Page 100 of Exquisite Monster

I leaned my head on his shoulder. “Do you think it will help?”

Brand new hope stole through our bond and lit it up. “Yes. I do.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

________

KATALENA

“To theirlife force?” A gust of cold wind came with the words. Sirrus stalked across the main bedroom of the tower, looking feral even in his human form.

Endre held me, sitting up in the bed. He hadn’t stopped touching me since he arrived, and I wasn’t complaining in the slightest. But I winced at his words. “I’m sorry. I should have told you.”

“I’m not angry with you, Lena. I’m furious at our spineless excuses for sires.” It was true. The burning rage I felt through our bond had nothing to do with me.

The thought popped into my head, and I spoke it out loud. “There’s only three of you.”

Zovai looked up from where he sat with a crooked grin. “Wish there were more?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, I’m just pointing out that even with Gleym banished, she is alive. There are seven Elders like the sevensheyten. But there are only three of you. Does that mean you need four more to rule?”

“No,” Endre said. “Yes, there are seven because of the Fall, but there are no exceptions for the right of power, as we know. There are no dragons who are our equal, and the Elders’ passing won’t make it so. If there were something saying it had to be seven, we would have known by now.”

The Fall, when thesheytencompletely rewrote our world and gave the dragons human forms and humans some dragon traits. Created the possibility of mating between species. Made certain dragons more powerful than others.

Sirrus still prowled near one of the windows. He was bothered by the news, but I wasn’t sure why it seemed so dire. “This doesn’t change anything, right?”

“Not really,” Endre said softly. He tugged me the few inches he needed to kiss my hair.

“Then why does it bother you so much?” I directed the question at Sirrus.

“Intent,” Zovai said. “They pretended it was a temporary punishment. Now we know it was calculated. They never intended to lift Endre’s binding. They intended to weaken us, so the situation we’re in can continue. If all three of us were at full power, we couldn’t defy a binding command, but there might be other ways. But as you said, there are only three of us. The odds are stacked against us.”

A growl rumbled from Sirrus. “Exactly like they fucking wanted.”

I turned and laid my head on Endre’s shoulder. “So how did Gleym say she can help?”

The flatness of his expression turned into a grin. “Turns out Gleym is petty.”

I snorted under my breath. “I could have told you that.”

“She didn’t have much time while she was falling,” he said. “So she used her power and what she could hold on to. Her own life force—which is how she knew what they’d done with me—and the core of her power, the relationship between things.” He chuckled, and I felt the true amusement and joy he felt. “Do you remember asking why the Elders are so large?”

“You said they’d abandoned their human forms and because of that it allowed their beast forms to grow without any natural limits.”

“And that’s true. But what I didn’t know was that she bound them to their beasts. Theycannotshift back into their human forms while she lives.”

The air went still. Sirrus’s head snapped toward Endre. Zovai sucked in a low breath before laughing. “Fucking stars, that’s brilliantandpetty. Plus, they definitely know she’s alive.”

“Why wouldn’t they just kill her?” I asked.

“Gleym isn’t just a banished Elder, Lena. She is the most powerful of them. It’s why it took all six of them to banish her in the first place. Why they couldn’t actually kill her instead of clipping her wings and tossing her into the center of the world. They cannot issue a binding command to an equal.”

I sat up and put on one of Sirrus’s shirts before standing.Varídozed on the edge of one of the platforms, belly to the sun while his scales shone a pale yellow.“But what does it mean? Being locked into their beast form doesn’t make them weaker.”

Zovai stood with me. “I’ll show you why it matters. Here.” Stepping in front of me, he lifted his hands with his palms facing me. “Press on my hands.”

Frowning, I obeyed. My hands were much smaller than his, but I pressed on them.