Page 152 of I Dream of Dragons

“I wouldn’t know, my lord.” She curtsies hastily, her face paling. “I was only told to bring you the clothes at His Majesty’s command.”

“And areyougoing to help me dress? Help me to the royal apartments?” I bark, the pain limiting my patience and the thought of Rae alone with the king fraying my self-restraint. The shadows unfurl around me, crashing like waves against the walls. “Carry me, if you must?”

She cringes away with a gasp, and I press a hand to my eyes.

Fuck.What am I doing?

“Send me a manservant to help,” I say more quietly, calling the shadows back to myself. They obey with some reluctance, slithering back to me like pet snakes. “I will of course do as His Majesty bids.”

“My lord.” Another hurried curtsy and she flees.

Dammit, Jai. Get it together. This isn’t the time to fall apart. You have found your mate. She’s here. You have to be smart about it.

But how? What the hell should I do?

If only I had a way to take his mark off her, free her from that bond, freeing us to kill the king…

I told Arkin the truth. I can’t kill the king and risk her life. Wishing I didn’t care for her is useless. I’ve been bound to her,body and soul, since I met her. Fated mate or not, she means too much to me to let go.

I didn’t let go for a hundred years. How should I do it now? She’s a part of me.

A dark fog fills my thoughts that has nothing to do with my resident evil. In fact, speaking of whom…

Phaethon, I send the thought cautiously, unable to believe I’m asking this.Are you… all right?

“Awfully kind of you to ask,”comes his snide reply inside my head.“As if you care.”

I wait for more, but he’s silent. This is… foreboding.What’s going on, Phaethon? Why the quiet?

“You mean why I’m not howling and cursing you? Banging around inside your skull, trying to elbow my way out?”

Yeah. That.

“The girl… Rae. She asked me to talk to you.”

She did, did she? And you just… obeyed her wishes. Just like that.I raise a sardonic brow that he can’t see because he’s inside my fucking head.Which brings me back to my question. What the fuck happened? I tried to talk to you a million times in the past.

“You exaggerate.”

And you refused. In fact, you ignored me. Tried willfully to drive me mad. Are you contesting it?

“I am not.”

Then?

“What she said… was logical.”

Was it, now?

“You’re being sarcastic.”

Gods give me strength. Why would he do as she asked, when he refused to speak to me for all this time?

Then it hits me.You like her. You like Rae.

A pause.“She’s not bad.”

You like her? Really?