Page 20 of Mate of a Monster

“What exactly are you suggesting, Scab-bella?” Sinner drawls.

Arabella’s eyes flick to him, and then she looks back out at the horizon, at the flashes of fire still cutting through.

“A ban on the skies,” she says with a shrug, as if it’s the most obvious option.

Sinner’s eyes narrow.

Knight’s jaw ticks.

And the wind shifts again, carrying another distant roar up over the balcony, as if the dragons themselves heard her…and laughed.

Like I’m about to fucking do– because is she serious ?

That has to be the most Argent thing I have ever fucking heard.

Never, in a million human years, could we possibly.

Anger builds inside me, but then her palm presses at my chest and my eyes fall to hers.

Blue, swirling pupils stare up at me and I cock my head, the bond palpating in my chest, searching for…something. Safety, maybe. Or reassurance.

That dragon did point his flame at my mate.

I might be a King of Rathe, but my number one job as a son of the royal gods is to protect. And if there is one person I should go against my brothers for, one person I should rewrite the laws of Rathe for, the deepest parts of ourselves will forever be…my fated mate.

Live, breathe, die for.

But that dragon. It had eyes that burned through my skull. Blue…or green.

“What was that dragon?” I ask, looking up at Knight when he doesn’t answer.

He rests back against the table. “Pyrite dragon. They’re known for their tempers. Like to smash shit together to make things ignite.”

I never thought much about dragons.

They existed. They flew. They burned shit when they felt like it but caused no harm and nested in the far reaches of Darkadia, where nobody with half a brain would bother them. Growing up, they were just part of the landscape, like the storms that rolled through the valleys or the gargoyles perched on the palace spires. You didn’t study them because you didn’t need to. They kept to themselves and we kept to ours.

But that one.

That fucking dragon.

I can still feel the hatred of those sapphire eyes, as if I’d done something to personally offend him.

Shit. I might have…the list is long.

My vision tunnels down to a single point somewhere past the ridgeline where the dark swallows everything whole.

Those eyes.

Green. Blue. Both. Neither. Color shifting like the dragon wasn’t just looking at me but through me, peeling back every layer until it found whatever rotten thing lives at the center of my—

Warm palms land on my thighs.

I jolt, spine snapping straight, air punching back into my lungs. My hand shoots down on instinct, fingers closing over smaller ones.

Arabella blinks up at me, her thumbs tracing slow circles against the muscles above my knees.

“You left me for a moment.” Her voice is soft. Steady.