Page 50 of Betrayed By Dragons

With a weariness in his voice, Jianyu addresses Ben and Li. "You're all caught up in this mess, too."

"Wouldn't miss it." Ben gives an overenthusiastic thumbs up.

Pulling the towel from his face to inspect the blood, Li's tone is more measured. "Frankly, getting punched in the face a few times has given me some much-needed perspective about where my loyalties lie."

"Are you all sure?" Jianyu glances among the three of them. Both men nod.

Grace subtly presses her leg against Amy's. "I have no regrets about my choice."

Amy practically has hearts in her eyes, but Jett's keeping a level head. "So where do we go?" he asks. He looks pointedly at me and Amy and Grace. "And how?"

I still hate that my inability to shift has to factor into our plans, but at least I'm not alone.

Rafe gets out his phone. "I can get a jet here within the hour." When he's met with resounding silence, he shrugs. "Our next stop was the Fire Kingdom, right? Why change plans now, just because Jianyu's dad tried to kill us all?"

"He didn't--" Jianyu starts.

"Besides." Rafe taps at his phone with barely stifled indignation. "I need to get home already."

"What's going on?" I ask.

When Rafe finally meets my gaze, something raw is simmering behind his eyes. "That was a friend of mine who's been keeping an eye on things for me back home." His mouth flattens into a grim line. "Apparently, the Fire King has also decided to lose his goddamn mind."

Chapter Twelve

EMBER

True to his word, Rafe has a jet ready and waiting to pick us up within the hour.

"I don't even want to know how you got thing this into Stone Kingdom airspace," Jianyu warns, watching the plane touch down.

We've been waiting at the edge of the woods beside a makeshift airfield Li somehow managed to scout for us. It's basically just a long, flat stretch of rock twenty miles outside the city, but apparently it's good enough.

"Who knew," Rafe says drily. "All it took to remove that stick from your ass was becoming an enemy of the state."

Jianyu's brows pinch together, and he opens his mouth as if to contradict Rafe, but then he closes it. My heart squeezes, and I brush my knuckles against the back of Jianyu's hand. I keep expecting the shock of the attack to wear off, but so far, he still seems numb.

And Rafe, for his part, still seems unreasonably pissed. While we've been waiting for the plane, I've tried to get him alone and ask him what's going on, but he keeps messing around with his phone and wandering away when I approach. I'm trying not to take it personally--he doesn't actually seem mad at me in particular, but it hurts to have my mate pushing me away.

I tell myself that he's just preoccupied with whatever's going on with his family. He dropped that bombshell about his father, the Fire King, losing his mind, but he's been tight-lipped about the specifics.

Well, we'll be on our way to the Fire Kingdom soon. So I guess he'll have to open up to us about it at some point.

Rafe's assistant Atina, who met us here, gets a ping on her phone. She taps at the screen a couple of times, then looks to Rafe and nods.

Rafe pushes off from the tree he'd been leaning against and claps his hands. "It's go time." He glances around, lifting a brow. "Unless you all want to stand around waiting for Jianyu's father to come shoot at us some more."

"They were only darts," Jianyu grumbles, but he can't exactly defend himself beyond that.

As we step out from under the cover of the trees, the door to the jet slowly drops open. A woman who seems part soldier and part flight attendant checks the stairs before stationing herself at their base. She's wearing a sturdy, crimson dress with a bandolier and a side-arm, and she looks like she could bench press me.

"Your Highness," she says, addressing Rafe.

He greets her by name and ascends the stairs two at a time. Something in him relaxes, and I swallow past the lump in my throat.

Rafe seems so nonchalant, but he's been away from home for a month now. Have I ever seen him actually comfortable? Or just pretending to be?

The question becomes even stickier as I follow him up into the cabin of the jet. The contrast with the starkly modern, bright, neutral, business-style interior of Jianyu's jet couldn't be more clear. Inside, Rafe's plane is sumptuously appointed in espresso leather and rubbed bronze. Luxurious red carpets line the floor, and there are crimson and gold accent pillows and blankets and upholstery scattered throughout.

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