Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

W ith a roar of pain, Esta did exactly that. She shifted into her human form, still falling.

Relief flooded me, knowing that with my magic waiting below her, even if I couldn't grab her in time, I did know there was at least enough of my power waiting for her at the bottom that I would catch her. She was far lighter in this form.

I swooped in and caught her just as she hit my magic barrier, noting that the spear was gone from both forms, but still left a gaping hole in her human form. I reminded myself the shifters healed faster than the non-Enchanted. But that didn't ease my rage in seeing her bleed.

I raced us toward the ground. Zaire next to me.

"Get me a healer on the way right now, " I demanded of him.

The dragon gave me a nod and turned his head in the direction of where Malachi was coming from as he communicated with them.

I love you.

"Do not," I snapped at her, taking her cheek in my hand as we landed. "There will be absolutely no goodbyes. No pyres. "

It wasn't until that moment I realized she had finally used the bond. Was she in too much pain to speak out loud? Had she done it intentionally?

I love you, she repeated. And I'm sorry, Keir.

I wiped a tear off her face with the arm not holding her carefully to my body. "Dammit, why didn't you listen to me, Es?" It was a simple question which applied to both her not using the bond and not listening when I told her to avoid the area she got shot at. Dual purpose.

I didn't want them to get to you before I did. I couldn't—I didn't—I felt nothing but fear. Until the spear.

I moved, gently setting her to the ground to take off my shirt. I tore it into one long strip before tenderly moving Esta to wrap it around her body, applying pressure. By the time I had it set, the bleeding was already slowing.

I'll be fine, she told me down the bond.

No part of this is fine, I responded while I worked.

Malachi landed next to me, the shifters immediately forming a barrier of safety around their queen. I took a deep inhale, already feeling better with their presence. With his presence.

What do you need? he asked.

Esta grabbed my hand. Go. Before they hurt someone else. I'll be right here. Waiting for the healer. Go take care of whatever monster dared to think they could mess with you. With us.

"I can't leave you," I told her out loud, more so for Malachi waiting so he could listen in.

I will stay with her, Malachi told me, determination laced into every word. You and Zaire go help Nyx and Muscles.

If Esta wasn't fatally hurt and Morana was out there... dammit if I didn't want to go help. Nyx and Dex were going to need backup. With both Malachi and Esta urging me to, I also couldn't help but wonder if this was something I had to do. Not just for myself, but also for Dra Skor .

My wings were still out. I didn't want to state the obvious here either. That if Esta had listened to me, if she had trusted our bond, she wouldn't have been shot out of the damn sky. Every bit of this day had all gone to hell.

"Go," she urged, her voice sounding hoarse. "I was shot, I'm not dead."

I kissed her hard despite still being mad as hell at her. Women were complicated, but mine might hold the record. I'll be right back.

She smirked. Give them hell.

I'd rather deliver them personally to the front door . I launched myself into the sky. Seeing the spear on the ground, red with Esta's blood contrasted against the tan grass, I swooped down and grabbed it.

I felt Zaire flying beside me.

As we neared Nyx, he told me, It's Enoch.

"How did he escape his cell in Obsidian?" I bit out, noting a burned area still smoldering.

Morana ran, Nyx called to me as we arrived on scene. I am hunting her down the direction I saw her run. The three of you handle him.

Beneath us, I could see that Dex and Nyx had cornered Enoch between a rocky incline and a wooded area. Enoch in his dragon form was swiping at Dex who was trying to freeze parts of the land dragon with his magic while staying far enough away to avoid his talons.

Enoch picked up a large log and tossed it at Dex like it weighed nothing.

Dex froze the log in the air and sent it back at the land dragon, smacking him in the head with it.

Enoch let out a hiss and stepped toward Dex.

"You," I spit out as my feet landed on the grass.

He let out a roar in my direction, fury radiating off him.

I should've let this prick die the first time he had taunted Esta. Instead, my actions had allowed him to live, allowed him to be healed, all in exchange for information we found out eventually anyway.

Just for him to make more poor decisions.

I sent cords of blue from my fingertips to help Dex, surprised with the ease and strength of it despite being so tired. Then again, I wasn't merely angry, I was boiling with it.

Enoch was done. He'd had a second chance and he'd blown it in the most foolish of ways. I was equally pissed at him and myself. I had assumed with a second chance and being healed he might choose differently. I'd been wrong. I should have known that his disdain for the crown, for Esta, would not go away just because he was healed. Nine years of being bitter couldn't be erased so quickly.

Looking back, I saw how narrow my thinking had been. I had been too hopeful that healing Dra Skor would fix the majority of its problems. But just like in healing the shifters, the poison had to be dealt with first.

This is not on you, Esta sent me down the bond. If anything, all of this is on me.

My annoyance from the day had me snapping , Of all times for you to decide to use our bond, it is this one?

I prowled forward without hesitation despite Enoch's growl of intent in my direction. "I promised you if you ever spoke to Esta like that again, I would take it from your skin. Unfortunately for you, I am a man of my word."

Is if on cue, Zaire swooped from the sky and sunk his talons into Enoch's back.

Enoch let out a roar in pain and swung wildly until he knocked him off.

With Dex and myself, plus Zaire in the sky, Enoch knew he was done for. But instead of surrendering, he kept fighting us.

I sent more of my power out of my fingertips, helping to freeze what I could. I soon learned the same thing Dex had. Enoch was so angry and moving so quickly, it was hard to find and catch him in our magic.

I managed to still his back leg, and immediately began trying to get the other.

Yet with one leg stuck, he began raining and throwing rocks at Dex and me, forcing us to protect ourselves and send it all back rather than encase him in our magic. He knew we needed to focus to fully encase him, and he was doing his best not to allow it.

I briefly felt a pain coming from Esta. The healer must have been doing something to help her which caused her to momentarily hurt. They weren't moving yet though, so I knew she was still right where I left her.

Keir, she gasped out.

Yes? I used my magic to wrap around a heavy rock which I sent rolling at Enoch.

The healer says I might pass out. But I need to say this before I do.

I ducked down as pebbles rained down around me and I was forced to make a shield of protection. It can't wait?

No.

I had asked for this hadn't I?

Esta quickly blurted, I tried to explain this all to you before but did a botch job of it. My Nana cried out, screamed, and roared for days on end after my grandfather passed. I will never forget the sounds of it. She is the strongest person I have ever known, and her bond to him destroyed her. Her love for him destroyed her. Even now she is the shell of who she once was. The greatest and strongest queen of Dra Skor there ever was.

There was a pause in which I wondered if she passed out, as I flew out of the way of an advance from Enoch.

At first I thought if I didn't use this bond in that way, then if I died it wouldn't be that way for you. I don't want to destroy you like he did to her.

I snorted audibly. Like I wouldn't be destroyed every single time she was hurt. Also seemed odd for her to not want to die and hurt me, yet she had panicked and flew right into the enemy's trajectory.

Oh, the irony.

And then once I realized it was inevitable, I was just too scared. It hurt me every time you spoke to me this way and I didn't. If Dra Skor was healthy, that'd be one thing. But with this dark haze hovering over Dra Skor, I don't want to have this...only for it to be taken from us. You are not the one they want gone, it's me.

Dex managed to hit Enoch with one of the two boulders he set at him, knocking him down momentarily.

Esta, I snapped. You have been punishing yourself and me, both of us, for absolutely all the wrong reasons. So tell me you're done with this nonsense.

Her response was immediate. I'm done with this nonsense. But the terror of one of us ending up like Nana is going to continue to haunt me, I'm afraid.

You can't let the fear keep you from living. There was more I could say, should say, but I was watching Zaire swoop down on Enoch.

I'm sorry. Truly. I felt her remorse and guilt both over what she'd done.

We are a team, remember? We'll take on our fears together. I paused as the land dragon and winged dragon rolled, Zaire going for quick attacks before taking back to the sky. You cannot ignore me and go flying into danger any time you feel I am at risk, Esta.

I know.

I inhaled deeply, finding an opening in the attack I needed to use. Now woman, can you kindly shut up? I'm a little busy at the moment. Likely going to murder Enoch in five minutes or less.

I felt her fading anyway. I love you.

And I love you, sweetheart.

Turning my attention back to the fight before us, I noted the predator had become the prey, and his only goal now was to take one of us down with him. Which made Enoch an unpredictable enemy. He would gladly take a blow, if only he could also deliver one.

Distract him, Zaire told me from the sky.

"You should shift and fight us like men," I told Enoch, walking toward him to further get his attention.

He roared in my direction, You are unworthy of wings. Of shifting.

It might have been juvenile, but I saw Zaire closing in from behind Enoch. "Likewise," I shot back.

The short window I held Enoch's attention was all Zaire needed, he closed his jaw around Enoch's neck and they again went rolling on the ground, my hold on Enoch's leg failing under the pressure of their movement.

Without hesitation, I launched myself into the air as Enoch reached out and again dove for Zaire, not wanting him to get back in the air this time. Instead of flying away, Zaire in his dragon form turned and punched Enoch in the face. I had to admit in either form, it was rather effective, but the talons added a bloody flair. And in this particular instance, I found it most agreeable.

Dex gestured toward Enoch with his head while holding his own spear, identical to the one which shot down Esta.

Enoch might be desperate enough to try to take on all of us at once, but it wouldn't last long. With a nod from me, Dex ran into the mass of gnashing teeth and talons and stabbed Enoch in the tail with his spear.

I was already moving by the time Enoch raised his head in a roar, and it was that exact moment I tucked my wings in and dropped underneath him to drive upward with my own spear, the same spear he injured Esta with, and drove it into the land dragon's chest cavity.

He let out an ear-splitting roar of pain as he felt the first call of death .

He was oozing out black dragon blood immediately, and I stepped back, fortunate to get only a spray of it on my still bare abdominal muscles.

And then suddenly Enoch was in his human form before me, the spear still in his chest.

He deserved a slow death for shooting down Esta and working with Morana again. Yet in the end I found I was hasty for it to be over, for the realm to be rid of him. So instead of standing there waiting for him to bleed out and die, I put a boot on his body and pushed the spear farther in. Until it went all the way through and I felt the spear hit the hard ground beneath him. "You were not worth the time it took to heal you," I told him. "May you burn your way home."

As soon as the life left his eyes, we all stood there panting for a few moments. Taking in all that had happened.

Normally, I would give this honor to my queen, Zaire explained as I felt the heat from him increase.

Instinctively, Dex and I backed the hell up.

Zaire roared victoriously and Enoch's body went up in flames. There was no pyre. No fancy funeral. No respect.

He died exactly how he deserved. A cold and quick death, justly served.

I sent my magic out to form a barrier around the fire so it would not spread farther than intended. This section of Dra Skor was dry currently, and I was not about to let Enoch cause any more harm than he already had.

Zaire shifted and I noted he had a gash on his chest. He pounded his fist over his chest twice. "Orders, Prince?"

I felt my eyebrows reach for one another.

"Hunting down Morana with Nyx or back to the queen?"

He was asking me ? For orders? And could we even trust Zaire to hunt down Morana given their history?

I guessed there was only one way to find out .

"Hunt," I told him as I dipped my chin.

Zaire flashed me a grin and shifted back to his dragon form.

"Not without me you don't," Dex told Zaire.

Zaire gestured with his dragon head for Dex to hop on. Within seconds, they flew off in the same direction Nyx had gone.

I flew back to Esta, sensing they were moving her.

I landed, heading right for the healer who had Esta wrapped in a blanket on Malachi's back.

We need to get her back to the castle , Malachi sent me. With Morana still loose.

I nodded my agreement.

If the healer thought I was going to let her hold Esta the entire ride back to Halikaara, they had another thing coming.

The healer's eyes were on my wings, eyes wide.

"I will take her." My tone left no room for arguments.

"Yes, Prince," the healer muttered out.

She gently handed her over. "If she wakes in pain, let me know right away."

"I can feel her pain," I bit out. "She is still in pain but not like before."

"Oh. Of course. Right."

I scooped her into my arms and mounted Malachi, my wings lightly brushing against his.

"Send a team of land shifters to help the hunt for Morana," I told Malachi. "The two winged dragons could use some land assistance."

Consider it done.

Within a minute we were all in motion.

"That was under three minutes," Esta murmured, curling into my bare chest. "Not five."

I quickly moved her blanket as to not get any of the blood on me on her. "What can I say, I am rather efficient."

"Noted." Her eyes fell back closed before she added, I love you .

I love you. Even when I am pissed at you.

Today was my fault.

It was. But we will do the work together to make sure it doesn't happen again. No more shutting me out.

At the same time her hand settled on my oblique, her beautiful green eyes opened to look at me, and I both saw and felt the emotion swirling in them.

Sleep, I commanded her. I'm here. And I've always got you, Es.