How to Drive a Dragon Crazy

“Gods, I missed you, Iz.”

“And you.”

Annwyl turned to her guards. “You lot, this is Izzy. But you can call her General Iseabail of the Eighth, Fourteenth, and Twenty-sixth Legions.”

Color drained from the soldiers’ faces, their eyes growing wide.

“General, sir!” said the one who’d been speaking from the beginning. “We apologize, sir. We didn’t know—”

Izzy waved all that away. “I didn’t announce myself and I’m not wearing our colors, so I’d expect you to err on the side of caution when it comes to protecting our queen.”

“Thank you, General.”

Annwyl hugged Izzy again, then asked, “Why are you here?”

Izzy pulled back, gazed at her queen. “I was told I was requested.”

“Requested? By me?”

She shrugged. “I really didn’t know, but I knew it wasn’t Mum because she usually contacts me herself if she needs me to come home.” As a practicing witch, her mother was able to talk to Izzy directly using only her mind, just like Rhi could, the distance between them meaning nothing. But, and Izzy appreciated this, her mother didn’t contact her that way often. Instead she wrote to Izzy regularly to fill her in on the day-to-day events of life at court and saved contacting her through her mind for emergencies and such.

“Well, I didn’t send for you. I wanted you to concentrate on those ogres.”

“It’s been handled. Their leader is dead. I left my next in command to round up and execute any stragglers.”

“Good. But that’s honestly all I’ve needed from you the last few months, Iz.”

“I didn’t send for you either, Izzy,” another voice called out.

The queen blinked, her gaze still locked with Izzy’s. “Why is your sister hiding behind that boulder?”

“At first it was for safety. But now I can only imagine she’s hiding out of fear of telling you the truth.”

“The truth?” Annwyl sighed, her eyes briefly closing. “What did the twins do now?”

“Nothing!” Rhi rushed around the boulder, her hands twisting together in front of her. “It was my fault. I promise.”

“It’s never your fault,” Annwyl said.

“But it was this time. I . . . I overreacted.”

“Which meant The Girl was doing something.”

Rhi stomped her tiny foot. “You always accuse her! And it wasn’t her fault!”

“You do always accuse Talwyn,” Izzy reminded Annwyl, making sure not to laugh when her queen rolled green eyes skyward.

“Fine,” Annwyl said with a very heavy sigh. “It wasn’t The Girl’s fault. You just overreacted to . . . nothing?”

“It doesn’t matter. I overreacted. Badly. I think I hurt her.”

“Hurt her how?”

Rhi used the tips of her fingers to comb loose silver curls behind her ears. “I used Magicks to . . . to . . . throw her and Talan. He hit the Great Hall wall, but Talwyn went out the door and into the buildings across from the courtyard.”

“I see.” Annwyl stared down at her niece, her face very stern. “And tell me true, Princess Rhianwen . . . did my daughter’s hard head damage my wall?”

Izzy snorted and quickly looked off. Rhi, however, was typically appalled. “Aunt Annwyl!”

“What? It’s a valid question. You know that girl’s head is as hard as her father’s. Do I need to call in the stone masons again?”

“I don’t understand this family!” Rhi charged before she stalked off. Poor thing . . . she stalked off often around her kin.

“Nicely handled, my liege.”

“I still say it was a valid question. Stone masons cost money, you know.”

Talaith was gently wiping blood from Éibhear’s head when Rhi stormed into the Great Hall.

Talaith turned, watching her daughter head up the stairs.

“What’s wrong?”

“This family is ridiculous!”

Shaking her head, Talaith went back to her task, muttering low, “I’ve been warning her of that fact since birth. Yet she always seems so bloody shocked.”

“I can hear you!” Rhi yelled from the stairs, startling them both.

“She flounces quite well,” Éibhear noted when his niece disappeared in a flurry of pretty pink satin and silk.

“Your brother always tells me I taught her how to flounce, but I’ve caught Keita giving her lessons several times.”

“It’s definitely a Keita flounce, with a bit of me mum thrown in.”

Talaith chuckled and dunked the cloth she held in a bowl of water, squeezing the material to get out the excess liquid. While his brother’s mate had her head down, Éibhear watched Izzy walk into the Great Hall with Annwyl. Izzy saw him before Annwyl, her eyes growing wide at the sight of him, then narrowing suspiciously. He grinned and her eyes narrowed more. But when Annwyl turned toward him, he quickly changed the grin into a wince and placed his hand to his head.

“Éibhear? Is that you?” Annwyl rushed to Talaith’s side. “Gods! What happened to you?”

“Those idiot brothers of his,” Talaith complained. She again pressed the cloth to his head.

“What is wrong with them?” Annwyl petted his cheek. “You poor, poor thing.”

Behind the women, Izzy’s mouth dropped open and she gawked at him.