Page 47 of Exquisite Monster (Dragons of Viria #2)
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
________
KATALENA
“ T o their life force ?” A gust of cold wind came with the words. Sirrus stalked across the main bedroom of the tower, looking feral even in his human form.
Endre held me, sitting up in the bed. He hadn’t stopped touching me since he arrived, and I wasn’t complaining in the slightest. But I winced at his words. “I’m sorry. I should have told you.”
“I’m not angry with you, Lena. I’m furious at our spineless excuses for sires.” It was true. The burning rage I felt through our bond had nothing to do with me.
The thought popped into my head, and I spoke it out loud. “There’s only three of you.”
Zovai looked up from where he sat with a crooked grin. “Wish there were more?”
I rolled my eyes. “No, I’m just pointing out that even with Gleym banished, she is alive. There are seven Elders like the seven sheyten . But there are only three of you. Does that mean you need four more to rule?”
“No,” Endre said. “Yes, there are seven because of the Fall, but there are no exceptions for the right of power, as we know. There are no dragons who are our equal, and the Elders’ passing won’t make it so. If there were something saying it had to be seven, we would have known by now.”
The Fall, when the sheyten completely rewrote our world and gave the dragons human forms and humans some dragon traits. Created the possibility of mating between species. Made certain dragons more powerful than others.
Sirrus still prowled near one of the windows. He was bothered by the news, but I wasn’t sure why it seemed so dire. “This doesn’t change anything, right?”
“Not really,” Endre said softly. He tugged me the few inches he needed to kiss my hair.
“Then why does it bother you so much?” I directed the question at Sirrus.
“Intent,” Zovai said. “They pretended it was a temporary punishment. Now we know it was calculated. They never intended to lift Endre’s binding.
They intended to weaken us, so the situation we’re in can continue.
If all three of us were at full power, we couldn’t defy a binding command, but there might be other ways.
But as you said, there are only three of us. The odds are stacked against us. ”
A growl rumbled from Sirrus. “Exactly like they fucking wanted.”
I turned and laid my head on Endre’s shoulder. “So how did Gleym say she can help?”
The flatness of his expression turned into a grin. “Turns out Gleym is petty.”
I snorted under my breath. “I could have told you that.”
“She didn’t have much time while she was falling,” he said.
“So she used her power and what she could hold on to. Her own life force—which is how she knew what they’d done with me—and the core of her power, the relationship between things.
” He chuckled, and I felt the true amusement and joy he felt.
“Do you remember asking why the Elders are so large?”
“You said they’d abandoned their human forms and because of that it allowed their beast forms to grow without any natural limits.”
“And that’s true. But what I didn’t know was that she bound them to their beasts. They cannot shift back into their human forms while she lives.”
The air went still. Sirrus’s head snapped toward Endre. Zovai sucked in a low breath before laughing. “Fucking stars, that’s brilliant and petty. Plus, they definitely know she’s alive.”
“Why wouldn’t they just kill her?” I asked.
“Gleym isn’t just a banished Elder, Lena.
She is the most powerful of them. It’s why it took all six of them to banish her in the first place.
Why they couldn’t actually kill her instead of clipping her wings and tossing her into the center of the world.
They cannot issue a binding command to an equal. ”
I sat up and put on one of Sirrus’s shirts before standing. Varí dozed on the edge of one of the platforms, belly to the sun while his scales shone a pale yellow. “But what does it mean? Being locked into their beast form doesn’t make them weaker.”
Zovai stood with me. “I’ll show you why it matters. Here.” Stepping in front of me, he lifted his hands with his palms facing me. “Press on my hands.”
Frowning, I obeyed. My hands were much smaller than his, but I pressed on them.
“You can step back right now, right?”
I removed my hands and stepped back. “Yes, of course.”
Our bond tingled as he touched it. Coaxing me to trust him. I did, but I still didn’t see where this was going. “Now do it again. But this time, push as hard as you can. Put all your weight into it. I promise I won’t let you fall.”
“All right.” I followed the instructions, pressing and leaning until he was supporting me entirely.
Endre leaned an elbow on one of his knees. The way the blankets were casually strewn around his naked body made me wish we’d spent more time on the beach. He felt the direction of my thoughts and let his eyes slide to my bare legs.
We can go back to the beach any time you like, Princess, but our beds have less sand in them.
Sirrus snickered, and I realized Endre had spoken so all of us could hear him. “If you’ve actually gotten sand in the bed, I will blow it the hell out. The only thing worse than sand stuck to your skin is sand stuck between your scales.”
“Not that I would know much about that,” I said. “And speaking of our sand-filled adventures, I’m beginning to get hungry. Unless you plan to have me lean on your hands until eternity comes?”
All at once, Zovai moved his hands away from mine. With all my weight on them, I stumbled forward. He caught me just like he promised, but I would have hit the floor hard if he hadn’t. Blinking, I looked up at him. “What was that for?”
He righted me, making sure his hands were on me.
Specifically the skin beneath my shirt. “That was the lesson,” he said.
“You could easily step back from the first situation. If you’d focused, you could have stepped back from the second one too.
It would be harder, but you could have done it.
But,” he said, “you’d gotten used to it while we talked.
By the end, you didn’t even remember you were leaning all your weight on me.
So you didn’t see the fall coming even if you could have stopped it. ”
The picture started to become clear in my mind.
Sirrus shifted one hand into a massive claw and back again. “There is a difference between choosing to do something, and being unable to do something. Think of our ability to shift as leaning against a door that opens. Think of the Elders’ ability like leaning against a stone wall.”
“ Oh .”
Leaning against a door that moved, you would be aware every moment that it could move, and you kept control in case it did. But leaning back against a stone wall, you had no reason to think it would ever move. So why would you bother being aware of it? Or preparing for it to crumble?
Endre nodded, feeling the puzzle resolving in my mind.
“We thought they had chosen to stop shifting and allow their dragons to grow. It can be done, but it’s rare.
I think I might know of one other dragon who has chosen the same.
But they didn’t. And after centuries, they don’t even feel it anymore.
So,” he smirked, “if and when Gleym releases that command, it will take them by surprise.”
I sat down next to Varí and soaked up the rays of sun, stroking a finger down his stomach as he slept. “What will happen?”
“That’s the real question,” Endre said. “I have no idea.”
My heart sank. “Then how does it help? ”
“Because it’s a chance,” Zovai said. “Something we know that they don’t. Even if it’s as brief as a stumble, it could give us a moment.”
A full silence followed. I swallowed and pulled my knees up to my chest. “To kill them?”
Finally, Sirrus nodded. “Yes, princess.”
I still felt the blood of that soldier pouring over my hands. But it didn’t make my stomach turn or my soul cringe the way it had when I’d first taken the life. Gleym was right. There was no way to get out of this without killing. Even though I dreaded when it would happen again.
Andaros was right too, in his own way. He’d said they were turning me into a monster. True, but not quite. They weren’t turning me into one.
Every story of someone going to war on behalf of others. Of someone tearing apart a city to find someone they loved. Of self-sacrifice in the name of protection. Of unrelenting rage in the face of revenge.
We all became monsters for those we loved.
My mates had not turned me into a monster.
I had done that myself.
The moment I realized nothing else mattered but them. That I would sacrifice anything, including my own soul, to get them back.
Whether it had always been buried inside me or had been forged in the crucible I’d been thrown into, I might never know. It didn’t matter.
For the life of every human on this continent and every dragon chafing under commands they wanted to fight. For the hope of peace and a life on this tiny island with nothing but love. For justice after centuries of pain and tyranny.
For all those things, I chose to be a monster.
If that was how I was remembered, then so be it.
“Good,” I finally said.
The only thing I felt from my mates was pride.
Pushing up from the sun-soaked stone, I retrieved some pants and put them on. “Let’s talk to the others. I think it’s time we made a plan, don’t you?”
I didn’t wait for them, heading for the stairs down the tower. In those woods, I told Endre the only choice I’d made was them. This was my next choice.
Smiling, I dragged my hands along the stone wall. If they hadn’t wanted me to turn into a monster, they should have been more careful to keep me in my cage.
Now they would see what happened when I was let out.