Page 25 of Exquisite Monster (Dragons of Viria #2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

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SIRRUS

W e heard nothing about Lena.

Days and days of nothing but hurling up fire and Andaros trying to break us. Not that he was doing a very good job of it.

They had to feed us because he didn’t want us to die. Because of that too, we were whole after he took us apart, healed completely.

If I had nothing to live for, maybe I would have broken. Andaros’s testy advisor was right on one count—if Lena died, I would not be so calm. I would shatter the world no matter what commands bound me. If he found her and brought her back here?

I would cleave his head from his body with my bare hands.

It was hard to track the days passing with such monotony, but we tried. Little snippets here and there from passing conversation or our brief forays to the surface. A delegation from every human kingdom was here, and the rulers of most of them were in residence.

A perfect opportunity for the Elders to burn all the human leadership together if they could. Thankfully, the barrier still held.

I flexed my hands against the steel that held them. My fingers ached from not being able to fully extend them, and not for the first time, I wished things were different. Something was coming. We all felt it. Something would change. Soon.

We talked when we needed to, but mostly we were alone with our thoughts and impressions of each other. What was there to talk about except the things we already knew? And the things we missed would only bring us more pain.

Nelis, the advisor, was the one who took me to the surface today, with a sharp nod at the guard. I didn’t fight back or resist.

“Don’t think about it,” he said.

I looked over at him. “What?”

“Don’t think about escape. It’s not possible.”

He had no idea. “You may control my body, human, but you do not control my mind, and I will think of what I wish.”

Laughing, he shoved my shoulder forward. Hard.

I stumbled, just catching myself before colliding with another prisoner being brought down the stairs. A woman. Her eyes remained on the ground, her hair the palest shade of green—like brand new leaves.

Dragon .

So this was the dragon powering the impressive amount of crops growing here. Had she broken? The brief look at her face showed me nothing but a vacant stare before we had passed.

It was dark. Stars shone overhead, and no workers harvested crops. No wonder they brought the dragon out now. No one could see her and question.

Stepping fully into the open air, I breathed deep, smelling the vegetation and plants, the deeper scent of human sweat, and the dryness of sand. “How did you do it?” I asked.

“Do what?”

“Force a dragon to grow all these crops.”

His lips curled into a smile. “What makes you think it was forced?”

“The look on her face.”

His smile dropped.

“You broke her,” I said. “It’s why you think you can break us.”

“I don’t think we can break you. I know we can.”

“You can try.”

There was no end to this situation where we broke. Either we escaped and found Lena, or we died. If they brought Lena here and killed her?

The immediate rage filling my vision made my breath go short.

I would fight against the command binding me until I joined her in the stars. The others would do the same.

“What do you tell them, then?” I asked, seeing what I could get him to tell me. “If you’re bringing her outside in the middle of the night to keep her hidden. Have you convinced your farmers that human mages have somehow found a way to grow things so quickly?”

“Something like that.”

I huffed out a breath. “Then you are more of a fool than the one you accuse Andaros of being. No human mage is so powerful. And if they were, why has only Craisos found a way to combat the famine? People know when they’re being lied to.”

The old man merely stared at me for a moment before a small smile appeared. “Get him back underground,” he commanded the guard. “And dose him.”

Another period of hurling fire into the level below us, where it was collected, and another day passed.

I only had the briefest of glimpses into the space where they made the scalefire.

A massive underground space, almost equal to the walls enclosing the crops.

Forges and buckets of scalefire where they produced the weapons.

And barrels of the substance itself. More than they could use in a hundred lifetimes.

Not much was needed to make the weapon lethal to dragons once it was aflame. If we had the opportunity to destroy? —

A sensation sparkled in my chest.

Familiar and beautiful and mine .

Is that?

Lena , Zovai said. I feel her .

Suddenly horror flooded our connection, entirely from Endre. He was successful? Found her? Brought her here?

That same dread seeped into my own mind. Fuck .

Immediately, a feeling of determination and love came back to me from Lena. She was still too far away for my taste, but feeling her at all was so much more than I remembered.

And the one thing I didn’t feel from her was fear.

It doesn’t feel like she’s afraid , I said. Could she… Could she simply be here?

Zovai’s voice was soft. I dare not hope .

The guards came into the cell and I savored the distraction. My mate. My mate was here .

My head was forced back, the thick, foul concoction forced down my throat, and I didn’t even care that the familiar sickness came over me. She was here. My mate.

I felt her recoil at the feelings in my body. Her horror. And I thanked the Fallen she hadn’t been close enough to feel all our pain. And that Andaros hadn’t captured her and forced it on either her or us. That would have been unbearable.

So I walled off my mind as much as I could from her—I could never fully block out a mating bond—and held on. She was close. That was all that mattered.

A whole new wave of love washed over me from Lena. It made the sickness bearable, and I focused on that feeling. Thinking about Lena had always gotten me through this, but now that I could feel her? It was nothing.

I closed my eyes and endured.