Light My Fire (Dragon Kin #7)(18)

“I thought you knew better.”

“So did I.”

With a wave of his hand, Celyn invited his parents into the war room. Once he closed the door, he turned to find Rhiannon throwing her arms open and moving toward his father with the intent of hugging the poor dragon. Something that Bercelak, after all these years, still hated.

But Bram was not alone. Ghleanna stepped in front of him, blocking the queen from getting near him.

Rhiannon pulled back her arms from her sister-by-mating. Celyn understood why, though. No point in hugging Ghleanna since it wouldn’t make her mate jealous. “Sister. How pleasant to see you. As always.”

“Rhiannon.” Celyn cringed at the way his mother bit out that one word. It was like a curse. Honestly, several centuries and these two still insisted on bickering like a pair of fight dogs over the same bone. The poor bone being Celyn’s father. “Is there something you want? Besides hugging my mate, I mean.”

“I can hug whoever I want in my kingdom. So perhaps you should move.”

“Perhaps you should make me, queenie.”

Maybe we should do something, Brannie suggested in Celyn’s head.

No need. We have our secret weapon.

What secret weapon?

“I don’t have time for this ridiculousness,” Dagmar cut in before the fight between the two She-dragons could become physical. “So let’s move this along, shall we?”

When the Dragon Queen stared at her, Dagmar pointed out the window toward the suns. “It’s getting late. . . . I have things to do, my good lady.”

“I think you might be getting a bit big for your leggings, Miss—”

“Don’t believe me?” Dagmar cut in. She dug into one of the hidden pockets of her dress and pulled out a piece of parchment. “Let me read my daily list to you.”

“Don’t bother.” Rhiannon immediately stepped away from Ghleanna. Nothing the She-dragon hated more than hearing Dagmar’s daily chores.

Smirking a bit, Dagmar slipped the parchment back into her dress. Amazing how just a little paperwork seemed to make every dragon nearly wet him- or herself at even the tiny suggestion of such boredom.

And Dagmar wasn’t ashamed to admit . . . she used that fear to every advantage she could wring from it.

While Celyn stared mindlessly at a spot on the stone floor of the war room, Rhiannon quickly went through her plan again for Bram and Ghleanna. When she was done, Bram gave a small shrug.

“It’s not a horrible idea. But until we talk to this Rider, we can’t count on her to do anything for us.”

“The idiot has a point, Rhiannon,” Bercelak said as Bram caught the back of his mate’s chain-mail shirt to prevent her from throttling her brother, while Celyn caught the back of his sister’s chain-mail shirt to prevent her from throttling their uncle. “We need to talk to this . . . person. Where is she?”

“Oh . . . I don’t know.”

Bercelak began rubbing his temples with the tips of his fingers and softly growling.

“Oh, stop it, Bercelak.”

“How do you not keep track of someone who was sent here to kill you? How is that possible?”

“I don’t know where she is. I’m the queen,” she reminded him. “I don’t need to know. But I know who does know where she is.”

“And who would that be?”

That’s when Rhiannon suddenly pointed at Celyn.

And Celyn immediately looked behind him to see if someone was standing back there.

When he saw no one, he faced the queen and pointed at himself. “I know?”

“Of course you know. I told you to take her someplace safe.”

“You did?”

“You knew about this?” Bercelak asked Celyn.

Celyn blinked and calmly asked, “Knew about what?”

“The girl,” his queen said.

“What girl?”

“The girl I asked you to keep safe.”

Celyn scratched his chin. “The girl you asked me to keep safe . . .”

The queen sighed. “You don’t remember, do you?”

“Not even a little.”

Bercelak started to stalk toward Celyn, but Ghleanna quickly grabbed his arm, halting him.

“The girl who came to kill Rhiannon?” his mother prompted. “And she wasn’t very good at it?”

“Ohhhh! That girl.”

“Aye!” the queen cheered. “That girl!”

“Some bitch comes to kill your queen,” Bercelak snarled, Ghleanna still holding him away from Celyn. “And you did nothing?” He ended on a bellow.

“I followed my queen’s orders.” Celyn repeated the creed of the Queen’s Personal Guard. A creed that had been rewritten by Bercelak himself when Rhiannon came into power. “My duty is to follow her orders and no one else’s. For I am—”

“Shut up!” Bercelak roared.

“Oh, stop it, Bercelak!” Rhiannon snapped. “We have no time for this.” The queen smiled at Celyn. “Now, dear boy, where did you put that pale little girl? In that cute pub in town?” She snapped her fingers. “Or that lovely house by the river?”

“Uh . . .” Everyone was staring at Celyn again, so he had no option but to admit the truth. “Well . . . since she did try to kill you, my queen—”