Page 136 of Enchanted Crown
“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? Onhowto poison us? He had never steppedfoot 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 wasme. 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 looktoo 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 notyou,” 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 ismyfault, 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. “Youpoisoned 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.”
