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2024-10-29 19:42:56“Because of Addiena?”
“No. Not for Braith. It’s that father of hers.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’ve never liked him. Not at all. But he is dangerous. Maybe not physically to you, but he’s not above using others to get what he wants. Keep that in mind.”
“I will. And I’ll stay outside her door to make sure she doesn’t sneak away from here during the night.”
“Excellent plan. I’ll bring you some food so you can eat up here.”
“Thanks, Mum.”
Finally smiling, Shalin went up on her toes, then stretched her arm up so that she could pet Addolgar’s cheek. “My handsome son.”
She winked at him and went down the stairs
“Don’t let that compliment go to your head, brother,” Bercelak said from behind Addolgar, and it took all of Addolgar’s training not to scream and run away. Did the dragon e
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“She told you to?” Bercelak barked. “What are you? A well-trained dog?”“Last night you were ready to cut her down in Da’s hall.”“That was last night. Today is different! And we’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you, you idiot!”“Big-headed Bercelak is right!” one of their cousins called out, earning a glower from Bercelak. “We should follow those Queen’s Guards and slaughter them all!”Addolgar’s kin cheered in agreement, but a calmly spoken, “No,” stopped them from doing just that.Ailean still stood at the top of the stairs, staring down at them all. “We will not slaughter anyone.”“So we just let them take her?” Ghleanna asked.Ailean grinned. “I didn’t say that either.”Braith would admit, she’d expected rougher treatment from the Queen’s Guard as
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But, honestly, none of that mattered. Not with Braith’s life on the line.“Come on,” Ghleanna said, tugging at Addolgar’s forearm. She headed inside the chamber, Addolgar and Bercelak following. The guards let them by, but watched closely.Brigida was still making her very slow way across the chamber toward the Queen.Addolgar was about to storm around her one way while Bercelak went the other, but Ghleanna caught them both by the hair and yanked them back.“But—” Addolgar began.“We follow,” Ghleanna whispered.“She’s moving like a snail,” Bercelak grumbled.“We follow,” Ghleanna insisted.So they did . . . very slowly. Painfully slowly. Addolgar hadn’t known anything could move that slowly and still be moving.Even stranger, though, was the fact that everyone waited for Brigida. They watched. They waited. They moved out of her way
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“Wait!” the Queen called out. “You can’t leave us alone with two battling Cadwaladrs!”“Don’t worry, Your Majesty,” Addolgar explained while gripping Braith’s forearm and dragging her toward the exit. “Once they knock each other out, you’ll have hours of quiet before they start again.”“Before they . . . what?”Addolgar pulled Braith out of the chamber and around a corner. Even from there, he could still hear his siblings fighting in the throne room. He didn’t know why they bothered. Everyone knew that Ghleanna would beat Bercelak within an inch of his life.... She never bothered to fight fair when it came to her siblings.
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“What about them?”“We should probably bring them in, too, or Addiena will just send us out again.”“Don’t worry. Where my father goes, my brothers will go. They’ve never been able to think on their own.”“That’s sad.”“My mum tried to help them, but since hatching they’ve been loyal to my father. Plus they’re rather stupid.”“And you’ve been loyal to your mum.”“From the beginning to the end of time, I’ll be loyal to my mum.”“I don’t blame you. She did a good job teaching you to fight.”“She did?”“Braith, you may not be ready to ride into battle”—yet—“but you’ve got basic hand-to-hand combat techniques down pretty well from what I’ve seen. You took out Bercelak.” He leaned down until their noses nearly touched. &ldquo
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“And you?” she asked, before Addolgar could list the reasons all of his kin would be involved in this.“Why are you doing this?”“That’s easy. Because I like you.” He grinned. “I like you a lot.”“Why?”“Because you make me smile.”“You’re Addolgar the Cheerful. Everything makes you smile.”“Not everything. And if I want to like you, Braith of the Darkness, I get to like you. Whether you want me to or not.”“Why wouldn’t I want you to?”“I don’t know. Maybe because I’m not a royal?”“Is there anything about me, Addolgar, that says I embrace being a royal? That I live my life as a royal? Anything?”Addolgar thought on that a moment before replying, “Not really.”“The Penardduns may be royals, but you don’t find any of them li
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“You’ve been kind to me.”“I like you.”“Me? I thought royals like Lady Katarina were more to your taste, Addolgar.”They usually were. But there was just something about Braith. . . .Addolgar took a risk and reached his hand over again, gently pushing stray blue hairs out of her eyes.“The more time I spend with you, Braith, the more I like you.”“I’m not really likeable.”“Who told you that?”She shrugged. “Everyone. But I don’t need anyone to feel sorry for me about that.”“Braith, no one as strong as you gets anyone’s pity. And you certainly don’t have mine.”“Then what is it?”“I’m drawn to you, Braith of the Darkness. You make my scales itch.”Her eyes grew wide. She no longer had that hard-to-read expression; instead she just looked overwh
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“You should smile.”“Why?”“It makes you look happy. I enjoy seeing you happy.”Braith could say in all honestly that no one had ever said that to her. Her father could not have cared less if she were happy and had told her as much. Which, coming soon after her mother’s death, had most likely been when she’d stopped smiling.“What are you missing, Braith?”She really had no idea where this conversation was going. “Miss
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“I have to. I refuse to die with this stupid spear sticking out of my leg.”She nuzzled his cheek and stood, releasing his claws. He watched her walk off down a passage. And, a few seconds later, he watched several dragons covered in fur from head to claw silently follow right behind her.Addolgar opened his snout to warn her, but one of the dragons stopped, focused on him, and waved a single talon at him.At that point, all Addolgar could do was wait. As far as he was concerned, it was the strangers’ funeral pyre because he knew what they would be facing.Braith hadn’t gotten far from where she’d left Addolgar when she knew that someo
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“I did, too,” Éibhear continued to complain. “But apparently my father had other ideas.”“It was either that,” Addolgar shot back at the boy, “or let Bercelak cut off your head like he planned!”Éibhear, human and dressed in chain mail and the surcoat of some long-dead army, put his hands on his hips. “Why? Because I didn’t agree with the old bastard?”“You’re a soldier!” Addolgar yelled. “You don’t agree. You don’t disagree. You follow orders!”The boy raised his hands in th
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Unsure what to do, Braith did what she always did. She sort of folded in on herself. It was how she’d always handled her father when . . . well, whenever he was around. Pretending nothing bothered her was something Braith had always been good at, and she put those years of practice to excellent use now. But as she looked around the table of amiably chatting dragons, she noticed that Addolgar’s mother was staring at her.When she saw that Braith was looking her way, the She-dragon raised her brows. Braith frowned, confused. Shalin raised her brows again and then gestured to Addolgar with a tilt of her head. Still unclear what she was trying to tell her, Braith gave a small shake of her head.That’s when Shalin the Innocent, Tamer of Ailean the Slag, slammed her hands down on the table and b
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“Well,” Crystin said, “we’ll be staying here at least the night so I hope you’ll have time for dinner and a little chat about old . . .”Crystin’s words faded away as three male dragons in human form walked out of the Main Hall doors. Addolgar didn’t recognize them, but Caron ran up the stairs and threw herself into one of the dragons’ arms.“Daddy!”Crystin crossed her arms over her chest and gawked up the stairs at her mate. “What the hells are you lot doing here?”“Oh,” Shalin said, smiling, “when I heard from Addolgar that all of you were safe and coming back to the Southlands together, I sent out messengers to retrieve your mates since I knew they were part of the troops camped not too far from here. Isn’t that fortuitous?”“Aye,” Crystin muttered. “So very fortuitous.”The three males glowered down the sta
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“You don’t think we’re coming with you?” Crystin snapped, suddenly appearing quite annoyed. “Do you really think we’d let you meet that Red bitch on your own?”“Auntie Crystin—”“Shut up. You ramble like your mother sometimes.”Braith looked up at him. “I ramble?”“Not compared to my people,” Addolgar admitted.Crystin faced her sisters. “We need to get these three idiots back to Devenallt Mountain without breaking our backs in the process. Any suggestions?”“Aye,” Owena said. “I’ve got one.” She held out her claw to Addolgar. “Give us your ax, yeah?”Addolgar took a step back. “Owena . . . no.”“Just give us your ax. We’ll take care of the rest.”Disgusted, but not seeing much option, he looked at Braith. “And are you all right with that?&
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“I was so worried,” she told him, “when Heledd told us we hadn’t gotten all of them. I realized they must have come in through another way.”“Lightnings like the sneak attack. Too bad for them, I love killing Lightnings, so it all worked in my favor.”“Good job, Mountain,” Crystin praised. “Your father would be proud of you, too, I think.”“And I thought you knew my father.”Braith leaned her head back and looked up at Addolgar. “Wait, why do I need your hammer?”“It’s your hammer now. At least until we have one made for you. And you’ll need it for when we go after your bastard father.”Braith broke out in another smile that warmed Addolgar’s heart. She was whole now, wasn’t she? Truly whole.Crystin stepped up to them, placed her claw on Braith’s shoulder. “We’ll clean up this gods-damn mess,
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“Oh, no you don’t,” a male said. He didn’t seem to care what she’d done to his comrade.Braith tried to grab something she could hold on to, but her talons tore through nothing but dirt and stone.She was yanked back to the Lightning and, desperate, she kicked out, hitting him in the chest. With an “oof!” he flew back several feet, and Braith tried again to get to her claws.“Get that one!” someone yelled, and Braith knew they were talking about her.Addolgar slid down the wall and landed on his ass. He could already hear his father telling him this was his fault because he wasn’t paying attention! And knowing the old bastard was right, yet again, did nothing but piss Addolgar off.
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Addolgar studied the weapon in his big hand, looked over at Braith, and threw it at her.She caught it, easily. Swung it once, twice, then lifted it with both hands. It felt right in her hands.Comfortable. The way, she assumed, a weapon was supposed to feel.Braith grinned at Addolgar. A grin he returned.Owena nodded. “He’s right. She’s a hammer dragon.”Disgusted, Delyth glowered at both Braith and Addolgar. “You know,” she finally said, “you two certainly are perfect together. You&r
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But Braith’s reply was a simple, “No.“What do you mean no?”“No,” she said again, her hand still stroking him.“Dammit, Braith, get these chains off me!”“No.”“I’ll tear this bed apart,” he threatened.“And then you’ll have to answer to my aunts. They’re very proud of this bed. Ripped some poor bloke’s castle apart, stone by stone, to get it, too. Do you want to tell them what happened to their bed when they get back?”
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“Or spend your time with that hunk of Cadwaladr meat.”“Oh. Uh . . . yeah, uh . . .”“Look!” Ffraid crowed. “She’s blushing!”“I am not!” Braith shot back.“You are! It’s so cute!”“I am not cute!”“Of course you’re not, luv,” Caron told her. “You’re a Penarddun. No one will call us beautiful or heart-stopping—”“Oh, no,” Ffraid cut in. “They do call Penardduns heart stoppers.”When her cousins said nothing, “Get it?”That’s when they started laughing at a confused Ffraid. “What?” she asked. “Wait. Are you laughing at me or at my joke? Because my joke is quite witty.”Fed up with sitting around, feeling miserable and still cranky, Addolgar threw his legs over the side of the bed.“What do you think yo
