Chapter 42

CHAPTER 42

I rode Nyx to Agria. Leaving this morning with the patrols out looking for Morana and the hostages had been physically painful for me. But Avril still thought it necessary.

Nyx, Zaire, Zaccai, Dex, Emric and John were with me. We had the treaty from Dra Skor in hand, Krew had sent word they would send theirs to Agria soon, for my next trip to attempt healing an Agrian Enchanted.

While I was busy healing Dra Skor, Krew and Owen had used the blueprint of what I had done in Dra Skor to help unlock Brakken's power. They now had ten of Brakken's Enchanted healed.

So off to Agria we went. Yes, they were the last to attempt to heal, but it wasn't like they were too far behind. Well, other than Wylan and Corsha which had never been poisoned to begin with. But I would do my best to not draw too much attention to that little fact. At least it hadn't been Wylan alone, despite my father's best attempts.

The farther north we headed toward Agria, the more the weather heated up, not just from the heat of the sun, but also in humidity. Fortunately, we flew mostly in Dra Skor, only the last few minutes of our trip would we cross over the river separating Dra Skor from Agria and be in enemy territory.

The last time I had been in enemy territory, I had irked a dragon and ended up in her talons. I hoped this time I was off to a little less of a tumultuous start.

Our spy had sent word that he, one royal family member, and one other Agrian Enchanted would meet us at the border. They were open to me attempting to heal the two who needed it. Zaire was going to fly a perimeter check and also just let his presence be known when we arrived. If more than six people showed up, assuming they'd bring a few guards, we could fly back across the border and be in Dra Skor within minutes. Yet because of the tensions, I was more nervous for this than I had been coming to Dra Skor.

Be safe today, Esta sent me as we flew low across the riverbed. I love you.

And I love you, my wife.

Nyx snapped me back to our reality before I could say more, I see them.

We flew over some trees, before dropping down into a clearing. Our spy had sent us the location in his letter back to us, but that didn't matter as much to the dragons who could clearly see it from above. We only needed general directions for the winged shifters.

Sure enough, three people were standing under the shade of some trees awaiting our arrival. The spy we had caught in Dra Skor months ago, one woman, and one man.

Zaire dropped Dex off and took to the skies, running a perimeter check low along the trees. The trees slammed in next to one another so thick, I wasn't certain he would see much. Even the hills were covered in trees. It was a good thing we had palm magic in addition to the shifters for this venture.

"Good afternoon," John called as Zaccai landed .

The spy stepped forward.

"Lorenzo," I greeted. "Thank you for responding to my letter."

"Thank you for trying to help us, despite my hiding among you for so long."

I smirked. "You had to bring that up, didn't you?"

"I did," he laughed.

He gestured with a hand toward the other two. "This is Princess Kessara and General Reyes."

My eyes darted to the trees around us as I dipped my head in respect. Surely there were more guards waiting. To protect the princess? Where were they?

"It's just us," Lorenzo responded. "We do not wish to get hopes high until we know what is possible. Very few people other than us know."

I gave my head a shake, not sure if I truly believed that. "Apologies, I only assumed you'd bring guards."

"I can defend myself," Princess Kessara said coolly.

There was something about her appearance which reminded me of someone. Then again, a strong woman not wanting there to be doubt she could defend herself? Maybe it was her royal countenance which reminded me of Esta. "I meant no disrespect. My wife can also defend herself and rarely needs my help."

"So the Wylan prince and the queen of Dra Skor wed." Her lips twitched. "Good of you to admit that though."

"Not publicly yet, but privately, yes," I explained. "We are too busy hunting down the queen's cousin."

"Ahh, yes. The Mallick traitor," Kessara agreed. "We thank you for your time. And will keep our eyes peeled for any sign of her."

She was lovely, dark hair and blue eyes. Whether she could defend herself or not, why was she the royal they put up for sacrifice? "I only assumed based on your royal title, there would be more guards. I meant no insult."

Reyes moved to step forward as if he was exactly that, but before he could finish, Kessara said, "Yes, well I am not immediately in line to take the throne. I am dispensable as far as the royal line goes, but valuable enough that should I be healed, it will send a message to the rest of Agria."

"Apologies you have to be the lamb, Your Grace," John offered kindly.

"I can assure you, I am no lamb," Kessara said, flashing me a smile.

I reached into my jacket pocket. "I have the treaty from Dra Skor. Who do I give it to? To make sure it lands in the hands of the king and queen of Agria?"

"I will take it," Kessara said. "And personally deliver it for you."

She didn't flinch as I approached, but I was sure to stand far enough away that I didn't intimidate her with my height.

She tucked the scroll of parchment into a bag she had slung over her shoulder. Could I truly trust her to deliver that to the king and queen? I wasn't certain. It was a good thing Esta had requested more than one copy.

The princess looked at me directly in the eyes, not afraid of eye contact. "Lorenzo obviously does not need to be healed today as he was in Wylan when the poison happened. What do you need from me and Reyes?"

I tried not to wince when she brought up the fact that Agria had spies in Wylan. I didn't like remembering how my country had been holding spies from the other countries, but we'd also more than deserved it with our actions.

"It may take a water source." I briefly explained what I had done in Dra Skor, beginning with the sanctuaries. Including that if we were able to heal them, it may exhaust them. "So whatever your Enchantment is closely tied to. Do you have any blackened water sources?"

She gave me a nod. "We have two lakes. The streams at one point were black as well, but eventually cleared out on their own. "

So only the lakes then. Just as we suspected.

She continued, "But we do not use them as sanctuaries like Dra Skor. They are simply there. For Enchanted and regular civilians alike."

John asked, "Is there something you do value like that? Something which is tied to your Enchantment."

"Of course," she responded. "The shadows. Darkness. So the entire jungle."

John turned to me. "The lakes will need to be healed. It may not work to try to heal her without the lakes being healed first. Just as in Dra Skor."

"Try it first without," Lorenzo encouraged. "We would need approval to go to the lakes." A pause. "And showing the king and queen that healing is possible would make that easier."

But what if we needed those lakes to do it? Just as we had in Dra Skor? I looked all around me. The three of them hadn't been standing under the shadow of the trees only to get away from the sun, it was because they drew their power from the shadows. Granted right now only Lorenzo could use his Enchantment, but the other two likely still felt safest in the shadows.

I flashed back to the day we had cornered and chased Lorenzo down. How inky and fast the shadow magic could be.

"Should we head to an area with more shadows?" I asked.

"Keir," Dex snapped.

I shrugged. "They might need to be near them. Draw them in as I heal them."

"Is going in the dark with an enemy—" Emric looked to Kessara with a hand up, "no offense intended, really the best idea?"

"He will be safe so long as we are," Reyes stated matter-of-fact.

I took in his body language. He was tense, but not so much so it promised violence. I looked him in the eyes as I said, "I will have to send my magic at you. To cover you and pull the poison from you. It will not hurt, more of a buzzing feel, but I do not mean to harm you."

"Me first then," Kessara said without delay.

"Prin—"

The princess glared at the other man. "I will go first."

They seemed to communicate with a look and the general gave her a nod of concession.

"You should be able to speak to Lorenzo and General Reyes while I work to find the poison," I explained. "So they know you are fine when it may appear otherwise."

"Come then," Princess Kessara said without delay. "Let us find more shadows." A pause. "I hope you aren't afraid of the dark, Prince Keiran."

I wasn't afraid of the dark. Not truly. But the sounds of the jungle, a rustle here and a rustle there from a source unknown, paired with the dark and damp forest all around me, enough of it that it felt the jungle could swallow me whole... well, I was man enough to admit that it was a bit unnerving. Unable to help it, my wings released as I stood ready on the forest floor. And to counteract the darkness in the middle of the day, I let my magic burn beneath my veins, as did Emric and Dex.

There were so many trees. So many damn trees that were blocking out the sun entirely. How did anything grow in here? It felt like we had gone forward in time to the dead of the night, not just gone deeper into the forest. The moss growing along the bottoms of the trees and other random places felt unnatural. A freak of nature. If I found out it had teeth and it reached out to bite me, I wouldn't be all that surprised.

I inhaled deeply. It was dark and moss was creepy as hell, but I was here for a purpose .

"If you'd hold out your hand, Your Grace," I began, "I will let you get a feel for what my Enchantment feels like."

Reyes whispered something which Lorenzo shut down immediately. "No. He's nothing like him. Even without knowing, he will not hurt her."

"Without knowing what?" Emric asked boldly. "I don't like secrets. Secrets get people killed."

"This is a secret for another day," Reyes bit out while shooting Lorenzo a glare. "No one needs to be killed today."

"You don't have to sound so disappointed about it," Emric joked.

Reyes, surprisingly, laughed.

"Are you ready?" I asked the princess.

"Yes."

Was she always this overly confident? Or was it a mask she was required to wear? I whispered gently, "Even if you are nervous, I would not hold it against you. I can't say I would like to be covered in shadow magic either."

"I think the longer we stand here thinking about it, the more likely I am to cover you in shadow magic," she responded lightly.

I laughed and sent my magic out to her hand.

She moved her fingers back and forth as she got a feel for it, only inhaling sharply at the first touch.

"Ready for more?" I asked.

She gave Reyes a nod and told me, "Yes. Send it."

As I willed my Enchantment to begin seeking out poison, it reminded me of the shifters stuck in their human forms. As if Kessara's whole body was a shadow that I was fishing the poison from. It took minutes, my magic found her poison to be embedded deeply. There was something different about it in the princess, and I wasn't sure if it was because the lakes weren't healed or for a different reason. Every so often, Kessara would say something to Reyes or one of them would ask if she was okay. She always calmly said she was.

And then when I finally thought I was getting somewhere, I doubled down and sent even more. We needed this to work. A show of good faith that Dra Skor and Wylan both would help Agria heal, not leaving them to their own devices.

I could not even see Kessara from around my magic, but I did will my magic to not weigh on her body, not cement her in. She could still breathe; she just couldn't see anything other than my magic.

"Get ready to use your Enchantment," I told her, feeling like I could finally tug on that mass of poison throughout her. Like little shards of iron which were in every cell of her being.

"I cannot," she told me, "I'm no longer in or near the shadows."

She had a point. How was I to do this if she was lit up from my Enchantment but needed the shadows to use hers?

"I am going to tug on the posion," I told her, knowing I couldn't hold it forever. "When you feel it free and come off part of your body, immediately try to call the shadows. I will try to get your hands free first."

"Got it," she responded back.

I tugged, feeling sweat on my brow. So much of my magic was surrounding her, pulling that poison from her.

With a groan and a hiss, I heaved harder.

Without asking for it, Dex gestured to Nyx, who was still in his dragon form but with his wings tucked in tight to fit among the trees. He shoved at my chest with his dragon snout. The smell of his dragon breath did not help matters but did help me move the poison slightly.

The weight of it was heavy enough to almost pull me to my knees. I let out a yell and pulled again, Nyx pushing at my chest, and I felt it move only a little. Getting it moving was the worst part. Dex released his magic to tug on mine. I wasn't even sure that would work, but all three of us pulled again.

That was when I heard Princess Kessara gasp.

I saw out of my peripheral Reyes step forward, but before he could get to the princess, I saw the inky mass that I knew was shadow magic pulling into her hands, like she could take the shadows and make them her own. An artist of the darkness.

With a final pull, the poison came free, falling to the forest floor. Emric did not delay shooting his red veins of power into it to obliterate it.

In the blink of an eye, Kessara was there one moment, gone the next, covered in her shadow magic. The black mass got thicker, larger, expanding.

She let out a breath which sounded like it'd been lodged in her for years. And it likely had.

The shadows kept moving outward toward us, Nyx spinning his dragon head and huffing out a smoke ring in warning.

"Princess," Lorenzo called. "Dial it back before the dragon gets mad, would you?"

The shadows retreated slightly, then another inch or two, before they went away entirely and there she stood again. She had a heady look to her, but also like she was tired.

Well acquainted to this part, I moved quickly toward her, catching her as she stumbled. Surprisingly, she didn't pass out, but she also didn't shove me off.

"Thank you," she told me.

I got the impression she didn't use those words too often. "I'm just pleased it worked."

She took a small step away from me.

"If you hadn't gone so hard," Lorenzo scolded, "You'd still be fine."

"I hadn't felt my power for nine years," she said defensively.

"Worth it?" he asked .

"Worth it," she agreed.

She moved to a large boulder to sit down a moment.

"My turn?" Reyes asked.

I looked to Emric. "You might need my help. It's a lot like the shifters in their human forms. Highly concentrated throughout."

"Got it," he said, rubbing his hands together.

"I'll help him," Dex said. "You look spent."

I was, but I was feeling a rush of adrenaline from it having worked to begin with.

I'd done it. I had healed an Agrian Enchanted.

Zaire let out a triumphant roar as we raced across the river back to Dra Skor. Emric and I were exhausted, but we had been able to heal both Reyes and the Princess. Two Agrian Enchanted were healed. And neither had passed out by the time we left, just looked as tired as Emric and I likely felt.

It was weird how the poison in each place acted differently to the Enchantment of the country, and I wondered if there had been any catches in Brakken. Since their Enchantment was wrapped up in water, it was safe to assume that standing in the water like we had done in Dra Skor with the sanctuaries had been vital.

"Those lakes will still need to be healed," I said to John as our rides slowed down.

"That is a worry for another day," he told me. "You are allowed to celebrate this win, Keir."

There was only one person I wanted to celebrate with.

As the castle finally came into view, Zaire again let out a roar, which was answered with a slew of roars back to us.

The dragons and Zaccai landed at exactly the same moment. I was going to have to work on my landings with my own wings if I was going to have to land in tandem with other shifters. And not trip.

The exact moment their paws and talons hit the ground, the stomping started up. Malachi's team was there and countless other shifters.

"It was just two Enchanted," I said quietly to John.

It was a victory for the entire realm, Zaire argued as the stomping got louder.

Your victory is our victory, Prince, Zaccai added.

As the stomping became unbearable, I looked to the dragon queen, my wife, already in her dragon form.

Do the honors? she asked me down our bond. I'll handle the roar, you take to the sky.

I shot into the air, wings out wide as she did just that.

As congratulations and hugs were doled out, Esta said from her human form. "Let's eat."

We were in a dining room I had never been in before. Three huge tables ate up the entire large space, all full of shifters and teams eating a meal.

Esta's green eyes were on mine as she said, You gave them something to celebrate today, Keir. They needed this. We needed this.

I had to admit, Well today would have been a hell of a lot harder without Nyx and Zaire at my back.

Our feast was bread, soup, and roast. Nothing like the extravagant meals my father enjoyed. But the fact that we could all eat together made all the difference. The soup, some sort of squash soup, was amazing.

Zaire launched into the story of the day, and I was more than content to sit back and eat. Fortunately, for this meal I was placed near Esta. These tables were much larger and would have put me across the damn room from her otherwise.

"What was the Agrian Princess like?" someone asked.

Emric was the one to provide, "Not so unlike your queen. Intense."

"Taking that as a compliment," Esta muttered.

"As I meant for it to be," Emric responded with a smooth grin.

I rolled my eyes. He was becoming too good at this delegate business.

As the roast was brought out, I sent Esta, Think if we leave together before dessert for a hot bath, it would be awkward?

They would assume the reason, but do you really care?

A clunking noise was heard, and Esta's eyes moved to the wide doorway. She only had to wait seconds for Nana Mallick to arrive. Rather than looking like she was there to join in the party, she looked pale. Shaken.

Esta took one look at her, and I felt her worry which mirrored my own.

"What?" Esta asked as she moved for her. "What is wrong?"

She waited until Esta was in arm's reach to say, "It is Lennix."

I wasn't entirely convinced Nana wasn't going to pass out, so I too, joined them.

"What happened, Nana?" Esta asked gently, no longer the queen of Dra Skor but simply a granddaughter.

"He is dead."