“Stop whining, baby brother. You’ll have more than enough time in this life to find females who will eventually make you miserable.”

* * *

Staring into the campfire, Talaith sighed softly. She’d tried for ages to get back to sleep, but couldn’t. Not with her daughter leaning against her. Not with her daughter right beside her.

“You can’t sleep, sister?” Morfyd whispered, sitting beside Talaith.

Talaith glanced down at a sleeping Izzy, whose head rested comfortably in her lap. “Could you?”

The witch grinned. “Good point.”

Morfyd tore a loaf of bread in half and handed one side to Talaith who took it gratefully, seeing as she was unable to eat earlier. Her excitement over Izzy too great.

“Tell me, Morfyd,” Talaith whispered around a bite of bread. “How did you know I was coming?”

Morfyd almost choked on her bread and Talaith knew she’d been right. Annwyl had been waiting for her. That was why she sent her army back to Garbhán Isle while she, Morfyd, and her elite guard remained. Waiting for her.

“That’s what I thought, sister. When you walked into the tent this morning you said to Annwyl, ‘I told you it was her.’ How did you know?”

Morfyd swallowed her bread and thought carefully on her answer. Talaith knew the witch would only tell her so much. But anything was better than nothing.

“I’ve committed myself and my Magick to powerful gods. They warn me of danger.” That couldn’t have been vaguer if she said, “I know some people.”

“Which gods?”

The witch smiled and put her finger over her own lips. “Dare to be silent,” she whispered to her and Talaith couldn’t help but smile back. During the dark days of Lorcan the Butcher’s reign, before Annwyl killed him, witches lived by that code. It was all that kept them alive.

“Perhaps you’ll find out in due time,” Morfyd stated in a low voice. “The way you found your daughter.”

Find her? Talaith had found nothing. Someone or something had thrown Izzy in her path as certainly as Talaith’s hair was curly and Izzy talked too much. True, she’d gotten what she wanted without having to kill the Queen of Garbhán Isle or rush headlong into suicide, but that also meant someone else cared about all this. Someone other than Arzhela.

Realizing she’d get no answers from Morfyd this eve, she let it go. At the moment, at least, she was safe. But, more importantly, her daughter was safe. Nothing could make her happier.

Although, she knew, there was one other thing that would make this perfect. But she’d lost him forever.

Brushing painful thoughts of Briec from her mind, she lightly combed Izzy’s short, wavy hair with her fingers and, to her utter delight, Izzy giggled in her sleep.

She’d make the worst Nolwenn witch. She’s too bloody happy.

Talaith smiled, knowing how that would irritate the very life from her mother. Enjoying the thought much more than she should, she went back to eating her bread, enjoying cautious but sane conversation with her first female friend, and loving the feel of her beautiful daughter tucked in safely beside her.

* * *

Arzhela screamed and the priestess who’d approached with the oracle’s news dropped to the floor, blood streaming from her eyes, ears and mouth.

She didn’t mean to kill her, but Arzhela’s rage knew no bounds now.

That bastard had led the bitch child straight to Talaith. Now they were all one big, happy family under the protection of that dragonwitch. And that dragon was powerful, only rivaled by her evil mother. Arzhela would never be able to break through the dragonwitch’s defenses without years and years of work—and she no longer had that kind of time.

For centuries, her oracles had predicted the birth of a blood-drenched queen who would change everything. That queen was Annwyl. But with dragons surrounding her at every turn, Arzhela’s only hope was to get a human close enough to cut that scar-covered throat.

Arzhela had chosen Talaith carefully. A human witch of considerable power, but who was still too young to have harnessed it. While the other Nolwenn witches would never bend under Arzhela’s will, Talaith’s inexperience made her a convenient target.

The constant arguments with her mother and her love affair with the soldier made it almost too easy. Alone, Talaith had given birth to her daughter. By the time her priestesses arrived, the girl had nearly bled to death. Still, she put up quite a fight when they claimed her child.

That child turned out to be Arzhela’s only bargaining chip where Talaith was concerned. The only way she could keep any control over this uncontrollable human.

When the child disappeared from Hamish’s care, she thought for sure she’d lose her hold over Talaith, but the child never resurfaced. She disappeared with the men who had stolen her; and Arzhela, nor the other gods, could track the little beast down. Eventually she gave up looking for her and continued her focus on Talaith.

At the time, she thought perhaps the child died. Arzhela didn’t know or care. All she knew was that Talaith didn’t know the girl was gone. Which meant Arzhela still controlled her.

When Annwyl took over her brother’s throne and aligned herself with that black dragon, Arzhela knew her time had grown short. With Hamish’s help, she cut off all information in and out of the tiny village Talaith lived in. That way Talaith continued to hear only about the evils of Annwyl, a necessity since she insisted on having this sense of honor her trainers had been unable to beat out of her. Arzhela knew she’d have a near-impossible time killing a woman she considered innocent.