Page 53 of Beautiful Beast

“We will,” Endre promised.

I certainly would. The three of us had known Idroal our entire lives, and they were a friend. But they’d also been alive a long time and knew the consequences of navigating this world. If they sought to tell us something which had been silenced, even indirectly, it was an incredible risk. That they were willing to do it told us of its importance.

They bowed again. “I take my leave.”

We waited until the door had closed behind them, and Z was up on his feet. Moving. There was no chance he could stay still. “I don’t understand. Why tell us this now? Why try?”

Endre snorted. “Because we’ve never had a human here before?”

We hadn’t. But not only a human. A human who called to us. I very nearly lost control when she walked in wearing those shining scraps of nothing. My dragon roared in my head.

My instincts rose, hearing sharpening along with my eyesight. The scent of the fire and my brothers, but that still-lingering trace of grace and beauty. The beautiful human with hair made of fire. Breakable, but it was all right. I would be careful.

“Sirrus,” Endre called, snapping me back from the edge. He looked pointedly at me. “That’s why Idroal is telling us. Because she makes us respond like that.”

“We need to decide,” I finally said. “What to do with her. Not the Elders. Us. Because the longer she is here and unchecked, the harder it will be to resist. And I am with you, Endre. I don’t want…” I trailed off, unable to voice the words, because I truly didn’t know what they were. “If we’re not sure.”

“Even if we are sure,” Endre said. “The Elders could decide differently.”

“I’m sure,” Zovai said. “If about nothing else, then what I have said since that first moment. I will not see her die. And I will not send her back. Not to him. Not to that life.”

Endre smiled faintly. “It’s almost the same, isn’t it?”

“What?” I asked.

“Standing in front of someone because we know it’s right. Knowing it might cost us everything. Willing to blacken one’s own soul to accomplish it. It feels the same.”

The pit in my stomach grew. “So you want to end her life?”

He snarled, the reaction soothing my dread. “I didn’t say that. I said it feels the same.” He stood and walked toward his rooms.

“Do you regret it?” I’d never asked the question. Neither Zovai nor I ever had, and Z whipped his head toward mine.

We didn’t ask because we didn’t want to cause our brother more pain, but I couldn’t hold it back now, because I knew how he felt would inform this choice.

He stopped, shoulders tight, and turned his head back. “Not for one second.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

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KATALENA

Irose from sleep as from the dead, my head groggy and feeling like I’d been chained under the surface for far too long. The sun shone bright through the windows of the small room, and the pounding sound wasn’t my head or my heart. It was the door.

Pounding was too strong a word for the knock. It was gentle but insistent. “One moment,” I said, trying to gather my bearings. Clearly, I had not rid myself of all the exhaustion during my night in the cell. I still wore the Heirs’ clothes, though I didn’t know what else I could wear. Even the plain dress they’d given me was still in that room.

Varí scrambled onto my shoulder as I stood, snuggling beneath my messy hair. I opened the door and found Erryn on the other side.

She sank into a curtsey. “Princess.”

“Please don’t,” I said. “I’m hardly that here. Call me Lena.”

Though she rose, she didn’t meet my eyes. “I must apologize to you regardless. When I summoned Soza to help you, I never imagined the actions she would take.”

“I appreciate that,” I said quietly. “Though even if you had, I wouldn’t blame you for it. Dragons have more than enough reason to hate my kind.”

She smiled, meeting my eyes for the first time. “That may be true, but as far as I know, we do not have a reason to hate you. It was Ellemar’s hoard you visited, and she would like the chance to apologize and get you some clothes that are not,” she glanced at Endre’s shirt, “borrowed, nor that send messages you aren’t privy to.”

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