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worry without cause, my love," Lotharus said, a smile in his voice. "She will find the crystal and return it to you."
              Catija offered him a lazy grin. "Only because you'll be there to guide her."
              "Stop speaking about me like I'm not here," Alexia snapped, rising up to stand. "I managed to catch that dragon lord without his help."
              Her mother's eyes flashed, color flushing her usually sallow cheeks. "Yes. However, you have obviously yet to retrieve anything useful from it. I need that crystal. More importantly, you will need that crystal."
              "Why? Because he says so," Alexia said, pointing to Lotharus. "Our foremothers ruled without fulfilling that scroll's prophecy. You ruled without it. I fail to see why I cannot do the same."
              "Enough!" The Queen stood. "You ask what good is the crystal, and I ask, what good is another dragon carcass stinking up my horde?"
              "If I may," Lotharus said, easing up from his perch. The Queen nodded and placed a hand over her heaving chest in an attempt to catch her breath. "That dragon lord may be of use to us. He is not just any winged snake from the flock."
              Catija's brow furrowed. "Go on."
              With a knowing smile, Lotharus moved beside her.
              "That Derkein your daughter captured is the only son of the dead King and Queen."
              "What?" Alexia breathed.
              The Queen's face instantly paled. "He wouldn't possibly have told you this. How do you know?"
              "I saw something. Something I've only seen once before." His cold eyes settled on Alexia. Their heated focus slid to her neck, lingering there before he met her eyes again. "Would you care to tell her, or should I?"
              Alexia thought about holding her tongue. If it was true, the ramifications, the possibilities overwhelmed her. But then she realized it mattered not what she said or didn't say. Lotharus would tell her mother if she didn't. She sighed. "The dragon lord has fangs, like us."
              The Queen covered her mouth with her hand. "Goddess, then it is him."
              Alexia's gaze fixed on the look of horror on her mother's face. Something was wrong. Her mother, the most vicious and bloodthirsty Queen of the horde in centuries, was not scared of anything. But right now, she was terrified.
              "Lotharus, we must not harm him," she said, clutching his lapel tight. "We must set him free." Her mother's words came out in a whisper but Alexia heard them clear and true.
              "Are you mad?" Lotharus asked. "We couldn't have asked for a better situation to fall in our lap. Think on it, my sweet. What better wedding gift to give our people than the head of their enemy? He is the last, the missing link that ensures our triumph. They have no other son, no other heir. He is the only remaining hope and now he is ours."
              "Which is why we must set him loose," she said, her voice cracking.
              "No." He nodded to the soldier, now standing next to the wall. The warrior stepped forward, filled the Queen's goblet to the rim and handed the chalice to Lotharus.
              "You're weak, my love. If you were strong again, you would see." Lotharus settled the cup at her lips and urged her to drink. "Without this beast, the dragons will slip into nonexistence. You will go down as the most successful ruler of our time, and we will finally rule."
              "You will rule," Alexia stated, although neither of them paid her any heed.
              Catija took a deep swallow of blood before glancing up at him, a question in her eyes. "I don't know...."
              "That is why you have me to think for you," he said into her ear before taking the shell between his lips. Her mother's eyes fluttered and a smile curved her lips