Page 114 of Enchanted Crown
“Indeed,” I said with a nod. “It appears so. A turn to the events of an otherwise miserable evening.”
Malachi laughed.
Zaire looked less happy. “You got married.Without us?”
“Yes,” she snapped. “The decision had to do with me. Not any of you. This is the one thing I get to decide for myself, and I did.”
“But you need our protection,” Zaire fumed.
Was he mad because Esta was married to me, or was he mad that as one of her generals, he had been left out of it?
“And I will have it for the grand royal wedding.” She paused to stare them all down. “Again. This was a decision I made. For me. As your queen, it is still my right to choose who I wish to marry. Add that he ismy mate, and it felt more wrong than right to stay unwed. Believe me, fighting against these bonds causes more pain than necessary. So yes, we did so quietly. And we will also do so loudly. Whenever you all think it is safe enough. But I was not going to sacrifice my relationship with Keir for this ongoing war with Morana. She’s taken enough.”
Even just the way her voice had torn through the wordsmymatemade me want to shiver. Or take her to our room immediately.
“When would you like to do this?” Zaccai asked.
“The royal wedding?”
Zaccai nodded.
“Pick a date,” she said.
“You do not have a preference?” Amory asked gently.
Esta let out a sigh. “So long as I got to choose the man, no, I do not care about the day. If Dra Skor needs time to get used to the idea, fine. If we need to wait because of Morana, fine. We will do the traditional ceremony and whatever we have to. We are soul bound. That should be enough. Most people will realize it’s coming anyway. Inevitable.”
“Forgive me for being dense, but should he wear the ring though?” Otis asked.
“Yes,” Esta snapped just as harshly at him as she had at me this morning. “He will wear the ring because I demanded it.” A pause as she stared them all down. “Let’s get through tonight. Sometime in the next few weeks you can announce a date of the royal wedding. However far out you decide is needed. If anyone in the meantime sees the ring and wonders, won’t it just give more credibility to our bonding story that we have also planted to get Morana moving?” She moved to stand. “Now, if we are done determining what I can and cannot do, I have teams to send off.”
We all stood with her, and as the meeting drew to a close, Nana approached me, patting my shoulder lightly. “Congratulations, and welcome to the family.” Esta was going to have to tell her parents shortly or there would be hell to pay. But of course, Nana would know first.
“Thank you.”
“This is good. For us all.” She leaned in and dropped her voice, “And our girl is back.”
“She’s rather spectacular, isn’t she?” I whispered back.
Esta’s voice rang out behind us. “Are the two of you done conspiring?”
Nana shooed her away. “You have teams to unleash. Go on.”
Within a few minutes we stood gathered outside the castle near the training pit. A restlessness tinged the air, lots of pawing on the ground and even a few growls heard.
Malachi was pacing, speaking to the teams. Seeing them all gathered together like this, it wasn’t just the determination all over their faces which had my skin crawling, my feet and wings aching to join them. It was also their numbers. Rows and rows of shifters, healed and ready to get to work. Esta may not have her entire army back, but she now had two full teams of angry shifters who promised to wreak havoc.
Malachi continued, “We will be split, heading two different directions, but chasing the same end result. Morana. She has turned on us, caused us to turn on one another. The traitor within. We will not tire until she is dealt with.” His voice was gradually getting louder. “Until she bleeds as she has caused Dra Skor to bleed.”
Multiple yells of agreement and a few animal roars were heard.
“For Dra Skor!” he yelled, raising his sword in the air.
“For Dra Skor,” they yelled and roared back.
CHAPTER 39
The morning frost cast everything around the castle in a thin covering of white. With the way the sunlight arrived, dancing and bouncing off all that white, it was breathtaking. Dra Skor rarely had snow, but it was one of those rare cold snaps where it got cold enough to frost.
