Surprised, Vateria turned to face her son. “What do you mean?”

“I want you to leave this place, Mother. I want you to escape as soon as you can.”

Smiling, she used her free hand to cup her son’s beautiful face. “Why would I do that? Leave at our moment of triumph over the House of Gwalchmai fab Gwyar and, in turn, our triumph over Gaius and that cunt Agrippina? Not while I have breath, my son.”

“If this was just a battle between the Dragon Queen and the Rebel King, I’d be fine with you staying. But you forget the Mother of Abominations.” Benedetto blinked. “Why are you grinning like that?”

“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

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.”