Page 71 of I Dream of Dragons

And he downs the entire contents of his glass.

Everyone is standing around the table, frozen, petrified, goblets halfway to their mouths, eyes wide. I don’t exactly knowwhy, except… Jai’s shadows writhe around his body, snapping out like snakes. The fae nobles closest to him recoil.

A hush is spreading.

Then the king gives a slow, deliberate smile. “Indeed. To love!” He raises his goblet again, and with relieved expressions on their faces, the fae raise theirs, too. “And to new allies.”

The hush takes on a different quality. It becomes an expectant pause. A question hangs in the air.

Jai doesn’t move away from the table, nor does he sit down. He’s breathing hard, those formidable broad shoulders rising and falling with each exhale.

The king doesn’t order him to sit; in fact, he isn’t looking at Jai at all.

He’s looking at me. “Lady Rae.”

Unease coils in my stomach. “Majesty?”

“Lady Rae,” he says, now glancing around at his guests, “bears our mark on her wrist. She has joined forces with us in our mission to open the gates. To return home.”

I jerk. What is he saying?

A shocked murmur winds through the guests, and I recall that there was a good reason they left their homeland. The Last Reversal all but destroyed it. Now he’s asking them to go back, and it seems to be news to them.

Hasn’t he ever told them of his plans? What did they think he wanted to open the gates for?

“We thought he wanted Athdara to control the dragons, give us an advantage against finnfolk,” a fae lord hisses. “I thought he wanted to open the gates to bring the dead back. Not to leave!”

“Our home world was rotting,” a lady whispers. “This world is fine. Why leave?”

Exactly my thoughts.

Mera gives a dry laugh but I can’t spare her a look.

Painting me a traitor to humanity doesn’t matter so much, not when only two humans are left of the twenty-four. Though, who knows if these two will join forces now to take me down?

Announcing that his mark is on me certainly isn’t doing me any favors, and when I poke at my feelings about this show he has put on… I find disappointment and sorrow condensing into a blade, slowly piercing my mind.

This isn’t what I’d expected. Nothing so far is.

The king’s smile hammers the blade deeper. “A face from the past, returning. A power yet leashed that we will explore together. My beloved, with hair like ebony and eyes like the night?—”

“What?” Jai jerks back as if stung. “What are you saying? Where did you?—?”

“—my beautiful thorn,” the king goes on, “my?—”

“Stop!” Jai roars and throws his goblet to crash against a wall, spilling wine. “Just fucking stop.”

The fae gasp as the shadows ripple and rise, then rush over the table, snuffing out flames and sweeping the dishes to the floor. A noble cries out and pushes his chair back as dark tendrils wrap around the candelabra, lifting it, then throwing it off the table.

I open my mouth to speak but can’t find any adequate words as Jai’s shadows start to spin around him, shrouding him in darkness.

Jai…

“Stand down,” the king hisses.

“No,” Jai says, his hoarse voice rising, his eyes blazing in his pale face, “you don’t get to do that. To use what you stole. Fucking thief.”

The guards rush forward, but the king lifts a hand, forestalling them. “Stand down, Athdara.”