Page 18 of Enchanted Crown
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 youeverspeak 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 fromthisskin. 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 badand 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 firstshifter 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.”
