How to Drive a Dragon Crazy (Dragon Kin #6)(15)

Sighing, Talaith slid off the table. A few moments later, her youngest daughter ran into the Great Hall, tears streaking down her face. But even all that sobbing could not take away from Rhi’s natural beauty. She had the brown skin and long curly hair of Talaith’s Desert Land bloodline, but like her father, her hair was a gorgeous silver and her eyes a vibrant violet.

Rhi threw herself into Talaith’s arms and openly sobbed against her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” Talaith asked, worrying something terrible had happened.

“Ask Daddy!”

Talaith’s fear disappeared and she immediately looked over at Dagmar. Together, they both crossed their eyes and waited.

“I don’t know what you’re getting so upset about,” Briec complained as he stalked into the hall behind their daughter. “I was saving you from a life of misery and boredom.”

“What did you do now?” Talaith demanded of her mate.

“Why do you have to say it like that?”

“Because I know you so bloody well.”

“He was just trying to hand me some flowers!” Rhi sobbed out. “And you burned him!”

“You expect me to let some worthless low-born human get near my daughter? You don’t really think I’d let that happen, do you?”

“But I like him!”

Briec rolled his eyes. “I’m sure he’s a very nice boy who will one day get a very nice girl and they’ll have very nice babies together. You, however, are a royal princess of the House of Gwalchmai fab Gwyar and you will not be involving yourself with riffraff!”

Bursting into tears, Rhi again buried her face against Talaith’s shoulder.

“I don’t know why you’re getting so hysterical,” Briec complained. “You sound like that crying boy!”

“Both of you stop.” Talaith pushed her daughter back a bit, looked into her tear-streaked face. “Who was trying to hand you flowers, Rhi?”

“That idiot,” Briec answered for their daughter.

Rhi glared at her father. “He’s not an idiot! Albrecht is a perfectly nice—”

“Albrecht?” Dagmar faced Briec. “You burned Lord Pombray’s son?”

“He was trying to hand her flowers. We all know where that will lead.”

Dagmar’s hands curled into fists. “By all reason, what is wrong with you?”

Briec shrugged nonchalantly. “Nothing. Why?” And Talaith knew that he truly didn’t understand why everyone was so concerned.

“You’d best get Morfyd,” Talaith told Dagmar before the woman could find a way to remove Briec’s scales while he slept. “She can heal the boy.”

Dagmar headed toward the exit but stopped long enough to glare at Briec.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

The Northland female snarled at Briec and stormed off.

“I don’t know why everyone is so upset. Did any of you really think I’d let some ludicrous boy get close to my perfect, perfect daughter?”

“I am not perfect!” Rhi argued. “Why do you keep saying that?”

“Because I’ve graciously decided to overlook any minor flaws you may have gotten from your mother. Tragically, those can’t be helped and I love you in spite of them.”

And if Rhi hadn’t caught Talaith’s arm and held her, Talaith was positive she would have ripped the smug bastard’s nose off!

“My brother did what?”

“What part of that statement did you not understand?” Dagmar demanded of her mate’s Dragonwitch sister, Morfyd.

“But . . . but why?”

Dagmar sighed. “Apparently young Albrecht gave Rhi flowers. I think he’s smitten.”

Morfyd fell silent, eyes briefly gazing off, before she replied, “Well . . . that was clearly a bad idea. He’s not all that handsome.”

“Morfyd!”

She refocused back on Dagmar. “Don’t yell at me.”

“Don’t make me! Rhi is a lovely girl. Boys will be showing interest. That doesn’t mean your brothers can go around burning them all.”

“Of course not. But still . . . my father—”

“Is not known for his rational thought when it comes to his daughters. It’s why I’ve never questioned the decision to name your Brastias general commander of Annwyl’s armies. The mere fact he’s survived this long with your brothers and father in close proximity says much about the man’s survival skills. That being said, Rhi will continue to grow only more beautiful as the years go by and I cannot afford to have this reign known for its dragons burning every young man that comes near her.”

“This reign? Don’t you mean Annwyl’s reign?”

“Morfyd!”

The Dragonwitch held up her hands. “Calm yourself. I’ll have him healed by nightfall. I don’t see why you’re so upset,” she muttered as she headed toward the guest house. “I was only saying that Briec wasn’t necessarily irrational during all—”

And that was when Dagmar stopped listening. Instead, she rubbed her now throbbing head and tried to think of how the rest of her day was going to go. But as she stood there, fingers against her temples, she knew someone was standing behind her. She wasn’t always so observant, but like the time she’d been out alone in the woods surrounding her father’s lands and she’d sensed a hungry wolf watching her from a nearby boulder, Dagmar always knew when a predator was close.