Chapter 98 The Dragon Appears

Chapter 98 The Dragon Appears

Cassandra's POV

"Arms up, my Lady."

I raised them and the tailor pulled the measuring ribbon tight across my shoulders, muttering numbers to her assistant who scribbled furiously.

A knock at the door.

One of the younger maids slipped in with a folded letter, apologizing twice before she'd finished entering. I recognized the handwriting on the seal before she'd even crossed the room.

"Give me a moment," I said.

The tailor stepped back. I broke the seal and unfolded it.

Tina's handwriting, no doubt.

‘My Dear Friend, the about-to-be-crowned Luna– congratulations on your forthcoming coronation. Everyone at the outpost wishes you well and we're grateful for all you did for us here. We miss you too much and wish we could be present on that day.’

‘Yours, Tina.’

I read it twice.

Then I sat down on the fitting stool, ignoring the tailor's politely pained expression, and wrote back immediately, both sides of the paper, probably more than was dignified, telling them I missed them and asking after everyone by name and telling Tina I would come visiting one of these days.

I folded it, sealed it, handed it to the maid and watched her leave.

Then I stood back up and raised my arms again.

"Sorry," I said. "Continue."

The tailor recovered quickly and produced three fabric options– one a deep ivory, one a pale gold and one a white so clean it almost hurt to look at. I ran my hand over the white one and something settled in my chest immediately.

"That one," I said.

"The white, my Lady?" She looked pleased. "It will suit your coloring beautifully."

"I think so too."

While her assistant pinned the hem, one of the younger maids drifted toward the window with the distracted energy of someone with a thought she wanted to share.

"It's the eclipse tonight," she said, to no one in particular.

"What kind of eclipse?" I asked.

She turned, looking slightly surprised to have been heard. "A moon eclipse, my Lady. The full black. It only happens once every few decades." She paused, warming to the subject. "My grandmother used to say that on the night of a black moon eclipse, a new dragon rises. If you look out at midnight you might catch a glimpse of it crossing the sky."

The room went quiet. I looked around at everyone's expressions.

Then the head tailor made a sound. "Don't go filling the Luna's head with old wives' tales. You'll have her standing at the window all night for nothing."

"It's not nothing," the girl said, with the dignity of someone defending something they actually believed. "My grandmother saw one."

"Your grandmother also claimed she spoke to a river spirit and everyone was very polite about it."

The room laughed. I even smiled. But I filed the story somewhere quiet and kept it.

I ordered cake and wine for lunch– three varieties of cake, which felt excessive until I tasted the third one. I reached for the guest list afterward and went through it name by name, marking the ones I recognized and setting aside the ones I didn't for Liam to look at later.

Liam, who I hadn't seen since morning.

I kept glancing at the door without deciding to. The day moved slowly and by the time dinner arrived, I had looked over more times than I could count.

A message came with the food. Liam wouldn't be joining me. Something had come up and he sent his apologies.

I stared at the message for a moment.

Then I folded it, set it aside and sat down to eat alone.

I wasn't angry. I understood. I just hadn't realized until that exact moment how quickly I'd gotten used to him being on the other side of the table.

I ate slowly, still thinking about the eclipse story. About white dragons and bloodlines and everything Liam had said about the last recorded white wolf disappearing the same year the Westland bloodline nearly died out.

‘Something that could only appear when the right person awakened it.’

I pushed the thought aside and finished my wine.

Claudia, now my personal maid, helped me with my bath. When she was working the pins from my hair, I caught her eye in the mirror.

"Claudia. The eclipse tonight. The dragon story. Is there anything to it?"

She smiled. "It's a story, my Lady. Something people tell to make a dark night feel significant." She set the last pin down. "Nothing appears. Nothing ever has."

"You're sure."

"My mother used to make us stay indoors on eclipse nights to keep us from standing in the cold for hours waiting for nothing." She patted my shoulder lightly. "It's a fable."

I nodded.

She finished and left and I was alone.

I picked up a book, held it for a few minutes without reading it and finally set it down. I moved to the window.

The room was dark except for the candle on the table. Outside, the moon had gone the particular black of an eclipse and the sky around it was a deep, starless dark.

Nothing appears.

I gave myself thirty seconds. I would look, feel sensible about it and go to bed.

I stood at the window and looked up.

The black moon hung in the center of the sky, ringed with a faint silver halo. Below it, the palace grounds were completely still. No movement, no light, just the dark pressing down on everything.

I waited and still nothing.

I exhaled. Of course nothing. A fable was a fable and I was standing at a window at midnight like someone who should know better.

I was about to turn away when something caught the edge of my vision.

A glint. High up, moving fast– there and gone before I could be sure I'd seen it.

I pressed closer to the glass.

There. Again. A shape against the black sky, too large to be a bird, moving with a fluid, unmistakable purpose heading toward the palace, toward this window, toward me.

I staggered back, pressed my hand to my chest, and looked again.

It was still coming. Enormous and fast and entirely real.

It slammed into me.

The pain cracked through my skull before I could scream, sharp and immediate and all-consuming. I grabbed the windowsill but my hands had stopped working and all I heard was the sound of my own voice and my body hitting the floor forcefully.