Page 15 of Exquisite Monster (Dragons of Viria #2)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

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KATALENA

I wiped away the sweat from my brow a second before it could fall into the cauldron in front of me and ruin the potion I was making.

Varí slept on the table nearby, having finally succumbed to his exhaustion. I was right there with him, but I couldn’t stop. I needed everything I could get.

With no true light, I had no way to mark the time other than when I allowed myself to sleep, but I had been here too long. If my count on the wall where we slept was at all accurate, I had been here two moon cycles, and I needed to get out of here. I needed to leave .

Since Gleym had first shown me the darts an entire moon had passed. And shortly after, the anxiety under my skin began to feel raw. When I left I needed everything I could get. I’d started brewing things long after I should have, storing the bottles I thought I would need.

It didn’t matter that I had no way to carry them. I needed them, and if my mind was going to race in circles thinking about them anyway, I might as well use that time to prepare for whatever hell I needed to get my mates out of.

They said they’d find me, and I believed they would try if they could. But Andaros would never allow that. He would rather die than release such a prize. And if anything, he’d been preparing for this far longer than we’d guessed. Who knew what horrors Craisos had to stifle dragons?

The potion changed and darkened. Became smooth and flowing. It was done. After testing it, I poured the entire cauldron into bottles to cool.

Varí’s tail was tucked over his nose, and his scales were a pale shade of silvery gray. He was so deeply asleep that I didn’t have the heart to wake him up. Not when I was still so restless.

It had been a few days since I last tried, and though I didn’t have much hope, I still wanted to make an attempt.

I now knew the way to the room with the sheyten by heart. I kept my steps as silent as I could. There was no doubt Gleym knew I was not only not sleeping, given the amount of potions in the room, but I wasn’t going to give her any reason to change her behavior.

The closer I got, the more I felt it. Like a vibration in the air that wasn’t really there. No sound, but a feeling . Like my soul could hear it even if my body could not. It was power .

The jagged surface of the sheyten was different from the rock that made up the walls. It shone softly in the dim light of my potion bottle. Truly, the light it emitted was brighter than a flame, if more stark.

I sat with my back against the stone, listening to the invisible thrum .

If Gleym asked me why I was here, I didn’t know that I would have an answer. At least not one that I would admit out loud.

The sheyten made dragons stronger. Their powers. Magic in general. So if I was closer to the stone, they might be able to feel me?

It wasn’t likely, but it made me feel better.

Not much.

Every day that passed—whatever that meant down here—made anger grate inside me like blowing sand. I was raw. All I wanted was to get out of here and do something.

I knew I was doing something, getting ready. I also knew that without this preparation, going after Andaros would be the same as an infant attacking an army battalion. It was arrogant to think I’d be able to save them, but I…

My body shrank into a ball. I buried my face between my knees and wrapped my arms around them, making myself as small as I could in order to withstand the pressure that seemed to compress my heart and lungs every fucking second.

I didn’t want to be here anymore.

I missed the sun. I missed sounds that didn’t echo. I missed air that wasn’t humid and the feeling of the breeze. I missed everything.

Hot tears pressed against my eyelids and seeped through, soaking into the fabric of the shapeless robe I wore. I should be grateful. I was alive. I was relatively safe. My mates were alive.

But I wasn’t grateful. I was exhausted and sad and furious, and the minute I let out more than these tears was the moment I turned into a puddle incapable of helping anyone, let alone saving anyone.

So I came here when I couldn’t bear to curl up, close my eyes, and sleep. The hope that they could feel me when I was closer to the sheyten was one of the few things that soothed me.

Turning inward, I pushed feelings into that space in the center of my chest. Right now I felt their absence so sharply it was physical. I pushed love and longing. I pushed hope and frustration and sorrow. I pushed every feeling I had but words.

What would I say?

The sound of scraping on stone had me looking up. Gleym stood in the doorway, her staff the noise that had alerted me. I swiped the tears off my cheeks and stood, heading for the door. The last thing I wanted right now was to have a conversation.

“Are you all right, girl? ”

I didn’t answer, pushing past her and back into the labyrinth of her home. Neither Varí nor I had found the end of it. For all I knew, it could go halfway across Viria.

“Katalena,” she called after me.

Turning, I looked at her. “Let’s not pretend you’ve begun to care about me.”

“Maybe not, but I am not heartless.”

“I am,” I said, pushing emotion down into the burning center of myself I kept locked up. “Right now I am heartless. Because if I’m anything else, I will not be able to go on.”

She didn’t respond, and I didn’t wait to see if she would.

Instead, I retraced my steps and found the potion room, gently lifting Varí out of the bowl he slept in.

He barely stirred, cuddling into my arms. I still wished he were somewhere safer, but without him?

I wasn’t sure I would have lasted this long.

Regardless, this had to end.

It had been more than a month since I’d told Gleym I felt I was running out of time. Now, I wasn’t running out. I was out. Something needed to change.

Who knew if being bonded to my mates gave me some kind of extra sense, but every piece of me was screaming that I needed to leave. Soon.

That resolve made something ease in me as I settled into our bed, letting Varí curl around a small pillow. Tomorrow, I would tell Gleym. Our time was up, and whether or not she helped me get to the surface, I was going after my mates.