“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.
“There is another option,” Varro said, his voice nearly a whisper from the shame of the words he was forcing himself to speak. “We now have something Vateria wants. Needs, even.”
Gaius shook his head. “I’m a bastard, Varro. But I’m not that big a bastard.”
“Yes, but—”
“To turn Annwyl over to Vateria wil be giving that snake exactly what she wants. I can’t do that. I won’t.”
“Not even for Aggie?”
“I’m doing it for Aggie. There are some things she simply won’t forgive me for. Giving Vateria anything is definitely one of them.”
“Then what do we do, old friend? The mad queen is not leaving.”
The pair stared at each other. Then they leaned far over so they could see past the cave wal and into the cavern in which the queen and her guards were waiting. They watched the royal as she sat quietly, staring off at nothing in particular. Around her, her guards chatted, looked worried, concerned, anxious. But the queen didn’t seem to have any of those emotions. She just sat there.
Then, al of a sudden, she slowly turned just her head and looked at Gaius and Varro. Al Gaius could see were vibrant green eyes scowling at him from behind a stringy mass of light brown hair. The friends immediately sat back.
“She’s what we’ve always heard, Gaius,” Varro warned. “She’s crazed.”
“Shit.”
“What?”
“She’s coming in here.”
And she did, forcing her way past Gaius’s guards and into his private chamber. “Wel ?” she demanded, folding her arms over her chest.
“Wel what?”
“It’s a simple enough deal, Rebel King. I get your sister.... You help me stop Thracius. What are you not grasping? Gods, are you slow? No one warned me that you were slow.”
Gaius gripped the sword lying next to him, but Varro caught his hand and held it.
The queen looked at their joined hands, then them. “You two together then?”
“Together? What?”
She focused on Varro. “Can’t you talk to your mate? Get him to see reason?”
Gaius snatched his hand back and jumped to his feet. “Out!” he roared.
Annwyl pursed her lips. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Gaius—”
Ignoring the warning in Varro’s voice, Gaius stalked up to the queen. “Get out. Now.” She stared up at him, then asked, “How did you lose that eye?” Startled by the question and then by Annwyl reaching up to lift his eye patch, Gaius slapped her hands away. So she slapped him back. They were slapping and kicking and shoving each other until Varro got between them.
“Stop it! Both of you!”
Fed up, Gaius headed toward the exit, pushing past his own troops and the queen’s guard. Behind him Annwyl fol owed.
“I’m not leaving!” she yel ed at his back. “I’m staying right here until I get what I want!”
“Then I guess you’re going to die here, female. Because you’l get nothing from me!”
“You handled that wel ,” Izzy muttered, and Annwyl turned on her, pointing her finger in her face.
“Don’t start with me, little girl.”
“Not starting. Simply making an observation, my liege.”
“Just like your mum with that tone.”
“So what are we going to do now?” Rhona asked, proving she was the sanest of the group in Vigholf’s estimation.
“I’m not leaving.” Then Annwyl screamed at where the king had walked out, “Ever! ”
“Gods deliver us,” Rhona muttered, walking away from the queen.
“So we’re just going to stand here?” Vigholf asked. “Until the king you just pissed off comes back in here and changes his mind? That dragon’s never changing his mind.”
“Why not?”
Vigholf frowned and replied, “He hates you.”
“Everyone hates me at some point or another. They get over it.”
“I haven’t,” Rhona snapped.
“Annwyl,” Vigholf cut in. “We have to get back to Euphrasia. We have to help our troops, our kin.”
“If we leave now . . . we lose. Don’t you understand that?”
“No. I don’t.”
“Do not question me, foreigner!” Annwyl bel owed, but just as quickly it seemed the fight went out of her. She rubbed at her eyes with her fists. “I can’t talk about this now.”
The queen walked off, and Izzy motioned to Branwen. “Keep an eye on her.”
The She-dragon fol owed after the royal and Rhona’s pretty human face turned red. “Why is my cousin taking orders from you?”
“That wasn’t real y an order, but if it was, she’d still have to listen to me. I’m the Queen’s Squire.”
“In what world does a squire outrank a private?”
“In Annwyl’s world. Now do me a favor and get off my back.” Izzy stepped away.
“Don’t walk away from me, little girl.”
Izzy spun back to face Rhona, her finger pointed at her. “I am not a little girl. And I don’t report to you, cousin.”
“Not my cousin. Not by blood you’re not.”
Vigholf flinched at that direct hit, and he wasn’t surprised that Izzy’s laugh was bitter.
“Good to know,” the girl sneered.
“Where are you going, Izzy?” Vigholf asked her as she walked away.
“To get us a place to sleep and some food. And, if we’re lucky, a lake to bathe in.”
“I don’t think we should separate.”
“Wel , you can’t expect me to stay here,” Izzy snapped before she disappeared down an alcove.
“What the hel s are you doing?” Vigholf demanded.
“You’re blaming me for this?”
“You attacked her!”
“She seems to think she’s a Cadwaladr. Then she should be raised the Cadwaladr way and be given a good thrashing for being such a pain in the ass!”
Vigholf pul ed Rhona around until she faced him. “Nothing you do or say is going to change what happened between Izzy and Celyn. In fact the only thing you real y have to worry about is pissing off Annwyl because clearly she’s protective of Izzy on this. And, personal y, I’d real y like to avoid pissing off Annwyl if we can.”
“You think I’m being unreasonable.”
“No. I think you’re being the Babysitter. But blaming Izzy for what happened . . . it just doesn’t seem fair to me.”
“She shouldn’t have gotten between cousins.”
“She didn’t. What she did is get laid. Good and proper from the sound of it.”
Gasping, Rhona thumped him on the chest. “Vigholf!”
“What? Can you tel me I’m wrong?”
“That’s not the point.”
“Then what is the point? I mean other than you holding a grudge against something a nineteen-year-old human girl did with your nearly hundred-year-old cousin that pissed off another nearly hundred-year-old cousin because he didn’t have the bal s to go after what he wanted in the first place.”
“You’ve never liked Éibhear.”
“That’s not it. I just know what I saw. And Izzy was the long-legged bone caught between two pit dogs. Don’t blame her for that.”
“So you want me to blame them instead?”
“I don’t want you to blame anyone. In fact . . . I think you should mind your own gods-damn business.”
“Oy!”
He tightened his grip around her waist so she couldn’t walk away from him. “Just hear me out. In order to grow up in this world, you sometimes have to do real y dumb shit. Some of us do dumber shit than others.” He pointed at himself, making Rhona chuckle. “Some of us never have a chance to do real y dumb shit.” He pointed at Rhona. “And some of us wal ow in dumb shit until it blows up in our face.”