“She’s gone.”

“Who’s gone? Annwyl?”

Vateria refocused on what lay around them, listened to the building of wood fortifications by their enemy to trap them within these walls. “She will no longer be a concern of ours.”

“How do you know?”

“I heard from Chramnesind himself. She’s been dragged to the pits of hell, where she belongs.” Vateria gripped her son’s hand tighter, her soul content. “And once the hordes of all the hells are done with that vile bitch, she’ll be begging to have her soul ended if it means a stop to the torment.”

Benedetto leaned down and kissed his mother’s temple. “I love your cruelty, Mother.”

“So do I, my beautiful son. So do I.”

Chapter Seventeen

With their passage secured for the following day, Aidan returned to the pub with a bickering Brannie and Keita. At this point, they weren’t going at each other as hard as they had been doing before. Now they were just bickering like cousins tend to do.

It was annoying but not dangerous. He could deal with annoying.

As soon as Aidan walked into the pub, he spotted Caswyn and Uther sitting at a table with the Riders. He cut through the crowd until he reached them, but he felt his stomach drop when both looked up at him with bloodshot eyes, their bodies hunched over their pints of ale.

“So you’re going to the Eastlands to start another war, eh?” Kachka asked.

Eyes wide, Aidan found himself stunned again into silence.

Then it got worse.

Zoya Kolesova slammed her fist onto the table. “We will come with you, comrades! Help you start this war with the evil Empress! We shall kill them all and bathe in their Eastlander blood!”

Keita gasped and Brannie put her middle finger to her forehead and pressed hard. He sensed she had a headache now.

“What have you been doing?” Keita demanded of Uther and Caswyn.

“Chatting with our friends,” Uther said.

“We told them everything,” Caswyn admitted. “And we did it loudly.”

Before Aidan could move, Brannie had slammed Uther’s head into the table, then moved on to Caswyn. She grabbed him by the throat and lifted him out of his chair, slamming his back against the wall. The full tables beside them cleared out as the humans fled.

She pinned Caswyn’s drunk ass to the wall with one hand.

“I should have killed you when we were still on that mountain!”

“Bran—” Aidan began but she silenced him with one raised finger on her free hand. And for once, he didn’t think his intervention would help any.

“Do not abuse them so, Branwen the Awful,” Kachka said with a small smile. “It was your fault for trusting anything to weak males who cannot hold their watery ale.”

“Oy,” Uther drunkenly cut in. “We’ve won contests.”

“Contests with other weak males,” Kachka replied. “I am unimpressed.” She looked back at Branwen. “Being angry at them is like being angry at stubborn cow. Why bother? It will not move faster.”

“And that is why you need us,” Zoya said, her grin wide. “We will come with you and help you die with honor! Will that not be fun?”

“No,” Brannie said. “That will not be fun. I don’t plan to die. I plan to live a nice, long happy life destroying others!”

“Caswyn’s turning blue,” Aidan felt the need to interject.

“Good!”

Rolling his eyes, Aidan finally ordered, “Let him go.”

“No.”

“Branwen . . . let him go.”

She did. Right after she threw him into the corner, making sure his head slammed against the wall before he hit the floor.

Brannie faced him. “Happy?”

Laughing, Kachka motioned to the empty chairs. “Come. Sit. Let us discuss our plan.”

“There’s nothing to discuss,” Keita stated. “I can’t go to the Eastlands with a bunch of burly Riders coming along with us.”

Zoya looked Keita up and down before asking, “Who are you, tiny female?”

Aghast, Keita barked, “I am Princess Keita of the House of—”

Spitting on the floor, Zoya cut in, “Another decadent royal. Who cares?”

“Everyone. Everyone cares. Because I’m me. I’m Keita!”

Kachka leaned toward the other Riders. “She is one that gives my sister useless eye patch in many colors.”

“Those are fashion statements. So your sister doesn’t look like a bloody freak at family get-togethers. I’m trying to help her.”

“Yes, yes. Very helpful,” Kachka said with a dismissive wave. “Now, Branwen and Aidan, you two sit down. Let us talk about our plans.”

“Our plans?” Keita slammed her hands on the table. “They are my plans, peasant.”

“Your plans? To what? Give Empress festive gown for when the rest of us kill her?”

“Now, now, Kachka Shestakova,” Zoya interrupted. “Do not be so mean.” Reaching her long arm across the table, she patted an astounded Keita on the head with her giant hand. “I am sure you were very helpful, weak and useless female. And do not worry. We will tell everyone how helpful and pretty you are and everyone will believe our lies.”

Brannie quickly covered her mouth and looked down at the floor and Aidan forced himself to focus his gaze across the room on something else. Anything to stop the laughter.

But then Uther’s big head drunkenly hit the table on its own and that sad thud sound was all it took to have them leaning against each other as their laughter shook the entire pub.

* * *

Brannie started to drag a still-passed-out Uther up the pub stairs, but Zoya grabbed the dragon in human form and said, “I have him.”

Then she picked him up, placed him on her shoulder, and easily carried him up the stairs.

Even in his human form, Uther was excessively large. It usually took three or four human soldiers to carry him anywhere, and there was always complaining and grunting. But Zoya whistled happily.

Still, Brannie wasn’t surprised when Keita grabbed her arm and began whispering furiously in her ear.

Finally Brannie couldn’t take it and dragged her into her room.

“Stop!” she ordered. “I didn’t understand a word you just said and there was much spit.”

Disgusted, she took a cloth out of her boot and began to wipe her drenched ear.

“They can’t come with us,” Keita said. “They just can’t!”

“We tried to get them to go away. To go back to Garbhán Isle or at least go to the front, where I’m sure they would eventually die a hearty death. But you heard them. They’re determined. And when a Rider female is determined . . .”

Keita sat on the edge of Brannie’s bed and pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes.

Brannie immediately sat down next to her and put her arm around her shoulders. “Gods, Keita. Are you crying?”

Keita dropped her hands to her lap, turned her head, and glared at Brannie for a long, long moment. “No.”

Brannie pulled her arm back. “No need for that tone, cousin.”

“The Empress won’t question that I’ve come to her court with armed guards. But she’ll definitely question that I’ve come there with armed guards and Riders.”

“There are only three. It’s not like you’re bringing a whole tribe with you.”

“It won’t matter when just one Rider can cause problems. We’ll have to get rid of them.”

Brannie blew out a breath and firmly stated, “You are not poisoning Celyn’s sister-by-mating. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Have you ever tried to poison a Daughter of the Steppes?” Keita asked. “It’s nearly impossible.”

“But you’ve tried.”

“Of course I’ve tried! Why do you ask such stupid questions when we’re desperate?”

Her bedroom door opened and Aidan walked in. “I’ve got Caswyn to bed,” he announced before dropping into a nearby chair. “And then I had to escort Zoya back to her room from Uther’s. I don’t know what she was planning but . . . I know I don’t want to think about it.”