Page 108 of I Dream of Dragons

“I… I don’t know,” I admit. “Perhaps. The king said I can break the spell on myself on my own. That I don’t need your help to do it.”

“I never thought you did. I don’t think I broke the spell of your voice.Youdid that.”

“But it happened when you kissed me, when you touched me.”

He reaches a hand out to me. “Come here.”

Hesitantly, I take his hand and scoot closer until I’m sitting beside him. “I was sure you did it.”

“I have no power over sea spells. My power is shadows and through Phaethon, an affinity with dragons. You are the sea maiden.”

“Don’t call me that.” I scrunch up my face. “It makes me sound like something… innocent. And glorious.”

“You are glorious,” he says quietly. “Always were.”

“Jai…”

“I told myself I’d let you discover the truth on your own, but the king is pushing you.”

I nod, my chest too tight.

“Makhair… I felt that you were my mate from the first moment I laid my eyes on you. And I knew it for sure when I kissed you. My fated mate. There’s only ever one in the world.”

My breath stutters. “I don’t believe that. I don’t believe love only comes once in a lifetime.”

“But I do. This kind of love can only strike you once, or you don’t survive it. I don’t want to live again through the agony of remaining on this earth when your other half was gone.”

He’d said that before.

“I feel you. Here.” He taps his chest. “And here.” Taps his temple. “I feel when you’re scared or in pain. So I will ask you again: have you felt it, too?”

I hesitate. This is a point of no return. This is where truths will be told, old wounds bloodied, and everything I’ve believed until now will be upended.

His jaw clenches. His gaze shutters. “No? You don’t feel it?”

He’s taking my silence as a denial.

“I’d never try to control you, fated mate or not, I hope you know that,” he says quietly. “Everything is your choice,makhair. Songbirds in cages are not for me. If you felt obliged to stay with me, I’d set you free.”

The look in his dark eyes is heart-rending. My heart cracked in two when I thought he’d died, and it looks like his shattered just the same.

I can’t take it anymore. “Jai, yes, I feel?—”

Suddenly he’s pushing to his feet and stepping out of my reach. He takes a deep breath and his mouth tilts in a shark smirk. “What is this? Do I smell salty tears?”

“What?” I scramble to my feet, too, and gaze up to meet his eyes. “I was only saying?—”

“You were crying.” His eyes narrow, harden and fill with golden stars. He tilts his head to the side. “Emotions getting the better of you, Little Human?”

“Yeah.” I sigh. “Phaethon?”

“In the flesh. So to speak.”

“Let Jai through. We were talking. It was an important conversation.”

“No, you were being emotional. Both of you.”

“Emotions aren’t a bad thing.”