Page 63 of Betrayed By Dragons

My stomach clenches. Rafe flexes his jaw and narrows his eyes. "You're insane."

"Insane to send you of all people to a peace summit? Insane to let you back in after you spent weeks consorting with the enemy?"

"Let me back in?"

"Do you think anyone but a prince would be allowed to enter this castle with a known fugitive in their midst?"

I start to open my mouth to defend Jianyu, but a pointed glance from Rafe makes me snap it closed again.

King Aeden doesn't miss the interaction. His eyes narrow as he turns his gaze to me. "And then there's the other riffraff you've dragged home. Orphans, half-breeds, Stone Kingdom traitors."

"They're not--" Rafe starts.

The king laughs out loud. "There's no point defending them. They should be our prisoners of war--not our guests."

"War?" I choke out, unable to stop myself this time.

And it's obvious, isn't it? King Haoyu's provocations. The threat of a conscription. All the rhetoric bouncing back and forth. What else could it have been leading to but outright conflict?

And yet I still imagined it could be avoided. Two dragon princes were on my side. They'd vowed to work together toward peace between the kingdoms.

Princes aren't kings, though.

I glance to the side. At the Shadow Dragon still lurking at this particular king's elbow.

All three of the remaining dragon kings...they're corrupted. King Zephyr of the Air Kingdom was war-mongering at every turn. King Haoyu chose to intensify the animosity between his realm and this one. And now King Aeden. Gathering an army.

The future splays out before me, irrepressible flashes of blood and ash and carnage unlike any we've known.

But that's not true, is it? We survived the great wars. We lost an entire kingdom to them, and we mourned the loss. We celebrated the stalemate that came to pass in the aftermath, and we imagined it was peace.

We imagined the Shadow Dragons--those insidious forces moving under cover of dark, inciting violence, turning enemies to foes...

We imagined they were gone.

But what if they never were? What if they've always been right here in our midst the entire time. Is there one bending Zephyr's ear, too? Has another infiltrated the Stone Kingdom's court?

What do they want?

Besides what they always want...

The destruction of the dragon world as we know it.

And a throne set atop the pile of rubble and ash.

I blink hard, and my vision clears, but the scent of ruin lingers. My instincts claw at me to turn around and go. I need to gather my mates. I need to prepare for what is to come.

But my feet are stuck to the ground.

And the Fire King is staring right into my eyes.

"Children," he spits, invective coloring the word. He swings his gaze to Rafe and Cael. "All of you, children, with no sense of how the world works. My progeny are all useless." He strikes a hand at his desk, and a handful of papers go flying. No one moves to pick them up. "But you." He shoves a finger in Rafe's direction. "You might be the most useless of them all."

Rafe's throat clicks. Hurt bleeds into our connection, but other than the faint shine to his eyes, he refuses to let a drop of it show. "And you're a real A+ father."

"I know my failures," King Aeden smolders. "And I won't let this kingdom become one of them." He drops back into his chair. "Your brief foray into politics is over, Rafe. Go back to what you do best." Fluttering a hand toward the door, he drops his gaze. "Waste your life however you please. But stop wasting my time."

"Father," Rafe tries once more. His throat bobs. "Dad--"

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