He placed Elina on the flat top of the boulder just as Riders began to move in close.

Elina’s sister jumped off her horse, her hands still holding the bow, her quiver still full of arrows, but how long could they last? Unless they were magickal.

He doubted they were magickal.

Standing in front of the boulder to protect her sister, the woman ordered, “Stand beside me, dragon. We may meet death this day, but we will take many of my comrades with us first.”

Panting a bit, Celyn observed, “I see you have as positive an outlook as your sister.”

“Positive? We are outnumbered. Trapped. Soon . . . we will be surrounded and hacked to death. But,” she added, “death will welcome us, for we will bring him many on this day.”

That was great and all . . . but honestly, Celyn would rather he and Elina survived. Surviving was good. Planning for death . . . less good.

The Riders stopped, making sure they were out of range of Kachka’s arrows and his flames. One of the older Riders, a male, called out something to Elina’s sister.

“What did he say?” Celyn asked her.

“He told me that I have betrayed my tribe for my weak sister and lizard with wings. For that, I will die, too.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Celyn replied. “And I’m not a lizard.”

Elina’s sister stared at him a moment. She had eyes just like Elina’s. “That is what keeps you up at night?”

“Sometimes . . . yeah.”

She frowned, shook her head. “I do not understand why you did not out-fly them. Why did you turn? You could have lost them in the mountains, but stopping here with the mountains at our back . . . ? We are doomed.”

“We are not doomed and it’s not my fault,” Celyn argued. “Something caught hold of me.”

“I saw nothing until my fellow Riders took you down with their arrows and rope.”

“It wasn’t . . . a human thing. It was . . . magickal.”

The woman let out a very long sigh. “I see. . . .”

“Really! I swear. It was something—”

“Stop. I can hear no more of your tales of spells.”

She focused back on her fellow Riders. “Besides . . . it is time to die.”

Unwilling to let that happen, Celyn did the only thing he could think of. “Take her.”

“Take . . . what?”

“Take Elina. Take her and go.”

“She is dying.”

“I don’t care if she’s dead. Get her and yourself out of here.” He focused on the Riders about to charge. “I’ll deal with them.”

“Riders know how to fight dragons. They are not frightened by you. They will destroy you.”

“Stop arguing with me and just go.”

“You will die to protect my sister?”

“It is not my ultimate plan, but if it means that, then yes. I will. Now go!”

The woman walked toward the boulder Elina lay upon but stopped short, her eyes narrowing.

Celyn turned his head, expecting to see the Riders charging toward him, but they weren’t moving. They, like Elina’s sister, were simply staring. At a woman.

Fur covered her from head to foot, but Celyn would guess that she was indescribably, outstandingly beautiful. How did he know all that without seeing her? By the way she moved.

Celyn had no idea where she’d come from, but at this moment, she walked between the two groups without bothering to look at either. When she was right at the center, she slowly turned to face the Riders and pulled her hood back.

Celyn still couldn’t see her face, but he knew her. Knew her power. Knew her beauty. Knew exactly what she could do.

“Cover your sister,” he ordered the woman, impressed at how she immediately dove onto Elina, using her body to cover her.

Princess Rhianwen, Daughter of Talaith and Briec, raised her delicate hand in the air, moving it in a gentle circle. And Celyn watched, shocked, as dark energies that lurked in the squat trees and bushes, the earth and rocks immediately came to her, pouring into her hand like rainwater until Rhian could take no more.

Then she clenched her hand into a fist.

Celyn faced the boulder that Elina and her sister were on and placed his claws on either side of them. He unfurled his wings, using his entire body to protect them and turned his head so he could see Rhian.

With her fist still in the air, she chanted something, the wind around her picking up, the horses that the Riders were on suddenly, perhaps for the first time, beginning to panic, fighting their riders and each other to back away as quickly as possible.

Rhian went on her toes and then, swinging her arm down, she crouched and rammed her fist against the earth.

Everything around them jerked—the trees, the boulder . . . the ground. The ground jerked hardest of all. Then, from where Rhian’s hand had landed, the earth broke away, and the Riders and horses who had not moved quickly enough—at least half the battalion—fell as the ground disappeared beneath them. They vanished into the crater that had been created, their cries of terror echoing in Celyn’s ears.

Kachka had to look up to see what was happening. She knew power when she saw it, and this delicate female had power.

The woman stood, quickly turning away from the devastation she’d caused. And Kachka watched her wipe a tear from her cheek. This had not been something she’d wanted to do, but she’d done it. And, Kachka would guess, she’d do it again.

The remainder of Kachka’s fellow tribesmen roared in rage at the loss of their comrades and kin. Then they rode around the gaping crevice, no longer interested in Kachka and Elina, but in the woman who’d done this to them.