Chapter 43

CHAPTER 43

" E sta."

Her remarkably green eyes looked up to mine from where I played the piano. From the moment we learned of her uncle's death until now, all I had felt down the bond was her guilt and nerves. The funeral was this morning. She was wearing a black gown, ready to go physically. But emotionally, I felt how uneasy she was.

"You did not kill the man," I reminded her for what had to be the fourth time since we learned of Lennix Mallick's passing.

She let out a long sigh. "I know I didn't, but it looks as if I did. It's not a good look that he was still being held for suspicion of his part in this mess when he passed."

"I am not even from Dra Skor and even I knew that he was not well."

A generous pause. "But the knowledge of his daughter being responsible for this, did it send him over the edge?"

I left the piano and moved to crouch in front of her, looking her in the eyes as I said, "Even if it did, that was Morana's doing, not yours. No one forced her to do this. "

Then she said the thing we were all thinking of, the thing which had led to a long war room meeting late last night. "And if Morana shows up today?"

"She will be dealt with," I promised.

She let out a long sigh. "I still feel partially responsible."

"His heart gave out." I took her hand in both of mine. "You did not do this, Esta. The fact that the man is being given a traditional Dra Skor funeral is more than he deserves." I paused, making sure she was listening. "You did not start this rift between your family and your uncle's. You merely inherited it."

"I wasn't always the best cousin though," she bit out.

"No," I snapped. I knew exactly what she meant. There were far too many times I felt I wasn't a good enough brother. A good enough son. A good enough friend. "You were being molded and shaped for the crown. Also, if we are being honest, manipulated." I cocked my head at her. "And I will thank whatever god remains that the process didn't break you."

Her eyes got that watery sheen to them I hated. Because there was nothing more tragic than seeing Esta cry. "I feel broken today," she whispered.

I moved to kiss her on the cheek. "Then merely tell me where to glue. I will help you. Whatever it is you need." I lifted her, taking the spot in the chair and keeping her on my lap. "What can I do?"

"More of this," she answered honestly. "I am exhausted, Keir."

I knew it wasn't just sleep. She was tired of the war within Dra Skor stemming from the war within her family. And I knew all too well what a burden like that was to carry. "Es, you have nothing to feel this guilt over, though. You did not do this. This was not started by your hands, it will only end by them."

She was quiet a moment. "Do you ever feel guilt for having to kill your own father?"

I inhaled deeply. "No. I knew it needed to be done. And that was before I fully understood what he'd done in his quest to conquer and be the most powerful Enchanted in the realm." I let out that breath. "The power and greed consumed him. I'd like to think the father of my childhood would have even understood what we did. The threat we had to remove."

I ran my hand down Esta's long, curled hair. "That does not mean it was easy. I knew it needed to be done. But there are days I still mourn. Not necessarily for the man he was in the end, but for the man he could have been had he made some different choices."

She tucked her head into my collarbone and neck. "You are a good man."

"Who is married to the strongest of women," I offered honestly. "I know today you will not feel it, but I am here, right here with you every step of the way."

The long line to speak to the loved ones was becoming shorter. Nana stood off to the side. Apparently when she went to stand with Lennix's wife, Morana's younger brother, Oziel, had told her she was not welcome in the receiving line.

I was fairly certain it broke the old woman's heart.

Esta stood with her parents and Jagen a short distance from Nana, while Emric, Dex, John, and I stood behind them. I had unfortunately been to a few Dra Skor funerals at this point and found this one held a sharpness in the air. Though people were giving their condolences, it wasn't really a secret at this point what Morana had done to Dra Skor. Sending off the traitor of Dra Skor's father came with the aftertaste of regret. It was hard for the people of Dra Skor to look upon Lennix Mallick's family with respect.

Reyald and Lennix had let their differences fester. In never coming to terms with their own issues, they had passed it on to their children. Either knowingly or unknowingly .

Keir, can you please go stand with Nana, Esta sent me down our bond. She shouldn't be alone, and I don't want to start something by standing right next to her.

Of course.

I quickly told John where I was going and only Dex shadowed me as I moved to Nana Mallick's side.

"Just me," I told her as she spun to see who approached. "Should the cane feel twitchy again."

Her lips smirked. "Afraid the twitch is all gone today."

I put a hand to her arm. "Isolde, I am sorry you are not in that receiving line. And I am sorry for your loss."

She patted my hand on her arm. "Thank you." She paused as she looked to Lennix's body lying on the pyre. "It is not supposed to be this way."

"Your sons' differences are not your fault," I reminded her.

She cocked her head. "No, but I am somewhat at fault. For not nipping things in the bud quicker. For allowing them to become estranged to begin with. I did the best I knew how, I thought that giving them each space was needed, but it was still not enough. And that is the worst sort of guilt."

I considered that for a moment. "Sibling rivalry over a crown is not a new sort of friction," I told her gently. "It happens often."

"So often it makes me wonder in my old age if the Agrians don't have it right after all."

"Because the king and queen choose the next king and queen out of the pool of heirs, disregarding birth order?"

She gave me a nod and leaned in as she said, "Esta still would have been queen, in that regard. I fought for her to rule regardless of her gender. I just always feared with Lennix and Reyald that one would kill the other over the crown. It should never come to that, yet it has trickled down a generation and here we still are. Maybe it should have gone to Amaya instead."

She had originally said it would still be Reyald. But after this mess, maybe she was reconsidering that. "Yet Esta is queen now. For this exact moment in time. For this unrest. And she is the queen Dra Skor needs."

Nana gave me a small smile. "You are right, of course. Forgive my melancholy mood. I'm just frustrated by what became of my sons. The jealousy and greed when both were loved, both were given far more than most."

I turned to look at her. "Speaking from someone who has had to bury a family member recently, can I just say that it is okay to cling to the good memories and let go of the bad? There had to have been good memories of Lennix. You are allowed to cling to those in your grief. You are allowed to grieve both the son you had and the decisions you wish he could have made but did not. You are allowed to feel relief that maybe in death he found the peace he never held in life."

A tear slipped out of Nana's eye and rolled down her cheek.

I didn't know what to do. I'd rather her beat me with her cane than stand witness to this. These Mallick women were terrifyingly strong willed and stubborn. To see them break down? It was unnatural.

She leaned in to pat my cheek. "I knew Esta would marry you from the first time I met you."

I grinned. "Was it the dashing good looks?"

She cocked her head. "Those didn't hurt anything."

I laughed.

Her eyes went back to her family, back to that pyre. "It was the way in which you see things. The way in which you see her ."

I swallowed hard and looked to the receiving line to see there were only a few people left. "Would you like to go say goodbye? I can walk with you down there."

"No," she said with a slight shake to her head. "I said my goodbyes at dawn this morning. I knew it might be my only chance."

As the final people moved through the line, the rest of us gathered around. I noted there were considerably less shifters present than there had been for Samori and Savanna's funerals. I didn't know if that was an intentional slight, but even Serkan's funeral held more shifters than Lennix's.

All that was left was for Esta to say the final send off, and then the stomping would begin. She would light the pyre and that would be the end.

But she wasn't allowed to say a word.

Morana's brother Oziel moved past his mother's arms trying to stop him, and stomped our way, heading for Esta. He looked to be in his early twenties, and you could see the family resemblance between him and Jagen. Both were broad shouldered and had the Mallick brown eyes that Esta missed out on.

"No!" he yelled. "She does not get to send him off. Anyone but her!"

I didn't at all like the way he was speaking about my wife.

Spittle was spewing from his mouth, his face red as he again yelled, "She did this. She doesn't get to hide behind her crown and then send him off like he meant anything to her!"

I had only made one step forward when Nana's cane smacked Oziel in the chest. "You do not get to blame her for your father's death when we all know how sick he was. If you would like to blame something, blame the crown itself. Blame what ate away at his heart, his jealousy."

" She broke his heart," Oziel Mallick screamed at Nana.

"And he broke mine," Nana said coolly, "by letting his greed for the crown pass to your sister."

I thought for a moment Nana was reaching him, helping him through this outburst. But when he leaned back only to come back close to Nana and spit in her face, "You're all at fault then," I knew we had a problem on our hands.

And when he reached out with two arms to shove Nana Mallick, I saw red .

Nana gasped out in pain as she hit the hard ground, Oziel already on the move toward Esta.

He could be angry, but shoving an old woman? One which was the former queen of Dra Skor?

He took three large steps toward Esta, but I was already there, stopping him.

"I have no issue with you, Wylan prince," he snapped.

He was only afraid of my magic, which was already at work, stopping his feet where he stood. And he also knew even in his rage that he needed me to heal him. "See that's where you're wrong," I offered calmly. "You approach my wife, your queen , like that, and you very much do have an issue with me."

He stopped his progress as he fought against my magic now encasing his feet. It was no use though. He wasn't the only one who was angry.

"This can go one of two ways," I told him. "I do not think for a moment that an entire bloodline has to die in order for peace in Dra Skor to be found. But I also will not allow a threat to Dra Skor, a threat to Esta, to retreat only to strengthen and build again."

I felt a shadow at my back and turned my head to look over my shoulder. I found Zaire and Malachi flanking me.

"It's your call," I told Oziel as I turned back to him. "But you have to let this rift between your families die today. Like it should have."

To give Reyald Mallick credit, he came forward from Esta's side and added, "This was your father's and my feud. It was never meant for you kids. None of this was Esta's doing. Blame me if you'd like, but she had nothing to do with it."

"It's your decision," I repeated to Oziel. "I am going to drop my magic now, and you get to decide how this ends."

He inhaled deeply .

I dropped it all, mentally begging Oziel to make the right decision here.

"Let it go," Lennix's wife Vashti begged from where she checked on Nana, tears streaming down her face. "Please. One funeral is enough for today."

"But it won't be one," he snapped as he spun to face her. "Morana will be on a pyre soon too!" He pointed in the direction of his father's pyre. His father's pyre which should already be floating away by now had he been able to contain his grief and anger.

"They made their decisions, now we have to make ours," his mother pleaded.

I knew the moment he clenched his jaw and looked back at Esta that this would never be over for him. Morana's death would send him spiraling into loathing, blame easier to deal with than a true look at his family member's actions, than having to come to terms with the version of your loved one you had versus the one you hoped them to be.

As Oziel lunged for me, I found I wasn't all that surprised. It didn't have to end this way, but if it had to, so be it. I would not let him near Esta.

Esta, I begged, feeling her anguish. And I knew she felt my determination and intent in return. Go. You don't need to see this.

The pyre needs lit.

I'll get Jagen to do it.

She shifted as my fist landed on Oziel's jaw.

"No!" Vashti wailed.

I'd thrown my entire weight into it, so he went to the ground with the force of my hit. "Stay down and this can still end with you breathing," I warned him, looking up to make sure Esta was flying away.

He launched himself at me in my pause, tackling me to the ground. I could have stopped him in his tracks, at the very least slowed him down, but I wanted it clear to everyone present, human and shifter alike, that we had tried to avoid this. Had given him every opportunity otherwise.

I heard a growl and thought for one panicked moment Esta had returned, before I saw that the dragon was much larger. Zaire.

He'd shifted and now wasted no time using his talons to throw Oziel off me.

Again, it all could have been over. Oziel was bleeding out of one side of his nose from landing face down in the ground, but it could've ended there.

He let out a yell which sounded like it split his very soul in two and took off for me again.

He never touched me. Zaire moved in, crunched Oziel to the ground, and shoved his talons through Oziel's back delivering a rather swift and brutal death.

One minute Oziel was fighting us, the next he was simply no more. A threat removed.

Zaire let out a roar which hit the air with deadly precision. A warning should anyone else make a move.

"Jagen," I called. "Light the pyre and let's end this."

Zaire flew above Lennix's pyre and dropped his son's body onto it also, one of Oziel's legs dangling off the side.

No one moved to fix it. No one breathed a word. The brutality of this funeral too much for all of us to yet process.

Jagen stepped forward and said loudly, "I mourn that it had to end this way." He shifted and took to the skies, lighting the pyre in a powerful exhale, finally sending it on its way.

With one extra body on board.

It's over, I told Esta. Oziel is dead. I'm sorry it had to come to this.

I could feel her rage and remorse. I'm going to patrol for a bit, then head to my lair.

Stay safe, sweetheart.

Vashti was wailing on the ground, the only sound to be heard among the group of us. The day had been hard enough for her before she'd had to also bear witness to her son's self-inflicted demise.

Nana Mallick hadn't stood yet but had her arms around her daughter-in-law. She said above her daughter-in-law's sobbing, "May they find the peace in death that they couldn't hold in life."

She gave a nod of thanks to me, and that was that. There was no stomping, no proper send off. What had started out as a funeral out of respect had ended in bloodshed. One disaster of a family affair turned one funeral into two.

I turned and gave Zaire a nod. "Thank you."

He dipped his dragon head to me.

I found Malachi next. "Esta is heading to her lair after flying a patrol," I told him. "Can you follow her?"

He gave me a nod. "I'll give her space but follow."

I spun on my heel and said to Reyald, "Fetch me a healer, please."

"Are you not well?" he asked as he scanned me over.

I wanted to answer sarcastically but held my tongue. "For your mother," I bit out.

Esta's mother Nyra moved immediately to do as I had asked, while I stooped down to pick up Nana carefully.

"I'm fine," she bit out.

"No, you're not," I argued. She would have already been standing had she been able. That was just the type of woman Isolde was.

I made it four steps before Amaya found us. "Mother!" she gasped. "Mother, are you all right?"

She let out a shaky breath. "I buried two of my own today. Of course, I'm not all right, dear."

Amaya looked at me and in the direction of the smoke. She looked exhausted. Like she hadn't slept at all since her own son's pyre had been lit. Her voice was low as she said, "We only need Morana added to that pyre and all of this is over."

To think of all that had happened which had turned the mediator between the brothers into someone hoping for blood? It spoke to how deep this treachery in the Mallick family ran.

I looked her in the eyes as I added, "But none of it will be forgotten."

She gave me a nod and followed as I headed for the castle with Nana Mallick.

As we neared Zaccai's team of healed shifters, they put their arms over their chests and beat twice. The Dra Skor sign for respect. I wasn't certain if it was for me or for Isolde.

It took the healer a minute to get a chair for Nana, and then she wheeled her off with a promise to let me know how it went, if anything had been broken when Oziel shoved Nana.

Exhausted, I headed to my room. I would check to see if Esta wanted me to come to The Drak or if I should stay and wait to hear about Nana.

"What should we do about Lennix's wife?" Amory asked, walking with me as we entered my room.

"She can't go free," Zaire stated. He'd been shadowing me since he'd taken care of Oziel.

I wanted a long bath and a whiskey. "I'm more worried about her hurting herself than I am of her hurting anyone else. She tried to talk Oziel down."

He gave me a nod. "I can have Whit select a few shifters to watch over her? He's good about these types of things."

"That'll work."

But before he could leave to do so, my door was wrenched open.

There stood Avril, tears streaming down her face.

"Avril?" Dex asked, moving toward her.

"If it's about Oziel," I told her. "It's already done. "

"No," she gasped, the tears seeming to only increase. "No."

The blood drained from my face as I waited for the inevitable. Amory moved forward and gripped my wrist, the only thing I felt over the pounding of my heart.

Avril swallowed and was able to inhale enough to tell us, "It's Morana."

"Where?" Zaire demanded.

"I had another vision. She's in Esta's lair."