What a Dragon Should Know (Dragon Kin #3)(102)

“Stop them please!” she begged. She’d convinced them all she only wanted the best for Olgeir and his kin—as if she cared. They rushed forward, first one and then the other. It was the other’s neck that Keita’s tail whipped around, yanking him back at such an angle that it snapped his neck clean. A lovely trick her father had taught her. “You may be smaller than the males,” he’d always told her, “but you can use their weight and stupidity against them. Never forget that.” She hadn’t.

She snatched the key ring hanging from his breastplate and unlocked the collar at her throat.

Backing into the shadows, she waited as more kinsmen tore into the room and joined the fray. Then she inched her way to the edge of the flat mountaintop. She gave herself another second, enjoying the spray of blood beginning to cover the floor, and then she dropped backward off the landing.

She stayed silent as she fell toward the ground, her eyes focused on the area she’d just escaped from. The fight continued, but calls of her disappearance didn’t come.

Grinning, Keita flipped forward and unfurled her wings. The power of the wind at her back took her and she headed south.

Nothing stopped her and she stayed near the tops of the trees. Eventually they’d realize she’d gone and would send out scouts to track her down. She’d have to be wily and fast to stay out of their grasp. But her brothers needed her, and she wouldn’t let anything stop her.

It was when she passed over the Torment River that she knew she had two males on her tail. She did her best flying, using trees and rocks and even birds to keep them off her back.

They were persistent, though. Determined. Finally throwing a net over her. She sneered, her talons slashing against the soft material. But when nothing happened, she looked down. Yet it was not her claw she saw … but her hand.

“What in all the hells—”

The net closed fully around her human body, and Keita fell like a stone. She screamed as land rushed up to meet her, the sound cutting off abruptly when strong dragon arms caught her and carefully brought her to the ground.

“Here we are, Princess Keita.” Lightning strikes dotted around her for a moment as the Lightning shifted from dragon to human before he carefully placed her on the ground. “Nice and safe.”

She waited while the net was slowly removed, biding her time. She stayed curled on her side, panting.

“Is she hurt?” another voice asked.

“No. But she wants us to believe she is. Don’t you, my lady?”

Realizing she had no more time to spare, Keita came up. She had her hands curled into fists and punched twice, knocking her abductor back several steps. She ran, needing to get her feet off that cursed netting. But she didn’t get far as her abductor’s arm swung out and, without him even touching her, sent Keita flying back. Her squeal of surprise and outrage at the brutal use of Magick was cut short as her human form rammed into the base of the nearby mountain.

Now she wasn’t pretending anything. She couldn’t move or speak, too exhausted to fight as the Lightning crouched beside her and clipped the small, human-sized collar around her throat. The power of that Magickal item plowed through her, leaving her a shuddering pile of human flesh at his feet.

Big fingers brushed her hair from her face.

“Red,” another voice said about her hair.

“Pretty,” said another.

“Tricky,” said the one looking down at her. He smiled when she glared up into his face. “Hello, Princess Keita. I’m Ragnar. I am sorry I had to end your trip back to your brother and his dying pet, but I have need of you. And until I tell you differently, princess … you’re mine.”

Dagmar closed the doors to Violence’s stables. She’d brought him and his mares a basket of apples and stayed with them until Violence finally ate. The stable dog whined on the other side of the door, more than ready to follow her back to her room. He was a very sweet dog, but he had other responsibilities.

“Quiet now,” she said through the thick wood. “Go lie down.”

The mutt sniffed a bit under the crack, but eventually went back to his warm bed and cold food.

Dagmar turned to head back to the castle but stopped short when she saw Queen Rhiannon standing behind her—staring.

“You have a way with animals, I see.”

“Yes, my lady. I raise dogs for my father’s troops.”

“You do?” She frowned in disapproval. “Is that an appropriate task for the Only Daughter of a Northland warlord?”

“No. But my father could not deny my talents.”

The dragoness moved toward her. She seemed to glide, in a way. “My son tells me you have other talents.”

Dagmar couldn’t help it. Her eyes widened in shock and she felt as if she’d wandered into the Great Hall completely naked.

The queen frowned again and then gasped. “Oh, gods! No, no. Not like that.”

The pair began to laugh and immediately stopped, realizing how out of place it sounded and felt. But they had both been startled.

“I forget sometimes that Gwenvael is not like his brothers. What I meant to say is he told me you have a skill with words and negotiations.”

This time Dagmar was surprised but flattered. She’d had no idea Gwenvael had praised her so to his mother. “I … have helped my father when—”