“I don’t know why you are using that accusing tone, cousin. I don’t appreciate it.”

“What have you done?” Brannie demanded, standing tall.

“There it is again. Still don’t like it.”

“Answer me, Keita. What have you done?”

With a dramatic sigh—although Keita always seemed dramatic to Aidan—she lifted her skirts, turned, and flounced off.

With a growl, Brannie followed and Aidan went after both She-dragons.

He quickly caught up with Keita as she reached a small group of royals. She faced them and with a majestic wave of her hand announced, “I did this.”

They were all dead. Every last one of them. After they’d had a drink of water from the nearby pond, he was guessing.

“Oh, Keita,” Brannie sighed, shaking her head.

“What? What is that tone?”

“Why did you kill them? Are you just bored?”

“Of course I’m not!”

“If you’re that bored, there’s a whole battlefront you can go to where you can kill to your heart’s desire.”

“Oh stop, Branwen. I killed these people because they had to die.”

“Because you were bored? Or do voices tell you things? Evil things?”

Keita rolled her eyes . . . again, dramatically.

“For the love of the gods,” Keita sighed. “They were transporting gold that would then be shipped to Duke Salebiri so he could hire more troops.”

“He hires troops?”

“They’re not all Zealots, cousin. Anyway, I was traveling with them, to see if my information was correct, and it was. So I poisoned the pond water and there you go.”

“And there you go?” Brannie barked. “What if someone else drinks it? We almost drank it! We were going to give the water to Caswyn and Uther, too!”

“Who knew you idiots were roaming around here?”

“That’s not the point.”

“The poison I used has a very short lifespan and with the fresh water coming in from that waterfall, everything should be fine in a . . . week or two.”

“Week or two?”

“I had to make sure they were dead.”

Brannie briefly closed her eyes and Aidan winced. He knew she was getting angrier by the second.

Finally she asked, “Why aren’t you safe back in Devenallt Mountain, cousin? Or, even better, with your bloody mate in the Northlands?”

Keita raised a finger. “First, I see I need to remind you, again, that I am unmarked by any male. I have no mate.”

“You’ve had twelve of his offspring. Twelve! How can you not be Ragnar the Cunning’s mate?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you, child.”

“I am not a child anymore, Keita.”

“Well, you never were,” Aidan pointed out.

Brannie glared at him.

“Because you’re dragon,” he explained, which got him one of Brannie’s rare eye-crossings.

“You know . . .” Keita suddenly studied them both and Aidan was dragon enough to admit . . . that made him very nervous.

“We know what?” Brannie asked, also sounding a little terrified.

Keita’s head tipped to the side and one long finger tapped the side of her mouth as she studied them.