She handed one to Caswyn and he again struggled to get the garment on.

Brannie and Aidan joined in to yank the surcoat down the dragon’s human chest. It took some time and a lot more energy than they’d thought it would. But once it was done, he was tucked in there.

“Can you breathe?” she asked.

“Enough.”

Uther’s took a bit less time and Caswyn accused him of having a bigger surcoat than his and for his mate to give it to him. “You stingy bastard.”

As the two bickered, a happy and vibrant Keita swept out onto the steps.

Wearing a red velvet dress covered with a red velvet robe, she spun in a circle, and asked, “Isn’t this beautiful?”

“Compared to what?” Brannie asked. It was a nice dress, but she felt the need to be difficult.

But, as usual, Keita ignored her, taking another spin. “Breeton-Holmes’s adult daughters left me a divine wardrobe to choose from.”

“Good thing they had to run for their lives and leave their family home and all their belongings.”

Keita stopped posing in her finery and stomped her bare foot. “Are you blaming me for this?”

“You drew the Zealots here, Keita. What if you hadn’t made it here in time to do what you were planning?”

“But I did make it on time. I’m very good about timing.”

“Since when? You’d be late to your own funeral pyre if we weren’t the ones forced to carry you there when your time comes.”

“Already planning for my death, cousin?”

“Have been for quite a while now.”

“All right,” Aidan said, quickly stepping in between them. “Perhaps we should get on our way. The Port Cities aren’t around the corner, you know.”

Keita lifted her skirts and, with a toss of her royal head, walked around her cousin, making sure to brush up against her as she did.

Brannie had her fist pulled back when Aidan caught her hand and held it in both of his.

“Why are you torturing us?” he asked Brannie. A question that confused her so much, she was distracted from Keita being a bitch.

“What?” she asked Aidan.

“Why are you torturing us?”

“How am I torturing you?”

“You’ll get yourself killed—”

“By your own cousin,” Uther tossed in.

“—which means we’ll be alone with her—”

“Eventually she’ll decide to kill us, too,” Caswyn added.

“—and you won’t be here to protect us.” Aidan shook his head. “Is that what you want for us?”

Brannie thought on that a moment before answering with a firm “Yes. It is.” And she walked off, hiding her smile until she was sure they couldn’t see her face.

* * *

When Aidan first marched out with Her Majesty’s armies at the beginning of this war, he’d known that his whole goal in life was to keep his Mì-runach brethren alive by not letting them get into too much trouble with the rank and file of the regular army. A general who was used to having his or her orders followed without question never appreciated the disdain with which most of the Mì-runach took those orders.