Page 13 of I Dream of Dragons

One of them grabs Jai, shoving him forward, causing him to curse. But it looks like the distraction helps him regain control, because he blinks and the gold fades from his eyes.

Long lashes lift. “Rae?”

I open my mouth, even if I have no clue what I should say, but my breath is knocked out of me when a spear slams into my back. I stumble forward. “What was Phaethon talking about? What did you see?”

“See? I don’t… recall.”

“Are you serious?”

“I don’t know what I was saying,” he says, walking beside me, almost at the prow now. His frown is dark while his shadows peel back, leaving him dressed in his rumpled black clothes—the black tunic and pants from last night, a wide leather belt over his narrow hips and tall black boots. “When Phaethon takes over, I’m not always present.”

“Seriously?” I realize I’m staring at him, at his belt, his boots, the receding shadows, my mind stunned at this revelation and working on annoyed. “Let me remind you, then. Did you have visions? Did you cross to this world on purpose?”

His brows go up. After a moment, he shrugs those broad shoulders. “It’s possible. Right now, all I know is that I need to stop the king.”

Great.He wants to stop the king. And Phaethon wants to work with the king.

“Why wouldn’t we help the king? He has what we need.”Phaethon had said that.

He wants to help the king open the gates, and Jai is opposing that. He thinks opening the gates is a bad idea—just like I thought until yesterday. He won’t open them, if he has his way. Won’t bring back the dead, and won’t allow the fae to return to their home world.

And I don’t know how to feel about any of it. Opening a gate is a major event, but what if it could bring my family back? I want to kill the king and yet I love him, so where does that leave me?

Jai is frowning at me. “I was telling you something before he took over. What was I…?”

But a guard grabs my arm before I have a chance to speak and hauls me toward the plank. It’s thrown over the side of the boat and jutting out over the arena.

We’re done here. The telchin has nothing more to say, it seems. No need to check for our magic. We are the same people who walked this plank a few days ago, after all.

But are we, really?I wonder as I jump.

CHAPTER FIVE

RAE

Plunging into the cold sea, I dive deep.

I dive into the dark, and the initial shock of the water, slicing like ice shards into my body, is soon replaced by relief as my gills open and I can breathe.

This. This is what it should have felt like last time.

At least regarding breathing. I still have these pesky human legs that kick uselessly instead of a sturdy tail to propel me.

Where’s Jai?

Shit.Why is this my first thought? Why am I still drawn to him when he’s possessed half the time by a malevolent alien being who is all too happy to help the king and do his bidding, who controls Jai?

Doomed, the king had said.

When he’s not only the king’s right hand, but also apparently the cause behind my family’s deaths and the man who rejected me.

“Rae, do you believe in fated mates?”

Do I? What had he been about to tell me earlier? But it doesn’t matter. I can’t be with him. There are too many reasons why I can’t.

I have to stop thinking like a human, like a woman who hopes to find her true mate and spend time in starry-eyed wonder, spend sweaty nights getting to know one another’s body, imagining that one day she’ll settle with her mate in a house together, have a family. Have a future.

That’s not me.