Page 97 of Beautiful Beast

LENA. Zovai’s voice roared through my mind. So loud and so raw, I saw dragons in the corner of my eyes shudder with its power. They fought their bonds. All of them did.

“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t make me watch you die too.”

Endre lifted his gaze to his father. They were black with fury. If you do this?—

It is already done.

If you do this, I vow on the Fallen I will find a way to kill you.

The vines pinned me against the wood, tightening to the point of pain. I couldn’t move. All I could do was look straight forward. At them.

Dry, rasping laughter shook the air, and Sirrus’s father spoke next. How did you imagine this would play out? That we would allow you to mate with a human? A traitor? Risk the legacy of the dragons to mortal children?

Lena. Sirrus called me. Even from here I could see the way he looked at me. The way all three of them looked at me. I won’t say it. Not for them. But I feel it.

I closed my eyes one last time. “I love you.”

Flames rushed for me.

My dragons roared. Their cries mixed with the scream of blasting fire and the heat so intense it rendered me breathless. I’d never felt what it was like to live inside a flame. Even as I waited for the pain, there was something glorious about it. Acute and beautiful. An extreme nothing else could conquer.

The pain never came.

I inhaled, the heat searing my lungs, and still I could breathe. My heart pounded in my ears louder than the sound of the flames. I opened my eyes.

Golden fire colored the world. Swirling paths of color painted over everything, and my dragons, staring at me with both horror and awe.

The wood behind me began to burn. My clothes flashed and disappeared. The dagger still strapped to my thigh melted, and the metal burned my skin, though the flames did not.

I hurled the harness away before it did more damage—my arms were free.

I stared at my hands, glowing with the fire.

Deep down, I had known this. Had sensed this, though I didn’t know how to put a name to it. Every time I accidentally touched a pot bubbling with a potion and it didn’t bother me. When Varí thought he burned me, but his flames missed. Even the bath with my dragons that should have had me blister. The flames that Relkym tried to use came close enough to harm a human.

And yet none of them touched me.

Suddenly Endre was there hauling me from the fire and into his arms. He pulled his shirt over my head, covering my nakedness in front of so many, and his purr rumbled beneath my ear.

“Mate,” he murmured. “They can’t touch you anymore. No one can ever touch you again.”

I blinked.

What?

What is the meaning of this? Mizyn asked, fury plain in their voice.

Light laughter sparkled. Eloith. Surely you remember, Mizyn. I suspected. Few humans have features such as she does.

Behind me, Zovai pressed against my back, Sirrus at my side. They all surrounded me, holding me so tightly I thought I might faint.

I wanted them closer.

A tiny chirp trilled and Varí slammed into my shoulder. He crawled into the neck of Endre’s shirt and stayed there, purring and chirping. My eyes teared up. “Hello, friend.”

It has been centuries since a human has come to Doro Eche, Idroal said. But even those centuries have not erased your memories. The human mate of dragons can be revealed only by dragonfire. Though usually in a less… explosive fashion. They sounded amused.

Peeking around Idroal’s shoulder, I looked at them. They smiled and nodded.

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