Still gripping the cloth, the Empress slowly turned her head, her gaze locked on Aidan’s face.

And then she just stared at him. For what felt like hours. She stared and didn’t speak.

Aidan didn’t know if he was simply afraid to break eye contact with her or if he was unable to. Was she holding him in some sort of thrall?

He wondered if he would die right now, her gaze was so hard. So angry.

“Xing,” she finally bit out.

“My lady—”

The Empress threw back her head and screamed to the ceiling, “XINGGGGGGG!”

Aidan fell back, her offspring scattered, and Uther and Caswyn grabbed Aidan’s arms and yanked him across the room.

The Empress stood, her entire body shaking with rage, her fists balled up, her beautiful face terrifying as her lips twisted and her jaw clenched.

Gold light circled her, starting from the ground up, moving around and through her. The Empress shifted and Aidan gawked, fascinated. She had gold scales and black-and-gold fur that reached from her head, down her spine to the tip of her tail. No obvious claws, but fur-covered, striped paws. No horns, but antlers. Long whiskers that reached out from her nose. A nose. Not a snout like every other dragon Aidan had ever seen but a nose, because she had a face like a striped jungle cat.

Any other time, Aidan wouldn’t even think of being afraid of such a docile-appearing animal. He wasn’t even sure he’d consider her a dragon of any kind.

But then he looked into her eyes and they were no longer brown. They were fire.

Without wings—she had none—the Empress’s body shot up, going through the ceiling above them, leaving a gaping hole. Aidan moved forward until he stood under it and saw that the Empress had gone through the entire building until she’d reached the outside.

“What did you do?” Ju demanded.

“What you told me to do!”

Now pissed at him—because of course they were—the Empress’s offspring shifted and took off after their mother.

Uther and Caswyn stood beside him, all three of them gazing up into the sky.

“They look like big cats,” Caswyn announced.

“And?”

“Just noting.”

“Do you want to look like a big cat?” Uther asked.

“Sometimes,” Caswyn replied. “Who doesn’t want to look like a big cat?”

Disgusted by the entire conversation, Aidan walked away.

“Oh, what?” Caswyn demanded. “You’ve never wanted to look like a big cat?”

* * *

Kachka didn’t have to fight dragons. There were humans in Xing’s army that kept her and her comrades quite occupied. And they kept coming. Xing’s army of humans. But the Empress had her own army of humans as well, so the Riders didn’t fight alone.

It was strange, though. Something in the air. Something. . . off.

Using the spear she’d taken from a dead soldier, Kachka impaled one soldier and with her sword, cut another soldier nearly in half. She was about to run into a small group of soldiers moving toward Zoya when the ground rumbled and she heard an explosion come from the palace.

She spun and looked up, watching in acute surprise as gold light and flames shot into the sky.

“What the fuck is that?” Kachka asked Nina in their own language.

“That is rage, comrade. Rage and a mother’s pain.”

“The Empress.”

“Xingggggggg!” the Empress screamed out, her body turning circles in the air, leaving a trail of fire and gold light behind her. “Brother! What have you done?”

“I’m here to take what’s mine!” the insignificant male shot back.

“I would have given you all this, brother. I never wanted it. But my son—”

“You can still give it to me, sister. Give me the throne and I’ll return your precious Ren to you, alive and well.”

“You lie! He’s dead!”

“He isn’t. I have him. I will return him to you!”

“Liar!”

“We’ve seen the truth, Uncle,” one of the Empress’s offspring said, floating behind their mother. Kachka honestly couldn’t tell them apart . . . but she could only tell the Southland dragons apart by their scale color. And more than once, she’d confused her own iron-colored mate with his twin sister when they were both in their dragon form. When she’d played with his sister’s tail . . . by the horse gods, that had been awkward for a few days after. “We know our brother’s dead.”

“My perfect, amazing Ren!” the Empress cried out in pain.

Of course, it would have been a much more devastating moment if her children hadn’t rolled their eyes.

Frustrated, Lord Xing snapped, “All right, one more time, sister. He’s fine! He’s at my palace!”

“No,” the Empress insisted. “He was killed at some Zealot’s fort. He’s dead! My baby is dead!”

“We saw his head,” Kachka finally yelled up to both royals. “The Zealots walked right by our cage with it.”

Xing stared down at her. “You saw, barbarian, what my soldiers wanted you to see. Ren was taken but that head was not his. We wanted the Southlanders to believe he was dead, so they would send Keita. Her, I had every intention of killing so that you would know how serious I am.”

“You lie,” the Empress snarled. “You lie, brother, and I will never forgive you!”

“Don’t then. Don’t forgive me. It’ll make it easier to lay waste to all you hold dear. To bring it down around you and laugh while you burn. I tried to save you, sister, but now I see I cannot.”

“Comrade,” Zoya said from behind Kachka, “we may have problem.”

“You think you can defeat me?” the Empress asked Xing.

“I am no longer alone, sister. And I will not only rule here, I will rule the Southlands. I will rule everything.”

“Oh, brother,” the Empress sighed. “You truly will believe anything.”

Trying to keep her attention on the fight between siblings, Kachka still glanced behind Zoya to see what she was talking about.

“By the darkest horse gods.”

Zoya nodded. “There are many.”

And they were riding over the hills in the distance, their small but powerful horses confidently charging right into the battle.

“It’s Batu and all his horse riders,” Nina said, coming close.

Now speaking in their language, Kachka noted, “But they are not fighting with Xing’s legions . . . they’re killing them.”

* * *

As the siblings began to circle one another, Aidan and his brothers moved forward to assist the Empress. But Kang grabbed Aidan’s arm and held him back.

“You do not want to get into the middle of this,” Zhi warned.

Xing raised his sword and, screaming, charged his sister. He shot forward even without wings, as if the Eastland dragons could manipulate the very air around them. But his sister was equally quick, slapping him hard with her paw as she moved aside.

Now that she had her paw raised, Aidan could see her claws, which had been hidden behind fur until unleashed. And her claws had torn a large hole through her brother’s armor and into his flesh.

Crying out, Xing spun away from her and his sister went after him. He had armor and weapons. She had her claws and a mother’s rage.

She grabbed her brother and yanked him up with her as she lifted her body higher. She turned with him, then threw him down.

Xing couldn’t catch himself as he fell, landing hard in front of the palace.

The Empress landed next to him and circled around him, snarling.

He tried to pull himself back up, but she went up on her hind legs and, with her front paws, wrote flame-covered runes in the air.

The runes flew into her brother, sending his dragon body skittering into the Empress’s beautiful flowers.

“My son,” the Empress growled at him. “You took my son!”

She began to chant in an ancient language, one so old and dark that even Aidan, with his lack of magicks, had to back away, and the Empress’s offspring and his mates moved with him.

Magicks swirled around her, through her, until they exploded out of her in a blinding light, ramming into her screaming brother.