She spun around and again headed to her office, but she heard Gwenvael say to the boy, “Welcome to the family, Frederik.”

They stopped for a brief meal break in the woods not far from the road they were traveling. Izzy sat down next to Brannie, offering her some dried beef and bread.

“Are you still not talking to me?” Izzy asked.

“I’m hungover. But you can’t just keep kidnapping me anytime you want to do something ridiculously dangerous.”

“But if I ask you when you’re sober, we spend hours arguing before you just finally agree. This cuts down on the arguing.”

Her cousin glowered at her. “You are a plotting little cow and some days I loathe you.”

Izzy put her arm around her cousin’s shoulders and kissed her cheek. “But most days you love me because there’s nowhere else you can get this level and diversity of combat training.”

“Yes, I just need to survive long enough to enjoy the benefits.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll be general before you know it.”

“Unlike you, that has not been my lifelong goal. I do have a question, though, cousin.”

“Hhhm?”

“Macsen seems to have taken a sudden and rather brutal dislike to Éibhear.”

“He never liked Éibhear.”

“But he seems to dislike him even more now.” She jerked her head toward the other end of the clearing and Izzy watched the big blue idiot trying to get her dog to release the dragon’s tight ass, which was currently caught between Macsen’s jaws.

“Perhaps he simply finds Éibhear irritating and confusing.”

“Macsen finds Éibhear irritating and confusing? Macsen? The dog?”

Taking one more bite of her bread, Izzy stood and walked over to pry her dog off Éibhear.

Brannie watched Izzy try to call off that dog of hers. Although if Brannie were to be honest, she’d have to admit that Izzy was not trying very hard. Not as hard as she would if this was one of her soldiers.

Aidan sat down where Izzy had been sitting.

“What?” Brannie asked him.

“My, we are awfully snarly. I think I saw fang.”

“What do you want, Mì-runach?”

“Just sitting here, being entertained by our friends.”

“Éibhear isn’t my friend. He’s kin. A blood relation.”

“Which means what exactly?”

“To a Cadwaladr, it means that if I have good cause, I could beat the scales off his back and get away with it.”

“Ah, yes. More confirmation I never want to meet the rest of your family. Although you’re so welcoming . . .”

Brannie went back to eating her bread and meat until Uther sat on the other side of her. She had to admit, being surrounded by Mì-runach was unsettling. Her mother had raised her with two beliefs about the Mì-runach: they were invaluable in battle, but you should never turn your back on one.

“But what about granddad?” Brannie had asked, holding on to her mother’s tail while the dragoness had walked through a forest near their home. “He was Mì-runach.”

“And the worst of the lot, my girl. The worst of the lot. Especially to his offspring. We never turned our backs on your grandfather. Addolgar did once . . . he still has that scar where his head got split open.”

So Brannie assumed if her own grandfather couldn’t have been trusted, then obviously three strange Mì-runach she didn’t even know could definitely not be trusted. Yet Brannie still felt the need to ask them a question.

“Perhaps it’s the leftover ale still rolling around my head, but . . .” She motioned to a bickering Izzy and Éibhear while the dog kept barking and trying to re-attach itself to Éibhear’s ass. “Has something changed between those two?”

The Mì-runach looked at each other and then over at the arguing Izzy and Éibhear. Izzy’s dog was in her arms now but still attempting to lunge at Éibhear’s face.

Together, the males stated, “Not at all.”

After a few more hours of travel, they stopped in a town pub for a meal and to discuss the remainder of their trip.

Izzy had been sure that Éibhear had made up all that centaur shit about Aidan knowing his way around the Desert Lands in order to convince her mother he and his friends were necessary. But it turned out Aidan had spent years in the Desert Lands and remembered well his way there and around.

He pulled out a map and spread it out on the table, pushing the empty bowls and plates out of the way so they could all look.

“I know of at least seventeen ways we can sneak into the Desert Lands unseen, including taking the pass through—”

“Wait,” Izzy cut in. “Why do we need to sneak into the Desert Lands? Both Annwyl and Rhiannon have an alliance with the Desert Land rulers.”

Aidan looked down at the map and back up at her. “I thought this was a kill assignment. Isn’t this a kill assignment?” he asked Éibhear.

She saw Brannie quickly turn her head away when Izzy snarled, “No. This isn’t a kill assignment.”

“But that’s what we do,” Aidan insisted. “We kill. We sneak in and kill. Are you unclear on what the Mì-runach do?”

“I didn’t invite you people!” Izzy looked at Éibhear. “Fix this. Fix this right now.”

He held his hands up and said to Aidan, “We’re not there to kill anyone.”