About a Dragon (Dragon Kin #2)(55)

Sniffing the air, Briec tried to track her somewhere in his home, but there was nothing but her lingering essence.

“No!”

Briec shifted to dragon with a thought and stormed through his cave looking for her, barking her name.

“Talaith, answer me!”

She didn’t and he knew. He knew she’d left him. And another, less used emotion reared its very ugly head…rage.

Briec made it topside, bursting from his cave entrance with a trail of fire in his wake. He tore through the countryside searching for her. She couldn’t have gotten far. He’d find her and bring her back. Even if she kicked and screamed the entire way, he’d bring her back.

He’d bring her home.

* * *

Talaith watched the dragon fly overhead. He didn’t see her. He wouldn’t. True to her word, Arzhela had given her back her powers with a vengeance. Talaith almost woke Briec up as she stumbled from her early-morning bed, her entire body screaming in pain as the Magick was unleashed within her.

Now she used that same Magick to block her presence from the dragon’s keen senses, something she hadn’t been able to do before. Hearing him call her name, knowing he at least cared enough to search for her, almost sent her back to him.

But her daughter—the most important thing right now.

Besides, why bother going back to him even if she did survive this? If he wasn’t tired of her now, he would be one day.

Closing her eyes, and heart, to the sight of him, Talaith turned and headed in the direction of the two suns. Headed toward her destiny and, most likely, her death.

Chapter Fifteen

They’d tracked her for hours, thinking they were being stealthy. Not really. About an hour after they started, she led them where she wanted them to go while watching from a safe distance. She’d take them to a lake she knew of in these parts—her teachers made her learn every map available—and destroy them there. She had no time for games at this point. Besides, after leaving Briec, she had a great desire to hurt something deserving to be hurt.

Perched safely in a tree, Talaith stared down at the lake and cursed. There were two women, alone, naked, and bathing in the lake. She needed them to run. Now.

Using the sturdy branches of the old tree, she quickly climbed down, jumping the last few feet to the ground.

Immediately, the two women turned toward her. They looked so different from each other. One had golden brown hair, green eyes, and a very recent knife slash across her face. The other had white hair, blue eyes shaped like a cat’s, and the mark of a witch on one cheek. The witch blocked her, so Talaith had no idea how powerful her Magick. And she had no time to figure it out.

“You must leave. Now.”

They didn’t. Instead they stared at her. Not in fear or confusion, but in curiosity.

“Did you not hear me?”

“We heard you,” the brown-haired one said before dropping her head back into the water.

And that was all either one of them said.

“Unbelievable,” Talaith muttered. “Now I have to protect their stupid hides as well as my own.” And she was stupid. She could run, in theory. The men would find enough sport with these two so chances were high they wouldn’t bother coming for her. But she couldn’t do that to any woman.

She heard the men stomping through the trees toward them. She knew a fire spell that should handle them pretty well. And possibly destroy the entire forest. Oh, well. Can’t be helped.

The men stepped past the line of the trees, but looked past her. Quickly glancing behind her, she realized that both women had gotten out of the lake. By the gods. Those bitches are huge!

“Focus, Talaith,” she chastised herself.

At least they’d thrown on some clothes. One had on her witch’s robes. The other simple leggings, cotton shirt and leather boots. They didn’t appear worried, though. They should. Unless the witch had great power. That would definitely help at the moment.

“Well, well. Look what we have here, lads.”

Talaith rolled her eyes. Why these idiots never came up with anything more original before the raping and pillaging, she’d never know.

She counted. Fifteen men. Fifteen to their three. Eesh. She would have preferred better odds than that, but nothing she could do about it now.

Her attention on the men in front of her and the chant on her lips, Talaith readied herself to destroy an entire forest—or start a small bonfire, she wasn’t quite sure which—when the brown-haired woman walked past her.

“You know what I love, gentlemen?” the woman asked with a big smile. Good gods, why is she talking to them? Talaith glanced back at the witch, who gave a helpless shrug. As if this were an unruly puppy rather than a woman who would get them all raped and killed.

“And what would that be, luv?” one of the men in front asked with a knowing smile.

“When the gods throw sport my way.”

She moved so fast, if Talaith blinked she would have missed it. Missed the woman ripping the man’s sword from his scabbard, expertly hefting the blade, and swinging.

Talaith watched the man’s head roll away. It would have been comical if it weren’t a bit vile.

Taking a step back, the woman watched the other men, her newly obtained sword raised.

“Come on then, you lot,” she encouraged. “You’re not going to leave me standing here, are ya?” She looked over the men before her. “Which one of you is man enough to fight me?”