Page 39 of Beautiful Beast

“What do we do?” I finally asked, after we’d kept to our own silence for long minutes.

We couldn’t kill her, and we couldn’t send her back, and as soon as the Elders found out she was still alive, they would order her death. Unless we gave them a good reason not to.

“I do not know,” Endre said with a hopeless laugh. “I wish I did, but I don’t. A part of me hoped that it was just you, Z. I won’t lie. I went to her cell to end her life last night and free all of us from this. And now…”

Now she was everything and nothing. Not a mate. Not a dragon. Just a human woman who’d somehow woven herself under our skin and into our minds.

I understood why he’d told her to come to dinner. Because I didn’t feel like I could breathe until she was close. And it was so fucking frustrating. I desperately wanted to tear the feeling out of my chest. Like an itch that couldn’t be scratched.

“I just want to know why,” I said. “I want to know why she calls to us. She is human.”

“Would that be so bad?” Sirrus asked. “There are worse things in the world than fucking a human. It’s been a long time, but we would not be the first dragons to do it. Perhaps it’s an infatuation that will fade after. Maybe ruining her would save us.”

Somehow, I knew it wouldn’t. Giving in and letting myself free would be only the beginning. Like an addiction I could sense before it ever took hold.

“Maybe it is better if she dies,” I muttered, though my dragon roared with such anger my body shook at the thought. “When she comes to dinner, the windows…”

Could I truly watch her walk into empty air knowing her body would shatter?

I didn’t know.

Sirrus looked at me, an unreadable look on his face. I gave it right back. “What?”

He shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

“Is it?”

Laughing, he turned to leave. “No, but it’s not ready to be voiced either.”

Endre had moved to the platform that led to the ocean side of the mountains. Even from here, I saw the weight on his shoulders. The burden he carried most for the three of us.

Familiar anger rose, and I welcomed it. Anger and frustration were familiar. My instinctive self craved destruction. To have crushed the Rensaran palace like we joked about. To carry boulders over the water and watch them fall into the sea. To fall into battle and blood and madness and let everything who I was go.

I wasn’t familiar with tenderness or softness. Lena made me feel both. It made me love her and hate her and want to know her all at once.

Familiar restlessness crawled beneath my skin for the first time since we returned, and I nearly sighed in relief. I would take what I knew and worry about the rest of it later.

Stripping out of my clothes, I strode past Endre. “I’ll be back in time for the meal.” And then I leapt, falling into infinite air in nothing but the form of a man, savoring the wind’s whip on my skin before I gave into the magic of the change.

My wings caught the updraft, painfully slowing my fall and reversing it. I allowed my human mind to recede, giving way to the beast. I shuddered fully into my power and instincts, diving straight for the sea and into it. Beneath the darkness and the waves before rising again, breaking free.

Change was coming. I felt it even as I breathed. Maybe Sirrus was right and I sensed more than my own thoughts.

Because it was more than my dragon that was restless. Everything felt restless. Like the world had taken a collective breath when Lena took that risk and touched me. Now we all waited for the exhale, praying we survived it.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

________

KATALENA

Erryn took me back to the small room, but not before a tour. Or as much of a tour as she could give of a place so large. It was hard to pay attention when my mind was filled with the meeting I just had, but I tried.

My legs ached painfully when we were through and I sank onto the bed, the door no longer locked. She wasn’t quite finished. “Since the Heirs have asked you to dine, I’ll send you someone to help you with a dress.”

I looked at her, and Varí nuzzled my cheek. “I need something different to dine?” That wasn’t uncommon in the human world, but so far what I’d seen of the dragon city had been decidedly more casual.

Erryn smiled politely. She was kind enough, but not overly. Nor did I expect her to be, given who and what I was. But she was open and honest, which was all I could ask for. “It is not required. But the clothes you were given are utilitarian. I thought you might prefer something closer to what you’re used to.”

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