Dragon Actually (Dragon Kin #1)(14)
Brastias heaved a sigh of overwhelming relief as he sat heavily in his chair. “Thank the gods. I thought we’d lost her.”
“You almost had. But the girl must have the gods smiling down on her.”
“Can I see her?”
The woman watched him carefully. “No. But I will get any messages you may have to her.”
“Give me a few moments, I need to write something.” He grabbed quill and paper and wrote Annwyl a brief-but-to-the-point letter. He folded it, affixed his seal, and handed it to the witch. “Give her this and my love.”
“You are her man then?” she asked cautiously.
Brastias laughed. He did like his head securely attached to his shoulders. Becoming Annwyl’s man risked that.
“Annwyl has no man because there is no man worthy of her. That includes me. So she has become the sister I lost many years ago in Lorcan’s dungeons.”
The woman nodded and walked back to the entrance of Brastias’s tent. She stopped before leaving. “She asks,” the witch spoke softly without turning around, “that you not lose hope.”
“As long as she lives, we won’t.”
Then she was gone. Brastias closed his eyes in relief. Annwyl wasn’t dead. His hope returned.
Morfyd landed softly on the glen grounds. Unlike her brother, she’d learned to move silently as dragon.
Once securely on hard earth, she shook her body, releasing the wetness her wings picked up along the flight. She spoke the ancient words of enchantment that allowed her to shift back to human. Moving swiftly, she picked up the clothes she’d hidden away earlier and garbed herself. Her body shook from the chill and she wanted nothing more than to settle in front of a fire to warm her human form.
She’d taken longer than she originally planned to get back. But if Fearghus needed to involve himself in the Sibling War, she wanted to let the queen know now. It would be worse for him if she found out after the fact. Of course the queen didn’t seem too interested, but Bercelak was and that could be a problem for them both.
But first she wanted to get the note from the general to Annwyl. She’d learned to like the human girl, with her sudden rages and tendency to end up on the floor. And clearly Annwyl had enthralled her taciturn and cranky older brother.
Fearghus didn’t really like anyone. Human or dragon. Among their kind, many considered him rude and inconsiderate. Among humans, they feared the black dragon who smote whole villages. Of course, leave it to humans to exaggerate the truth. He’d only smote one village when their king made killing him into a tournament event.
Morfyd wrapped a cloak around her witch’s garb and headed to her brother’s den. As always when in human form, she pulled the hood of the cloak over her head to hide her mane of white hair. It was not white from age. Like her mother, she’d been born a white dragon. White dragons were rare and often born with powers far outreaching of other dragons. But she still had a way to go before she could even think to compete against her mother’s skill.
She entered her brother’s den and moved deep within to reach the girl’s chamber. He had practically made that section of the cave into the girl’s bedroom.
Very subtle, Fearghus.
As she neared her destination, she heard Annwyl speak and her brother . . . laugh?
Morfyd stopped. Perhaps she heard wrongly. Perhaps she’d finally gone insane. Morfyd inched closer to the chamber and waited.
“Now, I did try to set him on fire once when I was 12. But, I assure you, I felt awful about it later.”
“And how long did that awful feeling last?”
“Until he set the dogs on me.”
She heard her brother chuckle and she started at the sound.
“Can I ask you a favor?”
“Another? What do you want now, woman? My gold? My lair?”
“No. No. No. Nothing like that. And this might sound strange . . .”
“. . . as opposed to your horse manure story.”
“But . . .”
“But?”
“Can I touch your horns?”
Morfyd blinked and looked around, half expecting her three other brothers to be standing behind her, proving this was nothing but a joke. Could she have truly heard what she thought she’d just heard?
“I’m sorry. Could you repeat that? Because I think I just got the brain fever.”
She heard the girl give a very unladylike snort. “I’ve never touched a dragon before. Your horns look so beautiful and I would just like to—”
“All right. Stop. Before you say something that will make both of us uncomfortable.” She heard her brother move his body. Morfyd realized he was lowering himself so the girl could reach him.
Morfyd couldn’t stand not knowing. As silently as she could manage, she peeked around the corner and looked into the girl’s chamber. What she saw astounded her, simply because it was Fearghus.
The girl stood on tiptoes, Fearghus allowing Annwyl to lean against him as she reached up and ran her strong, battle-scarred hand across his horn, her tanned skin standing out against its shiny blackness. Her other hand moved down his neck and grasped the mane of black hair that flowed across it.
“I didn’t know dragons had hair. It’s like a horse’s mane.”
“It is not like a horse’s mane,” Fearghus snapped. To Morfyd’s surprise, Annwyl didn’t shy away from her brother and scurry across the room. Instead, she laughed, leaning closer against his body.
G.A. Aiken's Books
- G.A. Aiken
- Feel the Burn (Dragon Kin #8)
- Light My Fire (Dragon Kin #7)
- How to Drive a Dragon Crazy (Dragon Kin #6)
- The Dragon Who Loved Me (Dragon Kin #5)
- Last Dragon Standing (Dragon Kin #4)
- What a Dragon Should Know (Dragon Kin #3)
- About a Dragon (Dragon Kin #2)
- Dragon On Top (Dragon Kin #0.4)
- A Tale Of Two Dragons (Dragon Kin 0.2)