Chapter 49

CHAPTER 49

M ost of the bonfire celebrations were loud, but Halikaara's was above the rest. The wine and whiskey were only partially to blame. The location was in the same field as the first bonfire I had graced in Dra Skor. Yet it couldn't be more different. For starters, the size of this fire was far bigger. I wasn't even sure "fire" was an accurate word, some of the logs the size of trees in Wylan. But the differences were more than in just the size of the fire.

Everywhere I looked there were shifters taking to the sky. I saw some lion shifters wrestling at one point. There was dancing and laughing. While the ballroom was open tonight for refreshments, most of us were right here together near the fire. And it was cold, but the blazing fire was so large that it was manageable.

Dra Skor was healing. From both the poison of my father's creation and the darkness from within.

Zaire shifted and let out a loud roar, signaling for everyone to calm down.

Per Dra Skor's rich storytelling tradition, he and the hostages had been giving the recount of what had happened that day in Esta's lair, for all across Dra Skor to hear.

It felt like years ago Malachi had convinced me to share my own story at another such bonfire.

"Tonight we gather," Zaire began. "To hear the story of how Dra Skor united to defy their traitor."

I had heard this story retold six times already, but even now, seven times in, the story still burned me. It reminded me of the moment I saw my wife with a dagger to her throat. Those horrifying moments between when Avril arrived to tell me Morana was in Esta's lair, knowing Esta was almost there, and knowing that I was more than thirty minutes away from helping her.

Zaire was right, though. I alone had not beat Morana. Esta alone had not beat Morana. It had taken numerous small steps, numerous things which had added up and given us the advantage. The largest of which had been my bond to Esta.

Dra Skor had joined with Wylan.

And then both of us, despite our hesitations in learning about the prophetic nature of Corsha's Enchantment and all it entailed, had trusted Avril to help too.

When three of the countries' Enchantments joined forces, it was then we were finally able to defeat Morana. I couldn't help but wonder what the realm would look like if all five Enchantments ever had the opportunity to work together.

As if sensing my thoughts, Queen Relia came up beside me where I stood listening in to the story.

"It is a good night," she told me. "I am so glad this vision came to fruition."

"Thank you," I whispered. "Thank you."

She turned to better look me in the eyes. "For delivering your father's poison?"

I gave my head a shake. "No. For sending us Avril. I might have been too late—" I had to cut off, the memory still too fresh to talk about in such a casual sense.

I felt Esta's attention turn to me, as she must have picked up my emotions down the bond. I'm fine, just thanking Relia for letting us borrow Avril.

"It was the right thing to do," Queen Relia said calmly. "And it was time to come out of hiding." Without another word, she turned and gestured to a guard I remembered seeing in Corsha. On a small cart he had two barrels, containing what I assumed was the poison.

Two barrels. Yet all that pain and destruction they held.

I smiled at Queen Relia, relieved it was all over with.

"You could keep it you know," she told me. "You could study how he created it. Learn how he did it. Duplicate the process."

I considered her words a moment. John, ever the sage, would likely see logic in her words. Yet I knew some things were best left unlearned. An evil this ensnaring was better off where it belonged. In ashes.

"Even if someone else learned how to recreate how he made it," I began. "I know how to undo it. And the undoing of it is what matters now."

She beamed at me. "I knew you'd make the right choice."

"Because you saw it?"

She cocked her head. "That and because you are the brother kings."

I wasn't sure I was ever going to get used to that phrase. And I knew by this point that telling her I wasn't truly a king was futile.

"May I ask you about Agria?" I asked a moment later while Zaire and the hostages spoke about Esta's lair and how I wrapped them all in my power to protect them from the flames. Relia and I now had to speak at a normal volume around the noise of the crowd.

We were planning to finish healing up Dra Skor by the royal wedding. Then Emric and half of his men would go home to Wylan while I would train and lead the team which would stay in Dra Skor and work on going back and forth to heal the Agrian Enchanted.

"Tomorrow," Relia told me. "Tonight, we party."

As the crowd grew louder and louder as the story ended, I took the cart from the guard and rolled it between the crowd to the front where Esta was wrapping things up.

"No darkness will ever defeat us. Even limited to one form, the reaches of our strength were too great for the evil within. But let us learn from this. The real enemy is not from across the seas, it is not a country or a single nemesis we need to keep an eye on." She paused. "It is within us. Each of us. We need to keep an eye on ourselves . May we all have the courage to battle the darkness within. May we all have the courage to never give up. Until not even a semblance of that darkness remains."

The crowd went loud, roars and whinnies and human voices alike.

"Now. Prince Keiran has a gift for us. And you all know how the dragons like our gifts."

I heard the laughter from every direction around the fire.

I placed my hands in my pockets, my wings out behind me. All of Dra Skor knew Esta and I were soul bound. And though I was certain I still had some who doubted me, I was hoping what I was about to do would significantly help matters. "My gift is not one that can be held anywhere but here." I pounded my chest over my heart twice intentionally, the Dra Skor sign for respect. "In these barrels lie what remains of my father's poison, which was intercepted as he attempted to poison the people of Corsha. Though none of us will ever forget the events of the past decade, I believe we need to do what should have always been done with this poison." I swallowed down my emotions. "Watch it burn."

I had to pause for the crowd's reaction. "When we first suspected in Wylan that my father was responsible for this atrocity's creation, we tried to figure out how it came to be, the formula by which it was made. Due to my father disposing of the scientists involved in its creation as a way to keep Wylan from suspicion, we were never able to find anything. We do not know how this was made. What we do know is how to undo it, and how to destroy it ."

I again had to pause for the crowd.

"So let's do exactly that. He created it. We will end it. This evil has no place in this country, or the entire realm for that matter. It should have been lit on my father's pyre, but I think this fire is plenty big enough, don't you?"

While the crowd cheered their approval, Esta asked me, How do you want to go about this?

I'll drop it, you and Jagen help burn it.

She immediately leaned over to her brother to inform him of the plan.

I moved to lift a barrel. Emric handed the second to me as it was damn heavy, and I shot into the sky, barrels in tow.

Your wings, Esta told me.

Will be fine, I repeated. The healers had told me as much this morning.

I flew high, Jagen and Esta shifting and taking to the sky with me. The crowd beneath us circled around the bonfire was still cheering.

I let out my magic to carry my voice to all of them. "You may want to back up a bit. I have no idea how explosive this will be."

Yielding to caution, they all began scooting back.

I looked to the Corsha queen at the last moment. She'd seen all of this, so surely it would be fine. It wasn't like I was holding two heavy as hell barrels of poison with no knowledge of their chemical makeup or anything.

She seemed to give me a nod, so I took that as good enough.

When I used my magic to pull the lid off one of the heavy barrels, all I could see within the barrel was an oozing, thick, black mass. I released my magic to wrap around it, willing it to stay in place, preventing it from going airborne or splashing anyone, particularly my wife who was flying in place beneath me. I made sure to will it to stay together. While the barrier I'd made in Esta's lair had been made to keep everything out, this one was more about containment. I took care to be sure the fire would be able to blast right through my barrier.

And then slowly, I tipped the first barrel.

The poison was outlined in my magic, so all of us could see as it dropped toward the fire beneath us.

All of us could see when the dragon flames hit it, turning it into what looked like molten lava.

And as it hit the fire, I sent my magic to seek out and obliterate any remnants. As I kept pouring, I noted other colors of magic rushing to help. Purple. Dark red. Green.

The longer I poured, the louder the crowd got. One barrel empty, I dropped it as well, it burning before it ever hit the logs and sticks below. I opened the final barrel and poured that one too.

As the last drops of poison and the empty barrel found their home in the flames, the warriors of Dra Skor began stomping.

Faster and faster.

Together.

Faster and faster.

As one, all of Dra Skor pierced the air with a cry of victory.