Last Dragon Standing (Dragon Kin #4)(17)

“I don’t really—”

“Oh, come on. You must remember something. And I’ve always wondered what a Southland celebration is like. For instance, what was the human queen’s gown like?”

“Gown? I doubt she wore—”

“Doubt?” Ragnar asked. “Don’t you know?”

Gods. Did she just hiss at me? Yes! I think she just hissed at me!

“You didn’t go?” the Blue asked.

“Éibhear, I was quite busy. I didn’t have time.” The Blue’s eyes narrowed, and he studied his sister for a long, painful moment. “When was the last time you were home?”

“The Southlands are my home, Éibhear. And I’m always—”

“Don’t play with me, Keita. When was the last time you were at Garbhán Isle or Devenallt Mountain?”

“When you look at how long we live, time is such a transient thing.” Ragnar began to have an uneasy feeling, clearly remembering the look on the princess’s face when he’d released her. Not when she’d stabbed him with her tail—although that moment was etched into his memory until his last breath—but before that. When he’d told her the queen had offered nothing for her daughter’s safe return. True, royal anger eventually took over everything, but before that, he’d seen pain on her face. Acute pain.

Having grown up with a father who enjoyed picking his other sons over “that weak, strange one” for important Horde business, Ragnar knew how much a careless action from a parent could hurt their offspring. He’d realized later that the queen had said such things because she’d known, as only a true witch could know, that Ragnar would never harm her daughter.

He’d never drag Keita off against her will. Not after what had happened to his own mother. Not after watching her trapped in a life she’d never wanted with only one wing and a dragon mate she detested. Ragnar had grown up under his mother’s avid protection, his father deciding early on that he loathed the hatchling who spent most of his days in books and learning.

She’d watched over Ragnar, raised him to think and reason while teaching him the Magickal arts and, finding a caring soul in Meinhard’s father, had asked the warrior to train her son without Olgeir’s knowledge. Ragnar owed his mother so much and was grateful to her for the very air he breathed, because without her, he wasn’t sure he’d have survived into his twentieth winter.

And although Ragnar used to think about going off by himself and living the life of a hermit dragon deep in the mountains near the Ice Lands, his mother’s words always stopped him. “You can’t live alone in this world, my son. You need your family. And one day, they will realize how much they need you.”

As always with his mother’s wisdom, her words were true for him, but they were even truer for Princess Keita. She adored her kin and had talked about them incessantly when they were bringing her back to the Southlands.

Mostly, she spoke of what her brothers would do to him when they got their claws on him, but Ragnar knew love when he heard it.

So the thought that Keita had cut herself off from her kin all this time because of that last discussion did not sit well with Ragnar at all.

Even now, she was still trying to wiggle out of returning to Dark Plains with them, and the Blue seemed to be buying into her half-truths. The boy simply didn’t know how to ask a direct question, which was a problem since his sister seemed quiet adept at sidestepping anything but direct questions.

So Ragnar asked the direct question himself, knowing he’d make her angry and not much caring since this would all be over soon enough, and he’d never see her again anyway. “Have you even seen your niece and nephew, Princess Keita?”

Grateful she had no real Magickal skills that could kill him at a distance, Ragnar met her glare and held it.

As he realized the truth, the Blue’s giant human head nearly exploded.

“You haven’t seen the twins? ”

“Éibhear—”

“At all? ”

“You’re being un—”

“What about Talaith’s daughter? Have you not seen her either?” The fight seemed to go out of her, her hatred for Ragnar alone, Keita stated, “I was planning to see them soon—when I have time.”

“You have time now.”

“Actually, I don’t.”

“Make some.”

“And if I don’t want to come home?”

“What does what you want have to do with family?”

“Oh, well, when you put it like that—”

“Good!”

“I was actually being sarcas—”

“Because I’d hate to drag you back there by your hair.”

“—tic,” she finished.

“So we’re all settled then?”

She let out a long, weary sigh. “It would seem so.”

“Good.” He suddenly walked off into the woods. “I’ll be right back.” Dark brown eyes seared Ragnar where he stood; then she marched off in the opposite direction from her brother.

Ragnar caught Vigholf’s attention and motioned for him to check the area. Meinhard went about getting more water for their trip, leaving Ragnar and the foreigner.

He faced the Eastlander, completely unclear on the relationship this strange-looking dragon had with the royal.