“Get her, Brannie. Go.”

Rhona let her weapon extend a few more feet and faced the soldiers. “Come on, lads,” she told the dragons. “Let’s get this over with.” Knowing her cousin was holding the line, Brannie charged down the hal way toward the last alcove, striking the guards who stood right outside the steel gates. She cut the arms off one and the head off the other. The one without the head had the keys, so she snatched it off his belt and quickly unlocked the door. She stepped inside but instead of finding multiple chambers, she found only one. One big chamber with only one captive.

The She-dragon was in her human form, naked, a gold col ar around her throat, long silver hair framing her face and covering her shoulders and br**sts. She’d been chained to the wal , and cuts, sores, and burns—old and new—littered her human flesh, both eyes swol en shut, nose broken.

Remembering what Annwyl had said to the Rebel King, Brannie now knew her queen to have been right. Vateria had made this dragoness her plaything. Her toy. A fel ow dragon. In fact, now that Brannie thought of it—her cousin! How could Vateria do this to her own cousin?

It always amazed her how some dragons could be no better than the lowliest of humans. Harming others simply for their own amusement.

Brannie would kil a body in battle or if threatened or hungry. But just to watch others hurt? That did nothing but piss Brannie off and, thankful y, it pissed her kin off as wel .

She went to the She-dragon’s side, lifted her chin with her gloved hand.

“My lady? Can you hear me?” She pul ed out the glass bottle King Gaius had given her. “You need to drink this.” The royal turned her head, groaning, but Brannie heard a bit of a snarl and that gave her hope. “Please, my lady. It’l give you strength until we’re free of this place.”

“Never free,” she muttered. “Never.”

“You need to be strong. Please. For your brother.”

Somehow the dragoness forced those swol en eyes open and gazed at Brannie. “Southlander.”

“Your brother sent us. Oh!” Brannie pul ed out the necklace King Gaius had given them before they left. She showed her the stone pendant at the end. “Here. He wanted me to show you this.”

“Gaius.”

“He sent me. But you need to drink this. Now. My cousin can’t hold them off forever.” The royal jerked her head a bit and opened her mouth. Brannie poured the contents of the bottle in.

“Now swal ow that down and I’l get you out of these chains. Gods,” she went on while she tried the keys on the royal’s manacles. “Treating your family like this. I don’t understand it. Yeah, sure. We’l beat the shit out of our kin if they’re asking for it, we Cadwaladrs wil . But that’s it. We’d never do this to each other.”

None of the keys she held worked, so Brannie used her ax. With two hits, the chain broke and she helped the royal to her feet.

“Can you walk?”

In answer to that, the royal went down, her hands grasping at the gold col ar. Brannie realized it must be one of those mystical ones that could keep a dragon in human form. Only this col ar seemed to be doing more than that. Now that the royal was loose from her bonds, the damn thing seemed to be choking her to death.

“Shit,” Brannie said, crouching before the royal and gripping the col ar. She knew absolutely nothing about Magicks and such. She left that to the witches and mages. Too much reading and thinking for Brannie’s tastes. But then how was she going to deal with this thing if she didn’t even know what it was? At the very least she had to deal with it before it kil ed this female.

Brannie studied the thing while desperately trying to ignore that the royal’s human face was turning blue. From what she knew, never a good thing. With a quick glance, she realized that there was a smal lock in the col ar that needed a key. Too bad she didn’t have the key. None of the ones she had were smal enough to fit. She had nothing.

Desperate, Brannie left the royal’s side and went back to her cousin.

“The royal!” she yel ed.

“What about her?” Rhona yel ed back, fighting off three and four dragons at a time.

“She’s got a col ar. I can’t get it off!”

“So?”

“It’s kil ing her!”

Rhona snarled. “Shit and piss!” She tossed her spear to Brannie. “Take over!”

Thankful to be back to what she understood—fighting—Brannie fol owed orders.

Rhona ran to the royal’s side and quickly saw that what Brannie had said was true. The She-dragon’s face was blue, her hands desperately gripping that gold col ar. That bitch Vateria wanted to make sure the royal didn’t escape even if King Gaius had been able to rescue her himself.

Rhona crouched over the royal and pushed her hands away from the col ar. She felt around the metal and saw the smal keyhole, which meant there was a key. A key that probably only Vateria had. But no matter because Rhona was the eldest daughter of Sulien, which was meaningful for two reasons.

She forced her fingers between the col ar and the royal’s neck, hoping to relieve some pressure. Rhona opened her mouth and unleashed molten lava into her free hand. She spread the lava around the col ar before it had a chance to cool and chanted the appropriate words. She watched as the col ar changed from gold to steel to glass.

Rhona broke the col ar then and the royal began to gasp as she took in big gulps of air.

“That’s a good lass,” Rhona said, patting the female’s shoulder. “Think you can stand?” The royal nodded and Rhona helped her to her feet. But they were halfway across the room when the female began to shake and shudder. It took Rhona a moment, but she quickly realized the She-dragon was having a seizure.