Page 29 of Beautiful Beast

I guess it didn’t matter. If they decided to kill me, I could tell no one. And now Endre knew that if I survived, even if I lived among humans, I would not divulge their secrets.

We crossed the great open space of the hollowed peak, the break at the top letting pale sunshine slide down through the air in nearly physical form. I’d never seen anything so large, nor experienced anything which made me feel so small.

One set of massive wooden double doors opened to admit us, and the entire world changed.

Where we stood was still carved from stone, but it was warm. Well-lit, with natural light from carved windows. Carpets ran along the floors, and there was art. Carvings. Bookshelves and couches and… I blinked.

It was like a palace. The great large hallway before me couldn’t contain a full size dragon, but it didn’t need to. It broke off into rooms, and humans—or dragons in human form—moved in and out.

“What is this place?”

“This is Skalisméra.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

I heard the smile in her voice as she kept leading me. “Then we have done our job well.”

This place sprawled. Even in these brief moments, I saw passages and stairs leading elsewhere. How many lived here? How long had a city been inside a mountain without anyone knowing?

Likely centuries.

Did Grandmother know?

I wasn’t sure if I wished she knew about their changing forms and mountain cities, or if I was happy she did not. Such knowledge might have taken her from me sooner. She was not as careful as she should have been, and though I believed her death to be natural, there were times when I worried I might wake to find her gone. Wiped out like the rest of dragon knowledge.

It didn’t take long to enter a chamber that was warm and damp, with a large pool steaming in the middle of it. “Clothes have been laid out for you there.” Erryn pointed to a chair in the corner. You may use whatever you like and take as long as you like. I shall be waiting in the next room.”

“Thank you.”

The tiled floors were wet beneath my bare feet as I walked around to the chair with the clothes. We didn’t have baths like these in Rensara. The tub the footmen filled and Helena had to continue heating was what I was used to. This? I already longed to submerge myself in the heat.

“I don’t want to drown you,” I said quietly, letting Varí out. He perched on the chair. “Before I completely undress, I need you to tell me if you have a human form.”

Varí stared at me and released a puff of smoke. If he had a human form, the expression he was giving me now would be one of sarcastic expectance. Like I should already know the answer.

“Fair enough.” I reached out. “Let me take off your pouch so it doesn’t get wet.”

He held still long enough for me to untie the ribbons and set the pouch on the new and dry set of clothes. That he didn’t even question I would keep his coin safe, immediately jumping down onto the tiles, made me smile.

I shed the rest of my clothes, putting my necklace and blade harness with them. The girl, Fora, had taken it, but I hoped I could retrieve it or replace it. If they decided to let me live, it was better for me to be armed.

The water was hot. Not so hot I couldn’t submerge my body, but I didn’t think I’d ever had a bath so warm. Of course not, since the hot water needed to be carried away from its heat source. Steam floated on the surface of the water here, so there must be some way it was heated close by.

A laugh burst out of me at the mental image of another Varí blowing flames beneath the pool. However it was done, I wondered if the humans had attacked the dragons for things like this. People would do a lot for comfort and luxury.

Varí splashed in the shallow puddles along the edge of the pool, watching the way the splashes fell before leaping and landing over and over again to make the splashes bigger. I smiled, his joy feeding my own. This felt incredible, easing the tension locked in my muscles from the flight and any lingering tension because of the wedding.

Right. Because of the wedding and not because I dared a dragon to take me in the most carnal way possible so I wouldn’t have to go back to that same wedding.

A flush that had nothing to do with the heat of the bath crept up my neck. He hadn’t said yes, and yet had practically said he didn’t have the honor to refuse. Which meant he didn’t want to refuse.

I should not have been remotely disappointed by that, and yet it nibbled at the edges of my mind.

What would it be like? To be wanted by someone. Not just for who I was to the world or what marriage to me could bring them, but for me. The way Taia and Baris wanted each other. My time spent in their shop showed me the depth of love and respect they had for one another, and I’d never seen the equivalent.

Maybe it simply didn’t exist.

Or was so rare that no one could reasonably find it?

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