Gray-green eyes. Light brown hair with blond streaks. And his throat open where it had been cut the day he’d died.

“No. Not you,” she begged her mind. “Anyone but you.”

The image of her father smiled. “I’ve been waiting a long time to see you again. Although I can’t say it’s just been me.” He gestured behind him to the hundreds of men Annwyl had cut down over the years. “We’ve all been waiting for you.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two

Short on time, Brannie and Keita didn’t bother with horses. They simply shifted to dragon and flew to Lord Xing’s palace.

Brannie took the lead, landing hard in the middle of the courtyard, swinging her halberd as soon as her claws touched the ground. She struck several guards and went for more, using her weapon to hack and slash her way through those protecting the palace.

Keita landed behind other guards and quickly, expertly, cut their throats before they even knew she was there.

Guards inside the palace attempted to close the door but Brannie rammed her shoulder against it, forcing them back.

“Mistress Yeow!” Keita greeted the She-dragon scrambling across the main hall in an attempt to get away. “I strongly suggest you take your offspring and leave this place. And pray to your gods that the Empress does not hold against you what your mate has done.”

“This is my home,” the She-dragon said, although Brannie could hear the fear in her voice. “I will not leave.”

“Then my cousin will hack you into pieces.”

No. She wouldn’t. But it was fine for Mistress Yeow to believe that if it made her leave.

“Do you want your offspring to witness that, Mistress? Do you want the same thing to happen to them?”

Horrified, Mistress Yeow ran up the large stairs toward the rooms of her offspring, Brannie assumed.

“Great,” Brannie snapped at her cousin. “Now you’re making me out to be a baby killer?”

“Oh, they’re hardly babies! Now, come on!”

Keita shifted to human and ran down a corridor, snatching up a silk robe from several hung on a wooden stand.

Brannie shifted and followed her. They reached a door and went down a long set of stairs to the dungeon.

Unlike the dungeon at the Zealot fort, there was only one captive, trapped in a gold cage, with a rune-covered gold torc around his neck.

“Ren!”

Ren of the Chosen jumped to his feet and broke into a smile so wide and beautiful it nearly blinded Brannie with its joy.

“Keita!”

The pair hugged through the gold bars.

“You’re alive!”

“You thought I was dead?”

“I found your sigil chain at a Zealots fort and the Riders said that you had been there with them—”

“Gods, so much Zoya.” Ren suddenly pulled back from Keita, staring down into her face. “You came east to kill my family, didn’t you?”