Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

E sta's head was on my lap as she slept. Conversation had flowed from the rather humorous stories of life in the castle with Warrick to the more pressing matters of Wylan. Though she had tried to hang with us for most of it, Esta's breathing eventually slowed, and she slumped over onto me, content to be with us even as she slept.

"The solar lamps we brought with us should go over well then," Owen said.

I nodded my agreement. "Definitely. We need about a hundred more, but the few dozen you arrived with will be put to use immediately."

Krew looked at me, never missing a thing. "Why are you so tense?"

I let out a sigh. I had actually been significantly less tense since Krew had arrived. And if he still picked up on it, that only proved how bad it'd been. "Because we are finally healing this land and its shifters. The lottery requires and demands it. And these people definitely deserve that. All but one. Or a handful. Whoever has been orchestrating all of the unrest, forging this civil war. I'm terrified I am about to hand over more power to them."

"Even if you do," Krew stated smoothly, taking a sip of his water, the whiskey long gone, "you'll be able to handle it. Perks of having to take down the strongest Enchanted in the realm, we trained until we were also two of the strongest Enchanted in the realm."

Owen let out a laugh. "Keir, how have you managed to be a part of two separate rebellions in the past two years though?"

"It's a skill I wish I hadn't had to reuse," I admitted. "And rather than fanning the flames of this one, it absolutely needs to be squashed."

"Dra Skor is beautiful," Krew said, a sadness to his tone. "Truly. I want to hate it on principal, as it is taking you from us, but I cannot. She is lovely."

Were we talking about the country or her queen now? "I can't believe you return home tomorrow already." We had one meeting to attend in the morning and then I was seeing Krew off to the ship. "Though I am sure Warrick and Jorah will be wanting you home."

Just then Esta stirred, her body tensing in her sleep. My magic flared, racing along my forearms. Already knowing how to fix this, as I had numerous times before, I sunk my fingers into her dark hair and ran my fingers downward.

I looked back up to find both Owen and Krew looking at me, Krew's grin from ear to ear.

"What?"

He snorted and gestured with his head to Esta. "And how long has that been happening? Or are the three of us just going to pretend like we all didn't just notice that ?"

I inhaled deeply. "Yes, we are. Because I know what it could possibly mean. I know what I want it to mean. But I do not want to get my hopes up. Not when it's out of my control. "

"Because you don't think she will bond to you?" Krew asked carefully.

"No. She would like to when we come to Wylan."

"What?" Owen hissed.

I shrugged, careful not to jostle Esta. "She would like to see Wylan and be bonded there, if we think it will be safe for us to do so on Wylan soil. It's harder on the bigger shifters, apparently messes with their instincts, and she will be down for about a week. We do not have it all figured out, but she would like to come after the Yule celebrations. In a month or so."

"She will be safe," Krew promised. "You both will be."

A silence blanketed the three of us, the two men I trusted more than myself. They were giving me the space to speak, but I wasn't sure I had the proper words. "I always thought with you and Jorah becoming soul bound that it was inevitable. It was fate. And I was merely in the way. A pest."

"Keir," Krew said affectionately.

"Let me finish." My thumb on Esta's back ran slow circles without even thinking of doing it. "The more wrapped up in Dra Skor I become, the more I fall for Esta, the more I realize that these bonds might possibly be less about fate and instead about how fiercely we choose one another instead."

"And you choose her," Krew interpreted.

"In a thousand lifetimes. A thousand realms. I'd scale a mountainside with bloodied fingertips if I had to. Only to find her."

Owen gave his head a shake. "You say that, yet you don't think it's possible the two of you will be soul bound when you bond?"

"No," Krew responded for me. "He just doesn't want to be disappointed if they are not. He wants it. Suspects it. But won't mentally let himself go there because he will willingly bind himself to her regardless of the outcome of if they are heart bound or soul bound."

Krew knew exactly what was going through my mind. Of course he did. He'd felt this way about Jorah long before they bonded.

I had barely let myself consider why my Enchantment was beginning to flare around Esta. Yes, I cared for her deeply, so of course my magic would pick up on that. When I had returned from Wylan back to Dra Skor, I'd spent a while being absolutely full of rage. Now I was considering that it might not have been fully mine.

But Esta and I were from two different countries, two different blood lines. Becoming soul bound? It seemed too outrageous. We should be thankful we could even bond at all. To have the audacity to wish for the stars on top of that seemed too much.

Yet I knew every time she had a nightmare. Every time she was angry. Not only because I knew her well enough to read her, but because I could feel it.

So what did it mean?

Krew and I stood ready, our jackets and vests on, crowns upon our heads. Esta wanted Krew to make an appearance in the war room before we left. It was the ambassador thing to do.

And if Krew's appearance made any more of the advisors uncomfortable enough to slip up, that was perfectly fine with me.

We neared the doors, our shoes clacking on the marbled flooring, when Krew slowed to ask, "Do you trust me?"

"Impeccably."

"Good."

Without delay, Krew blew open the doors with his power, despite the fact that the guards would have opened them for us.

"Would you like any help?" I asked him, not even knowing what this little display was.

"I've got it," he said with a smirk .

The war room stood at attention, and I wasn't sure if that was Esta's urging or the shock of Krew blowing the doors wide open.

"King of Wylan," Esta smiled.

"Queen of Dra Skor," Krew greeted back.

With a wave of her hand, Esta's advisors sat.

"We would like to thank you for your efforts yesterday. Seven shifters are healing at the castle this morning. Seven ," Esta reiterated.

Jagen added with a smile, "Rumors of what the two of you are capable of together, how your magic can combine, are traveling across Dra Skor in record speed."

Zaccai pounded his paw into the ground twice. While Krew might have thought it odd, I understood it was a sign of respect in Dra Skor.

Krew made no move to the chair Esta gestured him to, the chair I had recently been using. He stayed standing instead, so I stayed standing beside him.

"I cannot promise that I will be returning any time soon," Krew began. "There is an entire country of missing people, and others which also need healing. There is much to be done. But I selfishly wanted to come here. To be with my brother."

Zaire was oddly quiet, eyes bouncing from Krew to me.

"Keir is welcome to stay as long as he'd like," Reyald Mallick stated.

Hadn't he wanted to marry me off to Amory a month ago just to keep me from Esta? I guess he had always wanted me to stay, if I truly thought about it. Just not with his daughter who was needed to pop out dragon babies as fast as humanly possible.

"I see a great peace settling between our two countries," Krew offered. "I have no desire to rule the entire realm like my father did. Wylan has plenty to keep me busy."

Reyald let out a chuckle, as if he understood.

"But on the off-chance Keir should not ever be welcome here, not be safe here..." In Krew's pause I noted his magic leaving his hands to crawl along the walls, up the table legs itself, and around the entirety of the room. He waited until every object in the room started vibrating and shaking under his power. Their own teacups rattled before the advisors, one such finally falling to the floor and breaking.

"Krew," I snapped. I sent my own power out to swiftly pickup and move the glass before anyone got cut.

He let it all fall, the room deathly still except for the tension now crawling along every advisor's skin.

"There is nothing I would not do for my brother," he continued, wholly unbothered. "Do I make myself clear? The treaty states there will be peace between our countries until one of us provokes and attacks the other. Should anything happen to my brother, even a hair on his head out of place, consider me provoked."

"We understand, Your Highness," Esta said with a nod, her eyes moving to mine for the briefest of moments. "Prince Keiran is invaluable to us. Our future is bright because of his ability, his tenacity to heal us. Not only has he brought us an opportunity to heal, he has also brought us technology within the treaty. I have no intention of breaking that treaty. And anyone who does so is committing an act of treason against not only Wylan, but Dra Skor as well."

This was not the love of my life and my brother speaking back and forth right now. It was a king and a queen displaying their power over the advisors. We were all just innocent bystanders here.

And dammit if I didn't love Krew for this. In one move, he had given the advisors a look at how it could all go backward. How much they not only needed to keep me, but also keep me happy. A reminder that though Dra Skor might be healing, Wylan currently was still stronger. Dra Skor's healing was dependent on me . And perhaps what spoke loudest had come from Esta, that whoever was orchestrating the unrest in Dra Skor wasn't just an enemy of Dra Skor, but Wylan's as well.

"Safe travels home, Your Highness," Esta said with a nod. It was all a formality. She and Malachi, now fully healed, would be flying us to the ship to return Krew home.

"I look forward to returning to see a Dra Skor fully healed," Krew nodded back.

"That one man should have such a power," Morana whispered from her seat, clearly impressed.

Krew didn't hesitate as he gestured with his head to me. "Not one man, but two ."

With that, The King of Wylan spun on his heel and left Dra Skor.