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Amory shook her head. “No. Keir thinks your presence, being close in proximity to our Enchanted, was key.”
“So if you are done avoiding me, it would be most beneficial,” I added sweetly.
The queen snorted.
“Esta,” Amory snapped. “You know you don’t sleep well at night anyway. Go sit on Keir’s balcony tonight and see if it helps.”
I cannot tonight. Tonight, as you very well already know, I will be in a meeting in which my parents attempt to make me wear a cape to the ball tomorrow. To show my humanity. A cape. And then tomorrow is that ball. But possibly after that.
I tried and failed to imagine the shifter wearing a cape. The crown worked, but clothes on a dragon? Even I had to admit it just didn’t seem right. “Whenever you have time. Yesterday I tried to change the water with Amory, but it didn’t work. I think it might take someone in their shifted form. And though Malachi and I would have a great time, he is currently busy also.”
Are you properly prepped for our ball tomorrow?
“I think so. It cannot possibly be worse than all the dozens of Assemblage balls I’ve had to endure. So I am rather looking forward to seeing how Dra Skor does things differently.”
Amory looked out the balcony doors wistfully. “Well, this one won’t be like the old ones. We have to limit the alcohol in the room. The balls used to have open doors and shifters could fly in or run in, mingle, and fly out or leave as they were ready. Our celebrations were welcoming and warm and...” Amory stopped to smile. “They were fun. The first few balls we tried to throw after the disease resulted in the Enchanted just drinking away our feelings, our ability to not head for the doors and shift. So they’ve become rather depressing. There for a while we had to remove the alcohol entirely.”
I reached out to give her arm a squeeze. “I won’t give up if you don’t.”
Just then the queen must have heard from another of her generals, her head moving to the side.
Amory and I waited and worry immediately clenched my gut. It hadn’t been very long since Malachi and Dex took off.
Someone in Keld saw a small boat leave the day Kian was caught in the net. I want to go speak to them immediately.
Amory reached out as if to stop her. “Esta. Go tomorrow. You need to rest.”
I’ll be fine,the queen responded.
How many times had Krew and I told ourselves the same when trying to carry the weight of taking down our father and saving Wylan? But at least we’d had each other and The Six.
The queen had Amory and Malachi looking after her. Other than that, she had her own parents trying to take her crown and give it to her brother, a group of advisors that I didn’t trust for half a second, and her former betrothed living under her own roof and causing a further divide in people she could trust.
I stood on the balcony long after she left, until her black wings were merely a dot in the sky.
“Keir?” Amory asked. “John is looking over the map again if you’d like to join us?”
I turned to her and gave a sigh. “I’m just worried about her. The pressure of these crowns can be unbearable.” I had given up the throne to my brother and still felt lost on the other end of it.
She gave me a smile. “I worry about her constantly. Someone in this castle wants her gone.”
My eyes were on hers. “Gone as in not wearing a crown? Or otherwise?”
Amory’s teeth clenched and I was certain if she were in her shifted form, she’d be growling. “I don’t know, Keir. I don’t know.”
CHAPTER14
Emric slapped me on the shoulder. “Promise to behave with me tonight?”
“Please do,” John piped in from behind us.
Actually, Emric had been rather behaved this entire trip. I was the one losing my cool with Amory and the queen. I grinned as I adjusted my crown, making sure it was in place. “I will follow your lead.”
Emric laughed as the doors to the ballroom slowly opened for us. “I wouldn’t gothatfar.”
“Nor would I,” John agreed, leaning in again to offer input.
“Are you a sage of wisdom or of behaviors?” Emric jested.
