The Dragon Who Loved Me (Dragon Kin #5)(39)

Edana and her two sisters Nesta and Breena were going through their daily weapons check, counting al their weapons and looking for any weaknesses in the steel or grip. Nothing worse than having your sword break on you when you’re in the middle of a battle. It was a lesson that had been wel taught to them by Rhona. She’d been the first face that Edana had seen when she’d crawled out of her broken egg, one eye swol en shut from being pummeled by Nesta, her back leg weak because Breena had nearly bitten the damn thing off. Their mother had rushed off to some battle before they’d made their entrance into this world, so it had been Rhona who’d raised them even though she hadn’t been a grown adult herself yet.

Most dragons didn’t have so many hatchlings in such a short span of time, but Bradana had put off breeding far longer than her mated sisters and being the competitive female that she was, she’d gone out of her way to make up for it. The only problem was, she wasn’t much for sticking around when there was kil ing to be done. So off she’d gone before her triplets had hatched, leaving it up to Rhona to do the bulk of the work. Just like she’d expected Rhona to do with al her offspring.

Done with their own weapons, the three sisters changed places and examined each other’s weapons. An unnecessary step, their mum cal ed it.

“Don’t you know your own weapon?” she’d demanded when she saw the triplets do this. But often Edana’s sisters saw something that she’d missed and she saw something that they’d missed. And what was the point of taking the risk? If they had the time, might as wel do the extra steps.

Couldn’t hurt.

“Oy, you two!”

Edana didn’t bother to sigh anymore. “There’s three of us, Mum. Unless you’re ignoring one of us for some reason.”

“Don’t back-talk me, little miss. Where’s that sister of yours?”

Nesta snorted. “You’l need to be more specific than that.”

Their mother snarled. The only one of them she ever checked up on was Rhona and al of them knew it. Yet it was stil fun to toy with her.

“Rhona. Where is she?”

“Around somewhere,” Breena said. “Just saw her, I did. Not more than ten minutes ago. Went”—she pointed at some random spot across the cavern—“that way.”

“Gods-dammit. That girl,” their mother griped before she marched off.

Edana waited until Bradana was out of earshot before she asked the other two, “Any word from Rhona?” They both shook their heads. “But we can’t let Mum know she’s gone. You know how she gets,” Nesta reminded them.

“And if Rhona wanted her to know, she’d have told her,” Breena added.

Nesta nodded. “And if she was in trouble we’d know that too.”

“Besides,” Breena sighed out. “We’ve got bigger and dumber problems to worry about right here.” Al three looked over and watched their cousins rol around on the cave floor, trying to damage the other. Over some female no less! A human female!

Normal y Edana would never get in the middle of something so ridiculous, but Rhona wasn’t here and Rhona would get in the middle. More important, if they were going to keep up the il usion that their sister was about, they’d have to manage these things themselves because that’s what Rhona did when she was here. If things got out of control, their mother would know in an instant that something had changed.

“I’l take Celyn,” she told her sisters while getting to her claws. “You two take Éibhear.”

“Why do we always have to take Éibhear?” Nesta whined. “He’s as big as a mountain and don’t pay attention to where he’s swinging those big meat hooks of his.”

“Yeah,” Edana agreed. “That’s why I have you two do it. Now move your asses before Mum notices.” Rhona crouched beside a smal brook and took off her glove to scoop water to her mouth. It was cold and bracing, and revived her after such a long run. She was stil in Dark Plains but far from the battle going on at Garbhán Isle, giving her time to think.

Hard snow and ice cracked behind her and Rhona, stil crouched, turned, thrusting her spear up. The warhammer created by her father slammed into it, moving it aside but not knocking it from her hands.

“It’s me,” Vigholf told her quickly.

And Rhona replied honestly, “I know.”

“What do you mean you know? Then why did you attack me?”

Rhona stood to her ful , tal , human height, but she stil had to look up at the Lightning to see his face. “Why do you think? And why are you here?”

“Why do you think? Did you real y think I was going to let you go off on your own?”

“So you lied to my uncle then? You don’t think I can handle—”

“Before you even finish that idiotic statement, let me make something very clear to you. If I’d been assigned this mission . . . I’d not want to go it alone. I’d need someone to watch my back. Someone I know would keep an eye out for me no matter what I may have gotten myself into. So I didn’t lie to your uncle or anyone else. I know you can do this, but since I can afford to be here watching your back, I wil .”

“What about your brother?”

“What about him?”

“If Annwyl’s army is on the move then they’re gearing up for the final assault. The one that wil end this bloody war and get us back to our normal lives.”