Page 74 of Beautiful Beast

My muscles tightened, my human form creaking with the need to shift and explode. Find a way find a way find a way.

Before all of this, my power brushed the edges of the Elders. Sirrus and Zovai were a breath behind me, but enough that they weren’t considered rivals. I was at once a rival and a gift. Proof that the dragons weren’t failing and weren’t perishing. We would live on.

And now…

A hand dropped on my shoulder. My skin hissed with the heat released. I was so close. If I’d been smarter or faster. If I’d found a way to increase my strength just a little?—

“Enough.”

Sirrus pushed force into the word. The power of equals. It could knock me sideways and not down.

“You’ve already tried this path too many times.”

“There has to be a way,” I ground out. “I can’t—” The bonds forced me to release the gathering fire along my bones. “I can’t simply exist like this forever. None of us can. Not if any of us want to live. Humans. Dragons. Lena.”

I needed to scream and tear the walls of Doro Eche to shreds to remind them of the truth. Set the tree of the Elders aflame with my fire simply for the satisfaction of watching it burn. If I lived—if we lived to become them, I would never live in that fucking tree. I would burn it first.

“There has to be a way.”

“There isn’t,” Idroal said gently. “If there were a known way, you would have found it, or someone loyal to you would have.”

Shaking my head, I pressed it against the wall. “There has to be a way. I don’t care if it isn’t known.”

“Endre—”

A snarl tore out of me. “What are we supposed to do? Present ourselves to Doro Eche without her knowing it will happen exactly as you say, or take her with us, risk their wrath, and maybe lose her anyway?”

Idroal smiled. “Take the time you have demanded. There are different kinds of rest, and you deserve them. The Elders are not foolish, even bound as you are, they know they cannot push you too far.”

The inexhaustible fire in my chest surged like lava. It sat, a white-hot core ready to consume anyone in it’s path. No matter who. No matter what.

“Thank you, Idroal,” Zovai said. “If you hear anything else?”

“You’ll be the first to know.”

Sirrus was the one to tug me toward the door. “Come. It has been far too long since I pummeled you into the dirt.”

A choked laugh. “Not once have you ever done that.”

“That’s a lie, and we both know it.”

It was.

The sudden grief and rage rose like a tide once more. “Lena,” I said, her word both a plea and a prayer. “I don’t want her to see this.”

“You shouldn’t keep who you are from her,” Z’s voice was soft.

“I don’t want to harm her.” My dragon was so protective of her, I didn’t think I would, but the anger surfacing now was old. Ancient compared to the fragile human waiting in our beds. I wished I knew that my dragon would put her above the call of that anger, but I didn’t. “Not hide. I just?—”

“Don’t worry. I’ll distract her.”

The intent in Zovai’s tone had me laughing in spite of everything. I covered my face with my hands. “Do your best. Or your worst.”

He chuckled. “Perhaps both.”

“Let’s go.” Sirrus punched me in the arm. “Time for me to remind you who the strongest is.”

My dragon growled at the challenge, and we followed him, intent on proving that it was me. And even if he beat me, this was good. Comfortable. Familiar. Safe.

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