Weapons clashed and she knew her kin had attacked the Tribesmen who’d been regrouping on the other side of the forests. There were so many of them, they’d ringed the castle gates, but Rhona just needed the ones near this door to be drawn away.

She eased the door partial y open and watched, ready to make her move at any—

Rhona’s entire body tensed and she slowly looked over her shoulder at what was crouching right behind her.

“What are you—”

A cal went out and Vigholf shoved her forward. “Go,” he whispered.

Unable to confront the dumb ox at this moment, Rhona scrambled out the door, keeping low and moving quick. She used the trees for cover, pausing every few feet to stop and make sure she was stil unseen. The Lightning was right behind her, keeping up with her as he always managed to do.

She stopped by an old tree with a massive trunk. Peeking around it, she saw two Tribesmen on horseback. Just sitting there while al hel s broke loose nearby.

Rhona held up her hand to Vigholf and he stopped. She pointed at the men, then drew her thumb across her throat. Vigholf nodded and they moved out.

The man Rhona ran up to never heard or saw her coming, and his horse gave no warning. She yanked the man off, slapped her hand over his mouth, and jammed a blade into his throat in such a way that he couldn’t speak or cal out. She pul ed the blade out, rammed it back in, and this time yanked it from one side to the other.

The man Vigholf moved up next to was warned of the Lightning’s presence by his horse rearing up in panic. To silence him, Vigholf punched the horse. It went down and Vigholf used his ax, cutting off the Tribesman’s head before he could speak a word.

How Rhona would travel on horseback with Vigholf terrifying or punching the poor animals at every turn, she real y hadn’t figured out yet. But she could worry about that later.

She and Vigholf dragged the bodies of the men to a spot behind that big tree and slapped the rump of the horse that wasn’t unconscious so that he’d take off. The other horse, Vigholf picked up and carried over his shoulder until they reached the river. He dropped the horse by it and together, they fol owed the river until they could cross it and make a run for the Western Mountains.

Edana and her two sisters Nesta and Breena were going through their daily weapons check, counting al their weapons and looking for any weaknesses in the steel or grip. Nothing worse than having your sword break on you when you’re in the middle of a battle. It was a lesson that had been wel taught to them by Rhona. She’d been the first face that Edana had seen when she’d crawled out of her broken egg, one eye swol en shut from being pummeled by Nesta, her back leg weak because Breena had nearly bitten the damn thing off. Their mother had rushed off to some battle before they’d made their entrance into this world, so it had been Rhona who’d raised them even though she hadn’t been a grown adult herself yet.

Most dragons didn’t have so many hatchlings in such a short span of time, but Bradana had put off breeding far longer than her mated sisters and being the competitive female that she was, she’d gone out of her way to make up for it. The only problem was, she wasn’t much for sticking around when there was kil ing to be done. So off she’d gone before her triplets had hatched, leaving it up to Rhona to do the bulk of the work. Just like she’d expected Rhona to do with al her offspring.

Done with their own weapons, the three sisters changed places and examined each other’s weapons. An unnecessary step, their mum cal ed it.

“Don’t you know your own weapon?” she’d demanded when she saw the triplets do this. But often Edana’s sisters saw something that she’d missed and she saw something that they’d missed. And what was the point of taking the risk? If they had the time, might as wel do the extra steps.

Couldn’t hurt.

“Oy, you two!”

Edana didn’t bother to sigh anymore. “There’s three of us, Mum. Unless you’re ignoring one of us for some reason.”

“Don’t back-talk me, little miss. Where’s that sister of yours?”

Nesta snorted. “You’l need to be more specific than that.”

Their mother snarled. The only one of them she ever checked up on was Rhona and al of them knew it. Yet it was stil fun to toy with her.

“Rhona. Where is she?”

“Around somewhere,” Breena said. “Just saw her, I did. Not more than ten minutes ago. Went”—she pointed at some random spot across the cavern—“that way.”

“Gods-dammit. That girl,” their mother griped before she marched off.

Edana waited until Bradana was out of earshot before she asked the other two, “Any word from Rhona?” They both shook their heads. “But we can’t let Mum know she’s gone. You know how she gets,” Nesta reminded them.

“And if Rhona wanted her to know, she’d have told her,” Breena added.

Nesta nodded. “And if she was in trouble we’d know that too.”

“Besides,” Breena sighed out. “We’ve got bigger and dumber problems to worry about right here.” Al three looked over and watched their cousins rol around on the cave floor, trying to damage the other. Over some female no less! A human female!

Normal y Edana would never get in the middle of something so ridiculous, but Rhona wasn’t here and Rhona would get in the middle. More important, if they were going to keep up the il usion that their sister was about, they’d have to manage these things themselves because that’s what Rhona did when she was here. If things got out of control, their mother would know in an instant that something had changed.