"What are you doing here?" another voice barked.

eibhear looked to Briec, who stood glowering at him. "And I missed you, too, brother."

"I didn't miss you."

eibhear crossed his eyes. "Of course you didn't."

"Where's Rhi?"

"With Izzy. We came here together."

Briec glanced over at Gwenvael, stared, then looked back at eibhear. "Oh," Briec said. "Great. She'll be fine with Izzy." Then he walked off, heading farther into the castle.

Dagmar reached for Talwyn. "Why don't I get her to Morfyd?"

"Thanks, Dagmar."

"Of course. I'll let her know you're here. She'll be so happy to see you." She smiled up at him. "I'm so glad you're home, eibhear." And he knew she meant it. Meaningful, since she rarely meant anything she said when speaking to royals.

"So am I."

eibhear watched Dagmar take Talwyn up the stairs to the bedrooms before he moved to Gwenvael's side. "Hello, brother."

"eibhear." Gwenvael looked him over. "Nice hair."

"Thank you. I do try." eibhear motioned to the human boy who was walking back to the table and picking up his plate.

"Who's that?"

"Dagmar's nephew from the north." They silently watched the boy head off . . . somewhere. eibhear had no idea where.

"Not the brightest thing, I'm afraid," Gwenvael muttered when the boy was gone. "But I guess he's family."

"True. True."

The brothers faced each other, smiled; then eibhear caught hold of Gwenvael's hair and rammed him head-first into the wall.

"Let's go find the rest of the bastards, shall we?" eibhear asked, as he dragged his unconscious brother down the hallway by what the idiot insisted on referring to as his "long, luxurious golden locks."

Chapter 11.

Izzy knew that walking would calm her sister down, so she took her to one of her favorite places. A stream surrounded by trees and large boulders.

She sat Rhi down on one of the smaller boulders and took out a clean cloth from her travel bag. She wiped the tears from her sister's face, then held the cloth to the girl's nose.

"Blow," she ordered.

After a few hiccups, the girl did as she was told.

"Now what happened?" Izzy asked her.

"They just wouldn't stop bickering. Either they're bickering out loud or in my head, but it's constant. And Daddy just told me I could go shopping with Albrecht and-"

"Who's Albrecht?"

"Lord Pombray's son. He gave me flowers the other day and Daddy nearly burned his hand off."

Izzy's laugh was out before she could stop it and violet eyes flashed in anger.

"It's not funny, Iseabail! He was terrified!"

"I'm sure he was," she said around the laughter, unable to stop.

Rhi stood and began to pace. "You're as bad as Daddy! The two of you!"

"You know how Daddy is."

"He won't let any man near me if they're not family."

"Man? Human, dragon, god, or centaur, if it's male and not blood, Daddy will burn the poor bloke to the ground."

"I'll be a virgin forever," Rhi sobbed.

"Good."

The sobbing abruptly stopped and her sister stared at her. "What do you mean 'good'?"

"I mean good. I mean fucking complicates everything."

Rhi's lips twitched, a smile fighting its way forth while her cheeks and forehead turned bright red. "Iseabail."

"And good fucking can ruin your life. So stay a virgin forever. You'll be much happier that way. Besides, do you really want to be the one to cause all those deaths?"

Rhi's smile faded. "What do you mean?"

"When Daddy gets his claws on whatever poor male sets his sights on you . . . there will be death. Death after death after death. All at the talons of one wonderful but terribly arrogant silver dragon who adores both his perfect, perfect daughters."

Her sister's smile returned, but Izzy couldn't help but think there was also some relief there. As if she'd thought Izzy had meant something else.

"Gods, I wish he would stop saying that. It sounds awful."

"I like that he thinks of me as perfect. Despite my hysterical mother's questionable bloodline."

Rhi sighed, shook her head. "I truly don't know how she hasn't killed him yet." She blinked, her hand covering her mouth. "I can't believe I said that. That was a horrible thing to say about Mum and Dad!"

Izzy gazed at her sister. "Whose family do you think you belong to?"

eibhear tracked Fearghus and Briec down in the war room. Using Gwenvael's head, he pushed the door open and walked in, tossing Gwenvael next to the big wood table they sat at.

Fearghus and Briec glanced down at a groaning Gwenvael, then immediately went back to their conversation as if they were still alone.

"We have to figure out a course of action," Briec said. "It can't go on like this. I feel things building."

"Mum suggested-"

"No." Briec looked pointedly at Fearghus. "Absolutely not. Rhi adores Mum and I won't have her turned into a tiny Rhiannon."

"Then maybe you shouldn't have named her after her."

Briec snarled. "I did not name my daughter after Mum!"

eibhear stepped close to the table. "Oy!"

The two males stopped snapping at each other and slowly looked over at eibhear.

"Is there something you want?" Briec asked.

"Do you have bones in your hair?" Fearghus asked.

Ignoring Fearghus's question, eibhear asked, "Don't you have something to say to me?"

Briec thought a moment then answered, "No."

"Why are you here?" Fearghus asked.

"My commander thought it was time I came home to visit my loving kin."

Fearghus frowned. "Which is who exactly?"

Briec laughed and Fearghus shook his head. "No. I mean, who's your commander?"

"Why does that matter?"

"Because I want to know if I can trust his decision to send you back here."

"His decision to . . . what?" eibhear took a moment before asking, "You lot had me sent away?"

"It was in your best interest."

"But mostly our best interest," Briec clarified. "You were becoming a right prat."

"And Mum would have been mad if we'd beaten you to death."

"So you lot had me sent to the M-runach?"

"That was Dad's idea."

"We suggested the salt mines," Briec explained. "But Dad was afraid the rest of the troops would turn on you because of your incessant whining and inability to follow orders."

"Sending you to the M-runach was," Fearghus reiterated, "in your best interest."

eibhear pulled off his fur cape and tossed it onto a nearby chair.

"Gods," Briec gasped. "The bastard's gotten bigger."

"I stopped growing five years ago."

"Not soon enough."

"Let me ask you," eibhear went on, determined to understand all this. "Sending me away . . . that didn't have anything to do with Izzy, did it?"

Gwenvael looked up from where he still lay on the floor. "It took you ten bloody years to figure that out?"

His brothers burst out laughing and eibhear walked close to the table Fearghus and Briec sat at. He raised his fists and slammed them against the hundred-year-old, thick wood table. It broke into three distinct pieces and crumpled to the floor.

His brothers looked over the mess until Fearghus said, "I'm making you tell Annwyl you broke the war room table."

Izzy put her arm around her sister's shoulders. "Tell me what's wrong?"

"Everything!"

Izzy closed her eyes so that her sister didn't see her cross them in exasperation. Gods, had she been this dramatic when she was sixteen? Izzy doubted it. Her life had been so serious up to that point, how could she be dramatic?

Taken from her mother right after her birth, Izzy hadn't met Talaith again until she was sixteen. In the years before that meeting Izzy had traveled the countryside with three soldiers she called her Protectors. Men who'd left their lives and families behind just to protect Izzy from the goddess Arzhela and her followers.

For years those followers had hidden the fact that they'd lost Izzy so that they could keep control of Talaith. It had worked too, until Briec the Mighty came along and changed everything for mother and daughter. He'd fallen in love with Talaith, making her his mate. Or, as the dragons called it, Briec had Claimed Talaith. And from the very beginning, Briec had treated Izzy as his own daughter, without question, without doubt. To a girl who'd never known her birth father, Briec's unconditional love had meant so very much.

"Can we narrow 'everything' down to something manageable?" Izzy asked.

Rhi dropped her head, the back of her hands wiping her cheeks and eyes. "What if I'd killed her?" she whispered.

"Killed who?"

"Talwyn."

"With that hard head she has?"

Rhi pushed Izzy's arm off and stalked a few feet away before facing her. "I'm not joking, Izzy."

She really wasn't. Rhi was truly distraught, fingers twisted into knots, her entire body shaking.

"But you didn't kill Talwyn. I saw her, luv. She's fine."