Chapter 11
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KATALENA
Ididn’t know how long I slept. There were no windows here to show me the light in the sky, but when I opened my eyes, I felt better. Rested, though my body still ached from the journey.
Varícurled between me and the hewn rock wall, snuggling into the blankets.
A scrape on stone came from behind me, making me suddenly aware.
The reason I woke wasn’t because it was time to wake, it was because there was a presence watching me. Swallowing, I pulled the blankets higher to cover Varí before I sat up and looked.
A man stood leaning against the wall in the light of the brazier, watching me. Dark hair that fell into his eyes, hands in the pockets of simple trousers. His shirt, too, spoke nothing of wealth and everything of hard work.
If Prince Andaros and this man were to clash, I had no doubt this man would win. An errant thought, but one I had to stifle my smile at.
Still, I couldn’t move. The intensity of his gaze on me gave me pause. And I was wearing nearly nothing. Granted, I hadn’t thought there would be humans to see me. I thought it might be the dragons, and I doubted the dragons I’d flown with cared what I had on my body, if anything at all.
I opened my mouth, and no voice came out. So I tried again. My voice sounded like I’d traveled all the way across the Bowl—wind-whipped and raspy. “Who are you?”
“My name is Endre.” The warm richness of his tone made me shiver, and he looked at me with anything but kindness.
Still, I tried to find out more. “Where are the dragons?”
“They are here?”
“And where is here?”
He pushed off the wall with casual grace. “You ask a lot of questions.”
“When I’m carried away in the claws of a dragon who was meant to kill me, I do, yes.”
“Why do you think that?” Standing right outside the bars now, I tried not to stare. He was handsome in a way I was unfamiliar with. The kind of male beauty that struck at the heart and made women do rash things. I’d heard people speak of it, but had never encountered it until now.
And it was entirely unhelpful. The last thing I needed was to find a stranger enticing. Stars, I didn’t know what I needed at all right now. I focused on the bars near him instead. “Think what?” I asked.
“That he was meant to kill you.”
“Oh. I…” A lie sat on my tongue, but something stopped me from speaking it. Even away from Rensara and the horror of a marriage I didn’t want, I was far from safety. Despite my acceptance of the possibility, I didn’t want to die. “It seemed clear to me,” I finally said. “The Prince of Craisos cannot be touched by dragonfire, and the death of the Gleiran King would not dissolve the alliance in the way the dragons wanted.”
Endre tilted his head. “Yet here you are. Alive.”
“I can’t explain that.”
“Neither can the dragon that spared your life.”
A chill wove down my spine. “You spoke to it?”
“Something like that.”
Much of what we knew about dragons was gone. Obscured after the wars and lost to time. By any history, it had not been long enough for dragon lore to fade into myth. But the eradication of it helped. Intentional erasure.
Grandmother had never spoken of the way humans and dragons used to communicate. I didn’t know what I’d expected, but talking wasn’t the answer.
I finally stood, choosing strength over modesty. The shift covering me revealed little more than the dress, thankfully, since it had not been destroyed like the decorative fabric.
“What do they mean to do with me?”
“They have not decided.”
Blowing out a breath, I wrapped my arms around myself. “That’s not comforting.”
He smiled again, briefly. “Neither is it for them. They did not count on having a captive.”
“They could simply set me free. I shall say nothing. All I ask is that they do not return me to Rensara.” My heart twinged. Helena was still there. But if I returned and Andaros was still alive, they would make me marry him. I would rather die than willingly go back to that. Cast my fate on the stars and hope they would welcome my soul.
“You don’t wish them dead?”
An inelegant sound came out of me, and I clapped my hand over my mouth. Again, the urge to be honest rose up in me. Perhaps that was what happened when you had nothing to lose. “No. I don’t and never have. My grandmother taught me of the times before the wars, when dragons and humans lived in peace. I’ve never understood the fear humans have of them, nor the violence we wield. At least for my part. I understand that much has been lost and there is much I do not know.”
He laughed softly. “You are not what I expected, Katalena.”
Chills covered my arms. “How do you know my name?”
With a twisting gesture, the door of the cell unlocked. He stepped in and over the plate of food that had been left while I was sleeping. As I watched, he closed the door to the cell, but he didn’t lock it again. Maybe I could get past him. But where would I go?
Still, I crowded myself back against the wall, unsure of what he intended. I still had the knife, and he still hadn’t told me how he knew my name. “Why do you know me?”
Endre looked at me then. “Is there a reason I shouldn’t?”
“Do you answer every question with another infuriating question?” I snapped. “If you can’t puzzle out why you, a stranger, shouldn’t know my name, then I can only assume your intelligence leaves much to be desired, and I’ll ask that you send someone else to speak to me.”
My heart pounded in my chest and I tried to control my breath and the fear spiking through me. He wasn’t armed, and he’d made no move that threatened me. But I knew well enough a man didn’t need to bear a weapon to do harm.
He smirked at me from across the cell. “You are very different from what I expected.”
I threw my arms out in a mockery of a bow, my exhaustion and annoyance getting the better of me. “My apologies, my lord. Please, tell me what you were expecting.”
Casually, he took a step forward. “I expected to leave your ashes behind in Rensara, Princess.”
His eyes flashed gold and reptilian in the dimness, and the entire room spun. “You’re—” I heaved in breath. “That’s not possible.”
“Your grandmother, who taught you so much about dragons, did not teach you about our human forms?”
I shook my head. Not once had she ever mentioned the possibility. Looking away, he sighed once. “No, I suppose she wouldn’t have. Even before the divide between our kinds, we were very selective in who we gifted the knowledge to. Most humans never knew, and the ones that did were trusted beyond all doubt.”
“And you trust me?”
Another smirk. “I trust that no one will believe you. A princess carried off by dragons, out of her mind with terror? Surely she imagined the dragons she saw as men to make her torment easier.”
Sadly, what he said was true. And Prince Andaros would be first in line to believe such a story.
“That, and though you may be alive for the moment, whether you remain so is yet to be decided.”
I lifted my chin up, trying to tell him I wasn’t afraid even though my hands shook where they were twisted in the folds of my shift. His eyes were human right now, and dark. But I’d seen the eyes of a dragon so clearly…
A deep inhale made his chest rise and fall. “You’re afraid. That’s good. But you’re not nearly afraid as you should be.”
Could he scent my fear? “And why is that?”
I’d always had a good sense for danger. When to run and when to fight. Even with people, and somehow, in the place that led me beyond my conscious mind, I knew the man—the dragon—in front of me didn’t pose a threat. Not yet, anyway.
“Because you are here alone. In a place where no one cares for you. In a cell. I could take your life and no one would blink. In fact, many would thank me for the service.”
Forcing my hands behind my back, I straightened my spine. “If you’re going to kill me, stop toying and do it. All I ask is that you make it quick. But you had better do it as a dragon.”
I’d barely noticed that he’d inched closer because he’d been doing it so slowly. He was well within reach of me now. But my words stopped him in his tracks, the stillness bringing attention to his closeness. “Why?”
“Because I’m not as easy to kill as you think.”
He tilted his head again, and in spite of the breathless tension, I nearly laughed. I’d seen Varí make the exact same movement, as if it transferred from one form to another.
“I seem to remember you fleeing for your life.”
“Against a dragon. Against a man, I might hold my own. Even you.”
There was a flare of interest and curiosity in those dark eyes, once again telling me he wasn’t here to kill me. Not yet. This was all a test. Or he was a predator toying with prey with bait on a string. Either way, I could make it out of this alive.
I knew it.
“What would your prince think of you? A princess challenging a man to battle.”
“He wouldn’t be surprised. I held a knife to his throat when he tried to take more than I wanted to give.”
Endre took the final step in front of me, looking down at me from his full height. From across the room he hadn’t seemed so tall. But I had to crane my neck to meet his gaze. It was full of anger that wasn’t aimed at me. “Is that so?”
“Yes.”
A tick in his jaw. “I wish I’d been there to see it.”
“You can.” I moved, and my knife was at his throat, pressing against the delicate skin there. “This is the same blade.”
He smiled then. A real one. Full and broad, it transformed his face from the dark handsomeness he bore into someone entirely different. Lighter. I got the feeling not many people saw this part of him. And perhaps the ones that had were already dead.
“You play the game well, Princess. I’ll give you that.”
“You’re incredibly calm with a blade at your throat.”
He didn’t flinch in the slightest. “You’re too curious to kill me. And though you have a blade at my throat, it wouldn’t matter.”
“So a dragon can survive bleeding out?” I glared at him.
“No. But you’d have to actually cut me first.”
I didn’t see his hand move, but it curled around my wrist, firmly moving my hand away from his throat with strength I couldn’t resist. “Don’t count me out because you’re faster,” I whispered.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
His eyes went dark, dilating, and again I saw that gold color shining through—the truth. This man was a dragon, and I was at his mercy. My bravado was one thing, but confidence was not a shield. One movement and he could kill me.
Endre leaned closer, and I caught a breath of scent—something dark and wild I couldn’t quite name. The way my body shook wasn’t from fear, though it should have been. I wanted to stay here, this close, figuring out why standing so close to him made it hard to breathe. Even as he turned my own blade against me, holding my hand to my own throat.
I shuddered as he moved even closer, his breath brushing my ear. It should have been impossible to feel a rush of heat at the same time as cold chills on my skin.
The words were the whisper of a whisper. “Wishing the Craisos Prince was here now?”
I rose to the bait, knowing he wanted the fight. “He’ll never stop looking for me.”
“We’re hard to find.”
But Endre’s words didn’t land. I was too preoccupied with my own. Andaros would never stop looking. He’d survived the hit by the dragon’s tail. Immune to dragonfire and magic but not physical attacks. And as soon as he’d recovered, he would come looking. It didn’t matter if they let me live and allowed me to go somewhere other than Rensara. He would look for me and find me anyway.
They could trace me.
Drag me back.
Act like he was saving me and take me back to the cage I never wanted to be in again.
I looked up at Endre. “Kill me.”
“What?”
“He’ll never stop looking. Kill me.”
The golden eyes of the dragon appeared, and with it, the humanness in him dropped away. I sensed the beast within, so much more volatile than the man who spoke to me. He pulled the blade away from my throat and held it away from my body, pinning my wrist against the wall like he thought I might drive it into my own heart.
“I came here with every intention of killing you, Princess.”
Suddenly, his other hand touched me, sinking into the mess of my hair and pulling my head to the side. He drew his nose up the column of my neck, inhaling deep. Nothing had ever felt like that single breath, and the last thing in my head was the fact that he admitted he was here to kill me. “If I hadn’t woken?”
“You’d already be dead.”
Again, he grazed my neck with his nose, like tracing the line of my life was the single thing keeping him at bay. “What stopped you?”
His low, animal growl reached everywhere. No sound should feel like that. “At first, curiosity. But if you keep begging my dragon to end your life, I can’t promise I’ll resist.” The words were velvet soft and deadly.
“Then nothing’s stopping you.”
Another growl, followed by his lips pressed just beneath my jaw. How many times had I imagined this? What it would feel like to be taken by someone who desired me and not who was chosen for political gain.
I closed my eyes. This wasn’t desire. It couldn’t be. Not from him. And from me? I swallowed. He’d come to kill me. Quick and painless. The best I could hope for. “Do it.”
“No.” The sudden word was vicious and ragged. Instinctive. His fingers tightened in my hair, and when he spoke again, it sounded pained. “No, I cannot kill you.”
“Then what?” I forced strength into my voice to keep it level, even as my body seemed to melt with the heat from him standing so close. From touching me. “He will stop at nothing. Prince Andaros. Do you understand? There will be no thoughts other than to save me from the evil that is dragons. The only way he’ll stop is if I’m dead or…” My mind gave me the answer, my heart kicking up a pounding harder than a war drum. I turned my head, and he lifted his head to meet my gaze. The dragon in a human body watched me with naked interest. A predatory gleam. I lifted my eyes to his once more. “Ruin me.”
Endre’s stillness betrayed him. One hand came around my throat, pinning me to the wall. Heat seeped through his palm, like the dragon buried within would surface at any moment. His lips were at my ear again, and I’d never felt anything like his breath on my skin. Had never been close enough to understand the reality of how it felt to touch and be touched. Why the fingers holding me captive felt like so much more than bonds.
“You dare tempt a dragon when he has you alone?”
One squeeze of his hand on my wrist, and the knife clattered to the cell floor. His grip felt different without the blade.
Significant.
I couldn’t speak.
“Do you think I’m a good male?”
“I hope you’re not.”
A growl, a true one that was more beast than man, shook me to my core. “My honor was put to death a long time ago. There is nothing left of it. And I can scent your interest. I am no selfless gallant who won’t dare to take what you offer in order to protect your honor.”
His hand shifted on my throat just enough to allow his lips to press against my skin there. My entire body felt—there was no way to explain the tightening. The longing. The invisible tendrils of longing I couldn’t put name to but grew from the trail he blazed on my skin.
But I wanted to find out.
“I offer you nothing.”
“Don’t you?” The hand that held mine against the wall slid my arm upward, pinning it helpless above me. He released my throat to grab the other, his hands as unbreakable as chains on my wrists. I should have been afraid.
I should have been anything but what I was.
“Ruin me,” I said again, breathless.
“You don’t know what you ask for.” The whisper in my ear again that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. Chills that woke up and stretched along my body like a lounging cat.
“That is because I cannot ask. I don’t. I’ve never—” My breath caught at his low growl. Like my admission made him wilder. I breathed the words again. “Ruin me.”
He laughed, and I wanted to feel that sound where no one had ever touched before. Endre moved so slowly, like he might snap at any moment and do as I asked. His lips touched mine as he spoke, brushing against them in a whisper of every kiss I’d ever imagined. “You might not survive me, Princess.”
“I don’t care if I survive. It is the only way I can be free.”
If I returned, they would compel me to tell the truth. The potion was simple. One of the first I learned. If I was untouched, they would give me to Andaros. If I gave in and begged for whatever heat lived in the space between us, they would kill me for consorting with dragons. But if they took me, I was worthless.
“Beg me,” he whispered.
By the Fallen, I wanted to. Never in my life had I craved anything more than to feel what it would be to surrender to the mercy of this man. This dragon. I shook my head. “No.”
“Beg me.”
“No.”
“What is it you want, Katalena? For me to ravish you? Lay you down on this bed and bury myself inside you until you know nothing but me? Show you what it means to burn alive without fire? To take what I want?”
Yes.
I knew enough to know what he meant, in spite of everyone’s attempts to keep me blind. And stars knew I wanted all of it and more. But I could not speak the word until I knew what they planned for me.
Endre groaned, pinning my body to the wall with his, face dropping between my head and shoulder. “What the fuck is it about you?” The words were murmured into my skin.
All at once he dropped my hands, pulling back to stare at me with a creature’s smoothness. Gold eyes shone through, vertical pupils so unlike the human ones. And they were beautiful.
He blinked, and they were gone, his human eyes replacing them, and the presence of his dragon no longer here. But they weren’t different entities. I felt that much. It was bigger and wilder. Less concerned with rules and consequences. Dangerous. Alluring.
With a heaving breath, he stepped away from me, releasing me entirely. He stared at me, nearly haunted, before backing away more and putting distance between us. He glanced at the knife on the floor and chose to leave it there with a flicker of a smile. “Not what I expected.”
I rushed to the door when he stepped through it, but it was closed and locked by the time I made it to him. “I thought you had no more honor.”
Endre stared at me for a long time, though I did not think it was me he saw. “What tatters of it remain will hold for one more day.”
Then he was gone, striding into the shadows without looking back.
Energy poured out of my body like I’d been plunged into a freezing ocean. I barely made it back to the bed before my knees collapsed, unable to hold me after the intensity of… whatever the stars that had been.
Varí crawled out from beneath the blanket, looking at me carefully. I was glad he hadn’t been seen yet. “That was strange,” I told him.
Like he agreed, Varí chirped. But he also turned back to the wall and curled up, silently telling me there was more sleep to be had and we should rest. But even as I laid down and curled around him, I didn’t know if I would be able to sleep.
Like a phantom, I still felt golden eyes watching me, deciding which way a dragon’s honor would break.