How to Drive a Dragon Crazy (Dragon Kin #6)(20)

How could killing this human be any harder?

His axe was coming down again, aimed for the human woman’s head, but as he nearly reached her, she raised her arm, caught hold of his weapon’s handle and held it.

She held it. Held him. Growling, he tried to pull the axe from her, but she held it. He knew he hadn’t weakened that much. Not enough that this human female could stop him from holding on to his weapon. The weapon that made him the Leader. But she held tight, eventually yanking it away.

The Leader reached for her with his bare hands, enraged that she’d dare take his axe. But she stepped to the side and swung the axe up, over, and down, cutting off his arm that was closest to her.

The Leader gazed down at where his arm used to be, and that’s when she kicked him in the back of the leg and dropped him to his knees.

Around him, he could hear his troops dying, screaming to their gods. He’d give these humans none of that from him. Not now, not ever.

The human stepped close, studied him. The Leader sat back on his heels, his life’s blood pouring out of him.

She lifted her booted foot, pressed it against his chest and shoved him to the ground.

“You can’t be that big a fool,” he snarled at her in his language, knowing she’d understand. “To think I’d die so easy.”

With the arm he still had left, he reached over and grabbed a club from the body of one of his dead. Grabbed it and was swinging it toward her with the intent to break her leg and then her head.

But something wrapped around her waist. Something long and scaled and blue. One second she was above him, raising his own axe to finish him off, the next she was pulled away and the Leader looked up into the face of the biggest dragon he’d ever seen. He didn’t know there were dragons that big.

The beast took a big breath in and even before the flames covered his body, he knew this would be the thing that killed him.

The flames burned hot and removed his flesh and muscle and, as darkness surrounded him and the dying screams of his troops filled the cavern, the Leader heard the dragon say to the human female, “So can we go back now?”

As soon as Izzy’s feet touched the ground, Brannie quickly threw her arms around her cousin and held her. She held her tight because she knew that Izzy killing Éibhear probably wouldn’t be overlooked by the rest of the family. Most likely.

Although Brannie knew for a fact that her mum, Ghleanna the Decimator, would completely understand when she found out that Éibhear had gotten between a warrior female and a kill. There were just some things one didn’t do among the Cadwaladrs and that was a big one.

But Brannie understood that Éibhear was too self-absorbed to have a death wish, so there had to be another reason he was doing all this.

Determined to find out what that was, Brannie carried Izzy away from Éibhear and the other Mì-runach. She stopped by Fionn, Izzy’s next in command. When she released her, Brannie immediately saw that Izzy was way beyond mere anger. She could tell because Izzy hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t done anything. She was simply standing tall and straight like a statue. Not a good thing. The last time Brannie had seen Izzy act like that, an entire army had been wiped out. It hadn’t been pretty then, and it wouldn’t be pretty now to see the same thing happen to blood kin, so Brannie knew she had to handle this.

Something strong and powerful grabbed Éibhear by the hair and yanked him around.

“What the bloody hells are you up to?”

Éibhear gazed at the female cousin yelling at him. “Did you just do that?” he asked, fascinated.

“Who else?”

“Gods, you’re strong. Ever think of joining the Mì-runach?”

“Unlike you lot, I actually obey orders from all my commanding officers, not just my queen. So I don’t think I’ll fit in too well.”

“We follow orders from our commanding officers,” Aidan argued while squeezing the head of an ogre until it popped like a grape. “Or at least from Angor. We simply do it in our own time and in our own”—he shook his claw to get rid of the ogre blood and flesh—“way.”

“Fascinating,” Brannie sneered before turning away from Aidan. “I asked you a question, cousin. Now answer it.”

Huh. His cousin had grown pushy over the years. He might find that annoying at some point.

“I have a duty to get her home,” he said.

“By getting in her way?”

“She’s being difficult. If she’d just do what I told her to . . .”

Branwen held up her hand. “Just so you know,” she said, “you sound exactly like your father.”

Hurt, Éibhear asked, “Why are you being so mean?”

“Because that’s exactly how you’re acting. You’re following right behind him. Just like your brothers did. You going to demand a blood debt now, too, just like Briec did with Izzy’s mum?”

Éibhear thought a moment and asked, “If I do what do I get out of it?”

She reached for his hair again, but Éibhear stumbled back, warding her off with his claws. “All right. All right, I was just kidding.”

“What do you really want, Éibhear?”

“Just to take her home. That’s what I committed to.”

“And?”