About a Dragon (Dragon Kin #2)(56)

Man enough? Try stupid enough.

That’s when other men stepped from the trees. Based on their ages and a distinct lack of bitterness on their faces, Talaith knew these men were not with the ones who had been tracking her. They were with this woman. They wore dark red surcoats over chainmail shirts and leggings. The crests on their surcoats were of a black dragon with two swords crossed behind it.

Well, there went Talaith’s brief theory the brown-haired woman was a poor, sole mercenary.

One of the woman’s warriors, a tall handsome man who couldn’t seem to stop grinning, glanced at her. “Do we really have time for this?”

“Don’t rush me, Brastias. You bastards want me relaxed. This will relax me.” She turned back to the confused men. “Well?” the woman challenged again. “Anyone?”

The cornered men glanced around and realized the warriors with the dark red surcoats surrounded the entire lake—and them. They had no choice but to fight her.

Two men charged her at the same time. She blocked both their blades with her own, kicked one, knocking him to the ground and gutted the other. She took his sword as her own and finished off the man still on the ground at her feet.

That’s when the rest decided to attack the woman as one.

Talaith looked to the warriors to see if they would help. They didn’t. Their swords remained sheathed, their sighs indicated boredom. The witch moved up to stand beside her. “This won’t take long.”

She had a distinct feeling the witch was right.

A grin spread across the warrior woman’s face as she blocked a blow with one sword while slashing at another attacker with the other. Blood flew, splattering across her shirt, but she didn’t even notice it, instead turning to another man and gutting him from stomach to throat. She took his head, turned, cut another man in half; crouched, slashed, took another man’s legs. She moved so fast, Talaith found it hard to follow her. But within seconds, she’d killed them all…except one.

The warrior woman cracked her neck as her green eyes locked onto the last man. He raised his sword, but she knocked it out of his hand with one blow from her own. She kicked him in the chest, sending him crashing to his back.

Then she placed one extremely large foot onto his chest and crouched down, pinning him to the ground with her weight.

“So tell me, what were you planning to do with us? Eh? Going to make us scream? Beg for mercy?” She leaned in, forcing her foot into the man’s chest, her face filled with utter disgust and contempt. “Should I do that to you? Should I make you cry? Should I make you beg?”

She took a deep breath, and Talaith could see how hard it was for this woman to keep her anger under control. A battle written all over her bruised and damaged face.

“No. I’ll not waste my time on the likes of you,” she sneered. Slowly standing, she left her foot on his chest while tossing one of the swords she held into the lake. “A true and honorable warrior loses his head in battle and goes home to his ancestors with pride. But that won’t be for you. I curse you, scum. I curse you and your brethren to the never-ending pits of despair and suffering where you’ll spend your eternity.”

Two hands clasping the hilt, she raised her sword above the man’s chest. “I do wish you luck, though,” she uttered, almost kindly. Then that rage returned, so fierce it nearly stole Talaith’s breath. “For you will surely need it.”

With that, she brought the sword down, it seemed, with all the force she could possibly muster. The blade slammed through the man’s chest, tearing through cheap armor, and hard bone until it embedded itself in the rocky ground beneath. The man’s screams made Talaith wince, but she couldn’t look away, even as the woman twisted the blade this way and that to quicken his death.

He made another gasp, blood pouring from his open mouth, then went silent.

The woman stood, leaving the blade in his chest. She examined herself.

“I swear. I clean off one coat of blood, only to have it replaced by another. I wonder why I bathe at all while on campaign.”

“Because you don’t want to wake to find a pack of wolves licking blood off you…again,” the witch offered sweetly.

Grimacing, “I thought we swore never to speak of that.”

With a laugh, the witch replied, “I don’t remember that agreement at all.”

“Callous cow.”

And that’s when they all turned to Talaith.

Uh-oh.

How she could actually find this woman more frightening than the three dragons she’d stayed with for days, she’d never know. But now that her Magick was back, her sense of this woman’s barely contained rage was almost palpable. It slid under her skin like a living thing.

“You all right?” It took Talaith a moment to realize the warrior woman had spoken to her.

“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “Yes. Thank you.”

The woman’s cold green eyes examined Talaith from feet to head as she held her hand out and one of the warriors handed her two swords in their scabbards. Walking calmly toward Talaith, she tied them to her back.

“Thank you for warning us.”

Never before had Talaith had such an overwhelming desire to run. This was not like the dragonfear. This was much worse. “You’re welcome.”

Standing before her, the woman bent her neck to the side. Talaith winced as she heard every bone in the woman’s neck and shoulder crack into place. Ack!