“You’d best. My feelings for you, Eirianwen, have not and never will change. If I thought any of this truly angered you, that I might lose you—”
She pressed her body against his, kissed his chin. “Never. Haven’t you realized that yet? Besides, what we do now dictates what happens with Chramnesind later.”
“I’ve noticed he hasn’t been around.”
“He starts things, then flitters away,” she said off-handedly. “His lack of vision has always bored me.”
Rhy gazed down at her, one eyebrow raised in that oh-so-handsome face—and Eir gasped. “No, no! I mean his lack of creative vision and how it affects the universes we rule. Not his lack of actual . . . vision. I don’t mean that! I’d never say that!”
Rhy laughed. Not a chuckle or a mocking laugh, but a true laugh, from his gut. It was so very good to hear because he did it so rarely. And although horrified at what she’d just said, Eir joined in, hugging her mate tightly while she laughed into his neck.
Éibhear glanced up at the ceiling. “Thunder?” he asked Aidan.
“I don’t know. Do they have thunder here? Do they have rain?” He looked at Maskini. “Do you lot get rain?”
“We have a rainy season. It makes the rivers overflow.”
“Oh. That’s unfortunate.”
Éibhear stepped around his friend, watching Izzy mount Brannie’s back, his cousin taking to the air.
“Oy!” he called after them. “Where are you two off to?”
“We’ll be back in a bit,” Izzy promised.
“Is it me or does Izzy always sound like she’s up to something no good when it involves your cousin?” Aidan said.
“No,” Éibhear admitted. “It’s not just you.”
Vateria tore across the Desert Lands, ignoring the growing heat from the suns above her head. She wanted to put as much distance between her and this cursed territory as she could manage.
Gods! Could no one be trusted these days? Damn zealots and their damn gods!
But this setback wouldn’t stop Vateria. She would get her birthright back if she had to destroy the damn world to do it! Nothing would stop her. Not Southlanders. Not zealots. Not gods. No one.
Vateria heard the flap of wings behind her and she sped up, trying to get away. She’d slipped away from that dragon who’d freed her from that . . . that thing back in the sewers but he’d been a big bastard. No way he’d be faster than she in open skies like this.
Yet no matter how much faster Vateria went, she couldn’t seem to outpace the dragon following her. She didn’t stop, though. She kept moving, kept dodging. Even when the dragon was over her.
Vateria was about to dive again, hoping to get the dragon to smash face first into the hard ground, but before she did, something light landed on her back.“Hello, Vateria. Remember me?”
Vateria looked back. That human female from earlier? The one whose sister she had coveted?
“What do you want, human?”
“Didn’t think we were done.”
“Thought you were to rescue me. I’ve been rescued. Now go.”
And to help her along, Vateria spun three hundred and sixty degrees. But the human clamped her thighs down around Vateria’s neck and easily held on. Dammit!
“Is this about your sister?” Vateria wanted to know when she realized the human wasn’t going to give up easily.
“No. This is about your cousin.”
“My . . .”
Of course. Agrippina. That bitch.
“Well, you can tell my cousin to go fu—”
“Why don’t you pass that sentiment on to her when you see her again? Here,” the human offered, “I’ll help you with that.”
And that’s when a blade rammed between the scales on her back, severing the muscle that controlled her wings. Like that, her wings stopped in mid-flap and suddenly Vateria was heading fast toward the ground with no way to stop.
She fought for control, tried to keep herself up. It helped, but barely. She landed hard on the ground, her belly skidding across the harsh sand, scraping away some of the protection of her scales.
When Vateria’s body finally stopped, the human on her back easily slid off and walked around until she was face to face with her.
Panting, Vateria asked. “You’re going to finish me off now?’
“No, no. I have no intention of finishing you off. That’s not why I’m here. Just like I wasn’t the one who finished off your father. But I did stop him from running. Like I just stopped you. Now . . . when Agrippina’s ready it’ll be much easier for her to track you down and finish what you began in your dungeons with her.”
“Your cousin,” some low-born black dragon appeared, sighing dramatically and shaking her head. “Your own bloody cousin. Sick bitch,” she hissed before she spat at Vateria’s claws. “Let’s go, Iz. I can’t stand to look at the twat a second more.”
“Good luck to you, Vateria,” the human said. “May Agrippina have mercy on your worthless soul. I certainly wouldn’t.”
The human mounted the low-born dragon and the pair flew off, heading back toward Sefu.
At that point, Vateria dropped her head to the ground and tried to cry. But, to be quite honest, she just didn’t have that kind of weakness in her.
So, instead, she plotted and made plans while she waited for the bleeding in her back to stop. And that plotting . . . gods, that plotting felt so very good.