And then there were her eyes. One was a bright blue, seemingly untouched by age. But the other . . . a milky white and gray that seemed to possess a life of its own.

As Brigida limped past them, her walking staff slamming into the ground again and again as she moved, her blue eye stayed focused right in front of her, locked on exactly where she was headed. But the other eye . . . that one moved to each of them. Examining every being in Rhiannon’s sacred space.

Studying each—it seemed—for risk and threat. Were any a danger to her? And, if not, did they have a soul worth taking?

At least that’s how Aidan felt when that eye swiveled his way.

“Don’t mind me,” Brigida announced as she walked past a livid Rhiannon. “I needed to get somewhere fast, is all, and this was the quickest way.”

The queen suddenly jumped as Brigida passed behind her; blue eyes growing impossibly wide, she looked stunned, and he realized that Brigida had pinched Rhiannon’s ass.

“Good day to you all!” the old witch called out before opening another mystical doorway and disappearing through it.

“Locked up like a right fort, Mum,” Keita ruthlessly teased. Not even her mother’s glower stopped her from giggling in the angry She-dragon’s face.

“I should have smothered you at hatching,” the queen lashed back at her youngest daughter.

That’s when Aidan decided it was time to check on Branwen and her mother. Anything was better than getting caught in a fight between two royal females.

But before Aidan could make his escape, Keita was standing in front of him, blocking his way.

Flipping back her red hair, Keita sized him up like a side of meat, and nodded. “You’ll do.”

“I’ll do for what?”

“Aye,” the queen echoed. “He’ll do for what?”

“I need a bit of a favor, Mì-runach.”

“I don’t do favors.”

“Fine. It’s an order then. I need you to fuck my cousin.”

Aidan gawked at the princess for a moment before turning to his queen. That’s when they both laughed, and Rhiannon put her hand on Aidan’s shoulder.

“What’s so funny?” Keita snapped.

“Hard to say,” the queen replied. “There’s so much to choose from!”

“First off,” Aidan explained, “I don’t take orders from you. Only my queen. And second, it’s funny that you’d think I’d put my friendship with Branwen the Awful in jeopardy for you.”

“Don’t make me poison your food, Mì-runach.”

“You will do no such thing!” the queen warned. “You will not harm a hair on his golden, perfect head.

“Besides,” the queen went on, “why would you want someone—anyone—to do such a horrible thing to your own cousin?”

“I expect him to make it good for her!” As if that excused everything. “But I need her distracted.” Keita stepped closer to them, glancing back to make sure Brannie and Ghleanna were still caught up in their own conversation. “You know how Brannie is with her ridiculous moral ground.”