Page 23 of Exquisite Monster (Dragons of Viria #2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

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KATALENA

T he world looked vastly different from the sky. Even in the moonlit darkness, it was easy to see the way the land dried up and turned brown. It finally faded to nothing but pale sand and gray rock. If any human saw it from this vantage point, they would have no doubt that the world was dying.

“How do you fix a sheyten ?”

Mesene’s voice entered my head. The flames of a dragon, and something to bind it together. Usually a metal. Not many materials can withstand the power. And you need all the broken pieces.

All the pieces? What if there were little particles you couldn’t find? What if the humans had ground down the sheyten until there was nothing more than grains of sand?

“How will you have all the pieces? Can they be lost? What about particles and dust?”

The power of the sheyten can call to itself. It will gather what it needs. And more, the sheyten cannot break into the fragments you speak of. Breaking them at all is a feat. However, it is a truth that something once broken can never be truly whole.

“I’m not sure I understand.”

Then you are among friends, Idroal said. There is much that cannot be understood about the sheyten because they simply are . They do not bend to the rules of the world, because they are the ones who created them. And yet they do not hold sentience as we would think of it .

I slumped over and let my forehead thud against their scales. “My head hurts.”

What we know about healing the sheyten is in theory only , Mesene said. There have been small broken pieces that were healed. Each time that piece was called back to its place once the sheyten had been touched with dragon fire and cemented with the binding.

So rescue my mates, then worry about the sheyten . There were only so many problems I could hold in my mind. Instead a different question appeared.

“Idroal?” I lowered my voice until it was nearly swept away by the wind. “If I speak at this volume, can you still hear me?”

Yes .

“Can the others?”

They might hear that you are speaking, but at that volume and flying, it will be difficult. Why ?

“You and Gleym have a history?” Knowing someone was alive wasn’t the same as knowing them, but I knew what I’d seen.

Silence reigned the sky as we flew for a few heartbeats.

We do .

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pry. She spoke… she mentioned almost nothing about her past unless it was in relation to me or the Heirs. Forgive my curiosity.”

A few more minutes with nothing to hear but the sound of wingbeats.

Curiosity is nothing to apologize for. But I am not prepared to speak about it.

“I understand.” Still, I felt uneasy. They weren’t angry, but I still wanted the tension I’d created to ease. I spoke at full volume. “Where will we land?”

The piece of the Bowl that borders Craisos passes very close to Caelora . Erryn’s musical voice appeared. It is easy enough to lose ourselves in the peaks and caves. Though we must still be careful. Andaros and his army are vigilant.

Rest, Lena , Idroal said.

“I’ve done nothing but rest.”

They laughed. We both know that is not true. Rest. We will speak more once we arrive at the first stop.

“First stop?”

It is too far for us to fly in one day. The sun would be well in the sky before we landed in Craisos. We will pass the day in the mountains on the western side of Ostea .

It was a point I couldn’t argue. If we were seen, this would all be over before it started. Reaching into the bag where Varí was, I allowed him to curl around my hand and did my best to get comfortable on Idroal’s scales.

“The Heirs,” I said. “They flew from Rensara to Skalisméra in less than a day. The distance is the same, if not greater.”

Power and strength affect everything for dragons, Princess. They fly much faster than we do .

“Oh.”

Oh.

I closed my eyes and listened to the wind, the steady beats of wings lulling me to a deeper sleep than I’d had since before I was in my mates’ arms.

“So you haven’t been able to talk to them?” I asked. Idroal’s memories had made it seem that way .

“No.” That was Karadi. “Other than Sotai, we haven’t been able to get close enough, and even they haven’t been able to find their exact location. We know roughly.”

Nerves bubbled low in my gut.

What in all the stars were we doing? Maybe Gleym was right and this was a fool’s errand. I would be captured by Andaros, and he would kill all four of us before moving on to his plan to massacre dragonkind.

Rage drove me to my feet, and I pushed it down. It wouldn’t help. Instead, I retrieved some darts and left the small circle we’d formed, finding a half-dead, scraggly tree to practice my aim. Varí brought the darts that fell back to me.

But even hurling objects of violence didn’t take the edge off the rage. Or dull the sense of desperate fear that I was too late. Everything was too late.

“You are troubled.”

Belleo’s voice startled me. The dart I’d thrown clattered to the ground.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

All I did was hold out a dart for her. She took it from my hand and threw it, the sharp point burying itself in the wood like she’d been born with the weapons in her hands.

“Troubled is a tame description for what I am.”

“I can’t imagine.”

I sighed. “What did they tell you?” We hadn’t covered those details. I assumed Idroal had told them some, but I didn’t know how much.

“That the Heirs are your mates. That something happened with the Elders because they weren’t pleased. But… until you told your story, none of us knew the whole truth. I am so sorry, Lena.”

“Why?”

“Because none of what has happened has been deserved. Your fate is an accident of birth. Much like the Heirs. In that way, you are alike.”

I threw the dart in my hand with as much force as I could muster, savoring the thud of it connecting to the wood. “Believe me, I am very aware of how little choice I have had in all of this.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?”

Emotion swelled so fast there was no way to hide it. I looked away, blinking quickly. “I need them back,” I whispered. “They’re the only thing— I just need them back and I’m terrified we will fail. We have no plan but hope, and Andaros holds all the leverage.

“If we fly in and try to take them, all of you will die.

They will blanket the sky in weapons laced with scalefire.

Every blade. Every trebuchet. Every arrow and every bolt.

If we sneak in, we have no idea where they are or even if we can get to them.

We have nothing to offer in exchange except my life, and that still will not free them.

“For weeks I’ve felt nothing but desperation, because there is something telling me I am too late.

” I pressed my fingers into the center of my chest in a futile attempt to ease the ache there.

“And even if we aren’t too late, it feels like there is no chance.

No choice. No hope. Stars .” Turning, I kicked a rock and listened to the clatter echo through the mountains.

I took a shaky breath. “I’ve been trained to be a pretty object, Belleo.

What knife skills I have, I owe to my grandmother insisting I take lessons with the captain of the guard.

Even then, I could easily be overpowered.

I can throw these. And I am good, but as you’ve seen, I still am not good enough.

I am not enough. If we manage to rescue them, it will not be because of me. I am no help. I…”

The words trailed off because there were no more.

What else could I say? It was the truth.

Gleym hadn’t lied when she spoke of how insignificant I was.

I had no magic and very little strength.

The potions I carried were helpful, but they weren’t going to take down the Craisian army.

Every day I spent beneath the earth clinging to the idea that I needed to get to them.

Find them. Help them. It was the thing that kept me sane and living.

But out here with the truth of it?

I shook my head.

“Yes. I am troubled.”

Belleo slowly approached, took me by the shoulders, and turned me toward her. “You are the mate of three dragons. That in itself makes you enough.”

“Enough for them. Not to save them. Not to save anyone else. Not to stop what’s coming.”

With a smile, Belleo looped her arm through mine and led us to a ledge overlooking the slope down into a craggy valley. She sat and brought me with her.

“There’s no denying you stand at the crossing of many things, Lena.

And I am not nearly as old as some dragons, but already I have seen that the patterns of the world are bigger than all of us.

You do not have the power to stop what is coming, no.

But neither do I. No dragon or human, save the Elders and Andaros, can do anything to stop this.

And it was put into motion long before your life. Even mine.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

She laughed softly and patted my arm where she still held it. “No, I don’t imagine so. But we feel the same. There is a reason we are all here trying to make a difference. Because we feel the same helplessness.

“You are right. We do not yet have a plan. But I do not believe you are the first mate in centuries only to die at the hands of someone like Andaros. We will find a way. I feel it.”

I swallowed and leaned my head on her shoulder. “I don’t know if I can believe that.”

“I will believe it,” she said. “For all of us.”