still.
"Banríon na Síol, we called it.Queen of Seeds.Such a pretty name for such a small soft creature.I thought I had killed all of them."
The shadow tilted its head.
"And here you are, child, in the lair of the last dragon sworn to its protection.Wearing her stone at your throat as if you have any idea what it does.As if you have any idea what youare."
"Alsander."Poppy's voice was paper-thin."What is he —"
"Don't listen to him."
"I knew your line when it was still divine, little daughter.I knew your foremother when she was the green of the world."
The shadow paused.
Savored.
"The dragon's sisterlovedher."
Alsander stopped breathing.
"Did he tell you that?Did he tell you that Mairin poured her last breath into a human girl because she couldn’t bear for the magic to die with her?"
A single beat of silence rang out in the cavern more profoundly than any horn could have.
"No?Did he tell you that you are walking around with a piece of her in your blood?"
Alsander's breath stopped, the weight of Laoch’s words like a thousand dragons landing on his chest.
He hadn’t known.
Hadn’tknownwhat Mairin had done in her last hour.What she had spent the last of her magic on.And the monster that killed her was telling him in his own lair while his mate stood barefoot at his back.
Rage took Alsander.
Pure.Simple.Clean.
"Get.Out."
"Oh, dragon.I will.In my time."
