Page 40 of I Dream of Dragons

Not completely. They are two separate entities. They said as much.

And I need to stop thinking about this, stop focusing on these weird emotions and the sensation that I know Jai much better than I have any right to.

Time to move on to more pressing matters.

Like getting a drak for myself.

We’re standing on top of the platform where Jai crash-landed us.

The Goldfinch drak we got from the tunnel and rode here is sitting on its haunches like a dog, observing us. It’s a shuddery feeling, having the huge reptile so close I can smell its fetid breath. To my dismay, I have a good view of its yellow, serrated teeth and can easily imagine how they are used for tearing its prey apart before swallowing it down.

It’s not leashed. Not caged. It’s not supposed to be as intelligent as the Great Dara—but who’s to say it’s stupid? Those red eyes seem to follow our every move.

Shifting my bare feet on the pebbly, thorny ground, the sparkly stones the draks love so much tormenting my eyes, I watch as well. I watch Jai take a few limping steps toward the edge of the platform, looking up. The wind whips at his dark hair, slashing it across his pale, marked cheeks.

“Drak!”His voice doesn’t ring out, I realize after a shocked moment.“Come!”

I hear him. Inside my head. Like I hear Remi. I stagger back a step. How is this possible?

“Come,”his power booms,“come down and submit.”

I thought he said he doesn’t command draks, only talks to them. But he also said he commands them when necessary, didn’t he?

After a long moment, a Magpie drak, white with black markings and a black crest running down its back, approaches us, coasting on the air currents.

I’m still reeling from the fact that I can hear Jai in my thoughts—I can hear his voice of power, his magical commands—when the drak circles down.

Lower and lower it flies, and the sound of huge, leathery wings beating fills the air. Crest rippling, the drak flies over usonce, twice. Then on the third pass, it attempts a landing, claws ripping up turf and dislodging stones.

The landing sticks with the drak crashing to the ground—Gods, do they always have to land so disastrously?—and skidding a few yards. I turn away, covering my head with my arms, to avoid getting blinded by the volley of sharp pebbles and sand.

The dragon comes to a stop close to me. Too damn close.

But in those crucial moments, Jai has managed to step in front of me, inserting himself between us, ready to die to prevent the drak from eating me, if necessary. One of his nightgold swords has materialized in his hand, though he has his other hand raised and calming words hum inside my mind.

Shaking myself, shaking the sand and pebbles out of my tangled hair, I straighten and let my arms fall to my sides.

There it is. Jai kept his promise. A drak for me to ride. Not a darakin but a huge, fully-grown winged lizard that breathes fire and snacks on humans in between meals.

Taking a step to the side, I peer around Jai and take in the drak.

The claws half-buried in the soil are black, black scales like socks covering the lower part of its legs, turning to gray and then white as I look up, and up, my gaze journeying up the long neck until I see the elongated head with the horn-like protrusions at the top and the black crest that continues down its back to its massive tail.

The drak has turned its head to the side, regarding me with a flat, blue eye. It’s uncanny. It’s empty of any feeling, any expression, a mirror, a window out of which the dragon can see.

Alien. Calculating and cold, like the Eosphors.

Like Phaethon.

Jai is still half-blocking the dragon’s access to me. “Rae, this drak has agreed to carry you on his back. His name is?—”

“I am called Keres,”a deep voice rumbles in my mind.

I jerk. “Keres,” I whisper.

Jai’s gaze swings around to crash against mine, dark brows hitting his hairline. “You can hear him.”

I give a small shrug, all too aware of the drak still observing me, taking my measure. “Is it any different from hearing Remi?”