The Dragon Who Loved Me (Dragon Kin #5)(73)

King Gaius raised the spear above Annwyl as she lifted her head, flipping her hair back. “So that’s it then?” Annwyl asked, grinning. “You’re just going to let her die?”

“Shut up! ”

“You’re going to let your own sister die at the claws of Vateria?” Annwyl got to her feet. “I’d heard you were smarter than that. Smart enough to know an opportunity when you see one.” Annwyl moved a bit closer. “Let me get her for you. Let me bring your sister back.” The king’s body jerked a bit, his arms lowering. “What?”

“I’l get her. I know you can’t. None of you can. They know who you are. They know your scent. They took her because keeping her controls you.

But once Thracius is back—she dies. But they don’t know me. I can free her. I can bring your sister back to you.”

“You? You go into the heart of the Provinces, into the Overlord’s palace, and release my sister from their dungeons? You?” he said again.

“Why not me?”

“You can’t just waltz in there and save her.”

“What’s your alternative? To hope to see her on the other side when your time comes?” His hands tightened on the spear. “And if you fail, human?”

“And if I don’t? As it is, if you don’t get her out now—you might as wel go ahead and build her funeral pyre. Because you kil ed her.” Rhona only had a moment to rol her eyes, knowing how she would respond to someone saying that to her about her siblings, before the king rammed the spear at Annwyl. But the queen, a true warrior, caught hold of the spear’s shaft with her left hand, yanked the king’s human form close, and punched him twice in the face with her right. Then she unsheathed one of her swords and had it against his throat before he had a chance to register pain from her punching him, or his soldiers even had a chance to move. Clearly Annwyl’s madness only affected her mind, not her battle skil s.

“I’ve been fighting dragons like you for years,” Annwyl told the king. “Warriors that’d be using the bones of you and yours for toothpicks by now.

So think hard and long on what you want to do, Rebel King. Leave your sister to die? Or let me get her out and give yourself a chance at Thracius’s throne?”

She released the spear and stepped away from the king. “But choose quickly. Because time is running out for those I love and for the one you love.”

The Rebel King stared at Annwyl for a very long time until he final y stated the obvious. “You truly are as insane as everyone says.”

“I prefer the term persistent. It has a nicer ring, don’t you think?” Then she grinned and everyone in the cavern took a cautious step back.

Chapter 27

There were times in Gaius Lucius Domitus’s life when he’d wished things were different. That he was different. That he could simply sit back and accept his uncle’s completely brutal and vicious rule like everyone else in their bloodline. Or that he could overlook the way his kind abused the humans they shared their lives with. Or that keeping someone, anyone, enslaved was something he could completely overlook. If he was different, none of these things would bother him in the least.

And, as he’d stared into the crazed green eyes of a human queen with absolutely no boundaries or sense, he realized this was one of those times he wished he was that kind of dragon.

Gaius had heard about Annwyl the Bloody. Hel , everyone had heard about her. She was the half-dead queen who f**ked dragons and somehow managed to have offspring with them. Something that, as far as anyone knew, had never been possible between dragons and humans before.

There were those who said that on top of being crazy, Annwyl the Bloody was cruel, violent, cold, murderous, nasty, whorish, and a host of other things that made her one of the most reprehensible beings on the planet.

And yet she’d come here herself, risking an unbelievable amount of danger to reach him. She could have sent a messenger, or one of her soldiers. Al of whom Gaius would have sent back to her in pieces. Instead she’d come with three dragons and a girl, al of them sneaking through the tunnels under the mountains. Tunnels that most Sovereigns and Irons would never attempt to travel through, which was why Gaius and his troops used them.

“What are you thinking, old friend?”

Varro Marius Parthenius was the son of Laudaricus Parthenius, Thracius’s human leader-representative. Although father and son had never gotten along, Varro had given up much to fight by Gaius’s side. They weren’t merely friends or comrades in arms. They were brothers, species differences be damned.

“I’m thinking the Southlander is right. About Agrippina.”

“She’s insane, Gaius. How can you believe anything that woman says?”

“Because Aggie’s my sister. We came from the same egg. And every day I feel her dying. Bit by bit. Inside. So that even if she walks out of our uncle’s dungeon one day, she’l just be a walking corpse. She won’t be my Aggie.”

“Then we attack. Now. Tonight.”

“And we never get past the front gates and Vateria wil crucify Aggie in front of us. The gods know Vateria’s been waiting to. But she also knows keeping Aggie alive is the only reason I haven’t made a move while Thracius has been gone for five years.” Gaius shifted to human and, after pul ing on leggings and boots, sat down beside his friend.