Page 110 of I Dream of Dragons
“You don’t know me,” he hisses.
“You’re right. I don’t. But I know you’re powerful and I want you on our side. Help me, Phaethon. Help us. Help the human race.”
“You’re not even human. What are you? You’re not a mermaid.”
“I was human once.”
“Well, I don’t care for humanfolk or this world. I need to go back to mine. I just need…”
“What? What do you need to go back?”
He considers me. “You want to know? So you can try to stop me?”
“How could I stop you?” I ask bitterly. “I have to fight a king, you, and all the fae in the palace and the creatures in the sea. And I had decided not to kill the king, although after today, I just might.”
He scowls but is silent once more. Absently, he lifts a hand to his brow.
“Does it hurt? Are you injured elsewhere?”
“I’m fine.”
“Don’t be stubborn. You said you’d look after this body.”
“And I am.” He shifts his weight. “This thigh is bothersome. And my head took a good hit when I fell from the drak’s back.”
I bite my lip. Exhale. “Let Jai talk to me.”
“No.”
“Please, Phaethon. What use is it, you being in Jai’s body right now? Let metalkto him.”
He turns away from me, dismissive. “I have to talk to the dragons.”
“Really.”
He lifts a hand, and power pulses inside him. Shit, he really is calling to the dragons. Overhead, the birds circle. Are they also affected by his power? Are all winged creatures his to command?
Fascinated in spite of myself, I watch as draks fly toward the palace from across the sky, darakins fluttering nearby.
As the wind tousles his black hair and teases at the hem of his long shirt, exposing an expanse of bruised skin, his dark marks, his hard stomach and the lines of muscle dipping into his black pants.
“My fated mate.”
“If talking to you won’t work…” I pull out the dagger he gave me earlier, lift it and stick it into his lower arm.
“Eos!” He staggers back as the dagger falls from my hand, clattering on the floor. “You stabbed me!”
I sigh. “Yes, I did. I tried to make it non-lethal. Jai, can you hear me?”
“Godsdammit,” he groans.
“Jai? Say something. Is it you?”
“That fucking hurt,makhair.”
A grin spreads over my face. “It worked!”
Jai is back.
