Chapter 30
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KATALENA
Iwas too restless to go sit in the workshop with Mesene. Or perhaps restless was the wrong word. Energized. I wanted to see what this new world had to offer when my old one had been so limited.
The palace library in Rensara was excellent, but it was no university, and there were certainly no dragon texts. Unless you counted the ones that explained how to kill them. Which I did not.
But it was only after I’d gone to the workshop and tried to take up the same scroll that I realized I couldn’t simply sit. And Mesene had told me of Skalisméra’s library. The entrance was far lower than I’d gone before. Not low enough to get me in trouble, I was assured, but down all the same.
I was not prepared.
A long, slim tunnel lit with rocks that glowed like the crystals in her workshop. Long enough that I realized I was crossing into a different mountain. How long had it taken to excavate these places? Was dragonfire so hot they could merely melt the rock and form it to their will?
Idroal had spoken of their talents, and both Endre and Sirrus had something different. Perhaps there were dragons with the power to carve rock? I needed to ask.
The tunnel opened, blooming outward and upward into another open, towering peak. Another set of never-ending, swirling steps. But now the walls were lined with shelves. I spotted alcoves with tables and chairs along the path up and ladders to reach the books taller than a human could reach.
I’d never seen so many texts in one place. The entire palace library would take up less than one spiral of this mountain. My stomach plummeted at the thought. Had the human world ever had access to knowledge like this? Had it been lost? Or were we just too young compared to the dragons to care about it?
The mere thought of climbing that many stairs made my legs ache once more, but I wasn’t going to simply stare at this place. Perhaps I would wear my mind out along with my body and be able to sit still.
Part of my unease and nervous energy was them. They’d been summoned so quickly and they didn’t seem to think it was a good thing. I had to wonder if it was me. Did the Elders know I was still alive?
I climbed one spiral and stopped to rest at the alcove there. A worn, comfortable chair, more than big enough to curl up in, the way a reptile in human form might enjoy. The glowing rocks scattered over the walls and shelves disappeared into the gloom above, sparkling like false stars. No matter where I looked, there didn’t seem to be any windows to let in sunlight, much like Mesene’s workshop. But the light here was softer and bluer. Less harsh.
I didn’t see any dragons either.
Another spiral revealed a large table with a surface made of the glowing crystal. The blueish glow shone through my hand when I placed it on the top.
Up a third spiral, and my body told me exploring this entire place wasn’t going to happen. These halls and stairs weren’t made for humans or human stamina.
I forced myself up a fourth spiral and found another comfortable chair where I finally sat. The dark fabric of the clothes Belleo gave me shimmered in the soft light, and the dense silence surrounded me like I was wrapped in feathers.
It was peaceful, even though I was alone. I probably should have stayed in the Heirs’ chambers and slept. I felt my eyes closing with tiredness. They’d kept me awake, after all.
My skin flushed with heat and remembrance.
The soft sound of a step scraping on stone sent me to full alert, hand falling to the dagger at my thigh.
“Lena?”
I blew out a breath and let my head drop against the back of the chair. That was Zovai’s voice. Relief swept through me. Maybe that was a source of my restlessness. I didn’t know who in the city wanted to harm me. Just because there was a decree to keep me safe didn’t mean there weren’t ways around it. Endre likely thought so as well, since he returned my blade.
“Here.” I didn’t raise my voice, knowing he could hear me. A few moments later, his head crested the spiral where I sat, and he smiled. The ill-fitting black pants he wore didn’t take away from the fact that he was shirtless and one of the most handsome men I’d ever laid eyes on. His skin began to deepen into red before it disappeared into the pants.
That living, burning thing between us snapped tight. His eyes roved over me, and it didn’t seem to matter that I was fully clothed. He looked at me with the same feral desire.
“It hasn’t been very long.”
“Did you expect longer?”
I shrugged. “It’s the Elders. I know nothing about them, or about how you speak with them. The way you left, I wondered if they might keep you all day.”
Zovai sank to his knees in front of the chair. “Thankfully not.” He ran his hands up my legs, beneath my skirt.
“Where are the others?”
“Endre had some things to take care of and Sirrus went with him.”
Narrowing my eyes, I leaned forward, meeting him halfway. Z’s eyes glowed in the dimness with their strange, shifting autumn colors. “Why do I feel like that’s not the case?”
“It is.” He chuckled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You’ll see them soon.”
“Are they all right?” He hesitated, so I reached for him, grabbing his arms to keep him from pulling back. “Please don’t lie to me.”
A smoke-filled sigh seeped into the space between us. “The three of us have a long history, Princess. I hope you’ll be here with us to learn all of it. But some things we’re not ready for. Endre is as good as he can be at the moment. And he’ll be fine. But I didn’t come find you to drag you down with the problems of dragons.”
“I don’t mind.” My chest felt heavy. He wouldn’t say it, and I also knew they’d chosen this and didn’t care, but those problems were to do with me. We both knew it.
Slipping a hand behind my neck and up into my hair, Zovai pulled me close and kissed me softly. And then harder, until I pressed against his chest and he smiled against my mouth. “Zovai.”
“We know you don’t mind, Lena. But it isn’t your burden.”
“I’m not so sure about that. Or are you going to tell me that being called away today had nothing to do with me?”
“Not… directly to do with you, no.” I went to protest, and he kissed me again, effectively silencing me at the same time as dragging heat along my limbs. “We are not human males who will brush something off and say you shouldn’t worry because you’re a woman, incapable, or any of the other ludicrous things I’ve heard them say. But for the moment, it isn’t your burden. So allow me to distract you, and then, when I’m content with your level of distraction, we’ll find the others.”
I glared at him, but wasn’t strong enough the way his fingers tightened in my hair, the other hand still beneath my skirt, stroking my skin. “What kind of distraction?”
“The kind where we find out how good the acoustics are in this chamber, because you’ll be moaning in pleasure. I’d prefer screaming, but we’ll take our time.”
“Is there anyone else in here?”
He shook his head. “Not a soul.”
“Even then, I don’t know if I’ll be screaming. It has nothing to do with you, I?—”
“Bringing the shyness back just for me, Lena?” He teased. “Don’t worry. I’ll banish it again.”
In a moment he had me up and out of the chair, carrying me up the next spiral to a larger platform where the shelves branched out from the walls as well as alongside them. My back was up against the shelves, the brush of leather and the crunch of parchment against my back.
“Is this better?” Z shot me a mischievous grin. “Now you can’t be seen.”
I already knew it didn’t matter. Whatever distraction or pleasure he was offering, I wanted. “And heard?”
“Let them listen,” he murmured, lips at my temple as he crowded my space. “All those invisible listeners.”
“Zovai.” My voice was barely a whisper. “The first time standing up… I don’t know.”
He turned my body so my back was flush against him and took my hands in his. One braced against the shelf, and the other pulling my skirt up. And up and up until the cooler air of the library touched my thighs. Warm breath fanned over my neck.
“No, Lena,” he murmured. “The first time any of us fuck you will be in a bed. Where we can take our time with you. Where we can be gentle, even if all we want is to consume you.”
“Then what are we doing?” As creative and unique as dragons were, there wasn’t any way for his mouth to be between my legs right now.
Zovai’s hand guided mine downward, smoothing it over the exposed skin of my stomach and easing it between my thighs where my body was already responding to him. An instinct I couldn’t explain and didn’t remember having before them. Maybe in passing, but I had shoved it aside.
Now I wished I hadn’t.
Have you ever touched yourself with your fingers like this?Sirrus echoed in my head.
Guiding my fingers, Zovai took his time. Lips brushed the back of my neck, and though he never wavered, I felt the coiled tension in him. Nearly shaking. He wanted so much more than this, but he was holding himself back. For me.
He moved our fingers together, teasing and exploring. Dipping down even lower near that entrance I’d rarely had cause to think about—other than when I bled—and back again. “Tell me what feels good, Princess.”
“I don’t know.”
The softest of purrs vibrating against my back sent chills over my skin. “Don’t think about it. Just tell me when it does.”
Our fingers circled together around that small bud of sensation they centered the mouths and tongues around. Again the lower path, dragging the wetness of my body up to ease the path. It was the gliding upward and around that made me gasp first. Our hands moving back and forth over it, drawing strange and new pleasure. Not as intense as what it had been, but building. “Yes. There.”
“After we take you,” he whispered, “I’ll teach you how to fuck yourself with your fingers. Right now, this is just for you.”
Back and forth, his fingers moved with the strangest friction that gathered that intangible pleasure together in a haze that rendered me unable to speak or think or see. He slowed down to an agonizing pace, and I moaned, needing more. There was no way to tell him with words, but he didn’t need them. “Faster then,” he murmured into my neck, heat gliding beneath my skin with every breath.
Yes. Faster was better. Faster made my hips buck towards our combined fingers and close my eyes, fighting against the urge to beg. It was a different kind of delicious heat. It rose more quickly than the devilish flicking of his tongue and came on stronger.
Zovai chuckled in my ear. “Faster?”
He released my hand, once more dipping into the natural wetness of my body and using it against me. For me. To show me what this was like. I couldn’t breathe. And still, my body was exposed to the air, my soft pants echoing in the small space around us.
“Zovai—”
“Come for me, Lena.” The words were a purr. “Let me taste your pleasure. There’s no one here who will judge you or take you away because of it.”
More than once I’d heard tell of ladies in court being pleasured in the dark hallways of the castle. Or in the quiet of the library. That they’d come back to the throne room with wrinkled skirts and smug smiles. Scandal always followed after.
There was no scandal here.
Zovai’s fingers moved in a steady flurry. That single, curling tendril of sensation curled around the core of my being and tightened. He wrapped an arm around my chest, pressing us together into the shelf of ancient texts, and I clung to him. “Let go, princess.”
A nova flared behind my eyes, a sharp cry shattering through the looming silence as pleasure followed. It lingered with the movements of his fingers, my body at once yearning for more and fighting the touch on my too-sensitive flesh.
“Again,” he murmured.
I could. Deep down, I knew that his hands on me could push me to new heights of this sensation, and I wanted to experience it. But not here. “Not yet.”
“Mmm.” He hummed into my ear. “Are you sure? If I kneel before you, I believe I could bring you again. Hard enough to drink your pleasure. And perhaps again after that.”
Turning, I threw my arms around my neck and gave him my weight. “I’m sure.”
Zovai lifted his fingers to my lips, painting them with my own arousal before he kissed me and licked them clean. The rawness of it—the dark, beastly side of all of them that lurked between the surface—made me hesitate. I wanted it.
Stars, what would my life have been like if I’d never known what true pleasure was? If I’d been relegated to the bed of a prince who cared for nothing other than my position as his queen and his own pleasure. From what they told me, this was still the barest hint of what was possible.
“I want you mindless,” he said against my lips. “For all of us. Once your body knows what we offer, I’ll have the others pin you down while I taste your cunt until every orgasm is a flood. Take turns until our beds are wet enough with your pleasure it can drown out our flames.”
My body shook with the image. “That’s not possible.”
“It is,” he promised. Then Zovai grinned. “And even if it weren’t, never dare a dragon. Such a challenge cannot be resisted.”
I swallowed, still catching my breath. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for such a thing.”
“But you’re curious?”
Licking my lips, I tasted the two of us together, and my body reacted once more. What would Helena think of me? Turned into a wanton woman who craved things that should never be named.
I huffed a laugh. Of anyone, she would be shoving me into their arms with more abandon. “Yes.”
“Good.” His eyes burned like coals. “Good. Shall we?—”
Another scraping step on stone made me go still. Zovai just smirked and looked down at me. “Guess those listeners weren’t so invisible after all.”
My skin burned with embarrassment and something else. Something deeper that shouldn’t have been pride, but felt like possession.
My dragon groaned. “I’m getting you out of here. If I have to scent one more breath of your fresh arousal, I won’t be able to keep my promise about the bed.”
Tugging me after him down the once-more-abandoned stairs, I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe I would unlearn this shyness once and for all.