Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

" W hat kind of pattern?"

Archer shrugged. "Unfortunately, the servants have cleaned up too many bloody messes the past few months. The dining room had plenty. They could tell where things happened, but there would be random drips or sprays based on the extent of the injuries."

Considering that some of that was likely Esta's blood had my Enchantment flaring, raging.

"This though? Morana's room? They said it was almostmethodical. Regardless of the amount, the servants say it was too clean if someone really killed her. Even the bloodied footprints were too perfect."

"What does this mean?" John asked.

Archer's eyes went to the balcony doors, still wide open from when Esta had left. "They think it may have been manufactured."

A soul deep rage lit through me, resulting in my veins fully lighting up my body, wings included. With everything we had learned that day, all signs were pointing to Jagen being our traitor. Yet I knew better. There were too many things not adding up. Jagen feeling framed. Samori acting off. Morana conveniently going missing when Nana Mallick began her investigating into the royal family in our absence. "Morana."

"Is not truly dead at all, it seems," John finished for me, as I was too angry to say anything but her name. "But wanted us all to believe so."

"Not only is she likely not dead, she is trying to frame Jagen for everything," I finally bit out. Be careful, I added to Esta, quickly filling her in on everything Archer just said. "The only question remains is if she is working alone or with her father or brother."

"And the only thing standing between Morana and the crown is Jagen, Esta, and her own father," Emric added. "I don't think her father at his current health would last a month in those cells."

All of these were things I already knew. But hearing them voiced out loud was making my rage go nowhere. I thought back to every interaction I had with the queen's cousin and found there hadn't been all that many. Yet a conversation from months ago came to the forefront of my mind. We had been at the ball she had requested, one to celebrate Malachi and Esta being healed.

"It always works out in the end if only our wills are strong enough to withstand the wait for opportunity," she'd said to me.

But she hadn't been waiting for opportunities to present themselves, she'd been wearing a mask of niceties while creating them all along. It'd been her. The puppet master. The face behind the mask. The grand orchestrator.

It was her. Disguised as the loyal cousin, general to the queen.

"We need to find her." Yet there I stood. Still. In my rooms like a good lover. Not helping my soul bound mate. But I also knew Esta well enough. I knew she would want to up the patrols, move Jagen and Charlotte again tonight, and alert both her generals and advisors.

"Get me Malachi when he's done helping Esta check in on Jagen," I said to Miles. "Malachi and the advisors. "

"War room or here?" he asked.

"War room is fine." I paused and looked to Archer. "Thank you. Your swift actions tonight likely saved lives."

"It's what I'm here for, right?"

I shook my head. "No. Tonight was above and beyond. Thank you. "

I was exhausted and angry, but it seemed the night was young. I would make sure that Esta's advisors were waiting for her as soon as she was done.

We finally had a face to blame for all of this.

Hours later, we finally made it back to my room. No one had found Morana, but we did have the entire castle alerted that she was to be apprehended immediately, a threat to anyone who saw her.

I inhaled deeply and headed out to the balcony of my room. The place where Esta first slept over in her dragon form. Back when I didn't even know what she looked like in her human form.

But I had known enough.

"I can sense your anger, you know," Esta said politely from the doorway. "For both what Morana has done and at me."

I turned my head to the side. "You flew off into certain danger and asked me to stay behind. It goes against every fiber of my being."

"I know. I felt it all. I did not feel good about doing that to you. But Morana does not know you can fly. Does not know we are soul bound. Her not knowing this does give us an advantage."

I leaned back in one of the chairs and looked up at the stars. All of those things were correct. But all of those things took the emotions out of it. Of having such a powerful bond with Esta and not being able to act on it when she needed me .

She walked over and sat down in my lap. "I'm sorry, Keir. How about we go back inside and I make it up to you? Pick right back up where we left off?"

I wanted so much more than that. So it was with a sharpness that I said, "Only if you use the bond to speak to me."

"You are saying no?" she asked, surprise all over her beautiful face.

"Just as you have rejected me tonight."

"It is not that I won't," she said at a whisper.

A derisive snort came out before I could stop it. "You don't want me to feel rejected, yet you rejected me tonight and you continue to reject me by not using it."

She leaned back and gave a defeated sigh. "I thought you understood that Dra Skor would always need me."

"Yes, I am well aware," I snapped. "But you are also supposed to be mine in the nights. You are so busy running from what is ours that I do not even have that, do I? You won't fully accept our bond. Dammit, how else is that supposed to make me feel here, Es? We are soul bound. I have found my soulmate , and she is rejecting it, rejecting me."

She flinched as the words found home. She turned toward the stars and took a few steps before shifting.

"Esta," I snapped. "Where are you going now?" I knew how tired she was. And yeah, I had been angry, but I had also been honest with her.

I do not wish to hurt you, she told me in her dragon form just before taking off into the night sky. I'm heading to my lair.

Great. Now she was flying off to The Drak while Morana was still lurking somewhere.