Page 12 of I Dream of Dragons

“I haven’t lied to you, dammit. And now it’s too late.” He sounds exhausted. “The king put his mark on you. It’s done.”

“It’s just a betrothal mark.”

He gives a bitter, short laugh. “Is that what he told you?”

He isn’t making any sense. Then again, I’m not making any sense either. It shouldn’t matter. None of this should. And yet…

“He is the reason I am here,” I say.

A bitter chuckle escapes him. “And you were accusingmeof being in cahoots with him.”

“Things have changed,” I say through compressed lips.

His shadows spin around him, coalescing into his armor, and the twin hilts of his nightgold swords jut over his shoulders. “That so?”

I lift my chin. “Got a problem with that?”

A jagged smirk lifts the mere edges of his mouth, devoid of mirth. “I sure do.”

“And why?”

“I’m killing myself to fight Phaethon and take down the king, and you want toprotecthim?”

“Nice to hear you’re killing yourself,” I hiss, “when all you’ve done so far is obey him and gather hapless humans to kill for you.”

“Godsdammit, Rae, that’s not true?—”

“Isn’t it?”

His eyes flash. “No. And you’re my mate?—”

“Whatdid you just say?”

But he’s jerking back, doubling over with a groan. “No…”

“Jai—”

A growl leaves his lips as he straightens and the tell-tale gold flashes in his dark eyes, making me flinch. His smirk sharpens until it’s a naked blade. “Your opinion of us is certainly low, Little Human. Did you know we were a king once, a spirit roaming the higher worlds? That I had to lead my people through a gate, change my essence to save them?”

Oh no. I want to know what Jai was saying about mates, and now… I’m at a loss for words. I stare at him and it hurts. It hurts my heart that I’m speaking to Phaethon and not Jai now, in spite of everything.

“My people fought for a place in their new world, but lost the battle,” he goes on, his voice low. He might as well be talking to himself. “We were too few. The inhabitants of that world had mighty dragons and the war turned to their advantage. They imprisoned us, chained us to the firmament, and used our bones whenever we fell to forge magical weapons and tools.”

“Phaethon—”

“We broke our chains and fought another battle, but the Reversal came upon us and changed everything once again. The earth turned into sky, the sky was filled with water, and I saw things.”

His words finally pierce the veil of sorrow shrouding me. “Saw things? What things?”

“I realized then that telchins aren’t the only ones who can see into the future by reading the threads of the worlds.”

I want to grab him and shake him, shake answers out of him, but there’s commotion around us. The barge has docked and moored, and the telchin is saying something. The guards are prodding the humans toward the side of the barge bumping against the dock.

“Jai…” he says. “This new name by which he goes nowadays. Well, Jai saw what I saw, and decided to cross.”

“Why? What did you see?”

But the guards start pushing us in earnest toward the prow, yelling at us to get a move on.