Until the day the black dragon landed in the middle of their camp. For the first time he learned the meaning of true fear. Seeing the black talons of the beast touch down. Watching the mighty horned head turn slowly as it watched the troops surrounding it. Hearing it roar Annwyl’s name. He thought he would never experience fear quite like that again.
He turned out to be very wrong.
Standing across from a dragon who had shapeshifted into a man and explaining to him how his lady love left, but “Don’t worry, she’ll be back soon enough,” introduced him to a whole new world of fear. Especially when the dragon stood naked across from him and Brastias, big arms crossed in front of a big chest, big legs braced firmly apart and, most disturbingly, black smoke curling from his nostrils.
Luckily they had already sent the troops ahead. But the two suns were rising and he needed to get Brastias to the village. Someone needed to lead since they really had no idea when Annwyl would return. Although he and Brastias had no intention of telling the dragon that. Of course now they realized they should never have told the dragon about Annwyl while his big body blocked the exit. Now he stood between them and the way out of the tent.
And the dragon wasn’t moving.
“So you just let her leave?”
Danelin exchanged glances with Brastias.
Brastias raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps you haven’t actually met Annwyl the Bloody, but you don’t let her or not let her go anywhere. You just stay out of her way.”
Danelin forced himself not to cower as the dragon growled in displeasure.
He watched the two humans stare at him. Brastias looked annoyed. The boy looked like he might start screaming at any second. He knew he shouldn’t take his anger at Annwyl out on these two men, but they were here and she was not.
The last thing he remembered was her slipping that lovely body out of bed with whispered promises to return quickly. He awoke several hours later to the sounds of Annwyl’s troops moving out. He also discovered his bed cold and no sign of his woman. A feeling, he found, he did not relish.
By the time he dragged his human body out of bed, most of the troops were gone, leaving Brastias and the boy. He cornered them in one of the supply tents and refused to let them go. Their cavalier attitude about Annwyl’s disappearance with his sister did nothing but raise his anger. Where Morfyd may have taken her, he could only guess. But if he guessed right, his sister would pay.
“She’s not our responsibility, dragon. Nor is she yours.”
He had to admit, Brastias turned out to be a lot braver than he thought. The boy, though, didn’t look like he could handle much more. But he wasn’t done with them. Soon he would start threatening body parts, but a hand on his bare shoulder stopped him.
“There you all are.” Annwyl smiled. “Everything all right?”
Fearghus scowled. “No. Everything’s not all right. Where the hell have you been?”
“Discuss later. Fight war now.” Obeying a motion of her head, Brastias and the boy quickly left. “You better not have been terrorizing them.”
“Annwyl.” He caught her arm. “What’s going on?” He looked at her face and wondered what was different. The two suns had just begun to rise, darkness still filled the tent, so he couldn’t see all that clearly, but he knew something had changed.
“Later. Right now my people need me, Fearghus.” She reached up and kissed him lightly. “Trust me.”
He brushed his head against her cheek and breathed in her scent. “Try not to get yourself killed, Annwyl.”
She laughed. “Why do all of you keep telling me that?”
He kissed her, long and deep until she pulled away. He enjoyed the fact that it seemed to be a struggle for her.
“We . . . uh . . . better go.” She stared at his lips for a moment longer, then, with a deep sigh of regret, stepped away from him and through the tent opening.
He followed, but stumbled upon finding his siblings waiting for him. All his siblings.
“Took you two long enough,” Briec snapped.
“What exactly were you two doing in there?” Gwenvael smirked.
“Big brother!” Keita spread her wings wide, completely blocking out Morfyd.
Morfyd slammed her claw down, causing the ground to shake. “You do that one more time, Keita, and I’ll start taking pieces of you right here!”
“Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” Éibhear took off and continued to swoop around the group, “Come on! We’ll miss all the best kills!”
Fearghus glared at Annwyl. She backed away from him with a shrug. “They wanted to help.”
“When we’re done with your brother, woman, we will discuss this.”
“Promises. Promises.” Annwyl leered as she quickly strapped her swords to her back, leather gauntlets on her wrists, and tied her hair back with a long leather strap.
Fearghus walked out into the middle of the campsite and shifted, doing his best to ignore his squabbling kin. He shook out his mane and turned to Annwyl as she secured her swords to her back.
“Lady Annwyl?”
Annwyl finished adjusting her weapons. “Lord Dragon?”
“I think it is time we make you queen.”
Annwyl nodded once . . . and smiled.
Brastias rolled on his side, avoiding the warhammer aimed at his head. He stood and brought his ax up, splitting the man from groin to neck.
“Behind you!” Brastias didn’t turn but swung his ax back and up. He took off a soldier’s sword arm, then turned to finish the man off. Prying his ax from the man’s corpse, he glanced at Danelin who called the warning.
“Where is she, Brastias?” the warrior yelled over the din of battle.
“She’ll be here.”
“Well, she and those dragons better be here soon.”
“Why?”
Danelin pointed to the sky and Brastias turned to see why the color drained from his lieutenant’s face. It wasn’t just that it was a dragon. Or that Lorcan rode him. But the fact that they were not alone. Eight other dragons flew with them, geared for battle.
Brastias cringed. Things just became more difficult.
As they flew toward battle, Fearghus gave explicit instructions, while Annwyl clung to his back. “Lorcan belongs to Annwyl. Hefaidd-Hen is mine. Kill every one else who wears Lorcan’s colors. Understand?”
“Wait. Is that it? Has our brother no words of wisdom before we go into battle?” Gwenvael demanded with sarcasm.
“As a matter of fact, I do. Don’t get killed.” Morfyd and Keita laughed as they moved out. His three brothers following.
“And Annwyl. Remember what I told you.”
“Protect my right side?”
“No.”
“Feint with my left?”
“No.”
“Nice ass.”
“No!” His growl of annoyance only elicited a sweet chuckle from his woman.
“Watch my rage, heart of my heart?”
“Condescending cow.”
Chapter 18
The ball of flame narrowly missed her and she desperately clung to Fearghus’s neck and hair as he spun and dove down toward the middle of the battle. For several agonizing moments her world turned upside down and she felt certain she would retch at any second, when the dragon thankfully righted himself. She didn’t care what he said, she was getting him a saddle.
As they neared the ground she caught sight of Brastias. “There! Land me there!”
Fearghus dropped lower, plowed through a contingent of horse-mounted soldiers, and slid to a halt in front of a startled Brastias.