Once Aidan got the humans he was carrying out, he went back to help the others.

He assisted as many as he could until they were far enough away to drop to the ground.

The smoke had nearly caught up to them as they’d made their mad escape. Now, gasping and coughing, Aidan stretched out on the ground with the others under the pouring rain and looked back at the fort.

Most dragons would have burned it down to the ground and been done with it. But not Keita. There was no fire. Just smoke. Poisonous smoke.

And that poisonous smoke came out from behind every small window, from behind and under doors, from every crack in the foundation. It came out and curled up into the air.

And with it, he could hear the screams and cries of the suffering and slowly dying Zealots.

It wasn’t that Aidan was bothered by the deaths of their sworn enemies. Actually, that didn’t bother him at all. What did bother him however . . .

“Did you forget we were in there?” Brannie demanded of her cousin when she walked up to them.

Keita shrugged. “You were taking too long.”

Despite his need to cough up whatever was traveling through his lungs, Aidan still managed to jump up and grab hold of Brannie before she could throw herself at Keita.

“Do you ever think of anyone but yourself?” Brannie demanded. “We are here for you and this is how you treat us?”

With an eye roll, Keita walked off and Brannie tried to go after her, but Aidan kept his arms around her waist, holding her back.

“Let it go,” he suggested.

“Let it go? She could have killed us, too!”

“She lost Ren,” Uther said, helping some of the stronger humans up so they could assist the others. They wouldn’t be able to travel with the dragons. The humans would have to rely on each other.

“Yeah,” Caswyn tossed in. “How would you feel if it had been Iz?”

Brannie stopped fighting, but she clearly didn’t like what they were saying either because she rammed her elbow into Aidan’s collarbone, forcing him to release her.

“Ow! That hurt.”

“Good.”

Uther pointed. “You should talk to her.”

Brannie’s mouth dropped open at the suggestion. “Talk to her?”

“She’s your cousin.”

“So?”

“If this was Izzy—”

“Shut up!” Brannie closed her eyes and blew out a breath. “I hate all of you,” she complained before going after Keita.

* * *

Brannie grudgingly followed after her kin.

She felt her logic was sound. Keita had taken a stupid risk doing what she did and, as Cadwaladrs, conversation wasn’t necessary.

A good beating, however . . . that was more than warranted.

But the “nanny gang” seemed to think Brannie owed Keita some kind of consideration. And invoking Izzy every time they wanted her to do something....

It was just wrong!