Page 78 of I Dream of Dragons

His head bows over me, his bared canines so close to my neck I can feel his cool breath on my skin, raising goosebumps. He could bite me, drink my blood, as he does to Jai. Find out my secrets, because that’s what blood drinking does, that’s why people in love do it.

“You don’t steal my words.”

My head hurts. I need to escape his hold. Create a distraction.

Swinging my gaze to the side, I can see his hand gripping the ladder. A mark is etched in the underside of his wrist—a dark purple symbol looking like a snake.

“You have a mark, too,” I grind out.

I feel him draw his head back. “What?”

“This mark on your wrist.”

He snatches his hand away and steps back, glaring at me.

“Some marks are placed,” he says eventually, turning away, “and some you are born with. Birthmarks trump marks that were applied. And I was born with this royalty mark on me.”

I think of the one I have on me, the birthmark on my back. Now I have two. A birthmark and a betrothal mark. The only betrothal mark I’d ever wanted was Mars’, and now that it’s happened, I feel… empty. I feel unwell.

If he hadn’t said those words to me, the words he spoke to me before he’d vanished from my life, if he didn’t know things only my lost love would know, I wouldn’t have ever thought he’s Mars. I look at his handsome face, frowning. It’s the right coloring, of course, the right shape… and yet not.

He was very young when I knew him, I tell myself. Of course he changed.

It’s been a hundred years.

An echo plays in my mind. Jai’s voice.“Fuck me, Rae, I haven’t felt like this in a hundred years.”

Thinking of Jai makes me want to see him.Needto see him.

With the thought comes a pain in my chest—a sting and a burn, and deep inside I know it’s Jai, and that I have to find him. Now.

“If we’re done here,” I say coolly, struggling to keep the slight panic from my voice, “then please allow me to return to my room. Highness.”

He gives a stiff nod, his gaze pensive, and I rush to go before he changes his mind. As I make for the double doors and march past the guards, I find myself trembling and I try to hide it.

Something is off here.

Something is definitely off.

And what’s worse, I’m afraid to face the answer.

PART II

Love Commands Me

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

RAE

I rush outside the king’s apartments and hurry away, holding up my skirts. I run through the palace, attempting and failing to outpace the frantic beat of my heart. I don’t know where I’m going, only that I need to find Jai, it’s important, it’s an all-consuming need.

The sting in my chest persists, making me hiss between my teeth.

No, it doesn’t persist, I realize. It’s another one. A new tug, a new sensation. It’s as if… something worse has happened.

What’s going on? Is he being attacked? And why do I feel it? Is he in danger? The fear the thought carries with it is unwelcome, unreasonable and unavoidable.

“That would require him to care for me.—”Oh yes.