Page 89 of Beautiful Beast

But I didn’t want to die.

Sirrus kissed my forehead again, managing to see the conflict within and helping me through it. “You’ll ride with Zovai today. If we leave now, we’ll make it to Doro Eche before sunset.”

I inhaled deeply, closing my eyes to savor the sun on my skin. It was my last day, at least it was beautiful. “All right. Let’s go.”

But we didn’t yet. They each took the time to take me in their arms, so by the time I climbed onto Zovai’s back my lips were swollen and I had no doubt that these dragons who had been sent to end my life now held it above their own, at any cost.

I’d never been a person who looked to powers higher than the world for answers. Instead I looked to knowledge and facts. But there was no knowledge or fact that could save us from this, so I prayed to the only power I knew, regardless of whether they could hear.

Fallen. If you exist. If you care for the Heirs of your kind at all. If you have any mercy, show us grace. I cannot believe all this was for nothing, even if I don’t understand it.

Whatever connection we shared, it was real. I would never forget the moment in the garden when I looked into Zovai’s eyes and the world went quiet despite the chaos. This was real. Too many things in our world couldn’t be explained for me to question, and now that I’d found them, I didn’t want to let them go.

If you thread fate through the stars like I’m told, I can only think that I am meant to be here and meant to be theirs. Please, show me that it’s true.

A voice different from my own sounded in my head. Zovai’s. Ready?

No. I wasn’t. But we had no choice.

“Ready.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

________

KATALENA

Doro Eche was beautiful.

Nothing like I imagined.

It appeared in the distance out of the haze like a primordial being, ancient and rooted. This place had been here for thousands of years. One look and I sensed it in my bones.

Above the misty trees that surrounded most of the city, one rose above the rest. A tree the size of a mountain, its bark shimmering like dragon scales. It only grew larger as we approached, drenching the whole city in reflected rainbows and shade when the sun passed behind.

Shining white towers made up the rest of the skyline. Ivory claws spearing toward the sky in graceful curves that seemed to defy logic and gravity. A river curved along one side, running toward the center of the world at Evrítha, like every other water.

All the roads in the city pointed toward the tree and the large, circular space in front of it, visible even from this distance. We were flying directly toward it.

The circlet, Zovai said, sensing my thoughts. Where the Elders live and hold their court, such as it is.

Nerves gripped my stomach. I would see them soon enough, and plenty of others too, it seemed. The air around the city was thick with flying dragons. Swooping and swirling, glittering like jewels in the setting sun.

We flew over the first building, and I nearly startled because there was no warning about entering the city. We weren’t in it and suddenly we were.

No walls bounded Doro Eche, the buildings and streets fading into the trees and plains naturally. What good were walls when those who lived there could fly? The mountains of the Bowl had long prevented any humans from reaching this place, and if there were some who made it through, dragonfire took care of the rest. Humans rarely made it past the center of the Bowl.

Beyond the massive tree, a true forest began. Mist rose through the trees and cloaked the entire eastern view in an opaque haze. I had been told of dragon cities as a girl. The little knowledge we had to pass down. There was no mention of the giant tree or a forest that felt like it watched and waited.

But I could not stop looking at the city itself. Never had I seen something so grand or beautiful. No human city could hold a candle to this, nor should they try.

The sun nearly touched the tops of the Bowl, casting gilded rays across the city and the river. Little glimmers of light sparkled like constellations as we dropped closer, and I once again felt torn. How could such a beautiful place make me so afraid? Because I was. Every heartbeat closer made me grip Zovai’s scales harder.

“It’s beautiful,” I said quietly.

They heard me even though the wind snatched away my words.

It is beautiful, Z said. From a distance to be sure, and sometimes up close.

---