Chapter 45

CHAPTER 45

A bead of blood ran down Esta's throat and I absolutely saw red. My rage was palpable, a living breathing entity, a monster which I was going to be happy to unleash upon Morana.

Morana had apparently tied Esta's hands together with a rope when making her shift into her human form. Or Esta had done it herself. It was a minor detail Esta had not told me, likely not wanting me to worry more than I already was.

Morana stood with her back to Esta's treasure, the hostages sitting at her feet in the large cave, a human wall between us and her. The hostages had not only bound hands and feet, but also each had a rope in their mouths too, unable to communicate more than yells and murmurs. I recognized one of the hostages as a farmer we met in Rael.

And as my eyes briefly took in our surroundings, I saw Mina also. The server at the tavern in Keld I liked. One of the first faces I had seen upon arriving in Dra Skor.

Of all the people in Dra Skor, I had to recognize two of them? I didn't want to have recognized a single one of them. I wanted to save my wife. Focus on only her. And yet there they were. Five remaining Dra Skor citizens. My people. Innocent people.

"Let Esta go," I demanded Morana, my voice promising violence. "Do not hurt a hair on her head."

"Anyone makes a move I do not like, and she joins the other," Morana called out. She switched her attention to me and let out a derisive snort. "You and I could have been great together, you know."

"You never wanted Dra Skor to heal, so no, we wouldn't have," I snapped.

She gave a shrug. "Valid point. I liked your father better anyway."

What was she talking about? She didn't know my father. Unless she did. But I had to focus. What could I do to get Esta away from that dagger?

"If you use any of your palm magic, she's dead," Morana promised.

My veins were currently glowing rather brilliantly, so I shoved the urge to use that Enchantment down. I wanted to release my wings and fly at Morana, yank Esta away from her, and get her out of here. Yet I realized that with Esta's hands tied and the dagger at her throat, so much could go wrong. Was I really willing to risk everything on it?

But then I realized we were in The Drak and my biggest bargaining point was still an option. I could offer to heal Morana in exchange for Esta. If she was foolish enough to go through with it, when she passed out, we'd deal with her then.

I'm about to lie, I told Esta as I offered, "Morana, I can heal you. Please let these people go and I will heal you. Right here. Right now."

"I never wanted to be healed, you idiot." She snorted a laugh. "Who do you think it was who gave your father inside information on the sanctuaries? On how to poison us? He had never stepped foot in Dra Skor, knew very little of the true nature of our Enchantment, and yet he conveniently knew where all five sanctuaries were?" She rolled her eyes. "That wasn't him, it was me . Though he was more than happy to take all the credit."

While I felt Esta's anger, Zaire let out a roar which threatened to rip us all in two. As he moved for Morana, Morana pressed in with the dagger, causing another bead of blood to trail down Esta's neck. Zaire stopped in his tracks.

"Shift back like a good boy, Zaire."

He roared once more and did it, now standing in his human form. Damn him for getting riled up, I needed him in his dragon form to be communicating what was going on in here to Nyx. So he and Malachi could form some sort of distraction.

I was stunned with what she had admitted, how far she had gone to take the crown from Esta. Living with my father had taught me not to be shocked by much. Still, this shocked me into a momentary silence.

"You conspired with my father? To poison all of your own people?"

She gave me a shrug. "I did. Met him on my one and only trip to Wylan. He was a fool. I didn't even have to disclose the truth about our Enchantment to him and still he was ambitious enough to do my dirty work for me." A pause. "The one thing he had right was that fear is the way to control others." She laughed again. "I took that idea and adapted it in Dra Skor. And look at you right now. All that power. Yet you stand still out of fear."

"Out of love," I argued.

She gave me a shrug. "They are connected, I suppose. But yes, I dealt with your father. Giving him only enough information to hurt us, but not enough to completely destroy us. He was greedy enough to fall for it. Delivered the poison directly to me."

"You were poisoned too though," I argued.

"I knew I would be," she nodded. "If I hadn't been, it would look too suspicious. If everyone else was struggling but I wasn't. So I was sure to be only in my human form after I dumped the poison."

So she'd given my father what he wanted, a weakened Dra Skor, while giving herself just enough of an advantage over the crown. She was sure she stayed in her human form, and likely schemed to make sure Esta stayed in her dragon one.

"Don't you miss your dragon form? Don't you long to shift?" Zaire asked.

"I have never felt fully comfortable in my scales," she admitted more quietly.

"Why?" Esta bit out. "The shifted forms are never a mistake."

"Then why is your dragon form sleek and powerful while mine is horned and jagged?"

"Because everything isn't a damn competition!" Zaire roared, even from his human form.

She tipped her head down in condescension. "Says the biggest drake. The one who loved being the biggest drake far more than he ever loved a woman."

I had to admit she had a little bit of a point. The way the dragons were revered in Dra Skor could make the appearance of the dragons matter far more than it should. It was specifically a common theme in the dragon shifters. Because that was what the royal bloodline was.

Zaire let out a breath and I swore I could see smoke rolling off him as he fought off shifting back. "I loved her. Just not you ," he spit. "You wanted to spend all your time nitpicking and finding the wrong in everything, offering no solutions for any of it, while somehow still managing to believe you know everything."

"Let's be honest," Morana said flippantly. "Not all aspects of being the biggest drake transferred over to your human form though, did they?"

"She's baiting you," I warned him. "She wants you to attack so you feel that it's your fault she kills Esta. Not hers. "

"Oh, but everything is my fault, isn't it?" she asked me.

Esta bit out, "You did just admit to giving the king of Wylan information on our sanctuaries." She continued even as Morana tightened her grip on the dagger. " You poisoned us."

"How about how I was treated growing up? Ever consider that? How the Lennix Mallick children differed in treatment to the Reyald Mallick ones?"

I wasn't about to let her pin a speck of blame onto Esta. Not when Morana's betrayal ran this deep. "You think it was easy for Esta to be molded and manipulated from the minute she was born because she was the heir? You saw her treatment as superior, yet you leave out one very important aspect." I paused, making sure she was listening. "You forget how hard she had to work to become queen. You wanted the crown all right, you let your father's jealousy pass onto your shoulders. You never considered all she had to do in order to become the queen she is today. How she was dumped at ten years old and forced to find her way back to the castle. You do not take into consideration all she has done."

" I have worked just as hard for the crown," she said defensively, almost yelling.

"No," I argued, "you have worked just as hard to destroy Dra Skor. There is a big difference between the two."

"Esta made you a general," Zaire bit out.

"Out of pity!" she yelled.

I said far more calmly than I felt, "Whatever it was out of, you are still the one who chose to poison and weaken your entire country so you could make a selfish move for the crown."

"Worked though, didn't it?" she sneered.

I snapped, "What about the man you used to blackmail Mikael? The man you had steal a child ? There couldn't have been a more dishonorable way to make a move for the crown than all you have done."

She snorted a laugh. "Rux? Well. Death does keep secrets best. "

I should've known from the moment Morana admitted to working with my father exactly what was going on here. Morana, much like Enoch, had to know there was no way out. Which was why she was willingly telling us her greatest secrets. She wanted us to know what she'd done. Her only goal now was to destroy as much as she could on her way out. She had to know it was over, she had to know that there was no escape. And that knowledge multiplied my concern for Esta a hundredfold. I had to get her away from Morana. There was only one way I saw a way out of this. One way which didn't result in Esta or more hostages dying.

I wasn't even certain it would work, but I would give my last breath to try it. Avril had said to trust my instincts after all.

"Take me instead," I blurted out, changing tactics.

Keir, Esta snapped.

I ignored her momentarily. "You want to hurt Esta? You want to give her a taste of the pain you have had to live with? Then it is me you hold at knifepoint."

She stilled and I could see her thinking about it a moment.

"I won't do it," Esta bit out.

I have a plan, I told her down the bond. Hopefully her want to hurt us outweighs rational thinking right now.

"Walk closer, slowly," Morana demanded. Esta's adamant refusal seeming to sway her.

"You will trade me for her?" I asked.

"For now."

"I refuse!" Esta exclaimed even as another bead of blood trailed down her neck. "No."

I took careful steps forward, and with every footstep across the damp floor, I readied my magic, letting it build but willing it to remain unseen. "You know the thing that I just don't understand in all of this, though?"

"What?" Morana snapped .

"Why you murdered Samori and Savanna. They were not main players in this game. They were not even in the damn game."

She let out a sigh. "I did not enjoy killing them. He found out I was up to something and threatened to take it to Esta." She swallowed hard. "He tried to blackmail me into backing down. It had to be done."

"At least have the guts to say Samori's name when you discuss killing him," Esta hissed.

"So who killed your shifter friend?" I asked, taking two more steps forward. "The one who was impaled?"

She gave a shrug. "He did. Not sure if he even meant to." She let out a derisive snort. "All these years and no one even noticed what I was up to. And of all the people to figure me out, it had to be a kid, had to be Samori. Young and vibrant Samori. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Saw an exchange of information which made me complicit."

I was almost close enough now to reach out and touch Morana. But I needed for Esta to swap positions with me. I felt confident from this angle I could rush at and attack Morana, letting Esta get free from the dagger. But there were still five hostages I had to worry about. And if a single other hostage died, I knew Esta would carry those deaths as her responsibility. It wasn't enough to just get Esta out of here alive. We had to do our best to get the others out too.

Morana explained, "I'm going to switch the dagger to Keir, and Esta, you are going to step away slowly. Or I can just kill you both right now and we can have a love story gone tragic in record speed. Got it Queen Esta?"

She thought she was toying with us. The predator messing with her prey. The lure of watching Esta break while she hurt me was too much of a draw for Morana. Little did she know she had just secured her own death.

Esta, I pleaded down our bond. Listen to me. We must switch spots .

She hesitated and said aloud, "No."

Trust me, I begged. I need you to walk toward Zaire.

No, she repeated, this time down the bond.

"I am going to move the dagger now," Morana threatened. "Everyone do as I say. Esta, if you make one wrong move, I will drive it directly into his heart."

What I was asking Esta to do went against all her dragon instincts. Just trust me.

Morana shoved Esta to the ground forcing me to move without leaving her time to answer or me the time to further explain. I quickly released my magic, sending Esta with a breeze and sliding her as if on ice, hands still tied toward Zaire. I got her out of reach as fast as my Enchantment could carry her.

Stay on the ground, I sent immediately. Don't get up.

"Don't hurt him," Esta pleaded from the ground.

Zaire reached down to help her up, but something in her eyes had him hesitate.

The dagger hit my throat, a cold pinprick. A welcomed one because now it was off Esta.

Morana let out a breath. "I thought I said no palm magic."

"Esta was never going to willingly switch me places," I argued.

"Fair." Morana added to the two of them, "Have any fancy ideas about shifting, I will kill Keir and the hostages too."

Or as many of them as she could get to before Zaire would snap her in half. My bet was only one. Still, it was one too many.

I demanded down our bond, On my command, shift. Shift and light this area on fire. I am going to form a barrier around the hostages and myself. The only person you will hurt is Morana.

I felt her hope and dread, equal parts. I cannot burn you. "Please," she begged Morana. "Stop this."

You won't.

I can't do this Keir, she said, her panic rising. What if it doesn't work? It will kill you. I will kill you .

It will work.

"Now." Morana's laugh sounded so sinister, I had no idea how we hadn't seen this coming all long. How her contempt was concealed this long into all her deceptions. "Good thing you have such a chivalrous man at your disposal. He gave you a front row seat. Ready to see your lover's dea?—"

Despite my urgings, my wings seemed to have a mind of their own again and decided that was the point to shift outward.

"What is this?" Morana gasped as she was smacked in the face. She didn't hesitate to jab the dagger into one of my wings.

It took everything in me not to scream out in pain. I almost went to my knees but managed to stumble a step and stay standing.

"This is an abomination," she seethed.

Now, I begged Esta.

While Morana was distracted with stabbing my wings, reaching for the dagger to repeat the process, Esta shifted. As she did so, time itself seemed to slow.

I immediately willed my magic to leave my hand farthest from Morana, unleashing my bright blue power in droves to wrap the hostages in one dome.

"What did I tell you?" Morana snapped as she moved for the dagger, enraged by the sight of my magic wrapping around the hostages.

But her fist hit my magic barrier and stopped. She couldn't get to the dagger as all of me, wings included, were being wrapped in thick blue tendrils of magic.

Now, I again told Esta. Even as I sent more and more magic out to cover us in thicker protection. I willed that the domes would be fireproof. This worked in the fire in the forest the night before my father tried to kill Krew, so why wouldn't it work now?

If it didn't work, Esta's fire would kill us all and I knew without a doubt she would never forgive herself for it. Never recover .

It's going to work, I told her. We had a narrow window here. Mere seconds before my plan would be shot to hell.

I can't do it. I can't use my flame on you.

I felt her anguish. I felt how wrong this all felt to her. That her dragon fire would go anywhere near me. I looked to her, to see a lone dragon tear fall from her eye. You can do this. You won't hurt me, sweetheart.

Morana tried to move to a hostage since she couldn't get the dagger from me. I was sure she had other weapons hidden nearby.

We had to do this now. We were out of time.

Esta, I snapped. Now.

I love you, she cried just before she inhaled deeply and rained molten hot flames down onto us.