Page 62 of Betrayed By Dragons

But I look into the man's eyes, and they're regular eyes--I swear, they are. They're not even slits, the way that some dragons' pupils sometimes are. Behind the normal, brown color of his iris, though, there's only darkness.

Shadow.

A strangled noise gets caught in my throat, and my pulse rate skyrockets into the stratosphere.

This isn't the first Shadow Dragon I've met, I remind myself. Rhiannon was one, and she was great. Hell--Amy's half Shadow Dragon, and so is Jett.

But they've never looked at me with an abyss behind their eyes.

Every instinct inside me tells me to run. Or maybe adapt one of the fighting stances High Priestess Fang tried to teach me, or cast a protection spell around me and my mate and his friend.

But then I blink again, and the man is just a normal man.

Or at least that's how it seems, but I'm no fool. I know what I saw.

I also know what I'm seeing now; I know what the others around me must see.

I swallow hard and breathe deeply, desperately trying to get my heart under control. In the back of my mind, I remember Cael saying something. The king has a new, super-suspicious advisor. This must be the person he was talking about, and wow. Super-suspicious is an understatement if ever I've heard one.

Rafe casts a questioning glance at me, certainly able to sense that I'm freaking the fuck out, but I shake my head. I'll tell him later.

He frowns, but then he turns away, refocusing his attention back on his father.

"I'm not here to poison you," he says, his voice strained.

"I don't have time for this foolishness." The king shakes his head, and I can feel it--the moment is slipping away from us.

But Rafe isn't going to let it go without a fight.

He slams his hand down on his father's desk. The king's advisor's energy flares with darkness, and all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. My bracer feels like it could light the entire world, it's glowing so brightly, but when I look down, it has only the faintest sheen.

King Aeden holds up one finger. His advisor retreats by a step--but only by a step.

It's enough.

"A draft," Rafe rumbles, his volume restrained, but the intensity in his voice is so loud it hurts. "You're instituting a draft."

"I am."

"Why? Why in the gods' names would you need to." Rafe stands up straighter and throws his arm to the side. "We have the strongest military in the dragon world. We can fend off any threat--"

"What do you know of the threats that face us, boy?" King Aeden's energy and his magic are both fire, but his tone is shivering ice.

"I--"

The king speaks right over him. "For weeks now, you hide away in the Stone Kingdom. You ask for time. For level heads to prevail. For us to ignore the insults Haoyu slings at us." The king pushes back his chair and in one smooth move rises to stand. "No more."

"But--"

"No. More."

Ghosts of flames crackle around the king's head, and I have to force myself not to take a step back.

"You think the Fire Kingdom is a den of mice? Meek? Timid?"

"Of course not."

"We could rule the continent." King Aeden jabs a finger into the surface of the desk, and a faint whiff of smoke wafts into the air. "We could rule the entire dragon world." One corner of his mouth twitches. "And we will, boy."

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