Beautiful Beast (Dragons of Viria Book 1)

Chapter 1

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KATALENA

Istepped over a puddle too cloudy to be water, ducking to avoid the stream of rainfall and stars knew what else rolling off the sagging roof of the tavern.

Dusk was falling, drowning the city in darkness as damp as the current skies. Not that there had been much light to begin with today. The black clouds spiraling above Rensara matched my mood. For once.

There wasn’t much time. I needed to be back soon, before someone reported me missing and sent the whole city into a panicked frenzy. But I required something that couldn’t be found within the palace walls, and it couldn’t wait.

Ducking down an alley, I made sure my hood concealed my face, even in the shadows. On any other day, someone seeing me would be inconvenient. Today—tonight—would be catastrophic.

Booted footsteps came down the street I approached, and I slid into the shadows at the edge of the alley. Between the wall and the pile of garbage I pretended not to smell.

“What he brought with him isn’t even a quarter. I’ve never been so relieved.”

A rough laugh in response. “I’ll be glad of more soldiers as long as their food deliveries don’t stop.”

“I still wonder how they’re getting all that food in the first place the way the land’s drying up. But they won’t stop. Can’t starve their own people. Not when we’re their people now.”

“And I’ll believe that when I see it. Marriage is one thing. Both Gleira and Craisos suddenly acting like one big happy family? I don’t think so.”

The voices faded into the mist together, the rumbling of their conversation continuing. The second soldier wasn’t wrong. An alliance in name was one thing. An alliance in practice was another. We had the first. The second we’d have to wait and see about.

But sitting in the damp and ruminating about politics wasn’t something I had time for.

A clattering sound had me jumping, pressing myself into the wall. But no one was visible in the alley or in the street beyond. The small magics humans could harness—whether through the incredibly rare gift, or the power of ingredients—didn’t include invisibility. I released the breath trapped in my chest, tensing again as a glass bottle slid from the pile of garbage and down onto the cobbles, shattering.

What in the?—

I circled the pile, curiosity getting the better of me. And I never would have noticed, chalked it up to the garbage settling, if not were the tiny glint of metal half-hidden beneath a discarded piece of wood.

A gold coin sat there, far too shiny to be where it sat. I picked it up, turning it over. “How odd.”

If I came across someone begging on the way back to the castle, they would get a surprise. If not, I would offer it to help the poor. I had no need of the money.

Movement startled me, something flying at me so quickly I fell backward, stealing the coin from my fingers and curling around it. I fell into the pooling water on the ground, scrabbling backward to get some distance so I could grab the knife at my thigh.

But no second blow came. The only thing different from one moment to the next was the small lump where the coin had been, and glowing golden eyes, glaring.

There…

That was impossible.

A small, rust-colored dragon perched on the pile of garbage, wings flared, looking like he was ready to flay me alive for daring to touch his coin. He wouldn’t get too far. Not one this size.

Immediately, I was grateful I had been the one to stumble on him and not the guards. The little creature would already be dead.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered.

The tiniest of growls had my mouth curling into a smile. Meant to be intimidating, it wasn’t. It was adorable.

“I won’t hurt you,” I told it. “But this place is dangerous for you.”

The anger drained from the glare, replaced by curiosity and what looked like hope. No free dragon had set foot in Rensara in over a century, and the ones that had weren’t there to be friendly. No free dragons were permitted within the city limits. The law was to kill on sight.

“Fucking stars,” I muttered to myself. Leaving it here would only lead to it getting killed, and I didn’t want to live with that. But taking it home would cause even more problems.

Holding out my hand, the little dragon tucked in its wings and sniffed delicately. “I have no idea how you ended up here,” I said quietly. “But I’m one of the few people in this city who won’t attack you. I’ll do my best to keep you safe.”

I would have Helena reach out to one of the smugglers and see if we could ship something else out and tuck the dragon inside.

It still stared, like it was unsure I told the truth. Old words appeared in my memory from long ago. Bedtime stories I hadn’t known were far more than stories. “I swear on the seven Fallen I will do everything in my power to keep you from harm.”

Tilting its head, it looked at me for a beat longer before scrambling up my outstretched arm and into my hood. Despite the rain, the small body was warm against the back of my neck, and the tiniest vibration of a purr made me smile.

I glanced at the sky, wondering what I’d done for the stars to drop this kind of complication on me. I was one of the only people who wouldn’t harm the creature, but I was also one who could do very little for it.

The street was still clear, so I pulled my hood further around my face and stuck to the shadows as I made my way to the busier streets. The rain thankfully kept most people inside. The small shop tucked between a butcher and a cobbler, marked only by a fern with seven fronds on the hanging sign, drew no notice.

I inhaled as I stepped through the door, savoring the rich scents of earth and spice that were such a shift from the damp outside.

Despite its humble appearance, the shop glowed cozily, shelves filled with bottles of every size and color, stuffed in between bundles of herbs which threatened to knock those bottles over. Colored lamps hung low you had to step around them or get knocked in the head, and the ground was equally cluttered with barrels of ingredients someone much stronger than I would have to lift.

The worn wood counter stood empty, but beyond it was a workshop filled with mortars and pestles in various stages of use. Pots bubbled over the fire, distilling the ingredients before they made it to the shelves, and a pile of plants so large it looked like a bush swelled in the corner.

I would live here if I could.

Every ingredient at my fingertips and no one watching my every movement and reporting it to someone else. Not to mention?—

I slammed a wall down on my thoughts. For the hour it would take for me to buy what I needed and get back, I wasn’t going to let myself think about the rest of it and how life in this shop sometimes felt like heaven to my hell.

A familiar voice filled the shop from out of view, most likely from the hidden doorway to the living quarters. “You must be desperate if something we have for sale has you out in this weather.”

I smiled, knowing Taia didn’t know who was here yet. “I would never describe myself as desperate. Determined, maybe? Resolute? In a hurry?”

Taia came around the corner with her mouth agape. “Have you lost your stars-riddled mind, girl? This is the last place you should be, today of all days.”

Rolling my eyes, I stepped up to the table. “I’m aware. And while I’m not desperate, the urgency required the trip. Hence why I’m short on time.”

“Who is it?” Baris, her husband, called.

Taia opened her mouth, and I saw her start to say my full name and change her mind. “It’s Lena.”

He came out too, a bowl in his hands and a rag thrown idly over a shoulder. “She’s right, you shouldn’t be here.”

Frustration clawed at my chest. “Thank you,” I snapped. “I know. I’m trying to ensure the situation doesn’t become worse, and I can only do that if I finish what I’m brewing. Today.”

The man looked properly chastised. They told me I shouldn’t be here every time I came, but that hadn’t stopped them from teaching me everything they knew and letting me spend hours in their small kitchen studying texts few people remembered. We were all aware that I shouldn’t be here.

I still was.

Taia sighed. A sound that said it all. Sympathy and her own frustration. Resignation. “What do you need?”

I pulled the piece of stripped parchment from inside my bodice and placed it on the table. She wouldn’t touch it, and as soon as I left, I would toss it in the nearest puddle. Not even ashes could be left.

Invisibility was no longer something that could be achieved. Tracing something through ash and the remnants of one’s soul that stamped everything you touched? Easy, for the right person with the right ingredients.

She looked up at me. “You’re sure?”

“I am.”

Given what was on the list, she had every right to ask.

Thym de Sariette

Sikala

Fade Flower

The potions containing those ingredients were few and far between. Taia didn’t need to ask what I was brewing, she knew.

Baris was already pulling on gloves to wrap the fade flower. “You know?”

“Not to touch it.” A smile touched my lips. “You taught me well.”

He nodded once, but worry lined his features. The time for worry was gone. This was happening, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. So I wouldn’t. Like every woman before me who didn’t control her own fate, I would adapt.

Taia put a bottle of ground Sikala on the table, and I couldn’t stop it. The dragon slithered out from behind my neck and leapt onto the table. It sniffed at the bottle, the rust-colored scales I saw before melting into a warmer gold.

She leapt back, holding her hands up, and Baris started muttering under his breath. Prayers or curses, I wasn’t sure which.

“Lena.”

“I practically stumbled over it in an alley. What would you have me do? Leave it there to be skewered on the guards’ swords?”

She looked at me like I’d grown scales. “And what will you do with it? Stride into the throne room with a fucking dragon on your arm, Princess?” The last word hissed in the quiet, and I winced.

“I don’t know. But I’m not going to let someone kill it. I’ll smuggle it out of the city somehow.”

On the table beneath the dragon, it still held that single gold coin clutched in its claws. It ruffled its wings and sat, tilting its head the same way as the alley. Baris stepped closer and put the carefully wrapped packet of fade flower down, slowly reaching for the small dragon.

“It’s male,” he said. “Four claws.”

My eyes dropped to the clawed toes, and yes, there were four. I’d forgotten that detail. Such was my life, trying to remember everything but not actually recall it in case someone asked me something and I responded too quickly.

“Well, then I’ll be smuggling him out of the city.” I held out my hand. “Stop scaring my friends and come back here. It’s still not safe.”

He scrambled back up into my hood and curled up against my neck again. His small warmth was oddly comforting.

Taia shook her head. “Only you, girl. Risk your life for herbs and add a dragon to the mix.”

“Risking my life for herbs seems a little dramatic, Taia.”

“Not when you have a dragon with you.”

I couldn’t argue with her there.

A small vial of the oil I needed was in her hand. Thym de Sariette. Rare and dangerous. But most importantly, permanent.

“I have to ask once more, Lena. Are you sure? There’s no going back from this.”

I’d thought about it for a long time. If we were both speaking honestly, I’d been thinking about it my whole life, and this had always been my decision. Tomorrow is what made it urgent. He made it urgent.

Locking eyes with her, I picked up the packet and bottle. “If you can honestly tell me you wouldn’t do the same, were our roles reversed, then I shall reconsider.”

Her face was grim, and she only handed me the vial. No denial.

“I’ve never wanted it, Taia. You know that. Not like this, and never in this world. I will not continue the cycle.”

She nodded as I tucked the vial away and took the list back. I wanted to linger and let the conversation take its course, as we’d done so many times before. We all knew why we couldn’t.

“Will we ever see you again?” Baris asked.

“I truly hope so. If it’s not meant to be, the two of you have been the best of friends and teachers. Thank you.”

I couldn’t wait to see their reaction to goodbye. Enough about this place would haunt me as it was, if I couldn’t return. So I turned and made my way back through the maze of the shop. My hand was on the door when Taia spoke once more. “Good luck, Katalena.”

One breath more, and I pushed out into the rain, dropping the parchment into the stream of water sliding between the cobblestones. It was already gone.

The dragon curled closer to my skin, a little hot breath warming my ear. “All right. Let’s go see if I can get you into the palace without getting us both killed.”

I heard a tiny chirp, and his warmth made it less daunting to step back out into the pouring rain, walking toward the prison I would never be able to escape.