Page 141 of Enchanted Crown
How much hatred did one person have to hold in their heart in order to plan something like this for longer than a decade? Morana was older than Esta but had to have been a teenager when the plans for all of this began. Morana and my father had been cut from the same cloth. In both instances, an insatiable greed was the roots hiding beneath the branches of evil.
We heard rather than saw movement before us and without saying a word, both of us picked up our speed.
She was moving rather fast for being injured, but I supposed that happened when death was nipping at your heels.
She couldn’t get away. We couldn’t have just gone through all of that, only for her to disappear again.
We saw a dim light which guided us forward, faster and faster. The deeper into the tunnel we got, the shorter it got. I had to duck down in order not to hit my head or wings, and I was sure the tighter space was slowing us down considerably.
She couldn’t get away, I chanted to myself. Not this time. And not ever again.
This had to end today.
As the light got only a little bigger, Esta said,We found it. We are hiding in wait, I called the other shifters down from the sky.
A slow smile hit my lips even as I pushed my legs and lungs to the brink of exhaustion, chasing Morana to her death.
As our feet pounded forward, the shape of that hole of light got bigger and bigger. As soon as it was almost man sized, something was shoved against it, blocking out all light entirely.
A stone. She had a door of sorts to hide the tunnel. She’d opened it to make sure she was safe, unknowingly making a beacon of her location to us.
I was in considerable pain from my wing, but adrenaline took over and pushed down that pain. I sent my magic chasing along the floor from one hand to light up the tunnel and look for Morana, and with the other hand to move the stone out of the way.
Finally in view, Morana was limping but jogging along. When I blew the stone back open, she took off, out the tunnel and into the light.
She’d had an escape, she always had. What she wasn’t planning for was the dragon on the other side.
“We’ve got her.” Zaire’s voice promised violence.
Morana was moving fast enough I worried there was another tunnel or exit we didn’t know about.
As we came out of the tunnel and to the other side, the brightness of the day momentarily blinded us. I squinted and saw where Morana was heading. A portion of the terrain on this side of the lairs had a brutal drop-off which cut down to a wooded ravine. And she was hurrying for that cliffside.
Esta,I warned.
I know.
She let Morana take a few more limping strides before she let out a low growl and launched herself into the sky.
Morana hobbled faster and faster having heard it. Esta was closing in as Morana threw herself off the cliff. Her body went first, her dark hair billowing out behind her, but the dragon queen was faster as she dove right down after her, wings tucked in tight.
Zaire and I moved forward to look over the cliff’s edge. Neither of us felt it necessary to move, we both had full confidence in our queen.
I didn’t truly care how Morana died, so long as all of this was finally over. Whether it was of Morana’s own doing or one of us.
Just before Morana’s body crashed into the ground, Esta gripped her in her talons, pulling upward hard with her wings, the sound reverberating in the air with how hard she beat her wings. One huge beat. Two. Three. She tossed Morana into the air, just to catch her in the other hand.
Morana’s flesh was pink, even at this distance I could see blistered skin from when Esta had used her flame to cause Morana to run.
I had never heard Esta’s dragon voice so cold, so vicious as she told her,Your death will be on my terms, not your own.
She let out a roar which threatened to make my human ears bleed. A shiver traveled down my spine under the strength of it.
“Do it then,” Morana seethed.
“You deserve no honor.” And with a final swift move, Esta impaled Morana on her talons.
Oziel and Morana both died the same way. A death without honor. One with dragon talons to the back, the other to the chest.
