Page 102 of Beautiful Beast

Zovai groaned and stretched around me. “I imagine Idroal will have more to say to us now.”

At the end of the bed, Sirrus appeared in low-slung pants that showed off the fade to blue in his skin. The short length of his hair was messy, and he looked as bleary as the rest of us, but I couldn’t stop looking at him.

“I’ve called Idroal. They’ll be here shortly.” Then he winked at me. “Morning, Princess.”

I tucked my face down into the pillows, blushing. Everything felt new and at the same time it felt settled. I wasn’t about to die, and they were mine. “I have so many questions.”

“You’re not the only one.”

Pushing myself up to sitting, I winced at the pain and soreness, but I would take this gladly, because it was them. And I knew it would not last forever.

Sirrus pulled me to the edge of the bed to stand between my legs. “We weren’t gentle enough with you.”

“I don’t think there’s any human body that could take three dragons for the first time and not feel it,” I said with a laugh. “I am fine.”

The three of them looked toward the door and the billowing curtains beyond. I vaguely remembered the courtyard last night. “That’s Idroal. They have your things.”

Collecting the bag Belleo packed with all the clothes wasn’t exactly at the forefront of our minds when we left the Elders. But the bag was intact, and I was happy to pull on something light and comfortable the rich blue of a summer night sky. My necklace was once more a welcome weight on my chest.

Varí opened his eyes when I ran a finger down his spine. He tilted his head into my hand before standing and stretching his wings. “Are you all right?”

His only response was to climb up to my shoulder and curl there with his head tucked just beneath my jaw. I wished he hadn’t been there last night. If it had turned out any other way…

A table laid with light breakfast sat in the middle of the sun-soaked courtyard. Idroal was there, pouring themselves tea. But when they saw me, they stood and bowed. “Good morning.”

“I think it’s safe to say I’m no longer a princess, Idroal. There’s no need for that.”

“Maybe not in the human world. But you are the Heirs’ mate. And in our world, you are unquestionably royalty.” They smiled. “And I cannot tell you how much delight it gives me to watch the Elders be forced to accept a human as their offsprings’ mate.”

My breath stilled in my chest. The true reality of that hadn’t sunk in. I was not just the mate of three dragons, but to the Heirs of all dragonkind. No wonder they wanted me to burn.

“Now that she is our mate, I wonder if the restrictions that prevented you from speaking before are still in place?” Zovai asked.

“They have been lifted for you. It is hard to keep information from those who already know of it. You have questions?”

I sat down in a chair separated from the rest of them. The way my mates looked at me had me blushing, and I didn’t trust myself to make it through the questions when they did that. I would let them carry me back to bed and have their way with me. Perhaps they would let me continue the exploration I’d started on the beach. Because I wasn’t nearly finished with that.

Sirrus met my eyes and tilted his head toward the table in question. I nodded. He began choosing things and setting them on a plate before pouring a cup of tea. Something in my chest warmed. This is something they would have done before, had we had the chance, but them knowing I was their mate made it that much sweeter.

“Tell us, please,” Endre said. “I have a feeling there is much we do not know.”

Idroal shrugged. “In one way, yes, and in another, no. It is not that you are missing so much information, but that, like what the humans have done to obscure their history with dragons, we dragons have done with our own. Time creates a fog that is difficult to see through, and without those who dedicate themselves to marking down the truth, things are lost or change on their own.”

Then they looked at me. “What do you know of the Fallen?”

“Almost nothing. It was always said they were dragons that fell from the sky. The ones who came to this world first, and all are descended from them.”

“That is what most believe, yes. Including many dragons. And though the absolutely truth of what happened has been lost for millennia, we know enough to know that the Fallen were not and never were dragons. They aren’t even alive, though it has become common to refer to them as such.”

“What?” I frowned. “What do you mean?”

Sirrus brought the plate of breakfast to me, not pulling away until he’d brushed a kiss to the top of my head.

“The Fallen are indeed responsible for this age of the world,” Idroal said. “We have nothing but scraps of a history before then. But they are not dragons. Dragons have always been here, though in a different form than our current one.” They focused their gaze on me once more. “Have you ever heard the word sheyten?”

“Not before last night.” Aeghi had screamed it as a part of the many crimes of humans.

Zovai leaned back in his chair. “They are the remnants of the Fallen. Large stones that resonate with power. One rests in the bottom of Skalisméra, where it crashed through a piece of the mountain.”

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