Page 19 of Enchanted Crown
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.
CHAPTER 9
“We will hunt him down, Your Highness,” Zaire promised as our war room meeting wound down.
Our arrest of Mikael only led us on a wild chase for another man who was, of course, missing. All that work and finally feeling like we were moving in the correct direction just to feel we were at yet another dead end.
Mikael’s empty chair at the war room table was a gaping hole in the room. Zaccai would fill in for a while, but Esta and Amory were adamant that another human fill that space, not another Enchanted, or else it would send a message to the people of Dra Skor. And after all those ridiculous rumors about the shifters turning more animalistic, it was best to ease the tensions, not engulf them.
Meanwhile, I wasn’t convinced the advisor situation was fixed at all. Removing Mikael was the correct move. He had not come to Esta and the crown and had instead been swayed by the circumstances. Then again, those circumstances were his child. I didn’t have a child, but I suspected the urge to protect them wouldsurpass every bond and tie. I’d seen it all play out before me with Krew and Warrick. The extreme lengths Krew went to, all to keep Warrick safe.
As the rest of the people left, Emric and John waiting for me just outside the doors to the war room, Reyald Mallick spoke up, “You have to be pleased, daughter. To finally make progress on the threat to our crown.”
My power flared with the weight of my anger. It wasn’ttheircrown, it was hers. A fact that would do him well to remember.
Esta’s eyes went to mine before going to her father.
Her father caught the strands of blue churning in my hands. “What, prince of Wylan?”
There was no sense in sugar coating it. Particularly not when he took every opportunity to remind me where I came from. I leaned back in my chair and looked him directly in the eyes as I asked, “Are you really this dense or are you grabbing ahold of Mikael’s arrest to make you feel better about the role you yourself may or may not have played in all this?”
His head snapped back. “You think this has something to do with me?”
Esta gave me a look as if I should calm down a bit, but I wasn’t about to do that. I was done dancing around this. Done coming up against dead ends, time and time again.
“The tension in the Mallick family. Word has it that you and your brother have never gotten along. Someone tried to kill Esta not once, but twice. If that isn’t enough to bother you, not only Esta, but also Jagen might be at risk here. Are you really going to pretend like the tension in the Mallick family doesn’t seem suspicious in the midst of all this? As an outsider I am telling you, this reeks of subterfuge within the royal family itself. I would know, because I planned something similar from within my own.”
Her father was quiet a moment, taking in my rant. “You don’t believe this is over? That we are getting close?”
“No.”
