Chapter 41

CHAPTER 41

A week later, I found myself on another bait and switch with Esta. This time we were taking most of the Wylan team with us, though they were supposed to be resting, because a full team had to stay behind to watch the castle.

We still had no sign of Morana. Not a whisper on the breeze. Not a whisper of Avril's visions.

Avril was with us, though she had been isolating herself right up until our trip, trying to focus on any vision that came to her. None came to her since that day in the war room.

We visited Zatva, which was closest to The Aaruk. Zatva was not only the southernmost city in Dra Skor, but also the entire realm. The last stop before an endless expanse of sea, which stopped only when the sea turned hard to ice in the farthest reaches of the realm.

We ate the most amazing snapper, caught fresh from Dra Skor's southern most border. Though it was six hours south of Halikaara Keep, the weather was still milder today than it had been when we stopped at Keld .

The people of Zatva were kind and excited to see us. We had advertised we were going to Rael, not Zatva, again trying to lure Morana out. And since the farmers of Rael had been so ready to take up arms for Esta, she had warned them to be on the lookout for anything suspicious.

As we ended our long day of meeting different merchants and people, shifter and human alike, we took in the waves rolling at the shore. The sea was so blue here it was striking. Hard to look away. And unlike in Keld where there were various areas of rock and cliffs intermixed with the sandy shore, Zatva had only soft, sandy beaches.

It reminded me of the beach in Wylan I had spent so much time sitting on.

"Are you ready to head home?" Esta asked as she walked up to me, tucking her arm through mine. "We have to meet with Amory when we return."

And it would take us hours to return. I wasn't looking forward to the ache of traveling that far. "Five more minutes?"

She gave me a smirk and a nod.

After the crazy of the last few days, I just needed to breathe deep and take in the salty air. I needed to be reminded that though the realm was crawling with evil intentions and the divisive cruelty of one woman who had caused Dra Skor so much pain, there was still something good left. The waves would still roll. The sunsets would still paint the sky. Beauty was still to be found.

Zatva had almost twenty healed shifters already. Along with a dozen solar powered lamps which we delivered with us. Dra Skor was healing. It wasn't as fast as any of us liked, but one day at a time, we were getting there. In a year, I wondered if we would have all the shifters healed. In two years, would Dra Skor have solar powered electricity throughout?

Would we ever find Morana? Or would she disappear until all that remained of her was a whispered warning, the legend of the jealous cousin.

I wanted to believe that after everything I had gone through in Wylan, justice could still be found. That we would find her. But I also knew that life didn't always tie up nicely. And even when it did, there were still plenty of hurts to have to dig through and learn from. Scars to learn to carry and not hide.

I was not dense enough to think that just because we found Morana, that alone would deliver peace to the realm. It was something we would have to keep fighting for, keep choosing, day after day. That was why in a few days I would head to Agria, even with everything else going on.

Life was fluid, ebbing us between the highs and lows no matter what threat came from the darkness, no matter who the current villain was.

But dammit if I didn't want to kill this one too.

Esta and I finally had a future. I finally had a home in Dra Skor. Winning over her people was proving much easier as the person credited with healing her shifters. The people loved the story of the prince who healed and fell in love with their dragon queen. I wasn't delusional, I would still have my doubters, but only one lingering threat stood in our way. One person who would try to take my soul mate from me. One person who let the feeling of jealousy infect them until they became its living, breathing form.

And like in the case of my own father, I had learned the hard way that certain instances called for no second chances. No redemptions. No logic. No matter how hard you wanted otherwise, sometimes death was the only way to release someone from the poison of themselves.

Death should never be the first answer, but it would always be the last.

"I should've had Kian meet us here with my board," I offered a few moments later, grasping for less violent thoughts. "It's warmer today."

"The water temperature here is colder," Dex commented.

"We do not enjoy your pain," Emric told me. "We only momentarily savor it."

"Is there a difference?"

"It's temporary," he argued. "Unless I think of it again later. In which I re-savor it." A pause. "Okay, yeah. Not much of a difference."

We headed back to the castle, another trip made and no sightings of Morana. But maybe Whit's team in Rael had gotten lucky.

For part of the way home, Esta allowed me to stretch my wings and fly with her. It was the only thing which made the long flight bearable. By the time we arrived, I was ready for bed, not another pointless war room meeting. One in which we were close to figuring out Morana, but not quite.

Then again, she had once sat in on such meetings, using our own strategies against us. Now we had her on the run. Hiding.

We walked in the war room, Esta's hand again tucked into the crook of my arm. Everyone else had already arrived, other than Whit's team still in Rael, but they were not getting home tonight anyway.

What was most peculiar to this meeting was a throne chair, similar in appearance to Esta's had been moved to sit at the opposite end of the table.

Nana Mallick thumped the chair with her cane. "Got it out of storage."

What was the old bird even doing still awake at this hour?

Esta's steps stilled, and her voice cracked as she asked, "Was that yours?"

Isolde flashed me a smile. "It was."

"You didn't let my mother use it?" Esta asked, eyes still on the chair .

"She preferred not to," Nana said with a shrug before she turned to me. "This is the consort throne chair. One I sat in for years." She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. "By tradition, we keep it on the other end of the table. Doubly as handy in this instance since soul bound couples can have difficulty focusing."

"Nana!" Esta exclaimed as laughter rippled across the room.

Nana looked to me over the top of her glasses. "Believe me, I know. Lots of meetings, not enough time for the more enjoyable things of life."

"Nana!" Esta repeated as I laughed.

I looked first to the advisors and then the chair. It was not feminine looking in the least. It was black and jagged, much like my crown. Likely the reason Esta's mother hadn't wanted to use it. I looked to Nana, "Do you think this is wise? I would be honored to sit where you have, but is it wise?"

Nana didn't hesitate. "I think it is needed. A reminder of the rank you held long before you ever wed Esta."

I looked to Esta's brother, who had been taking that spot at the table up until now. "Jagen?"

He gestured with his head. "It's yours. High time we try to separate the two of you in here."

I felt my lips pull into a smirk. "I feel that I have behaved rather well in this room, thank you very much."

"I wouldn't go that far," Esta joked as she took her chair across from me. "Now shall we get this over with? It has been a long day and we are all tired."

Amory didn't hesitate to rattle off, "No sign of Morana in Rael yet. Zatva was more than happy to receive you. Our missing person is still missing in Arava and they are quite jealous they did not actually get to receive the two of you, other than that, nothing much has changed."

"We have to be getting close," Malachi sighed .

"Morana's time is limited," Jagen said, his voice hard. "From the moment she killed Samori, she had to know it."

We were all quiet a moment, the gaping hole which was the loss of Samori bleeding out.

No more pyres, I reminded Esta.

None.

"Gah." Otis sat back in his seat. "Where the hell is she? Where could she have gone?"

Zaire also leaned back in his chair. "She wouldn't be fool enough to try to flee to Agria, would she?"

I hoped not. But we'd keep an eye out for her on our trip in a few days.

"She hates Agria rather passionately," Esta said. "And though she is obviously a good actress, I don't think that much was fake."

"But she does not want the Agrian throne," Nana reminded Esta. "She wants yours ."

It was that moment the door went flying open and Dex and Avril rushed in. Avril had excused herself to her room as soon as we got home, hoping to meditate and wait for another vision.

She was half bent over, hugging herself. Her eyes closed for a moment, working through some vision, so I looked to Dex. "What's wrong?"

"She won't tell me." As if he couldn't help himself, he reached out for her. "Avril."

Her hand snagged his wrist, and she squeezed onto it hard, as if trying to somehow ground herself in the current moment and not whatever she'd seen.

Malachi was standing, as was Jagen. Both ready to take flight after whatever she was about to tell us. Which did not look like good news based on her body language.

"The missing person," Avril finally got out, standing up straight. "There is more than one."

"What?" Zaire snapped .

"And they are not missing." She took a gulp of a breath. "I saw her shoving something and finally got that vision to expand. It wasn't a something. It was a person. I saw at least three. They're not missing, they're with her. They're hostages."