Page 113 of I Dream of Dragons

Mars… Jai doesn’t look like Mars or maybe he does, but the coloring threw me off. He was a boy when I knew him. That delicate face has changed into the chiseled planes of the man he is now. He matured but it’s been a hundred years… He doesn’t age, or ages slowly because he’s not human.

Like me.

But why didn’t he say so right away? Why wait until now?

Jai. Even his name sounds like the Jackal, the nickname he used to have back when I knew him. Why didn’t he say…?

“Songbirds in cages are not for me. If you felt obliged to stay with me, I’d set you free.”

And I had told him I loved the king. I told him I believed the king’s accusations. Then he found out I was finnfolk and together with the changes in me…

“I knew it for sure when I kissed you. My fated mate. There’s only ever one in the world.”

This is it, the answer to the riddle.“There has only been one woman for me, and that’s fate. Fate can’t be undone.”

My heart…

I had convinced myself that the king was the boy I had once loved. I’d made my peace with that, that the boy I loved is a bloodthirsty, evil alien king. How can I change the angle now, see the picture differently? It’s breaking my mind.

How would the king know such intimate details of my past? Exact quotes of what Mars told me? How, if he’s not Mars?

“You seem pensive,” Tru says, leading me through the palace. “Is everything okay?”

“Can we ask the maids to run a bath for me?” I ask. “I’m dying for a bath.”

I mean it literally. I feel as if my skin is so dry it will crack and peel right off me. I’ve been out of the water for too long.

“Of course. Like I told Athdara, I will make sure you take a bath.”

“Thank you. You’re such a good friend to him.”

He gives me a strange look. “Jai and I, we trained together at the palace when he was brought in by the king. Arkin joined us two years later. The king had me look after him. He was afraid Jai might try to off himself.”

“Off himself? Why?”

“He had lost the woman he loved, remember?”

I nod.

“It didn’t help that he couldn’t recall where he had come from, or anything about his past life. She had been his one anchor to this life, and she was gone. Meanwhile, Phaethon had woken up. With the Eosphor riding his mind, demanding he call down the dragons and open the gates, he was barely alive, his mind shattered. For a long time, he was like a wild animal, snarling and throwing himself at the walls, hitting himself and foaming at the mouth… unable to live and yet unable to die.”

I shudder. Gods, that’s horrible. Unfathomable that I thought my Jackal was dead when he was in such torment for so long and I was unaware of it, lost in my own pain.

“Now he’s doing well. With the decades that passed, he got over the pain of the past and with the king’s help, started controlling Phaethon’s howling in his head. Still… he needs our help. Our protection. Arkin and I have been guarding him with our lives for decades.”

“You are amazing friends,” I whisper.

“But you see, although he regained his sanity… he was never happy before you arrived.” He frowns. “Jai is falling for you.”

I smile because Tru doesn’t know not even half of it. “That’s good, right? That he’s happy?”

“I am not sure, Rae. Not sure at all.”

“What?” I stop in my tracks. “What are you talking about?”

“Isn’t it true you work for the finnfolk?”

I flinch. “How…?”