Page 15 of Exquisite Monster

I looked away in frustration, toward the shelves that never seemed to become less full. More empty bottles and vials had appeared before I came to the workshop this morning. I began to fill them. “Where did you get the bottles?”

“Here and there.”

“You expect me to believe that perfectly intact glass vials fell from Evrítha because some poor trader dropped them overboard?”

She chuckled. “Evrítha is not the only way beneath the world. But no, I do not expect you to believe that. Nor do I plan on telling you where I got them. Yet.”

I filled the vials and sealed them, leaving the liquid to cool.Varínudged one with his nose, sniffing before leaping off the table and landing on my shoulder with a chirp. “Thank you for helping.”

He didn’t need me to speak the dragon tongue to know that he’d had fun.

“It is not an easy thing,” Gleym said. “To be someone at the crossroads of fate.”

My breath hitched. “Is that what I am?”

“It’s never easy to tell unless you are looking to the past, where the way the world has gone can be seen with perfect clarity. But until now, you have been exactly where you have needed to be. To be a mate of a dragon is not an accident, Lena. The mate of three dragons even less.

“Whether or notyourchoices led you here, and whether or not you carry any blame, you are here.”

“I am very aware of where I am.” My eyes burned. I was so far away from where I wanted to be. Whose arms I wanted to be in.

“When fate intervened once before, you faced that fate and it led you to them. Now you are here,” she said again. “Face this, and it will lead you to them again.”

“How can you be sure?”

Gleym inclined her head. “Because I will help you.”

I gasped, and she kept speaking like she hadn’t just given me the very hope I needed. “But you are not ready. There is much you do not know.”

“How long until I’m ready?” I asked, trying to contain the desperation I felt. After yesterday, I hadn’t even been able to think about the revelation of who she was. Even with that, I wanted to go. I wanted to find them.

“Keep working and we shall see.”

“I will,” I said, straightening my spine. “But I have questions.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure you do. Do as well as you did today, and I might answer them.”

It wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t a no either. And that was enough.

I didn’t leave the workshop, instead sitting at the table withVaríto memorize the next recipe in the book.

CHAPTER EIGHT

________

ZOVAI

They hadn’t dosed me in what felt like days. Had it been days? I wasn’t sure. No natural light reached the cells where they kept us, and between the forced flames and the brief times they unstrapped me in order to feed me, I had no concept of time.

I didn’t have much of a concept of anything.

My knees ached, raw from the stone floor scraping through what was left of my trousers. They hadn’t expected me to fight back while I’d been blind.

Do either of you know how long we’ve been here?

Endre and Sirrus were close enough to hear me, but I didn’t know where they were. If Andaros was smart he would have us separated by more than a mere wall. Because if even one of us had the chance to get free, we would go for the others. He’d need to make it as difficult as possible for us to escape.

It wasn’t currently an option. They were too on edge and too careful. They piled into the cell on top of each other whenever they had to deal with me. And, of course, Aeghi’s command still held.