Page 1 of Beautiful Beast

CHAPTER ONE

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KATALENA

Istepped over a puddle too cloudy to be water, ducking to avoid the stream of rainfall and stars knew what else rolling off the sagging roof of the tavern.

Dusk was falling, drowning the city in darkness as damp as the current skies. Not that there had been much light to begin with today. The black clouds spiraling above Rensara matched my mood. For once.

There wasn’t much time. I needed to be back soon, before someone reported me missing and sent the whole city into a panicked frenzy. But I required something that couldn’t be found within the palace walls, and it couldn’t wait.

Ducking down an alley, I made sure my hood concealed my face, even in the shadows. On any other day, someone seeing me would be inconvenient. Today—tonight—would be catastrophic.

Booted footsteps came down the street I approached, and I slid into the shadows at the edge of the alley. Between the wall and the pile of garbage I pretended not to smell.

“What he brought with him isn’t even a quarter. I’ve never been so relieved.”

A rough laugh in response. “I’ll be glad of more soldiers as long as their food deliveries don’t stop.”

“I still wonder how they’re getting all that food in the first place the way the land’s drying up. But they won’t stop. Can’t starve their own people. Not when we’re their people now.”

“And I’ll believe that when I see it. Marriage is one thing. Both Gleira and Craisos suddenly acting like one big happy family? I don’t think so.”

The voices faded into the mist together, the rumbling of their conversation continuing. The second soldier wasn’t wrong. An alliance in name was one thing. An alliance in practice was another. We had the first. The second we’d have to wait and see about.

But sitting in the damp and ruminating about politics wasn’t something I had time for.

A clattering sound had me jumping, pressing myself into the wall. But no one was visible in the alley or in the street beyond. The small magics humans could harness—whether through the incredibly rare gift, or the power of ingredients—didn’t include invisibility. I released the breath trapped in my chest, tensing again as a glass bottle slid from the pile of garbage and down onto the cobbles, shattering.

What in the?—

I circled the pile, curiosity getting the better of me. And I never would have noticed, chalked it up to the garbage settling, if not were the tiny glint of metal half-hidden beneath a discarded piece of wood.

A gold coin sat there, far too shiny to be where it sat. I picked it up, turning it over. “How odd.”

If I came across someone begging on the way back to the castle, they would get a surprise. If not, I would offer it to help the poor. I had no need of the money.

Movement startled me, something flying at me so quickly I fell backward, stealing the coin from my fingers and curling around it. I fell into the pooling water on the ground, scrabbling backward to get some distance so I could grab the knife at my thigh.

But no second blow came. The only thing different from one moment to the next was the small lump where the coin had been, and glowing golden eyes, glaring.

There…

That was impossible.

A small, rust-colored dragon perched on the pile of garbage, wings flared, looking like he was ready to flay me alive for daring to touch his coin. He wouldn’t get too far. Not one this size.

Immediately, I was grateful I had been the one to stumble on him and not the guards. The little creature would already be dead.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered.

The tiniest of growls had my mouth curling into a smile. Meant to be intimidating, it wasn’t. It was adorable.

“I won’t hurt you,” I told it. “But this place is dangerous for you.”

The anger drained from the glare, replaced by curiosity and what looked like hope. No free dragon had set foot in Rensara in over a century, and the ones that had weren’t there to be friendly. No free dragons were permitted within the city limits. The law was to kill on sight.

“Fucking stars,” I muttered to myself. Leaving it here would only lead to it getting killed, and I didn’t want to live with that. But taking it home would cause even more problems.

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