Page 24 of Enchanted Crown
She cocked her head. “I do know in Wylan these things are done alongside a marriage. That is not off the table entirely, the marriage part of it, but that cannot happen right now. My marriage will be large. And not necessarily about me. My bonding, however, is the only thing which will be forme. Bondings in Dra Skor are done to protect a pairing. My dragon instincts will extend from protecting myself to protecting you. You will become a part of me. A part of my instincts.”
My eyes burned as numerous questions came to me. Did she know what she was asking? Did she feel like that about me? Was this all about getting the old bird’s somewhat approval? Or had she already been considering this?
“I do not want to keep worrying myself sick about you. Either having to sleep in your room or both of us in mine. I want to be able to feel that you are all right at all times. And know with certainty when you are not. Until we take care of this threat, that is what I need.” A smirk played with her lips. “Among other things Iwant.”
I knew she cared for me deeply, but if she was offering this then... then maybe there was hope for us. “Es.”
She gave me a barely-there smile. “Not like you to struggle for words.”
I closed my eyes a moment. I knew from everything the sages were researching in Wylan that my father had bonded to no fewer than five people. And each bond became weaker and weaker. River thought two was the maximum amount of strong bonds we could carry as Enchanted. I was already kin bonded to Krew. So if I did this, this was my last shot at finding my soul bound match. Had I already found her? Or would I risk that possibility, that strength of bond, all on Esta?
As I opened my eyes and found her green ones, I knew the answer. I would risk everything, rattle the very eaves of hell to protect this woman. “Come here.”
“May I have an answer first? I do not trust myself where your touch or your Enchantment is concerned.” Her lone dimple teased me.
“You’ll have to come and get it,” I told her.
She began moving toward me, but it wasn’t fast enough for my liking, so I sent my breeze out to carry her to me faster. I kissed her gently as soon as she arrived. “Yes. My answer is yes.”
She pulled back, looking in my eyes for something. I didn’t know what. “Can we do that in Wylan? Would it be safe?”
“Is that why you asked if we could go?”
She shook her head, but then nodded it also. “Yes and no. I want to see Wylan finally. I never got to go. I would like to seewhere you grew up, meet your family and your nephew. And I would also like to bond to you there. Because I will be weak for the better part of a week after this bonding. The bigger the shifter, the longer the process takes. And should you think I would be safe there, I would like to do so in Wylan, without the scrutiny and whispers here.”
There was a lot to consider. “And you could possibly have some of my powers.”
“You could have some of mine.”
I didn’t know a ton about an Enchanted pairing of two different powers, but what I did know was that it could lead to a weaker version of each other’s magic. An image of a super small dragon flashed into my mind. Would I shift into a tiny dragon? The mere thought of shifting looked painful.
“Or the stronger magic is rooted in both,” she added.
I again pictured the small dragon. “And if I am able to shift into a small dragon, when drake size is everything in Dra Skor?”
“Then it is a good thing your human stature towers over us all,” she said innocently. “Though you might have Dra Skor’s Enchantment, might not, you would not have to use it. It wouldn’t ever overpower your first Enchantment anyway. We truly don’t know what our two forms of magic would do bonded together, but I do know that I would be able to better protect you. To not have to worry, to justknow. We would be each other’s ultimate spy, Keir.”
So I wouldn’t publicize my tiny stature, should that happen, was what she was saying.
She added, “I am not certain that it wouldn’t be your Enchantment which is the stronger anyway.”
“I only wish we knew more.”
She pressed her lips against mine. “The fact that you would shift into a tiny dragon for me tells me everything I need to know.”
As her lips danced and dared my own, all my hypotheticals fellto the wayside. I would shift into a turtle for her. As ugly and slow a creature as I could think of.
We stood together, the sunset washing the sky in orange hues, and a plan began to form. A plan there could be absolutely no turning back from.
A beadof sweat ran down my back. And not in a fun way, unfortunately. In a trying-to-keep-my-neck-on-my-body way. Owen was back from delivering my correspondence to Krew, and better at sparring than Emric was, though I wasn’t going to admit that to either man. The new team of men stayed the night in Keld but would be making their way today.
“Again,” Owen roared, coming at me.
We weren’t supposed to be using our Enchantments, but both of us were. We were just pricks like that, I supposed. We were down in the training ring at the castle, having a morning training session. Esta, Amory, and Malachi looked on. Malachi still had a week to heal, otherwise I was sure he would’ve joined.
I’d been trying to train with Malachi, Emric, and Dex. But in this one match with Owen, I understood well that we had not been going at it at the pace and aggression in which Owen trained his men. He was relentless. A damn fiend.
“How did Jorah survive your training?” I swung my sword at him, using my back to push me away.
