Feel the Burn (Dragon Kin #8)(3)

“I was nice,” Kachka replied, but when Elina pursed her lips, Kachka threw up her hands. “What more do you want from me, sister?”

“How about not terrifying the staff?”

“You mean the sheep?”

“And stop calling them that! You know they hate it!”

Gaius Lucius Domitus, Iron dragon and the one-eyed Rebel King from the west, rolled that one eye and continued out of the back halls of the Senate and toward the royal palace. He had important plans to make and he didn’t have time for yet another discussion about his poor kingly skills.

“I think you’re a fool to do this.”

“Thank you, Auntie. I appreciate your confidence.”

“Don’t get that tone with me.”

“What tone?”

Lætitia Clydia Domitus grabbed Gaius’s arm and yanked him around. She was a small She-dragon and ridiculously tiny in her human form, but there was a power to her. There had to be in order for her to have survived as long as she had. There were few who had survived Overlord Thracius’s reign while openly loathing him, but Lætitia had managed. Somehow.

“First off—” she began.

“Gods,” Gaius groaned. “There’s a first off.”

“—you shouldn’t be walking around these streets alone. You’re the king now. That makes you a clear target. Second, you’re king now. You can’t run off on stupid errands every time you get a bug up your ass. You have an empire to rule.”

“An empire that will no longer exist if I don’t get control of my cousins and, more importantly, squash the rise of Chramnesind cults.”

“I don’t disagree with you, but I don’t know why you need to go yourself. You have dragons and men at your disposal. Why do you not use them?”

“Why? Because I trust no one. Except my sister.” When his aunt groaned and rolled her eyes at the mention of Agrippina, Gaius gently pulled his arm out of her grasp and walked away.

“Wait! I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Yes, you did.”

“No. I didn’t. I love your sister—” Gaius snorted at that, and Lætitia gripped his arm again and yanked him around to face her with even more strength than he’d given her credit for. “Do not, boy, question my loyalty to you or your sister. Ever. You two are the only thing left of the one sibling I adored, and that means something. But your sister went through hell. Absolute hell. And she hasn’t recovered from it, no matter how much both of you want to pretend that she has. So leaving the throne in her claws while you go off to be the hero king seems a . . . risky decision at best.”

“Well then . . . I guess . . .” Gaius glanced off, pretended to think a minute. “You’ll just have to give her your guidance while I’m gone.”

From the corner of his one eye, he saw his aunt desperately try to hide a smile. It wasn’t an evil smile. She, unlike most of his kin, was not evil. But, for the first time, she felt she’d be allowed to use her knowledge and skills directly rather than behind the scenes, which was usually where one could find her. Her machinations had been legendary, but they were often attributed to one of her other siblings. Of course, it was her willingness not to be openly involved that had kept her alive this long.

“Your sister,” Lætitia finally said, “won’t like that.”

“Of course she will,” Gaius lied. “She respects you, Auntie.”

“Good gods, Gaius Lucius Domitus!” she cried out. “You’re just like your father—such a liar!”

Bickering, the sisters began to head back to the queen’s castle, but Kachka realized that the kitchen staff person was struggling to drag the bison back with her. Annoyed—at everyone!—Kachka grabbed one leg of the dead animal and her sister grabbed the other. Together, they yanked the bison back to the house, arguing all the way, while the girl was forced to run in order to keep up.

“I just don’t understand why you’re so unhappy,” Elina said, yanking the bison over a ridge. “There’s plenty of food and water and soft beds to sleep in.”

“You don’t have to remind me of how pathetic we’ve become, sister.”

“How is enjoying a few amenities pathetic?”

“The fact that you have to ask that upsets me more than you’ll ever know.”

“Then find something to do, Kachka, rather than sitting around glaring at everyone.”

“What can I do here?” Kachka demanded. “What is there for me to do? Farm?” She stopped, glared at her sister. “Is that what you want me to be? A farmer? Like some . . . man? Is that what you think of me? That I’m a worthless man?”

“Of course not! I’d never say that. But perhaps you can talk to the Northlander, Dagmar Reinholdt. She is always up to something.”

“She hates me,” Kachka reminded her sister.

“Well, maybe if you hadn’t f*cked her nephew . . .”

“He was there!”

They began dragging the bison carcass again.

“There has to be something constructive you can do,” her sister went on. “I’m sure General Brastias would be more than happy to have you—”

Kachka stopped again, now only a few feet from the queen’s home. “Take orders from a man? Have you lost your mind?” she yelled. “Has everyone lost their mind?”