Chapter 111 Dracarys

Chapter 111 Dracarys
Cassandra's POV

My dragon was enormous with white scales that caught the moonlight and threw it back silver, golden eyes that burned with something older than anything I had words for. His wingspan alone swallowed the sky above us.

He didn't look anywhere else. Not at the people behind me, not at the torches, not at the palace beyond.

His eyes were solely fixed on me.

My heart was hammering but my feet were already moving. I didn't decide to walk toward him, I simply found myself doing it, drawn forward by something that bypassed thought entirely. A familiarity I couldn't explain and didn't try to. Like recognizing a voice you haven't heard in years.

I stopped just short of him. Those golden eyes tracked me, unblinking.

I raised my hand slowly and pressed my palm to his nose.

He went still. Then a sound came from deep in his chest, low and rumbling, somewhere between a purr and distant thunder. He pushed his nose further into my hand, nudging gently, asking for more.

I laughed softly and kept going, stroking the ridge of his snout, feeling the warmth radiating off his scales.

The witches materialized around me. Flora first, then Fiona and Fauna, all three of them wearing expressions of open satisfaction.

"Well done," Flora said warmly. "Your very own dragon, summoned by your very own hand."

I felt the pride move through me before I could temper it. "Thank you. Genuinely." I glanced at them. "I'll admit I was scared. I almost apologized to all of you when nothing happened."

"But you waited," Fiona said.

"Yes. Thanks to the moon goddess, we waited."

Flora touched my shoulder. "Three days, Cassandra. The blood moon rises in three days."

I nodded slowly. "I know."

Three days. The blood moon. The coronation. Harlan's coup. Everything arriving at once, stacked on top of each other like kindling waiting for a spark.

"It's also the day of the coronation," I said quietly, almost to myself. "Everything happens that day." I stroked the dragon's nose again, steadying myself with the warmth of him. "I don't know if I'm ready for it."

"You've already made your choice though, haven't you?" Fauna's voice was light. Conversational.

I went still. Looked at her sharply. "How do you know that?"

Fiona smiled. "A witch always knows what someone is thinking."

I stared at them both for a moment. Then I turned toward the others, toward where Liam and Samuel stood several yards back, still watching the dragon with the kind of stunned reverence men reserve for things they can't quite categorize. Claudia was still on the ground, Mrs. Fernworth crouched beside her, speaking low and firm, trying to coax her breathing back to normal.

"Will you tell him?" Fiona asked. Quietly. "About who you really are?"

The question settled over me like a weight.

I turned back. Managed a small smile. "I just want to enjoy the time I have left here. With all of them." I kept my hand moving against the dragon's snout. "That's all I want right now."

"Have you fallen in love with this place?" Fauna asked.

I didn't hide it. There was no point anymore. "Yes. The place and the people inside it." The sadness came easily, honestly. "I never anticipated that. I never expected to."

Fiona put a hand on my shoulder. "That's the nature of love. It doesn't announce itself. It finds you in the places you least expected to be found."

I didn't answer.

Liam and the others came closer.

"So." Liam stopped at my side, Samuel just behind him, both of them still staring at the dragon like they were waiting to be convinced he was real. "What do we do with him? We can't leave him here. If Harlan's scouts see something this size–"

"He'll move immediately," Samuel finished.

"We need somewhere to keep him." Liam looked at me. "Any ideas?"

I looked at the dragon. The dragon looked back at me.

"I have no idea how to hide something this large," I admitted.

We went back and forth, a valley, the northern forest, the old quarry beyond the eastern ridge. None of it felt right. The witches stood slightly apart from us, and I became aware after a moment that they were laughing quietly among themselves.

"What?" I asked.

Fauna pressed her lips together, still smiling. "Nothing. Only that the two of you together are exactly what we expected."

Liam gave them a look. I pretended not to hear it.

Fiona stepped forward, reaching out to stroke the dragon's flank. "Dragons have their own place," she said simply. "Before you summoned him, he was somewhere. They all are. They don't simply wait in the dark– they exist somewhere that isn't here."

Something clicked.

"The dream," I said.

Fiona looked at me.

"I kept having this dream, dragons flying, dozens of them, somewhere vast and open. I thought it was just–" I stopped. "That was real, wasn't it? That was their place."

All three witches nodded.

They stepped closer then and spoke carefully, walking me through it, how to send him back, how to call him forward again. The words were simpler than the summoning. More like a release than a command.

"Thank you," I said when they finished. "For all of it."

Liam stepped forward. "I'll compensate you. Whatever you need… gold, land, safe passage–"

"We want none of it," Fiona said.

He blinked. "Nothing?"

"Win the war." Her voice was quiet but absolute. "Bring justice to what Harlan has done. That is payment enough."

I watched it land on him. Watched his expression shift, the Alpha composure still in place, but something underneath it going very serious, very deep. He reached out and took Fiona's hand.

"He will get what he deserves," Liam said. "I promise you that."

Fiona smiled. Said something then, a handful of words in a language I didn't recognize, something that sounded old and ceremonial, and whatever it meant, it settled over all of us like a benediction.

Fauna turned to me. "Will you use him? In the battle?"

I looked at my dragon. Those golden eyes, patient and burning.

I turned the question toward him instead, feeling slightly absurd and not caring at all. "Will you help me?"

He answered by dropping his head low and exhaling– a great rolling breath of steam that curled white into the cold night air.

I took that as a yes.

"What will you name him?" Liam asked.

I thought about it. My mind traveled back to my old life– the shows I'd loved, the world I'd left behind, surfacing in the most unexpected moment.

"Dracarys," I said.

Liam repeated it slowly, testing the shape of it. "Dracarys."

The dragon lifted his head.

He liked it.