Page 4 of Exquisite Monster (Dragons of Viria #2)

CHAPTER FOUR

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SIRRUS

I turned to Lena as the humans surged forward, grabbing her face. I love you, mate.

“No.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Please don’t.”

Don’t fight them. Stay alive. Whatever you have to. Because we will find you. I promise.

“Sirrus.”

I captured her sob with my kiss, feeling her heart break inside my own. Every bit of willpower I had was spent not letting her feel my devastation. I love you.

Hands grabbed my arms, and the command wouldn’t allow me to fight them. Wouldn’t let me use my power. I still tried though, drawing their attention to me. Keep it on me and not on Lena.

I love you.

A cloth pressed over my nose and mouth, darkness swirling in. My last sight was my mate’s tear-streaked face.

I love you.

Pain jerked me awake, body fighting against the memories that wouldn’t leave me alone. The prodding poke of the metal pole my captors enjoyed using to wake me up was digging into my side. So that was what roused me.

Already, they had my head back, pouring the foul concoction that robbed me of any control down my throat.

“Time for working,” Andaros said. “Not for dreaming.”

I was going to kill this man.

I was going to kill my sire.

I was going to kill every human and dragon that had dared to touch Lena or conspired to tear us apart.

The Elders thought they could get rid of us so easily?

No.

There was a reason they hadn’t truly tried all these years. They needed us. Too old to sire more offspring, too blinded to the truth by their own desires, they’d crossed a line they couldn’t come back from.

I wondered if they knew.

The first few times I’d woken I hadn’t been in my right mind. Whatever they forced into my body caused me to expel flames to the point of sickness, aided by a mask that made it impossible to close my mouth. The pain of being bound and dizzy hadn’t left me time to reach out to my brothers. To Lena .

Can you hear me?

I cast my mental call outward, hoping they were near enough.

Yes . Endre’s voice, already exhausted. He sounded half dead. And… Fallen . Endre already worked at a disadvantage with his power bound. If I felt this bad, he must be in agony.

Z?

No answer.

He’s here , Endre said. Somewhere . Must be unconscious.

Unconscious and not sleeping, because passing out from the sickness didn’t feel like rest.

What are they doing to us?

A frustrated growl rolled through my mind. He won’t say .

Andaros. The man was still in this cell, watching me. I could scent him. See him a little.

Do you have your vision back yet? Endre asked.

No . The room in front of me was blurry. It’s coming back .

Good , he said. Now that I can see, they’re gathering the fire. Funneling it down below the cells. I don’t know why .

I made sure there was no sign on my face or in my body that gave away that Endre and I were communicating. We didn’t know what they were capable of, but taking control of our bodies, our fire, and robbing us of sight? I wouldn’t bet on whether they could halt the connection between our minds.

I can guess , I finally said. So can you .

He allowed me to hear his sigh. I’d rather not .

But we needed to, because the longer the three of us were held here and forced to breathe fire into the hands of the enemy, the more danger there was to all of dragonkind.

Scalefire, the weapon that had caused the war, was the reason.

When humans and dragons had been allies, we gifted the humans with the means to protect themselves against the few dragons in the world who refused to heed peace.

Was it foolish to hand them the means to kill us?

Probably. Yet there was a desire to prove the species could exist on an equal playing field.

Until everything fell apart.

From the little I knew of it, scalefire could be made without the fire of a dragon, but it took far more resources and far more time. Still, it was deemed important. What good was protection for the humans if they needed a dragon to even create that protection?

But with an infinite source of dragonfire, weapons could be forged in scalefire far faster. Whatever army Craisos had raised, whatever allies they’d made, they could move through the dragon lands killing at will with an army like that. Every dragon, including the Elders, could be wiped out.

Is there something to combat it ?

I didn’t need to specify what. Though the protection was severe, we’d never worried about the consequences because it was so hard to make. The humans could create enough to protect themselves, but not enough to launch an offensive.

Now Andaros had three of the most powerful dragons in existence. He didn’t need to tell us why he was doing it, but it was clear Craisos had more power than we’d realized.

I don’t know , Endre said. If there is, then someone like Idroal or Mesene might know about it, or be able to find it.

If we ever saw them again. Or could get a message to them. But the reality was that scalefire was a closely guarded secret, and at the time the knowledge had been gifted to humans, all dragons knowing the way to nullify it made the gift useless. It was more likely no one knew, if it existed at all.

Shutting the thoughts down, I braced against the roiling pain of nausea flowing through my body before hurling fire in front of me.

He’s here with me .

Well out of the range of fire, I assume?

He was. As much as I hated the man, he was no fool. Well… he was. But even fools had a sense of self-preservation.

Another burst of fire and pain started. Fire was at the center of our very souls, but even we weren’t meant to wield it without rest.

The chains , I said. Are they breakable?

I haven’t had the strength to try. Ender’s frustration bled through his tone. Not that I can .

They are breakable . Zovai sounded groggy. Meltable. Or at least they would be if I could fight back. They saw me testing them, so they might have switched them out while I was unconscious.

Andaros watched me carefully between my bouts of forced vomiting, like he suspected my mind wasn’t fully present. He could go fuck himself.

Are you all right? Endre asked Z.

They have me on my knees now. Pretty immobile. Am I all right? No. But I’m alive.

I understood the sentiment. I wasn’t all right either. I was pushing away the pulsing pain in my chest—separation from my mate. And more, not knowing what had happened to her. What had Andaros done to her? Was he…

Snapping my thoughts away from my darkest fears, I glared at the king who watched. His face was still blurry, but I could see enough. He smirked, as if he knew exactly where my thoughts had gone.

“You’re more docile than I imagined,” he said. “But I suppose a dragon’s reaction to the death of its mate would all be different. Your other… I suppose I don’t know what to call your merry li ttle band.” His tone dripped disdain. “They were very different.”

The poison forcing my body to breathe fire kept me from showing my shock, thank the Fallen. They couldn’t hear Andaros.

He thinks she’s dead , I managed. Lena . He just told me all our reactions to her death were different.

Relief was a cooling balm to my pain, both mental and physical. If Andaros thought Lena was dead, then he didn’t have her. He wasn’t torturing her or forcing himself on her as some sort of sick revenge on both her and us.

Where is she? Zovai asked.

She was alive. We could feel it. But that was all we felt. We couldn’t know if she was well . Simply alive. There were many things that could have befallen her and her still be alive. But for the moment I chose to believe that she was alive, healthy, and safe.

I couldn’t stand it otherwise.

Even if he gives us the opportunity to speak, I said. If he thinks she’s dead and realizes she isn’t, he might go after her to make sure he finishes the job. But if he tried to kill her in order to break us, we can make sure to use it to our advantage.

Z’s laugh echoed roughly. What few there are .

Heaving in a breath, my body released the last of its fire, and I hung from the chains. Much like when the body was actually sick, it was easy to sense when there was no more to expel.

The mask which held my mouth open prevented me from speaking, so Andaros was really only here for his own amusement.

For centuries we have had to bow to Elders who hated us because we refused to submit to them for the sake of their power and approval.

Beneath Endre’s words I heard cold determination.

Something which had hardened and would not break.

I will not bow to this. We have found our mate, and I don’t care if I have to break the laws of the world itself to be free of the Elder’s control, I will find a way.

We , I said. We will find a way. Then, softer. We should have found a way a long time ago .

It was often easier to put your head down and endure when there was no chance of change.

The most powerful changes always had a catalyst, and that was Lena.

The years of forced servitude and merciless commands had blinded us to how much hope we’d lost. Then, a woman with wine-red hair and the soul of a dragon burst into our world and brought hope and life in with her.

Meeting Lena—touching her that first time and understanding what she was—felt like opening your eyes after a long sleep. She was the flame at the heart of us, pulling us together.

And that flame would never die out, no matter how much fire they forced me to expel .

You told her to stay alive because we would find her , Zovai said. His exhaustion and determination could both be heard. We have to stay alive, and we’ll find a way. We always do.

And when we didn’t, we did what we could. But I couldn’t think about failure, so I didn’t push the thoughts to my brothers.

All this time, Andaros had been watching me, waiting for me to respond to his prodding, and visibly growing agitated when I didn’t. He nodded to someone behind me. “Dose him again.”

A human I hadn’t sensed forced my head back, and the nausea struck once more.

I hoped what we could do would be enough.