Page 148 of I Dream of Dragons

I wasn’t expecting you to.

He harrumphs.“Well,Iwas.”

I cast him another smile.You are determined to be my friend, aren’t you?

“Isn’t all friendship like that?”

I shrug. Familyis like that.

“Then we are family.”

I freeze. He’s sitting on the rug like an oversized pet, speaking of friendship and family, and I, who have lived for so long, don’t dare breathe. My eyes burn with tears. I don’t know what to do with this. It threatens to break me.

I can’t break now.

“You can do this,”he says, his voice echoing inside my head, and I lay a hand on his back. He lets me.“Whatever it is you came to do, Aethry, you can do it. Kill the king. Find love. Change the world. Whatever it is, and all that it is, you can do it. I believe in you.”

At least one of us does…

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

JAI

The return to consciousness is a hike through a heavy storm, a slog through pounding rain, a rain so thick the air feels like the bottom of the sea.

I’m swimming back to consciousness and my wings are fins.

My body is a serpent.

This is a territory close to death.

And then I realize I’m not alone inside my head.

Phaethon…

He is the serpent, the dragon, and he has smothered me for… how fucking long? Godsdammit. How long has he occupied my body and mind?

I’m lying on my stomach on a hard bed, and when I try to sit up, agony slices through my back.

Shit.

Memory comes in bits and pieces.

Rae.

The king.

The lashing.

And then Phaethon taking over and talking to both of them.

More pieces filter in, but as ever with Phaethon steering, I can’t get the whole picture. Only shards from a broken mirror.

“Back with us?” a male voice asks and I jerk, then curse as more pain rips through my back.

The familiarity of the voice slowly registers and I try again the getting-up thing, in degrees. One elbow on the bed. Then the other. Some choice swearwords. Hey, I’m getting there.

Trying to keep my back straight, I groan and hiss until I manage to sit.