Chapter 13
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SIRRUS
“You did what?” I asked again, not quite believing what I’d heard the first time around.
Endre prowled across the training space, bathed in sweat. He’d barely bothered to dress, trousers barely clinging to him. Because he’d gone flying again even though he didn’t have the strength for it. And when he could no longer fly, he came here and brutalized the training dummies until he was dragging on his feet.
Or at least he had been until I found him here.
“I couldn’t—” He heaved in a breath. “I went to kill her. I meant to kill her. And now I can barely sit still because I want to go back there and take everything she… offered.” He hung over the word with a frown.
My dragon perked up in interest. Our dragons were the larger, less controlled versions of ourselves. Who we were with our humanity stripped back to instinct and power. Our dragons had morals and were tempered by our minds, but those morals were flexible. Very flexible.
There were lines we would never cross, and then there was everything else. Whether our more human and conscious minds would be in control? That depended on the day, and the level of instinct.
What Endre fought currently, I hadn’t seen in ages. He was the steadiest of us. The most controlled. His dragon’s eyes currently showed through his form, begging to be unleashed. The hold he had on the beast was short and fragile at best.
Exactly like Zovai.
“I can still scent her,” he spat. “Feel her heartbeat.”
I raised one eyebrow. “And this is a problem, because?” He glared, and I shrugged. “It’s not the first time a dragon has fucked a human. Why does it matter? Your dragon wants her. Why do you resist?”
Endre’s growl shredded the air. “I do not know.”
“Well, you better figure it out. We’re meeting with her in two hours.”
“Why?”
“I was going to tell you it was because Zovai needed to see her. But seeing you, perhaps I should meet with her alone.”
He snarled, and I smirked. I knew it would be his reaction. “Jealous?”
“Of course not.”
I crossed my arms. “So, if I told you I was on my way to fuck her?”
Endre swung at me so quickly that if I hadn’t been ready, I might have been nursing a broken jaw for a few hours. “Stop baiting me.”
“But you make it so enjoyable.”
Fire burned in his eyes, and I chuckled, despite my concerns. Two of the three of us? It was unlikely I would be immune. But where did that leave us? If I went to strike the killing blow and save my brothers, would I be taken in as well? “We must decide if she is to die. Because once the Elders find out she’s alive, if we’ve decided differently, we need arguments in place. A plan.”
He knew I was right, even if he didn’t have the conscious mind to acknowledge it.
“She’s different,” he said. “I can’t explain it. Just like Z. You’ll see.”
“I’m sure I will.”
“Don’t patronize me,” he snapped. “Two of the three of us encounter this human woman and our dragons are out of control? I don’t like it.”
I smirked and leaned back against the wall. “I don’t know. It seems like you like it a lot.”
The door burst open, one of the young runners appearing out of breath. He bowed at the waist, taking the moment to catch himself before he spoke. “There is a message, my lords. I’m told it’s urgent.”
“What is it?”
“They would not allow me to carry it, and requested you come to the bastion.”
Even Endre stopped his pacing at that, going still. A familiar feeling of dread crept in. The reasons for collecting a message directly were limited, and few of them were good.
“Put on a shirt,” I said to Endre. “We wouldn’t want all of Skalisméra to fall into a rut of lust when you walk by. Or the human. If we see her.”
“Fuck you.” But the words had no strength.
When he turned away, I allowed my worry in while he couldn’t see it. He’d expended too much. Would continue to expend too much to avoid the need driving his mind.
“You’re dismissed,” I said to the runner and turned back to Endre. “Do you need me to put you under until the meeting?”
“Fuck you,” he said again, striding past me and through the door. I followed.
We didn’t speak the entire way to the bastion. Buried down deep in the heart of the mountain, it was easily my least favorite place to visit in this city. My dragon felt the pressing weight of all the earth above when we were so deep, and he didn’t like it.
I steadied myself as we came into the presence of the stone. Or the small piece of it that was visible within the mountain. The deep vibration under my skin never felt quite right. But the hulking chunk of obsidian the size of a hundred dragons jutting out from where it had buried itself on impact didn’t give a Fallen fuck what I thought about it.
The rest of it was outside the mountain.
It contained no true sentience that we knew of, though it often seemed otherwise.
We made our way through the crater and beyond, to the carved rooms where the messengers spent their time. Still within reach of the stone’s amplification, but comfortable.
“Ah, you’re here.” Idroal stood at the doorway to their space. A chaotic collection of scrolls and scribbled notes tracking various messages and conversations, and beyond that, research. The dragon was constantly curious about the ways of the world and always had been in the centuries I’d known them.
“I think you gave the poor runner a fright.”
Idroal smirked and allowed us through. “Perhaps I did. But the intensity of the message warranted speed.”
Endre’s jaw was tight, eyes burning like he still warred with his beast. “What is it?”
“A message came in the night, wanting to know if your lordships were in residence. No one had received instructions to avoid the answer, so we confirmed, and heard nothing. Until a, frankly, brutally rude message came through not long ago. The Elders demand to know why you have come to Skalisméra and not returned to Doro Eche. They also want to know if you have succeeded in their instructions.”
I looked to Endre. The final word in matters like these would always rest with him. We were equals in every way that mattered. Power, status, title. But Endre had suffered the most at the Elders’ claws and we deferred to him when dealing with them.
“Tell them the assignment took more out of me than I expected,” Endre said calmly. Not a lie. “I could not make the flight to Doro Eche and came here instead to recover. And tell the Elders that the status of their instructions is too sensitive to be passed through couriers. Even ones as trusted as you, Idroal.”
The dragon sat on a large, low cushion behind the desk, also close to the ground. Their eyes shone gold, dragon appearing for a moment. “Could this detour have anything to do with the rumors of a beautiful human woman in the halls?”
“With all you have to do, you have time for rumors?”
“You know I hear everything, Sirrus. Don’t pretend otherwise.”
I wouldn’t. Idroal did hear everything, their abilities allowing them to hear echoes through stone and not only project their mind to communicate. Nearly anything spoken in the mountain had a chance to be heard if Idroal happened to be listening. Something we would do well to remember.
“If our message receives a response, you know where to find us.”
They shook their head. “It’s safe to say it will get a response. One that’s likely going to give me a headache. Thank you for that.”
“Add it to our debt,” I said.
The running, and joking, tally of times Idroal had taken the brunt of messages meant for us.
“Someday I’m going to call in that debt,” they warned.
I clapped Endre on the shoulder and turned him back to the door. “Looking forward to it.”
He looked at me intentionally. Neither of us spoke, knowing Idroal would no doubt be listening to the whispers through the walls. Our chambers were protected against listening of any kind. We didn’t speak until we crossed the threshold and closed the door.
“There’s only so much time we’ll be able to delay a true answer this time,” I said. “The destruction of the alliance is of too much importance.”
“We’ll tell them to send someone else to Rensara to check on the state of things. For obvious reasons, we couldn’t merely stay to see how things fell out. Someone with the power of disguise.”
Like him.
It was a good plan and would buy us some time. “You think they’ll listen?”
“Depends on how desperate they are.”
“I would think they’re about as desperate as you right now.”
Endre fell onto the couch heavily. “I feel it pressing,” he said. “Against the bonds. Raging. She doesn’t make the feeling better. All of this. My dragon pushing and nearly believing we could dissolve it ourselves.”
“Better not to cling to wishful thinking,” I told him. “Go bathe. Try to master yourself. In spite of your… desire, we must not show too much of our hand.”
“Good luck getting Z to agree.”
I nodded. “I’ll make sure he does.”
He dragged himself off the couch and into the bathing chamber, and I blew out a breath. Apprehension moved through me in a ripple. Both of them had come face to face with this woman and found themselves and their dragons dangerously close to the edge.
The edge of what, I wasn’t sure. But if both of them had succumbed to whatever power she held, I didn’t know what hope I had.
I could only pray to the Fallen I could be stronger than them just this once, so we didn’t get ourselves killed along with her.