Page 44 of Exquisite Monster (Dragons of Viria #2)

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

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ENDRE

C louds darkened the sky above Evrítha. Which made approaching easier. The black scales of my cursed form blended in with the near-black sky. I didn’t think Evrítha was being watched, but I couldn’t be sure.

It would have been smarter to wait for this journey until Idroal returned, but I couldn’t. Answers I’d searched for over the last centuries could be right there . That, and I needed to see where Lena had been.

Slowing, I looked through the thin layer of clouds to make sure there were no unfriendly eyes.

Then I dove straight down.

Tucking my wings, I arrowed into the earth, and my stomach plummeted along with my body. This was so, so much further than I had imagined. I no longer questioned why Andaros thought Lena was dead after he threw her down here. She should have been.

Down and down and down. Until the light from the surface was barely a pinprick, only visible because of my dragon eyes.

Farther down than I ever thought possible, I saw violet. The magic net Lena had described. I flared my wings and slowed, gliding down above the roiling water collected at the bottom and avoiding the chaotic collection of fallen objects hovering in space.

I landed heavily on wet stone, digging my claws in.

A rough-hewn doorway disappeared into darkness, beyond it I saw a field filled with underground plants that glowed, unnatural trees, and moisture gathering on every exposed surface.

It was so dark down here. My eyes could see just fine. But Lena? My heart stuttered. She’d been down here for nearly three months. Even Andaros had let us see the sky.

I don’t recall inviting anyone into my home . A resonant voice sounded in my head, and I almost laughed. She sounded exactly as I remembered her.

I don’t recall asking, and yet here I am.

Shifting, I donned pants just as Gleym appeared, staff in hand, glaring at me with burning violet eyes. “And to what do I owe this honor ?” Her words dripped sarcasm.

“You’re smarter than that, Gleym.”

She snorted but turned on her heel, going back inside through the arch and further through another one. I followed her, taking in the rooms that had clearly been carved from pure rock .

“I see your mate found you.”

“She did.” I paused. As horrified as I was by the dark and the damp, this dragon was still the only reason Lena was alive. “Thank you for keeping her safe.”

The old dragon sat heavily in front of what looked like a meal I’d interrupted. “Don’t thank me yet. They tried to kill her once. They’ll do it again.”

“Then help me.”

Gleym watched me and sipped a drink I could smell from here. It was strong. I didn’t blame her. If I had spent centuries in this place I would drink too.

“I already told your mate I can’t help you. I cannot undo that binding. Not the way they made it.”

I blinked. Lena had told us she had asked Gleym to lift the command against us resisting our captors. She hadn’t mentioned asking Gleym to lift my punishment. But if the dragon in front of me told Lena no, I understood she was trying to spare me pain.

It was the last line that drew my attention. “The way they made it?”

A sharp look crossed her features. “So you didn’t know. I wondered.”

“Didn’t know what ?”

Gleym shrugged and lifted a hand, calling the pitcher of whatever she was drinking from across the room.

Like Lena had mentioned, her power ruled over the relationship between things.

Any dragon could do small magic like levitating an object from across the room.

But seeing that, I knew Gleym could do it from much farther.

Especially this close to a sheyten . “When they bound your power, they bound that command to their own life force. One of the six has to lift it, or they all have to die.”

Dread seeped through me, but I didn’t let it show. All this time I thought they’d kept the punishment in place because they were still angry or because of their strange, misplaced hatred of humans and my actions. I hadn’t realized they never even intended to lift it.

“Fuck,” I muttered, stepping back to lean against the wall.

“That about sums it up, yes.” Gleym lit something that smelled like Idroal’s pipe, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“For what it’s worth, I would lift it if I could.

Stars, I would have lifted it the second they forced it on you had I been able.

” She rolled her eyes at the look I gave her.

“You think I didn’t know what happened when you bound that barrier to my sheyten ? They clipped my wings, not my power.”

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to lift it when I came here,” I said quietly. “But I guess… I guess I had still hoped.”

It hurt more than I wanted to admit. I was tired of living in a body that didn’t feel right. Or trying to use my power just to feel its limits curl around me like a vice and dig into me like the Elders’ claws.

Gleym said nothing, smoking and taking a bite of her meal.

Restlessness writhed beneath my skin. This place felt wrong in a way I couldn’t put my finger on.

If Andaros had kept us down here, he might have been proven right about us going mad.

It was different from merely being underground.

It was like being entombed . “May I see?”

She gestured to arches that led further inward. “Her scent still lingers. Feel free.”

Lena’s scent did still hang in the air, helped by all the moisture. The first trail led me to the room containing the sheyten . Where she’d admitted to sitting and hoping it would project our bond further than it was capable of.

Reaching out a hand, I called my power and felt the strain.

But I didn’t care. The imprint of my hand sank into the metallic stone.

It was the only way the sheyten could be altered.

With pure power. Tools didn’t mark it. It could be broken with enough force, or shaped with extreme heat and power. Nothing else.

My handprint stared back at me, and something eased. That I had made a mark on the place that had caused Lena so much pain. And mine.

This sheyten was what my barrier was bound to, supported by the others around Viria. If I hadn’t?—

If I hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t have Lena. All of humanity would have been slaughtered. Were centuries of rage and frustration worth it?

Yes .

No question about that. But it didn’t make the experience of those years easier. It was harder to turn away from that room than I had thought.

I found an open space that must have been where Gleym trained her. Her workshop, with a book still open to a recipe. Finally, I found where she’d slept. Her scent was strongest here.

A giant pile of fabric and wayward pillows formed a makeshift bed. Along the walls, tiny scratches marked the time she’d spent here, and I hung my head. She was here with no one but Gleym, who wasn’t anything close to warm and fuzzy. As good as being alone. In a place meant to be forgotten.

Pain speared through my chest. She should never have been here. No wonder she was angry.

The scraping of Gleym’s staff on the floor alerted me to her presence. “Is she well?”

“As well as she can be.”

A grunt of affirmation .

With a final look at my mate’s bed, I turned back to the ancient dragon. She was just as old as the other Elders, though she’d kept her human form. “I don’t think it will surprise you to know that I am not someone who begs.”

“You? The Heir to all dragons? Of course not, Your Highness.” She blew smoke in my face with one raised brow. “Does that mean you’re about to get on your knees and beg?”

I continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “I won’t insult your intelligence. You know what they’re doing. You know why. They are breaking the world for their own whims, and something has to change. You, of all dragons, should understand that.”

“I do.”

“Then will you help us?”

Gleym leaned heavily on her staff. “What would you have me do from my hole in the ground?”

My beast rose to the surface in an instant, power flaring. But even now, I knew I could not win a battle of wills or power, and it was so fucking frustrating . “I didn’t come here for sarcasm and cutting remarks.”

“Then what did you come for? Beyond a basic plea for help, you haven’t asked me anything, little prince.

It is an honest question. What help would you like?

Are you going to fly me out of this cave and ask me to confront the remaining six?

Provide you with some of my infinite knowledge?

Lead a march on Doro Eche? Ask me an actual question and I’ll give an actual answer. ”

Smoke poured from my mouth as I heaved out breath in anger.

“If I knew the questions to ask I would have sought solutions long before now. I do not know what to ask when what I need is a way to subvert our very nature. I have pushed myself to the brink and read every tome I could find. I’ve asked everyone I could risk.

There is nothing that can overcome the right of power. I have tried .”

“Is there nothing? I don’t know that to be true.”

I shoved past her and stormed back toward the entrance of her home. If all I was going to get was vague cynicism, my time was better spent with my mate.

“Wait,” she called, following me slowly.

“Only if you stop speaking in fucking riddles.”

Gleym chuckled. “You must forgive an old dragon, Endre. I spoke truly to your mate in that I do not mind my life down here. But I admittedly do not have much practice with nor patience for others.”

My hands curled themselves into fists. “I don’t need your patience, I need your help. If you cannot offer that, then there’s nothing more for me here.”

I turned, but didn’t make it a step before she spoke once more. “Come. Sit. ”

Her eyes sparkled with amusement when I turned back. Hope flared to life and I tried to smother it. Hope was too dangerous. “Why?”

Another puff of smoke curled in the darkness. The Gleym smirked. “I never said I would not help.”