Page 92 of Beautiful Beast

Sirrus’s voice filled with poison. Indeed. So address her with the respect she is due.

Power shuddered through the air. The Heirs will not speak until we are ready to listen. Cieso issued the command like it was nothing.

Fucking stars. I barely kept myself from turning around and looking at them in a panic. If they couldn’t speak?—

My mind spun through all the possibilities. They said we had a chance. They also said the Elders cared about appearances above all else. Would the dragons of Doro Eche care that they were lying? Would they care that the Heirs had been sent to kill me?

“I believe you already know who I am,” I said. “If you did not, you would not have sent your Heirs to kill me.”

Another set of gasps and whispers. Flurries of little sound like a breeze through reeds.

Clearly we did no such thing, as you stand before us alive.

“Mizyn. Color similar to mine.” Idroal whispered. The pale green dragon then.

Or perhaps, Varreo stretched his neck down and close, examining me. The Heirs have done us a favor. For a moment we thought they were the very picture of defiance. Maybe instead they have brought us this human so that we might have a spectacle in her death.

Someone grabbed me from behind, and Endre lunged in front of me with his arms spread wide. No speech. None was needed, even if it were not bound. The gesture needed no translation. If they wanted me, they would have to go through him first.

This seems familiar, Cieso. A new and sneering voice. I could identify it since the dragon moved out of its place and stepped toward us. Its hide was the blended mix of orange and purple, the transitions between the two looking bruised and rotted.

“Aeghi,” came the name from Idroal.

I thought you would have beaten the traitor out of him by now.

Cieso straightened, wings flaring. I have tried. Then he looked at me. Not enough.

Have you called us all here merely to wax poetic about your own sins? Idroal’s voice was loud in my head. Or is there a point to this charade?

Charade? Varreo snarled. It is no charade. It is disobedience being corrected.

The last dragon who did not have a name spoke. Their voice was softer and clearly female. The one who had earlier spoken. And why are you here, Idroal? For all your bluster, we know too well of your disdain for our great city. If you are here, it is for a purpose.

Idroal inclined their head. Indeed, honored ones. I am here to ask you to stay your hand. What’s done is done, and there is no reason to end an innocent life.

INNOCENT? Rage poured through Aeghi’s words and into me. It nearly put me on my knees. A thousand dead dragons, destruction of more than one sheyten, and a centuries long war are not innocent. Or have you forgotten the crimes of humans?

I have not forgotten. Idroal folded their hands in their sleeves in that way they had. Nor do I believe we should condemn an entire species based on the actions of a few.

And what is to say this one won’t turn on us too? It happened before and it will happen again. Humans cannot be trusted. Mizyn nearly hissed the words.

I understood the implication, given what we now knew. Dragons couldn’t simply wipe humans out because of the tricks they themselves had taught them. But neither would they engage with any human, because they had been betrayed. So they’d simply chosen to wait us out as we starved.

They cannot be trusted.

The words echoed in several voices, and I couldn’t tell who was who.

Cieso snarled and hooked a claw, beckoning Endre forward. Tell me why you have disgraced me once again.

I swallowed. Whatever it was they wouldn’t tell me, that was what he meant. That was the source of the scar on his chest, and why his powers were bound under the command of these dragons.

It was not him. Zovai stepped in front of me. All their voices must be free now. It was me.

Aeghi blew flames and glared at Zovai. Was this his father?

Explain.

Zovai took a step forward and Sirrus’s hands pulled me a step back. They were positioning me to be safer, and I loved them more for it.

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