Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
How can he ever think a black woman would be content to watch him enslave people?
It can't be true. It can't. He deserves a chance to explain, to tell me why it looks like it does. I can't lose my faith in him just yet…but I keep thinking about Emma's pain-filled eyes, the way they shone with tears when she looked at her mate's wings. The way she refuses to let her baby anywhere near the fort, even if it means saving the world.
She'd rather let the world burn than help my husband…which means she's either unhinged, or what she's saying is the truth.
I don't know which version it is and that terrifies me.
“I’m sorry,” Rachel says for the dozenth time. “That didn’t go how I’d planned it. I thought showing you Emma and Zohr would make a big difference, but Emma’s pretty bitter. It felt like an ambush, didn’t it?”
“Yes,” I say flatly. My fear is gone, and it’s been replaced by a pit of anger in my belly. I don’t know who I’m angrier at – Emma for this, Rachel for her misguided efforts, or Azar, because he might not be who he says he is.
Or myself, for thinking the best of him. I’m silent for the rest of the ride home.
"Is it bad?" Rachel asks as we approach Fort Dallas, the slim tendrils of smoke from cookfires easy to make out in the sky. The barricade looks kind of pathetic from up here, something I'm noticing and makes me a little anxious.
It takes me a moment to realize Rachel's talking to me. "Is what bad?"
"The thing in the Rift. He's not playing it up?" She looks over her shoulder at me, her words muffled by the wind. "You believe him?"
I bite my lip. "Whatever is there, he's not faking it. He's terrified. It wakes him out of his sleep every night." I think for a moment, and then add, "When he does sleep. He's avoiding it now."
"Shit." Rachel is quiet for a moment and then turns her head again, addressing me. "I have dreams, too. Ever since I got pregnant."
Ugh. "Does the thing in the Rift talk to you?"
She shudders. "No. But I can feel him reaching for something. Like he's testing things. Seeing how far he can push. It scares me."
I swallow hard, because I don't know what to say. It scares me too, and makes me feel helpless. This entire situation makes me feel helpless. And what if Azar has been lying this entire time and suddenly I can't even depend on him? My stomach churns with misery. I don't know that he's lying, but something tells me that both Rachel and Emma believe that they have the truth. "I wish I had answers. I wish that dragons invading our world had been enough, but I guess not."
Rachel laughs, the sound mirthless and hard. "No, I guess not. Not for us lucky souls." She sighs heavily, the sound almost torn away by the wind. "Just for the record, I don't think Emma is right. I get why she won't help—I get it, I do. She's protecting her mate and her kid the best way she knows how. But that doesn't mean it's right. If we really, really need everyone, it's selfish of her."
I can't condemn Emma, though. I don't like her, but if she believes what she's told me, then I get it. If she'd rather watch the world burn than help her enemy even in the slightest…I don't like it, but I understand it.
"Anyhow," Rachel says, her voice harsh. "I just wanted you to know that's why me and Jurik are still here. It's not for you or Azar. It's because we want to have a future for our children. To me, that's important enough to put aside any other feelings until the situation's been dealt with. I've been through one apocalypse. I don't want to go through another."
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me. Just get your husband in line," Rachel says. "Get him to release the drakoni. Get him to stop enslaving people. Not everyone hates him so much that they're willing to watch the world end again."
I think of Emma, and the agony in her eyes. I think of her cradling that baby so reverently to her chest, and the pain in her voice as Zohr extended his scar-covered wings.
If what she says is truth…I don't know that I'd choose any differently than her. Sometimes you have to protect those you love at all costs, even if it's the wrong choice.
I'm still thinking about everything as Rachel and Jurik land atop one of the buildings in Fort Dallas. She immediately slides off her dragon's back and holds her hand out to me, but I manage to tumble free of my own accord. "Back in time for dinner," she says confidently. "You're welcome."