Silently they gawked, mouths open.

Annwyl shrugged her shoulders. “What?” she barked and they all quickly turned away or disappeared into the darkness at the back of their cells.

“Yeah,” she muttered, still annoyed and her rage still pulsing through her, “that’s what I thought.”

Chapter Three

Branwen pushed her claws through dirt and trees and rock until she finally felt the heat of the two suns against her scales.

Desperate to be free, she continued to fight her way out. Unwilling to give up. She was a Cadwaladr, she kept reminding herself. We never give up!

So she fought on until her forearms and head cleared the pile of rubble. She grabbed on to anything she could, her claws groping. She shook her head, trying to get the dirt out of her eyes.

She found something sturdy, using it to help her drag herself out.

Once she was free, Brannie dropped her head against her forearm and took in deep gulps of sweet air.

Not a lot frightened her. Not even death. But being buried alive? The torture of dark suffocation before death? That she was officially terrified of.

Something grabbed Brannie’s forearm and she jerked back until she saw gold glinting in the light of the two suns.

“Aidan,” she gasped, quickly realizing she’d forgotten all about him.

She gripped his claw with her own so that he knew he wasn’t alone. That someone was here for him. Then she pulled the rest of her body out of the dirt. She didn’t stop, though, to appreciate the fresh air this time. Instead, she began digging. Using her claws and the tip of her tail, going deep until she saw the top of Aidan’s head.

She dug farther until she could grip his shoulders. She pulled him up, while Aidan did his best to get out on his own. Probably panicking as much as she had when she’d realized how easily she could die right there.

Aidan’s claws reached up and gripped her upper arms, holding them tight as Brannie gritted her fangs and heaved.

She dragged him halfway out, until they both dropped to the ground, panting hard.

“Gods,” he gasped. “Thank you.”

“I couldn’t leave you there.”

He shook his head, dirt flying from his gold hair. Then he abruptly froze.

“Caswyn and Uther.”

Together they scrambled over what was left of the mountain, digging through broken, ancient trees, boulders, anything that was in their way, desperately looking for signs of Aidan’s two Mì-runach brothers.

Brannie had just thought she’d felt something on the tips of her claws when she heard the rustling of trees nearby.

She stood and turned, quickly realizing she no longer had any of her weapons.

A small troop of men came out of the woods. Scouts. Zealots.

“Aidan,” she said softly.

He wanted to search for his friends, and had no time to negotiate with these men so willing to die for their one god. Some of them were maimed in the name of their god, missing one eye or both.