How to Drive a Dragon Crazy (Dragon Kin #6)(81)

“But”—Keita covered the boy’s ears again, and whispered—“he still seems clumsy and awkward. You don’t want to convince him that these pieces of glass will cure all his problems.”

“You have a point.” Ragnar reached across the table, grabbing a piece of fruit from a bowl. He tossed it to Talaith. “Lady Talaith. If you please.”

Talaith shrugged and pitched the fruit at Frederik’s head. Dagmar cringed, afraid it would hit him directly in the face. But he caught the fruit in his hand. Without even looking.

“Oh.” Keita stepped back. “I see.”

“So do I.” Dagmar pushed her chair back and stood.

“Where are you going?” Gwenvael asked her.

“To write my father.” She walked toward the hallway that would lead to the small office she kept inside the castle, her two dogs slipping out from under the table and following her. “This level of deception and lies must be addressed immediately.”

“Aunt Dagmar—”

She stopped, faced the boy, raising a single finger. “No, Frederik. There’s nothing more to discuss.”

Frederik lowered his gaze. “I understand.”

Gwenvael rested his chin on his raised fist, smirked at Dagmar. “What are you going to do with him, my love?”

“What do you think?” Dagmar demanded. “Keep him! I’d never send a plotting little liar like this back to the dullards of my family. Oh, no. I will keep you, boy, and I will train you, and I will use you to the fullest extent of your twisted capabilities.” She clapped her hands together. “I’m so damn excited!”

She spun around and again headed to her office, but she heard Gwenvael say to the boy, “Welcome to the family, Frederik.”

They stopped for a brief meal break in the woods not far from the road they were traveling. Izzy sat down next to Brannie, offering her some dried beef and bread.

“Are you still not talking to me?” Izzy asked.

“I’m hungover. But you can’t just keep kidnapping me anytime you want to do something ridiculously dangerous.”

“But if I ask you when you’re sober, we spend hours arguing before you just finally agree. This cuts down on the arguing.”

Her cousin glowered at her. “You are a plotting little cow and some days I loathe you.”

Izzy put her arm around her cousin’s shoulders and kissed her cheek. “But most days you love me because there’s nowhere else you can get this level and diversity of combat training.”

“Yes, I just need to survive long enough to enjoy the benefits.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll be general before you know it.”

“Unlike you, that has not been my lifelong goal. I do have a question, though, cousin.”

“Hhhm?”

“Macsen seems to have taken a sudden and rather brutal dislike to Éibhear.”

“He never liked Éibhear.”

“But he seems to dislike him even more now.” She jerked her head toward the other end of the clearing and Izzy watched the big blue idiot trying to get her dog to release the dragon’s tight ass, which was currently caught between Macsen’s jaws.

“Perhaps he simply finds Éibhear irritating and confusing.”

“Macsen finds Éibhear irritating and confusing? Macsen? The dog?”

Taking one more bite of her bread, Izzy stood and walked over to pry her dog off Éibhear.

Brannie watched Izzy try to call off that dog of hers. Although if Brannie were to be honest, she’d have to admit that Izzy was not trying very hard. Not as hard as she would if this was one of her soldiers.

Aidan sat down where Izzy had been sitting.

“What?” Brannie asked him.

“My, we are awfully snarly. I think I saw fang.”

“What do you want, Mì-runach?”

“Just sitting here, being entertained by our friends.”

“Éibhear isn’t my friend. He’s kin. A blood relation.”

“Which means what exactly?”

“To a Cadwaladr, it means that if I have good cause, I could beat the scales off his back and get away with it.”

“Ah, yes. More confirmation I never want to meet the rest of your family. Although you’re so welcoming . . .”

Brannie went back to eating her bread and meat until Uther sat on the other side of her. She had to admit, being surrounded by Mì-runach was unsettling. Her mother had raised her with two beliefs about the Mì-runach: they were invaluable in battle, but you should never turn your back on one.

“But what about granddad?” Brannie had asked, holding on to her mother’s tail while the dragoness had walked through a forest near their home. “He was Mì-runach.”

“And the worst of the lot, my girl. The worst of the lot. Especially to his offspring. We never turned our backs on your grandfather. Addolgar did once . . . he still has that scar where his head got split open.”

So Brannie assumed if her own grandfather couldn’t have been trusted, then obviously three strange Mì-runach she didn’t even know could definitely not be trusted. Yet Brannie still felt the need to ask them a question.

“Perhaps it’s the leftover ale still rolling around my head, but . . .” She motioned to a bickering Izzy and Éibhear while the dog kept barking and trying to re-attach itself to Éibhear’s ass. “Has something changed between those two?”