How to Drive a Dragon Crazy

Talaith blinked, then caught hold of Izzy’s arm. “Your sister,” was all she said. All she needed to say.

Izzy hauled her mum onto her horse and looked at Gaius over her shoulder. “Wait here. Someone will be back for you.”

“All right.”

“Macsen. Stay. Protect!”

“Izzy,” Éibhear asked from above her, the power of his wings making the forest trees sway. “What is it?”

“Just follow,” her mother ordered and Izzy spurred her horse toward home.

Talan tried to stop his cousin, but she’d always been stronger than she looked and she easily pulled away from him, stepping between an advancing witch and his unconscious mother.

“Please,” Rhi begged as she quickly cut in front of the witch. She brought up her arm, most likely to ward the witch off, but this was a Kyvich and as far as the Kyvich were concerned, Little Rhi was no more than a Nolwenn witch. Their most hated enemies.

Rhi hadn’t even touched the witch, but the Kyvich grabbed his cousin’s arm and twisted. He and his sister locked gazes across the ring, but neither moved to intercede, to step in. But Talan was much kinder than his sister and offered the following advice, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Odda.”

Not surprisingly, the witch ignored him. She’d never liked him. None of them really had. They were only interested in his sister. To the Kyvich, she was the true power. But their narrow vision would be their enemy when it came to the three of them.

Like at this moment. This very moment.

Talaith dismounted her daughter’s horse, Izzy right behind her. She slapped the horse’s rump and sent him running toward the stables.

With one quick look at the training ring, Talaith could easily see what was going on. Yet she knew as she stepped closer, it was already too late. She was too late. She grabbed her eldest daughter’s arm before she could run in there and do what she always did when it came to her sister. Protect her.

“Mum?” Izzy asked.

With no time, Talaith yelled out, “Éibhear! Take her!”

“Mum!”

“Take her!”

A blue tail with a sharpened steel-like tip came down and wrapped around her daughter’s waist, yanking Izzy up. Talaith charged a few feet over and landed in the dirt in front of a nearly unconscious Annwyl, her hands coming up, a powerful chant on her lips, a mere second before everything around them exploded.

Dagmar was rushing toward the Great Hall doors, Frederik by her side. She saw Morfyd running down the stairs and she motioned to her.

“You’d best come along, Morfyd. We may need you to—”

Morfyd’s arms went around Dagmar and Frederik and she yanked them both back, a spitted-out chant slamming the heavy wood doors shut. They hit the floor in a heap as the ground beneath them suddenly shook.

Dagmar quickly covered her head as weapons and tapestries that had been tacked to the walls began to crash around them, the long dining table they ate at nearly every day moving several feet while the chairs turned over.

And just as quickly as it started . . . it stopped.

Dagmar lifted her head, glad to see that her spectacles had survived this new . . . issue.

“What the battle-fuck was that?” she demanded.

Morfyd helped Frederik sit up, taking a moment to look him over for any damage before saying, “Rhi.”

One second Izzy was being dragged away from her mother and plopped onto Éibhear’s back and the next he was bellowing, “Down!”

She took hold of his hair and ducked between his shoulder blades. Seconds later they were flipping and spinning out of control, heading up and up until Izzy briefly wondered if she could reach out and touch the clouds.

It seemed to take forever for Éibhear to get control again, but it was probably not even a minute. When he finally got himself righted and was able to hover, Izzy raised her head and demanded, “What the hells is going on?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I really don’t know.”

Izzy leaned over the tiniest bit so that she could look around Éibhear. That’s when she realized how far away they were from actual ground. In fact, as many times as Izzy had ridden on the back of a dragon, she’d never been this high before.

“Rhi,” she said softly.

“What?”

“Rhi did this.”

“That’s impossible,” Éibhear argued, his head turning enough to look at her. “She’s just a little—”

They stared at each other for a very long moment until Izzy ordered, “Get me down there now.”

Éibhear spun around. “Hold on.” Then he sped back to the earth below.

Éibhear wanted to know what the mighty hells was going on, too, but his curiosity would have to wait. His main concern was getting his little niece to safety.

He’d known from her birth that Rhi was powerful. Magicks flowed through her like water through a river. Even he could see it, and the world of Magicks was not where his skills lay. But he hadn’t realized until now exactly how powerful the girl truly was, and why his kin were so concerned.

Although it wasn’t her lack of control that had them worried—it was the fact that others would want that power for themselves or to destroy it. Which made his little niece very vulnerable, unlike her cousins who had never been vulnerable a day in their lives.

As Éibhear neared the ground, he felt Izzy stand up on his back.