Chapter 48

CHAPTER 48

H ow long would it take, how many years, before my eyes would quit darting to Morana's lair in The Drak to make sure it was caved in and gone? The fact that she had tainted this sanctuary at all made me want to hurt something. Multiple bonfires hadn't been enough to make me forget all that had happened in Dra Skor. I was convinced the answer to that question was likely years.

When Nana had demanded no more of the dragon shifters get healed, they'd had to skip their turns in the draft. Now that Morana was dealt with, Oziel as well, the rest of the Mallicks were beyond due to be healed. They would miss the final bonfire at Halikaara tonight, but when asked, they had jumped at the chance to be healed. All of them had been present for the other bonfires anyway, so they'd only be missing the one. Even Jagen and Charlotte had come to be here with Esta. It was a family affair, after all.

Nyra, Nana Mallick, Amaya, and Lennix's wife Vashti stood close to the water. Reyald was already in the deep purple water waiting to be healed. It was a family torn apart by greed for the throne. A family not all that different from my own, the difference being that Krew and I, though rivals, were never enemies. And in the strangest of ways, I supposed we had our poor excuse of a father to thank for that.

Nana had demanded all children be healed first, however Emric's team had already healed the younger shifters, the second stage of the draft designed to get through the women and children fast. Samori's younger siblings had already been healed in that stage.

I had personally volunteered to heal Nana. The Mallick family, the royal bloodline, all being healed before our bonfire tonight somehow felt right. And though Amaya and Vashti were not going to talk much any time soon, they were both here. Together. And that said something.

Just as Emric was about to begin healing Reyald, I looked up to see Malachi swooping into The Drak.

He immediately shifted as he landed, right into his human form with a smoothness I had yet to master with my own wings. "Your Graces," he said out of breath.

Esta turned from where she was tucked under my arm, her arm around my waist. "What is it?"

"We have company arriving in Keld," he explained.

Esta's confusion I felt down the bond mirrored my own. Krew was coming for my formal coronation and our wedding, but that was not for another month.

"What kind of company?" Esta snapped.

"Corshan."

I stilled. Something I had put in the back of my mind came forward. And then I let out a laugh.

Esta turned toward me. "This is funny?"

I laughed again and gave my head a shake. "A little."

"Care to enlighten the rest of us?"

Amory was back at the castle otherwise I was certain she'd understand. And Avril could have, likely should have given us a heads up, but between traveling for all the events and trying to find time to meditate, she'd been as busy as the rest of us. "Corsha's Enchantment is beyond my understanding," I started, "but Queen Relia did say that if all went well, she would be delivering the last of my father's poison for us to burn."

"So we need not be alarmed?" Esta asked me.

I snorted a laugh. "No. Gods no." After the fact, I added, "Don't make her wait three days in Keld."

"I save that trick for hostile company," Esta said defensively.

Nana chortled. "You married the hostile company, dear."

"I—" Esta had to stop, a smile crossing her face, that lone dimple dancing into action. "I did." She turned to Malachi. "Tell the others that the company is friendly. They are delivering a gift for the bonfire tonight and to be treated as guests. Give them the option of a carriage ride to Halikaara or a ride on a shifter. And send your team immediately to watch over them as they arrive, since they evidently have poison with them."

With a nod he was gone to the skies again.

I turned back to Emric, giving him a nod to begin.

"Wait," Vashti said, her voice sounding a bit panicked.

"Are you nervous?" I asked kindly. "I promise you, we will not hurt you. Our power, though overwhelming, feels like a buzz as it searches for the poison within."

She shook her head, tears in her eyes. "I—" she took a moment. "I know I married into this family, and it is not my own, but I just want to say that I am sorry for all the hurt and pain my children and husband caused."

She paused, none of us knowing what to say. "I would like to ask permission after I am healed and recovered to go to Keld for a while. I am not trying to hide or plan anything untoward. I just want space. Space to mourn." Her voice sounded drug through gravel. "To grapple with how Lennix's greed and jealousy managed to become the end of my entire family despite how hard—" she choked on her next words, "how hard I worked for it not to be this way. Not to come to this."

Even I was going to need to take some time to consider all that happened within that family. Of everything which had gone down, I still believed Oziel's death had been entirely unnecessary. We had given him multiple chances to do the right thing, and still he charged Esta. And in doing so, he chose death. Now Vashti had no legacy, no living children left.

Nana moved to put an arm on her shoulder. "You are a Mallick. You always will be as long as you'd like to be. Of course you may go to Keld. We will check in from time to time, not only because after the past few months we would like to make sure no other tensions arise, but also because we would simply like to see how you're doing. When I am able, I would like to visit."

Tears in her eyes, Vashti gave her mother-in-law a nod.

Amaya's voice was quiet as she said, "I do not know that I will be ready for a visit anytime soon, but I would like to get to a place eventually where I can. Right now my grief over losing Samori is just too raw."

Reyald came closer, the lake sloshing at his feet, and looked Vashti in the eyes. "I am sorry. Truly. I should've reached out more to Lennix and fixed things. I mull over the thousands of opportunities I had to fix things and didn't. The rift was so large we just couldn't find our way across it."

Vashti gave him a nod. "Thank you. I know it is not your fault, or Lennix's, but a combination of the two."

"I hold some blame also," Nana admitted.

"As do I," Esta added.

"And me too." Amaya's voice was thick with emotion. "We were all so busy doing our royal duties that somewhere along the way, words became barbed and being right was more important than being family. We forgot to love one another. All of us."

Reyald reached for his wife Nyra's hand and walked over to Vashti. He reached a hand out for her, and it was like we all collectively inhaled, waiting to see if she'd take it.

She placed her hand in his, and reached for Nana's, who had already moved in. Esta took Nana's other hand and reached for Jagen's. Jagen grabbed Charlotte's hand, and Charlotte Amaya's hand. Amaya held Nyra's hand, completing the circle.

"Keir," Nana barked. "My cane is feeling awfully twitchy. Get your derriere over here."

"Apologies," I said immediately. I was fairly certain the reason we all feared Nana wasn't because she was scary, but because we feared her disappointment. Even in the smallest of doses, it was absurdly uncomfortable. I moved in, resting a hand on Nana's atop her cane, the same one Esta held, and Esta moved to let me in the circle.

"Once you are in this family," Nana snapped, looking to Vashti with a smirk. "You're in." And then Nana began singing the Dra Skor battle song, the same one Esta had taught to Emric just a week ago.

He gladly joined in from where he stood.

I swallowed hard, listening to them sing together, mourn together, find some semblance of peace together. This was a family torn apart. Shredded by greed. By jealousy. By murder. And somehow here they still were. All was not forgiven nor forgotten, but there was the hope that eventually, time would begin to heal their wounds. The darkness was painfully torn from this family, and this was simply what remained.

They were each fractured and broken, but if there was a thing I had learned from Dra Skor it was what warriors they were. How they showed up and fought for one another and with one another. How they wore their scars with grace.

So before any healing of the Mallicks took place, a different sort of healing began. All of us would have to come to peace with what had happened. And all of us would have to move on. But we would do it the Dra Skor way. With honor.

As soon as the song ended, Esta turned to Vashti. "No harm will come to you as you take the time to heal and recover."

After everything Lennix's family had put Esta and Jagen through, reassuring a member of his family was likely the last thing that they wanted to do, yet Esta had done so anyway.

I had always known the dragon queen was fierce. Fiercely powerful. Fiercely strong. Fiercely kind.

"Thank you," Vashti said with a slight bow.

Reyald stepped back into the water, walking toward Emric.

"Let's get some more dragons back in the sky, shall we?" Emric cheerily offered.

As I leaned in and kissed her forehead, Esta whispered to me, "I am really going to miss him when he goes home."

"Heard that!" Emric called as he sent his magic out to Reyald.

Nana, of course, waited to go last. The others were all healed, passed out, and in the carriage with the healers to head to the castle.

I stood before Nana and explained the process, letting my magic travel along her hand to get used to the feeling.

"Oh, get on with it," she urged. "I'm not getting any younger."

I let out a laugh. She had just watched the others be healed so I supposed she understood enough. "All right."

With my wings still out, I released my power to Nana, willing it to seek out the poison. Esta had a meeting with the healers, and all of them assumed Isolde would need extra time to sleep things off, but the healing would not harm her. If anything, it would only add a few years to her life.

I sent more and more magic out, wrapping around the old woman. "Still okay?" I asked once she was covered.

"This is more action than I've had in years." Her voice sounded bored. So bored I wondered if it was a farce .

"Is that a yes?" I laughed.

"Yes."

A few minutes more, and I was tugging on that poison. As I pulled it from her body and Esta urged her to shift, I had the thought that her cane, the bottom of which was in the water, was about to get even more soaked. I sent out more magic to catch it, holding it where it stood.

Another of the team members blasted the poison once it hit the water, and Nana shifted. Her black scales had that turquoise tint to them that Esta had told me about. I noted that Esta's form looked like Nana's. They were similar in that they were sleek. Warriors built more for speed than destruction, like that of Nyx and Zaire's forms.

She flapped her wings out, as if glad to finally be able to stretch them.

"Wanna race?" I asked her.

You're still injured. Wouldn't want to embarrass you, she replied.

I hoped we still had ten or more years with this woman. Life was far more interesting with her in it.

"Shift back before you pass out in this form," Esta urged her.

She did, and I was there to catch her, handing her the cane.

She patted me on the cheek. "I never thought I would shift again. Well done, Prince. Well done."