Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

W ithout delay, I sent thick strands of blue to wrap around Enoch. Though Mikael wasn't the person pulling the strings, he was at least another lead. Someone we needed to remove from the group of advisors as quickly as possible, even if he was blackmailed into doing this. I almost regretted getting Esta out of here, if only so that she could have immediately flown to the castle for Mikael.

"Didn't you need Emric for this part?" Malachi asked.

"Maybe." I shrugged. "Maybe not. When I finally have it all, I'm going to need your help to push me back when pulling out the poison. I am sure that's easier in your other form, but still."

We will both help, Nyx promised.

I felt frustration in my very soul. We finally had a lead. We finally had a name, yet it seemed that someone bribed Mikael and Enoch to save Mikael's child. Could I really even blame them for that? Still, Kian almost died, and no amount of time would make me forget how close he had been to death. I was angry. And I was tired of the never-ending to-do lists wrapped up with these damn crowns .

It was way more fun leading a rebellion than trying to find the root of one.

I let all that anger and frustration multiply as I sent my Enchantment to hunt out the poison. Enoch was big, but he wasn't as big as Esta, and I had changed her back by myself.

Within a few minutes, I felt I finally had it all. I grabbed ahold of my own magic. "Now."

Malachi was there, but it was Nyx's head who was pushing against me, moving me backward as I yanked. I didn't even yell out or groan under the weight of it all, I just pulled as fast as possible.

Bright blue wrapped around that inky black mass now tainting the purple lake and shattered it.

Back in the cell, there was a man clinging to the cell bars instead of a land dragon. A blond man who had to be in his early 40s. Enoch sunk to his knees, the water of The Drak rising to his chest, and began sobbing.

I gave Nyx a pat of thanks. The cell was entirely too large now that Enoch was back to his human form, but the bars were at least spaced narrowly enough so he couldn't escape us. I noted that there was also iron wrapped around the bars.

Enoch was doing nothing other than wailing away in the middle of the cell. He was looking at his hands, moving them back and forth.

Without prompting, Nyx moved the cell over to shallower water.

"Hey Nyx," I called to him. "You brought the key, right?"

He gave me a nod and handed it over in a talon. You let him go free, and I will just hunt him down and kill him. He deceived us once, he will do so again.

"I will not," I promised.

I used the key to open the door to the cell, letting myself in with him and closing it behind us, handing Malachi the key just to be safe. Water a few inches deep sloshed over my boots .

Keir, Amory snapped at me, still in her tigress form on the shore.

"A little trust, Amory," I called over to her.

I allowed my power to burn, rising to the surface of my skin. The water was shallow enough here, but since the sun wasn't up yet, I couldn't entirely see the bars or the bottom of the cell, yet I knew they were wrapped in iron to strengthen them. To make sure the shifters couldn't chew or claw their way out. I knew from experience that as long as iron wasn't wrapped around my hands directly, it was just a metal. A metal I loathed, one that could repel the effects of my magic, but nothing more than a metal. I couldn't do anything other than move it, but I should be able to still use my Enchantment while in this cage.

So I did.

I unleashed it without delay or warning. It began wrapping around Enoch's feet, winding around and around before he had a chance to think about it. He quickly moved to his feet only because I willed it.

"Please," he begged, now that he had what he'd wanted more than anything else. Yet he was in a blue coffin made purely of my power, likely unable to even feel his limbs.

"You finally have your human skin back," I told him. "You are about to sleep it off for a few days in your cell but let me promise you this. If you ever speak to Esta like you did tonight, ever provoke any of the shifters like this again, I will gladly deliver a different sort of pain for you to focus on. I will take it from this skin. What was done to you was horrible, but what you did is equally inexcusable. Had you held on only a few weeks more, your name would be in the lottery right now and you would be a free man. Do something with this form other than be bitter. Other than hurt your own kind."

My Enchantment didn't feel quite enough after this sorry excuse of a person had both provoked Esta to make her look bad and had also set the trap which almost killed Kian. So I resorted to an older power I wielded, a fist. I tightened my core and put my entire weight into my punch. "Have a good nap."

Just as I suspected, he slumped over, passed out. From me? From the healing? Who knew.

Business taken care of, I headed back over to the cell door, which Malachi was holding open with a grin on his face. "Fancied yourself a cage fight, huh?"

"Next time I'd prefer for him to not be about to pass out. Not as much fun as I thought it'd be." My knuckles slightly ached, but I had gotten in far worse altercations with Krew.

The prince has a violent streak, Nyx laughed.

"Maybe a little." I fancied myself cool, calm, and collected, but lately this rage seemed to have a hold on me.

Nyx roared his approval while Amory seemed to be rolling her eyes at me.

We had just begun discussing how to get Enoch back when Esta swooped down with Zaccai, Whit, and Emric on Whit's back.

"I missed all the fun?" Emric asked as he took in the scene.

"Do you at least have a name?" Esta asked all of us.

None of them wanted to tell her, likely too angry to respond right away. So I stated, "Mikael."

Around the smoke she breathed out, I turned to Emric, "I also have a theory, and I would still like your help, if you don't mind. Your trip here might still be of use."

He dismounted and walked over to me. "What do you need, Boss?"

I gestured with my head to Nyx. "Heal him."

Nyx's noise of surprise could only be categorized as a squawk. Which from as large a creature as he was, sounded a bit comical.

I looked to Esta. "Either that wasn't as hard as the last time, or I am feeling extra full of rage today. I am curious if healing the first shifter is hardest and they will become easier over time as all of you are shifted back."

He also wasn't as big as I am, Esta reminded me, reiterating my own thoughts as well.

I gave her a nod, careful not to call her huge. Women typically didn't like that. Unless you were a dragon, in which case being called large was a compliment? Best not to even go there. "Yes, so let's allow Emric to try, but Nyx also isn't in your advisor group. Maybe that will make others mad? This is just valuable information to have when planning with the team from Wylan how to approach the healings."

Nyx was also one of the few Enchanted large enough to have impaled the shifter involved in the attack on Esta. Yet I knew from today and his lashing out at Enoch that he was not to blame. Nyx was nothing if not loyal to the crown. No one was that great of an actor. If Nyx had done it, he'd have immediately just told us.

I don't care, Esta provided. Nyx is deserving. The entire country will be antsy once your team arrives, more so than it already is. Might as well try it while we are here.

"I quite agree."

Amory shifted back to her human form to speak to all of us easier. "He will need to sleep it off in his cave."

Gladly, Nyx told us.

"And the rest of you will have to return Enoch to the desert," she added.

Whit and I can easily do that now that he is significantly lighter, Zaccai offered. And quieter.

"Nyx has never pushed me, begged, or demanded anything of us, yet helps whenever he is needed, no questions asked," I explained. "He's here. Also, it might be fun to have a few of you healed and hidden until we know more of what is going on in Dra Skor. "

Not sure how useful of a spy I can be in only this form, Nyx laughed.

"You could definitely shift and follow someone if Esta needed you to," I countered. "You are about to be no longer limited by the size of the area."

Amory grinned at me. "You're scary, anyone ever told you that?"

I cocked my head. "Not usually, no."

"A good kind of scary," she added. "We could do this multiple times. Create ourselves a healed army of spies."

I smirked, liking the sound of that. "Whoever is orchestrating this has their spies, so why can't we?"

Emric used his red magic to work on Nyx, and in the end, I had to lend him some of my own, but not a significant amount. Either I truly was that angry, or like with training, I was getting used to exerting and focusing my magic in this specific way so that it was getting easier.

Nyx, as it turned out, was a hearty old man that looked gentle as could be yet was quite formidable in his dragon form. He was all angles and spiked scales in dragon form, but as a human he looked like he read stories to children in his spare time. He reminded me a lot of John.

He shook Emric's hand and patted me on the back. "Thank you, Your Grace. It feels good to be back."

"Thank you for the help tonight. I know how awful it must have felt to have Enoch shifted back before some of you who are more than deserving." I nodded at Zaccai and Whit as I said it.

Amory tucked a hand into the crook of his arm and walked Nyx to his cave before he passed out on us, while the rest of us readied to leave.

All in due time, prince, Zaccai told me as he and Whit landed on top of Enoch's cell. Your team will soon arrive. We know you'll get to all of us .

"Now," the queen said. "Who wants to go roll a traitor out of bed for a rude awakening?" In the blink of an eye, she was back in her dragon form and let out a roar which could have rattled the stars themselves.

We finally had a lead, and we would attack it without delay. Before Enoch even made it back to the desert for the guards to whisper about his healed form. I knew Mikael wasn't the answer. It wasn't that easy, but I hoped like hell that this lead would keep us on the right path. Lead us to another person.

I'd do this a hundred times over so long as we unmasked our traitor in the end. And when that mask finally peeled back, my blade would follow shortly after.