“Yes!” Nina Chechneva, the actual witch of the group, shouted. “This is your fault, Zoya Kolesova! It will be your fault until the day you die. And on that day, I will wear red, dance on your still burning corpse, and sing the song of happiness!”

“Always so dramatic, unclean one,” Zoya lashed back.

“Shut up!”

Kachka looked at Brannie and drily asked, “Does that answer your question, Celyn’s sister?”

“Not really.”

* * *

Uther knew as soon as the rain started that Keita would begin to complain. So he found a very large tree with lots of protective leaves and got her situated before going off to find something to feed her. A hungry She-dragon could be annoying and dangerous. So he grabbed Caswyn and they went in search of something to feed on. Because it was raining, it was harder than usual to track something down, but they eventually caught a deer, killed it, and dragged it back to the tree where they’d left Keita.

Dropping the deer, Uther turned in a circle. “Where . . . where is she?

“If something happened to her . . .” He threw up his arms. “First Puddles and then Keita? Brannie will tear our bloody heads off!”

Uther looked at the ground, trying to find any tracks or signs of where Keita might have gone.

The heavy rain, however, had turned the ground into mud and the flashes of lightning weren’t helping. Sniffing the air was useless, especially since every time he raised his face, his nose filled with water.

Frustrated, they both started walking, still searching the ground, hoping to find something—anything—that would tell them where Keita had gone. They found a few tracks under the bigger trees, where the leaves offered some protection.

“Oh, no,” Caswyn said, barely audible above the harsh rain.

“What?” Uther demanded. “What is it?” Uther ran to his side, desperately pushing his wet hair off his face.

“I think she went there.”

Uther’s gaze followed where Caswyn was pointing. He’d been focused on the ground so hard, he hadn’t realized where they were heading.

He gawked at the fort and shook his head. “Brannie is definitely going to kill us.”

* * *

“They must have been tracking us for weeks, these pathetic fools.” Kachka let out a breath. “They waited until we separated. I sent the Khoruzhaya siblings, Marina Aleksandrovna and my cousin Tatyana Shestakova back to Garbhán Isle to protect the weak Northwoman until the Dragon Queen’s concubine—”

“I’m gonna warn you now that Uncle Bercelak is not going to like that nickname,” Brannie called over her shoulder. She was desperately searching for something that would get the cage open. There was no lock for Brannie to simply rip apart. Instead, the cage was welded shut on all sides. She could use her flame but that could put the Riders in danger of burning to death if the metal didn’t melt quickly enough.

“—and Annwyl’s armies destroy the Zealots.”