Page 60 of Exquisite Monster

Zovai’s hand came down on my shoulder. “Let’s go.”

The fields at the top of the stairs were on fire. More than half the crops were burning, the flames spreading quickly. In the distance, crowds of humans were trying to put it out, completely distracted.

We see you,Idroal’s voice.Get to the walls.

I ignored them.

“Lena’s in the throne room.”

Both Zovai and Sirrus’s minds sharpened, and the latter nodded once. “Should we go get her?”

All three of us ran before the words were fully out of his mouth. We didn’t know the layout, but I could feel my mate. She was close, and I wasn’t flying out of here without her.

Your Highnesses, Lena is already on her way.

Zovai glanced at the shapes of dragons above us.Idroal.

Iswearon the Fallen, she is safe. With as much respect as I can manage in this situation, get over the fucking walls.

The laugh slipped out of me, completely at odds with everything else. “Well, when you put it that way.”

I ached to shift into my beast, but I couldn’t. Rather, if I shifted into my beast right this moment, I might not have the strength toshift back, and I would hold my mate with my human arms before that happened.

We were healthy, but I couldn’t pretend we were well. Every pain and ache I’d forced down was pressing against the walls of my mind, and I sensed it in the others. Freedom and relief came with consequences.

Sirrus’s air boosted us, aiding in the climb and softening the drop onto hard-packed dirt. It looked like nothing for miles in front of us. The same dirt. No vegetation, no animals, no grass. Craisos was well and truly dead. Only the bowl in the distance was visible.

A green dragon landed in front of us. Idroal. Closely followed by turquoise and then pale lavender. I climbed Idroal’s scales and settled on their back.

“We need?—”

I know.

We were already in the air, circling toward the main city. Ruby hair caught the light of torches.LENA.

Her head whipped up toward us. She heard me. Sheheardme. The dragon beside her—already in beast form—took her, and the last of those in human form shifted and flew, joining us as we headed back towards the Bowl, and for now, safety.

The sound reached us first, and then the force of the explosion. One look back showed a ball of fire rolling skyward, right where we had been held. Anything that had not already been on fire now blazed.

Z’s voice was nothing but victory.Told you I was going to burn something.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

________

KATALENA

“Ready?” I asked. We stood just outside the throne room now. The guards hadn’t stopped us. Karadi and Belleo looked human enough, and there were few here in Craisos that would recognize me on sight. Those who would were in the room we were about to enter, and our stolen clothes marked us as members of the court.

I knew how easy it was to slip in and out of the palace in Rensara, but I never realized how truly simple it was to bypass any security if you looked like you belonged. That, and the fact that Caelora was filled with visiting nobility made it almost too easy.

The few courtiers that lingered outside the throne room were glancing at us. We couldn’t delay.

“We’re with you,” Belleo said.

I wasn’t ready, but then again, I didn’t know if I’d ever be ready for this. Fear threatened to root my feet to the ground at what I was about to reveal. But this was bigger than me. It was for myself, my mates, every human, and every dragon on this continent.

A desperate risk we had no choice but to take.