Page 24 of Beautiful Beast

Still, I couldn’t move. The intensity of his gaze on me gave me pause. And I was wearing nearly nothing. Granted, I hadn’t thought there would be humans to see me. I thought it might be the dragons, and I doubted the dragons I’d flown with cared what I had on my body, if anything at all.

I opened my mouth, and no voice came out. So I tried again. My voice sounded like I’d traveled all the way across the Bowl—wind-whipped and raspy. “Who are you?”

“My name is Endre.” The warm richness of his tone made me shiver, and he looked at me with anything but kindness.

Still, I tried to find out more. “Where are the dragons?”

“They are here?”

“And where is here?”

He pushed off the wall with casual grace. “You ask a lot of questions.”

“When I’m carried away in the claws of a dragon who was meant to kill me, I do, yes.”

“Why do you think that?” Standing right outside the bars now, I tried not to stare. He was handsome in a way I was unfamiliar with. The kind of male beauty that struck at the heart and made women do rash things. I’d heard people speak of it, but had never encountered it until now.

And it was entirely unhelpful. The last thing I needed was to find a stranger enticing. Stars, I didn’t know what I needed at all right now. I focused on the bars near him instead. “Think what?” I asked.

“That he was meant to kill you.”

“Oh. I…” A lie sat on my tongue, but something stopped me from speaking it. Even away from Rensara and the horror of a marriage I didn’t want, I was far from safety. Despite my acceptance of the possibility, I didn’t want to die. “It seemed clear to me,” I finally said. “The Prince of Craisos cannot be touched by dragonfire, and the death of the Gleiran King would not dissolve the alliance in the way the dragons wanted.”

Endre tilted his head. “Yet here you are. Alive.”

“I can’t explain that.”

“Neither can the dragon that spared your life.”

A chill wove down my spine. “You spoke to it?”

“Something like that.”

Much of what we knew about dragons was gone. Obscured after the wars and lost to time. By any history, it had not been long enough for dragon lore to fade into myth. But the eradication of it helped. Intentional erasure.

Grandmother had never spoken of the way humans and dragons used to communicate. I didn’t know what I’d expected, but talking wasn’t the answer.

I finally stood, choosing strength over modesty. The shift covering me revealed little more than the dress, thankfully, since it had not been destroyed like the decorative fabric.

“What do they mean to do with me?”

“They have not decided.”

Blowing out a breath, I wrapped my arms around myself. “That’s not comforting.”

He smiled again, briefly. “Neither is it for them. They did not count on having a captive.”

“They could simply set me free. I shall say nothing. All I ask is that they do not return me to Rensara.” My heart twinged. Helena was still there. But if I returned and Andaros was still alive, they would make me marry him. I would rather die than willingly go back to that. Cast my fate on the stars and hope they would welcome my soul.

“You don’t wish them dead?”

An inelegant sound came out of me, and I clapped my hand over my mouth. Again, the urge to be honest rose up in me. Perhaps that was what happened when you had nothing to lose. “No. I don’t and never have. My grandmother taught me of the times before the wars, when dragons and humans lived in peace. I’ve never understood the fear humans have of them, nor the violence we wield. At least for my part. I understand that much has been lost and there is much I do not know.”

He laughed softly. “You are not what I expected, Katalena.”

Chills covered my arms. “How do you know my name?”

With a twisting gesture, the door of the cell unlocked. He stepped in and over the plate of food that had been left while I was sleeping. As I watched, he closed the door to the cell, but he didn’t lock it again. Maybe I could get past him. But where would I go?

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