Page 9 of Exquisite Monster (Dragons of Viria #2)

CHAPTER NINE

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KATALENA

I t was so dark I nearly tripped over the fabric pooling around my feet. I cursed, catching myself on one of the stone trees. “ Varí? ”

He spewed some fire into the air, lighting up our immediate surroundings so I could find my feet once more.

We needed a specific root and mushroom for the potion I was brewing today.

Something which could allow you to see in the dark.

So, of course, the ingredients we needed grew in complete darkness.

“I’m not sure what good this does,” I muttered. “Not like I’m going to be able to find ingredients from the center of the world on the surface.”

These will grow in caves and dark places on the surface, girl. Gleym’s voice echoed in my head.

Varí coughed smoke, which was suspiciously like a laugh.

“You’re listening to me?”

It’s hard not to when your clomping echoes through the caves like an earthquake.

I grit my teeth and hiked the fabric up around my knees, stepping around the rock that had tripped me in the first place. Wet moss squelched beneath my feet. It was oddly soothing, but it didn’t do anything for my grip.

Gleym was a hard master. There were moments when I saw kindness, but more often she was brusque and stern. Which was just as well. Neither of us were here to be friends. I was trying to get through the knowledge she thought I needed so I could get back to the surface.

Every day that passed—or what I thought might be a day—made anxious worry slither under my skin. It built slowly, an ever-present guest in my mind. I didn’t know if I’d be able to save them, but if I could and I missed it because I’d lingered here too long, I wouldn’t survive.

There .

At the base of a stone tree, I saw the little mushrooms. They glowed an eerie shade of blue and had long, spindly stems and steep caps. If what the book said was true, then the roots should be nearby. They were a symbiotic pair.

Kneeling, the damp from the moss soaked through the dress while I gathered the mushrooms. But not all of them. In a symbiotic system, I couldn’t take all of either party. Not if I wanted them to replenish.

I wasn’t sure if Gleym cared about their replenishment, but I did.

The dirt was looser than I imagined, the bright red roots appearing like blood in the small burst of fire Varí kept using to light our way.

The glowing potion still wasn’t fully cured.

The number of them in the workshop provided good light, but they weren’t at their brightest. It would have been helpful here.

Or the one I was foraging for, which gifted the user with perfect sight in the dark.

Gleym likely wanted me to understand the value of what I made alongside the process of making it.

Despite the loose earth, the roots clung to the ground, almost ripping my skin as I pulled out what I needed. It fought me, and suddenly I was fighting back, pulling the root as hard as I could, screaming at it until it broke free.

Everything fell out of me in a rush, and I slumped to the side with the roots in my palm, heaving breath.

Varí placed his claws on my leg, and I shook my head. “Sorry.”

It was like the struggle had unlocked something visceral that I couldn’t contain. The rage and pain that were lurking beneath the surface. They didn’t serve me, and I needed to keep them at bay, but they were still there. And that small point of pain and struggle let them break free so easily.

“We have what we need,” I said quietly, and stood. It wasn’t hard to find our way back, with Varí flying in low loops around me, lighting the air when I needed it.

The cauldron was still simmering with sticky, shining bubbles when I returned to the workshop. Gleym was sitting where I’d left her, and I didn’t even look in her direction. If she’d heard my muttering at this distance, she undoubtedly heard the rest of it.

In this case? I wasn’t interested in her opinion.

The book lay closed on the table, and though I was tempted to double-check what was written, I didn’t.

I’d started to notice patterns as I read and memorized.

Chopped things released more essence and upped the intensity.

Things that were used to infuse had broader applications over many recipes, which could then be modified and made more specific.

What I’d studied with Taia and Baris was the basics of herbs and plants—those humans had access to—and their uses. I knew those recipes by heart, but I hadn’t studied the theory behind them. Not much, anyway.

Now, as it was all me, I found little things that connected, and kept looking to other books and scrolls on Gleym’s shelf to confirm and explore. What I already knew made more sense and allowed me to expand my knowledge faster .

But despite her promise that she might share more about herself, it had been three more days, and Gleym had shared nothing.

Not that I blamed her.

She’d been down here for longer than I’d been alive, and no matter who you were, one didn’t simply accept banishment to the center of the world without a good reason. If our roles were reversed, I doubted I would want to confide in a human princess who’d crashed into my home either.

The roots and mushrooms sank into the mixture and turned it a muddy, drab purple. But the stickiness disappeared and left a silky liquid behind. “Will I end my life if I try it?” I asked, finally breaking the silence.

The dragon slowly approached and looked at my work, inhaling. “No, I think not.”

I dipped a finger into the liquid and placed it on my tongue. As soon as I swallowed, I blinked against the sudden brightness. Every shadow was banished as if I stood in a room bathed in sunlight.

Along with the darkness, the shadows in my mind lifted. I’d known I missed sunlight, but I hadn’t realized quite how much. Humans weren’t meant to live below ground like this. No one was. I wasn’t sure how Gleym had been here so long and still had her mind intact.

“Good,” she said. “Let it cool before you bottle it and come with me.”

“I’d rather not,” I admitted. After my outburst I wanted to curl into a ball and close my eyes, as petulant as it sounded. I didn’t want to face anything.

“I didn’t ask what you preferred. Come with me.”

So I followed her deeper into the catacomb that was her home. It was a room I hadn’t seen before, broad and empty. She strode to the center of the space and faced me. “When you told me your story you mentioned training with weapons. How long has it been?”

Since before the wedding. Which wasn’t that long, but it felt like an entire lifetime. “Long enough.”

“Show me what you know.”

“Must we do this now?”

Gleym’s eyes blazed bright. “When would you prefer? When you are ready for it? Were you ready when the Elders blindsided you? When the dragons at Skalisméra tricked you? The world does not wait for you to be ready, and neither will I.

“Your strength alone will not be enough, it’s true.

But it is also foolish not to keep those skills sharp.

One slice can save your life. Even if it’s a slice to your own body.

” Gleym pulled aside the neck of the loose robe she wore, revealing a jagged scar through her shoulder.

“Now show me what skills you have, little though they may be. ”

Rage shook me, appearing out of nowhere once more, bristling at the insult. “I will not stand here and allow you to belittle me.”

“Then prove me otherwise.”

“ Why should I? ” My voice echoed off the stone.

“Because fate has decided to fuck with you. And it will keep doing that until you fight back. Or are you too weak to do that?”

Cold anger froze me to the spot. “Fuck you.”

Her hand disappeared into her clothes and reappeared with a knife. It clattered across the stone floor and landed at my feet. “You’re angry. That’s good. Use it and try to strike me.”

Varí hopped off my shoulder and glided to the side of the room, watching.

Bending to pick up the knife, I shoved everything down. I didn’t want to do this. But if I didn’t, I might not ever get out of here.

I tried to find that calm resilience that I’d always seemed to have but hadn’t managed to find in the last few days.

My hand strayed below the fabric of my clothes to the heavy weight of my grandmother’s necklace.

It was a small comfort, given the real comfort I wanted was the heat of my mates’ arms around me and the purrs they unleashed.

Being able to feel them again and not just the blank spot where they were meant to be.

On top of that, I doubted I would be able to touch her.

I had some skills, but I was still human.

Close range when someone wasn’t expecting it—like Andaros in that hallway outside the throne room, or Endre pressed up against me in my cell—was one thing.

Attacking a fully grown dragon who was expecting it was another.

“Not ideal clothes for fighting,” I said, trying to keep the anger and frustration out of my voice.

Gleym closed in on me. “When are you going to realize that nothing ever happens when the circumstances are ideal? No one will wait for you to be ready, Princess.”

The sound of my title made something in me break. They were the last ones to call me that, and it was all I wanted to hear. From them, not from her.

I lunged, swiping too fast and leaning too far.

She smacked my shoulder with her staff, easily moving out of reach.

“You’ll have to do better than that. And don’t bother telling me that it’s unfair that I have a longer weapon.

Things that are fair go hand in hand with things that are ideal. They’re never going to happen.”

Pushing aside everything else, I focused on her and what I knew how to do. Maybe it wouldn’t be today that I managed to strike her, but I would do it.

She moved, and I ducked under her sweeping blow, just missing catching her leg. “You act like I don’t know there are hardships in life. I do. ”

“You mean your life as royalty? Learning a trade you desired, even though it was in secret? Being protected at all costs because of your value? Yes, those are great hardships.”

I whirled, moving faster in response to her words. Yes, I’d been protected, but I’d also been sacrificed. If the marriage to Andaros had been successful, I might have been brutalized. I’d been on the edge of death so many times it didn’t even seem real anymore.

My struggles had been different, but they were still struggles.

There were no more words. Simply me attacking and her defending with an ease that made rage build in my chest. Bruises formed where she struck me—and I knew it was not even close to how hard she could strike. Every touch spoke of holding back.

Anger built like a living thing under my skin until it was all I could see or breathe. I finally screamed and hurled the knife directly at her face. She didn’t even move, the knife simply changing directions and clattering to the rocky floor.

Her power in controlling the relationship between things and how they moved made the defense simple, and it made me ache. I was not strong enough.

“That’s enough. For now.”

I didn’t even look at her as she moved to exit the room, but Gleym stopped near me.

“Anger, like everything else I am teaching you, is a tool. It is useless if you do not know how to use it. Consider it a resource, and one that you have more than enough of. Hate me if you must, as long as you learn.”

Shaking my head, I didn’t turn until I thought she was long gone. But she still lingered in the doorway.

“I do not speak to you as I do because you’ve known no hardship, Katalena.

But because you think you understand more than you know.

Because I am down here and because I used to be an Elder, you have created a story about me that makes sense to what you’ve experienced.

You know how twisted, mercurial, and vile the other Elders can be.

So, to you, I must be better than them to have had them turn on me, just as they turned on your mates. ”

She looked at me and tilted her head. “But did it ever occur to you that I might be worse than them? That they put me down here to save themselves from me ?”

My mouth opened, and one look from her made me close it. She hadn’t told me the truth one way or the other, and no matter what, I was still trapped with her. I found my voice in spite of her. “Are you going to tell me which story is real?”

“I will. But remember this lesson. The stories we create for others are just that. Stories. You do not know the truth unless you see it with your eyes. Even for the people you know the best. ”

She glided out of view, and I retrieved the knife, keeping it close. My own knife hadn’t been replaced after it melted in the storm of dragonfire.

But with what she just told me? I was glad to have a weapon. I just prayed to the Fallen I wouldn’t have to use it to get out of here.