How to Drive a Dragon Crazy (Dragon Kin #6)(86)

Aidan pushed his plate away, fell back in his chair. Caswyn had his face buried in his hands, and Uther was hunched over the table, his entire body tensing so hard that it seemed he was shaking. He wasn’t. He was tense. Tense was never good when dealing with the Mì-runach.

Brannie glanced over at him. She kept up her conversation with Izzy, but she was a Cadwaladr, too. If there was one thing every Cadwaladr learned to do at an early age, it was to be painfully aware of when their kin was doing something incredibly stupid. Brannie studied Éibhear’s face before turning back to Izzy. She laughed at something her friend said and then watched Izzy get up from her chair, thank the commander of the outpost, and excuse herself from the table. She walked off and Brannie watched her until she’d left the cavern.

Then Brannie’s smile faded and she relaxed back in her chair, her gaze moving back to Éibhear’s.

With a nod, Éibhear grabbed the back of Fal’s head and rammed it against the table, again and again, and then a few more times for good measure. When he was done with that, Éibhear stood up, grabbed his cousin by the back of the neck, lifted him up and flipped him over.

Fal slammed into the table, a loud hiss of air leaving his lungs. He shifted back to his dragon form and so did Éibhear.

That’s when the officers got to their collective feet and quickly shifted to their dragon forms, ready to fight for their idiot comrade. But the Mì-runach were ready to fight for Éibhear and four Mì-runach against a large contingent of officers and their troops was . . . well . . . not really fair to the officers and their troops.

Brannie got to her feet, removed her clothes so as not to rip them, and shifted to her dragon form. She held her front forearms away from her body.

“Well?” she roared, abruptly facing the salt mines commander. “Come on then!”

Izzy wandered away from the cavern. She didn’t know what was going on and she probably didn’t want to know. But she’d known Brannie for so long, they’d been through so much together, that Izzy knew something about the She-dragon’s brother was upsetting her. So Izzy had left and found her way to one of the exits. The Dragon Queen’s troops had been industrious over the years and they’d built a lovely little balcony directly into the mountainside.

She’d admit, she didn’t just walk out there. She tested it a bit to make sure it was sturdy. The dragons could fly away if it wasn’t. All Izzy could do was go to her death with great dignity. Since she had no plans of doing that anytime soon, she tested the balcony until she felt certain it was safe enough.

Resting her arm on the balcony’s edge and her chin on her fist, Izzy looked out over what should have been her homeland. She should have been born and raised in these sand-covered lands.

Gods, how much different would her life had been? Would she still be Izzy? The Izzy she was now? Or would she be a true Nolwenn, practicing the most powerful of Magicks and deigning to meet with royals who needed her help? She really didn’t know. Did the place make the person? The people one surrounded oneself with? Or was a person born, not made? Perhaps it was a combination of things. She didn’t know, and she left those kinds of philosophical debates to those who read more than one book every two years.

She still had to admit, it was hard. To love the family you had but still wish to have known your father. She’d asked her mother questions about him over the years, but to this day, thoughts of him still cut Talaith and Izzy didn’t like to be the one to upset her. It wasn’t like Talaith had had a happy life after leaving her home with the Nolwenns. It had been hard and painful, filled with worry for the daughter she’d never had a chance to get to know and desperation to get that daughter back. Izzy’s life had been a little lonely, a little sad but nothing like her mother’s. So she kept questions about her true father to a minimum, assuming she’d get her chance to meet him in the afterlife.

“He would have liked you, from what I can tell.”

Izzy closed her eyes. The last being she wanted to deal with at the moment was Rhydderch Hael.

“And what would I have to give to bring him back? Just my soul?”

“I’d never ask that of you. My mate has use for warriors’ souls, but I don’t. Besides, I couldn’t bring your father back if I wanted to. He’s not mine to return.”

She looked over at the god. He stood next to her as human, his gaze fixed across the Desert Lands. She wondered what he saw that Izzy could not.

“What do you want from me, dragon god?”

“Your love?”

“No, seriously. What do you want?”

Rhydderch Hael laughed. “I’ve missed our talks, Izzy.”

“So have I,” she admitted. “But I no longer trust you.”

“That’s probably a good idea. You have your concerns and I have mine. Of course, mine involve entire universes and yours just a small part of one.”

“Is this what you want from me?” she asked. “To come into the Desert Lands, meet with the Nolwenns, and what? Kill my grandmother? Has she crossed you somehow?”

His smile was . . . warm. Like an indulgent father. He reached out and caressed her cheek. “My dear, sweet Izzy. I assure you I’d never waste your blood debt to me or your considerable talents on your human grandmother.”

“I don’t understand.”