Annwyl knew the gods well enough to know that the eyeless god would never hold true to his word. With or without their land, her people would never be safe under the rule of Chramnesind. So she fought on.

And, now, they were nearing the City of Levenez. The seat of power of Salebiri and his female.

Talwyn still wondered if Duke Roland Salebiri knew the true identity of his wife. The one he called Ageltrude, but that the rest of them knew as Vateria Domitus. A cousin to the Rebel King of the Quintilian Provinces and most hated bitch of the free world.

Salebiri had at least one son by Vateria, which meant he had his own “Abomination,” offspring of one human parent and one dragon. But despite the duke’s vow to destroy the Abominations, as far as any of them knew, the child still lived.

At least for now. Who knew what Annwyl would do once they took the city?

Although, these days, some of the soldiers were beginning to say, “if they took the city.” And no matter how quick Talwyn was to correct them . . . she was starting to think the same thing.

Then again, her mother might be right. Take this city the Zealots were fighting so hard to protect, kill Salebiri and Vateria . . . and all this might end.

Talwyn and Talan stopped. When they’d briefly lost sight of their mother in the crush of bodies, Talwyn had thought about using her mind to call out to nearby kin, but nearly a year ago all dragons—even the Dragon Queen—had to stop doing that to communicate. They’d discovered that the Zealot priests had somehow been listening in, learning about battle plans and their movements. It was a pain in the ass, though. Communicating with kin like normal humans. With parchment and ink and messengers.

Thankfully Talwyn finally caught sight of her mother . . . staring into a well.

Talwyn glanced at her brother. “What the battle-fuck is she doing?”

“I have no idea. But we better get her anyway.”

They easily batted away the few soldiers that attacked and were only a dozen or so feet from their mother when Talwyn watched in horror as a claw reached up from deep inside the well, caught Annwyl around the face, and yanked her in.

“Mum!” both Talwyn and Talan screamed before charging over. But seconds before Talwyn could dive headfirst into the well after her mother . . . both the well and their mother vanished.

* * *

Aidan the Divine had spent most of his life doing what he was doing right at this moment—protecting his friends from sure death.

No. Not during battles. They were mighty fighters and didn’t need his help there. Instead, it seemed to be Aidan’s job to protect his brethren when they were not in battle. When they were not facing the enemy. And who knew such a task would be so gods-damn hard?