Page 172 of I Dream of Dragons

“Athdara Marsyas of the house of Dikerotes, the ancient king… The great king of old who took the Eosphor Phaethon the Bright One inside him. Who fell through the gate into this world.”

And then the woman in my memory asking over and over,“Is there no other way?”

The memory solidifies. Clears. I knew I hadn’t just fallen through, but now, for the first time, I recall the decision to do so.

I came through the gate. Purposefully. I came to stop a prophecy from coming to pass, to stop a king from invading us.

By the sleeping Gods.I came to stop a prophecy and became the prophecy. Now how can I give up such a mission, set into motion so long ago, a mission for which I left loved ones behind?

And still…

Rae.Who knew that crossing over would give me the woman I was meant to love? And who knew that such a bond would align so perfectly with the way I feel?

What the hell am I going to do?

“Have you tried talking to Phaethon?”

Godsdammit,why am I hearing everything the king has told me on repeat? He lashed me within an inch of my life, and that was after putting a mark on my mate, after crushing this world, only to decide he wants to go back and do the same to the world we left behind.

I sigh. Scrub my hands over my face.Just talk to Phaethon anyway.

What if he tells me things I don’t want to hear? What if I’m someoneIdon’t want to be around?

I feel his presence stirring, passing like a sea snake right under the surface of the water.

Pushing back, straightening, I watch the first streaks of light move across the firmament, announcing the arrival of dawn.

Phaethon,I say inside my mind.You were right. We need to talk.

Silence greets my thought and I huff a laugh under my breath.

Great.The first time I call on him with the express desire to talk, and he’s giving me the silent treatment.

I should be the one annoyed here. He not only uses my body and mind, he used my cock to fuck my girl.

That gets a reaction. He surfaces inside my head. It feels like a great animal uncoiling. A dragon, perhaps. Pushing against my skull, against my thoughts.

“She enjoyed it,”he says and I can hear his grin.“She liked being overpowered and taken hard and fast.”

I struggle to control my anger, and I’m damn annoyed that I find my cock hardening at the image he paints. I remember how it felt to be a passenger in my own mind as he took her.

“She likes me,”he says,“and you hate that.”

She wanted to sleep with him. I knew that. I felt it. I experienced it. So it shouldn’t shock me, and maybe it’s not shock but jealousy that spikes my heart rate and covers the world in a red tint.

I’m surprised, I send the thought,that you deigned to occupy yourself with a human.

“She isn’t human. But even for a human, she isn’t bad.”

Isn’t bad, I repeat, disgusted.That’s high praise indeed.

“What do you want me to say, that she’s the most amazing, most beautiful female to ever live? I hear some of your tacky thoughts, you know,”Phaethon murmurs with a dainty sniff.“I’m an Eosphor. I have to keep up appearances.”

Fuck you. You wouldn’t know what love is if it bit you in the ass.

A beat of silence. “In any case, she’s growing on me.”

I blink. That’s disturbing. It sounded… almost sincere.You really do like her, don’t you?