Chapter 24
________
KATALENA
Belleo teased me a little, but it felt more like the teasing Helena would do than anything real. My stomach still fluttered, my heart still raced. What would have happened had she not walked in right then?
I shuddered, wanting to find out.
Some of the clothes my new friend had promised were in the room I’d been assigned, including a simple sleeping shift that was somehow still prettier than most of the things I’d worn in Rensara with the way it was formed of silver silk that looked like liquid moonlight.
She’d even made Varí more little pouches for his coin. He gathered them up into a pile and snuggled down in them so I could only see his eyes. I laughed and stroked the top of his head. “Will this be your new hoard? Pouches?”
One slow blink had me laughing even harder, because his answer was clearly no.
I doused the candle beside the bed, and for the briefest moment I wondered what would happen if I climbed the stairs again and knocked on their door. Would it open for me?
But that was exactly what Soza had done.
It wasn’t the same, but I wanted no comparison between the two of us. Even so, my body took a step toward the door like it might override my thoughts.
Stop it, Lena.
I crawled beneath the blankets, keenly aware of my skin against them. Aware that I was alone in the bed and for the first time in my life, I didn’t want to be.
Since I was young, the idea of marriage had been abhorrent, because it had never been my choice. It was an inevitability. Here and now, though it might get me killed, it was my choice.
The way they looked at me?—
I had only ever imagined being looked at like that. Like you were the sole object in someone’s universe, and you were all that mattered.
Turning on my side, I stared out one of the windows into the darkness of the night sky. Speckled with a thousand stars that were different from the ones I knew back home.
I nearly laughed. Home.
Rensara was no longer my home. Even if I did go back, I would be bundled off to Craisos or killed. There was nothing left to lose.
Something unfurled in my chest.
I was never going back.
Any decisions I made were my own, and I didn’t care about the risk.
A shadow swooped past in the bright darkness, causing me to sit up. I went to the window. The shadow of a dragon moved out over the sea and curved back. In the light of the moon I spotted the glint of rubies.
It came back so fast, and right at me.
Was it not going to stop? If it didn’t, it would run straight into the mountain. Like an arrow, it tucked in its wings and came faster.
I threw myself away from the window and to the floor, covering my head to protect it from the inevitable debris. But nothing came. After a moment, I heard a voice and chills ran down my spine. “Lena?”
There was no more dragon. Zovai was outside the window, looking in with a grin, moonlight on his entirely bare torso. “What—” I blew out a breath. “I thought you were going to crash into the mountain.”
He laughed quietly. “You don’t have more faith in me than that? I carried you all the way here and didn’t drop you.”
I went to the window and brushed my fingers over the sill, so close and still so far away. “My first thought when a dragon flies straight toward me is not that you’ll shift.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “But maybe I can make you see differently.”
“How?”
“Fly with me.”
The air between us went still. He pushed himself further up, so his face was nearer to mine. Far enough that I could see he was not merely bare from the waist up. The skin flowed downward, turning to red that matched his scales, and though I could see nothing, I flushed.
Zovai leaned in and brushed his mouth across my skin just like he had in the workshop. “Fly with me,” he whispered again.
“We already did that.”
“Not in my claws. Not as cargo. Not as a prisoner. Fly with me.”
Terror and exhilaration rolled through me at once. What had I just thought to myself? That all my choices were my own. Did I want this?
Stepping out the window meant more than just a flight. I knew that. And once I did it, there was no turning back.
But then again, from the moment we locked eyes in that garden, there had never been any going back.
Like he sensed my hesitation, Zovai pulled back and looked at me. “Will you trust me?”
He didn’t ask if I did trust him, but if I would. A request.
“Yes.”
Zovai’s smile took my breath away. “Hold on.”
He dropped out of view, and his dragon form swept out from the mountain and circled tightly, coming as near as he could to the window while being so large. The tip of his wing touched the window sill, and I moved before I could second guess myself. I crawled across his wing and onto his back.
The enchantment that threw me to the floor earlier must have known that he would not let me fall, because there was no resistance.
His scales were hard and rough beneath my legs, but up close they glittered. I looked back. “Varí.”
A soft growl floated through the air. He is fine.
I nearly fell off Zovai’s back.
“Can you hear my thoughts?”
Warm laughter in my mind that felt like being wrapped up in sweet incense. No, I cannot read your mind. Though there are some dragons who can. It is not a skill of mine. Hold on.
He dropped without warning, and I screamed, unable to stop myself. The scream gave way to laughter as he leveled out, flying toward one of the nearby peaks. This was so different from being carried.
Like those first moments, I threw my arms wide, closed my eyes, and imagined I was the one flying. “Stars, I wish I had wings.”
We’ll be your wings, Lena.
I gasped. Endre swooped down beside us just as Sirrus spun over us, rolling so he was briefly upside down overhead. “You’re here.”
Couldn’t let you two have all the fun.
Smoke flowed up from Zovai, and I tasted it. I invited them along. Is that all right?
Nothing in the world could stop my smile. “Yes.”
I looked down at the sea to our right, the line of sparkling water leading to the moon over the horizon. “I’d never seen it before. Until those windows.”
The sea?
“Yes.”
Something from Endre rumbled in my mind. Let’s go see it closer then.
My shriek split the air as all three of them turned and dove. Wind rushed past, searing my skin with the cold and filling my lungs with the same sharpness. The temperature warmed as we dropped, the air turning damp and wilder. Winds that weren’t theirs swept through my hair and left it tangled. My face hurt from smiling so widely.
We were so low we nearly brushed the surface of the water. Salt and spray tickled my skin and clung to my shift. There was nothing in the world that could compare to this. It was no wonder that humans envied dragons so.
But the dragons had shared flight freely before the wars. Where did everything go wrong?
The air on my skin made me wonder. “Your power is the air, Sirrus. You all have them? Like Idroal and their whispers?”
The wind is my power, yes,Sirrus said. A swirl of air curled around my neck like a caress from him. Endre can conjure illusions. Convince your mind to see what is not there, or create things that appear real.
“And you?” I pressed my palm to the dragon I rode. He didn’t speak at first, and when he did, it was tinged with sadness.
I have none.
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
A warm chuckle filled my mind. Do not be sorry, Lena. I have been alive for a long time and have accepted it. Though it does not stop my envy sometimes. Still, I am not flying with you on my back to drag you down into sadness.
Zovai turned, dipping a wing into the water, splashing me. I laughed, not caring that my night dress was soaked, the mood shifting back to light and carefree. This was the happiest moment of my life.
What would you like to see?Sirrus’s voice felt in my mind the way the wind did on my skin.
“Everything.”
Wind caught their wings and lifted. Now instead of low, we went higher than I ever imagined we could. Until I saw my breath in puffs in front of me and the mountain of Skalisméra was laid out beneath us. The curves of the Bowl disappeared into the distance.
“How do you ever stay on the ground?”
There are things on the ground we cannot find in the sky.
“Like what?”
You.
My stomach tumbled like he’d dropped me from his back and into free fall. If I were more daring, I would ask if I could leap and let them catch me.
We flew in silence, zigzagging through the mountains, eventually slowing. As much as I wished I could fly forever, I grew cold.
“Can I touch the sea? Before we go back?”
They turned and flew down to the sand without hesitation. Claws dug into the soft earth and absorbed any sound of their landing. But now I heard the waves, rhythmic and soothing. I loved that sound.
Sliding off Zovai’s back, I wiggled my toes in the damp black sand. In Rensara there were paintings of the ocean that captivated me. And even though the water in front of me was calm and not stormy, not a single painting came close to capturing the true majesty of something so vast.
I walked forward until the waves licked at my toes and gasped. It was warmer than I imagined, sucking the sand away beneath my feet.
“Is it what you thought?”
Zovai stood behind me, the others close. They were naked, and I looked up into his eyes quickly. All I found there was amusement and heat. No shame. Almost a dare. We were here. What would I do?
“It’s so much better.”
He came close, taking me by the arms and pulling me in so we nearly touched. I kept my gaze on his face, though my body reacted to his closeness and his heat. “You still don’t have to say anything, Princess.”
When he leaned in, I decided. “I don’t care. I’m saying yes.”
He kissed me with a groan, and my whole body was on fire. His body barely touched mine, and yet I felt it everywhere. I never imagined a simple meeting of mouths could feel like this. I wanted more of it. More of him. More of…
I broke away as a wave splashed around our feet and stared at him. “Yes,” I said again. Then I looked at Endre and Sirrus. Tingling shivers ran through me, both pleasure and anxiety. “Yes. Though I am nervous.”
It was Sirrus who approached first. He reached for my hand and I gave it. Looking at it with a reverence that leveled me, he pulled my hand to his chest. “Why are you nervous?”
“Because I know nothing. Next to nothing about what comes next. Enough not to be afraid, but no more than that.”
Zovai was still so close, the heat of his skin warming my side, and I was still trying not to look, even though I knew they wouldn’t care. “We’ll teach you everything.”
I looked at Endre and choked on a laugh. “Does this mean you’ve decided not to kill me?”
He didn’t come to me, and he didn’t say anything. Simply stared, shoulders heaving up and down like he couldn’t catch his breath.
I released Sirrus and stepped away from Zovai, approaching slowly. My feet sank into the sand with every step, and he watched me with that dark urgency I recognized. “Endre?”
My voice snapped something in him. Suddenly I was in his arms with his lips on mine, and skin on skin on skin. It left me breathless and overwhelmed and stars I wanted to be overwhelmed. I wrapped my arms around his neck, never wanting to be farther away again.
“I cannot resist you,” he said roughly. “I cannot.”
“Then don’t.”
He kissed me again, hands skimming down my spine. The heat through the thin dress was enough to make me beg. And I was aware of the way we were pressed together and what I felt against me.
Endre groaned, hands digging into my hips before releasing me, eyes wild. “Lena.”
“What do we do now?”
An arm slid around my waist, raising chills on my skin. “Climb back on, Princess,” Zovai said. “There is warmth and pleasure waiting.”
A soft breeze, and I was surrounded by dragons. It wasn’t grotesque or painful to watch. Instead, it was instant. They were men, and then they were dragons.
Zovai lowered his shoulder. I climbed onto his back once more, and we were airborne. I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of this feeling. Breathless, weightless, and totally free.
I laughed, joy flowing through me, and the three dragons flew faster.