Light My Fire (Dragon Kin #7)(124)

“Come where?”

“First to that stream over there. I need to get this blood washed off. Then me and you . . . we’ve got somewhere to be.”

“I should tell Fearghus I’m leaving.”

“You don’t need to tell no male nothin’. Just come on. We’ll be back before anybody notices.”

Annwyl watched Brigida walk off and it suddenly occurred to her that she had no limp today. She was just walking along toward that stream as if she didn’t have a care or pain in the world.

Annwyl really didn’t know what to make of this old bitch. She really didn’t. But she knew that she owed it to Elina to at least try to make things right. And something told her that Brigida was the only one willing to do that.

Glancing around and seeing nothing that changed her mind, Annwyl followed Brigida the Foul.

Celyn came into the Great Hall, hoping to see Elina at one of the dining tables. Instead, he found an exhausted and forlorn-looking Frederik.

“What’s wrong?” he asked the Northland male while reaching for the fruit sitting in a bowl on the table.

Frederik sighed, long and loud. “Nothing.”

Celyn rested his ass against the table and stared down at the boy. “Did Kachka toss you out of her room when she was done with you this morning?”

“Yes. She did. She used me and tossed me aside.”

“She did use you.”

“Thank you very much, Celyn.”

“But so what? From the sound of it when we passed her room this morning, you were enjoying every second of that using.”

“That’s not the point.”

“What is the point? That she gave you the time of your life? Would you have preferred to have that idiot Gwenvael hire you a girl to break you in proper? Because trust me, if you’d kept showing up with those little peasant girls and prissy royal brats you were trying to woo . . . eventually he would have offered. And among the Cadwaladrs it’s hard coming back from that shame.”

“I didn’t know everyone took an interest in who I . . . I . . .”

“Fucked. The word is f*cked. If you can’t say it, you won’t be able to do it. Look,” Celyn went on, “my suggestion is that you just take this experience and enjoy it for what it was.”

“And what was it?”

“An amazing night of f*cking with a one-hundred-and fifty-four-year-old woman.”

Frederik froze and slowly looked up at Celyn. “Pardon?” “She didn’t mention that?”

“No. Her age never came up.”

“Elina’s her younger sister. She’s a hundred and forty-five.”

“I had sex with an old woman?”

“No. You had sex with a Daughter of the Steppes, and you should be grateful.” Celyn grinned, and he knew his grin was wide. “I know I am.” He bit into the fruit, decided he didn’t like the taste, and tossed it back into the bowl. “Speaking of which, have you seen Elina?”

“I saw her heading toward the training area with her bow.”

“Of course.” He patted Frederik’s shoulder. “Don’t fret. Kachka won’t be considered an old woman by her people for quite a few more centuries. And in a few days, this will all be just a glorious memory for you.”

Celyn walked out of the Great Hall and down the stairs into the courtyard. That’s where Gwenvael caught his arm and yanked him around.

“You need to keep your Rider females from my lady’s sight today.”

“First off,” Celyn stated calmly, “get your claws off me.”

“Listen, Low Born, don’t—”

“Second, I will cut that pretty face of yours.”

Gwenvael gasped and stepped away. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“So deep even your sister won’t be able to heal the scars.”

“Bastard!”

“Now what’s the problem?”

“Your whorish Riders—”

“Watch it. I’m a Cadwaladr, raised by Ghleanna the Decimator herself. I always have a blade at the ready.”

“Fine then. Kachka Shestakova f*cked Frederik Reinholdt.”

“And?”

“Dagmar is not happy.”

“What does any of this have to do with the Shestakova sisters?”

“While her only son is with your father, Frederik is all Dagmar has. She still sees him as her little orphan nephew.”

“His father may be quite the bastard, but Frederik is not an orphan. Plus he’s past his twenty-third winter, six-four, and well over two hundred pounds.”

“And he’s still her little orphan nephew!” the dragon bellowed.

“What exactly do you want me to do?”

“Just get the Riders out of Dagmar’s sight. Right now I’ve got her holed up in her study with her weird little assistant for the next few hours. It would be nice if when she comes out for luncheon, reminders of her nephew’s lost innocence were removed.”

“He wasn’t a virgin.”

“I’m guessing that compared to what he’d had before Kachka Shestakova . . . he might as well have been.”

Celyn was about to argue the point until he shrugged and nodded, realizing his idiot cousin was right.