“Branwen?” Meihui suddenly asked, her back straightening, her gaze going immediately to Brannie. “Your cousin is Branwen the Awful?”

Keita glanced at Aidan, unsure where this was going. “Uh . . . aye. She’s my cousin.”

Meihui looked at the other witches and, as one, they pushed past Keita and descended on Branwen, surrounding her and Aidan.

Meihui leaned over Branwen’s wound, studied it. “This is deep.”

“Should we have her shift?” one of the witches asked their leader.

“No. That might kill her.” She leaned in. “We need a poultice.” She snapped her fingers and half the witches took off running.

“You need to move back so we can work,” Meihui said to Aidan.

“I’m not leav—”

Without even looking at him, Meihui waved her staff and it was as if someone grabbed him by the forearms and dragged him back several hundred feet.

Shocked, Aidan could only stare at the witches as they worked on Branwen. There weren’t a lot of human witches who could move his dragon form around like a leaf on the wind, and he wasn’t sure he wanted these women caring for a wounded Brannie. But it wasn’t like he had much choice.

Aidan shifted to human and went to Keita’s side. “Are you sure they can be trusted?” he asked the princess.

“She’ll be fine. Meihui and I are very old friends.”

“So I noticed.”

“My, my, we are judgey, aren’t we?”

“I’m not judging. Just wondering if Ragnar knows exactly what he’s gotten himself into.”

Keita let Uther place the cape he wore around her shoulders since any clothes she had in her travel bag were still soaking wet.

Wrapping the cape around her body, she told Aidan, “I can assure you, there’s nothing that Ragnar the Cunning does not know about me. And he accepts me despite it all.”

“Then you should make him your mate,” Uther said while also watching the witches take care of Brannie. “After all this time and twelve bloody hatchlings, it’s the least you can do.”

Aidan cringed, watching Keita slowly—so slowly—take a few steps forward and then turn so she faced Uther directly. Glaring up at him with those dark eyes.

Uther, oblivious as always, stared back. “What? What did I say?”

* * *

Keita was shown to a room in the Heaven’s Destroyers’ temple. She found parts of her old wardrobe tucked away in a wood chest.

She lifted a purple dress in front of her and smiled at her reflection in the tall mirror at the far end of the bedroom.

“I can’t believe you still have my clothes,” she said.

“How do you always know when I’m in the room?” Meihui asked from the doorway.

“Your scent.” She glanced back at her. “Lemon.”

“I work the grove every day. It calms me.”