AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mina smiled for the first time since I had seen her. “Well, that may be, but?—”
“Mina?”
She leaned in to whisper, though my sound barrier was still strong. “In the last year the whispers have spread from city to city, distrust of the shifters starting to weave its way in. There are so few of them left in their shifted forms, you see. Then what happened with the land dragon trapped in the netting. Though the shifters suspect someone just wants Esta gone and the shifters to look bad, whoever is orchestrating all of this?” She paused to swallow. “What they’ve done the past few years in further dividing the human Enchanted and shifted Enchanted isn’t just traitorous to Dra Skor, it’s an act of war. Why are the former king and queen, in their human forms, just allowing all of this to happen to her? Instead, they add fuel to the fire with the rumors saying they will force the queen to hand the throne to Jagen.”
I was stunned into silence a moment as I wondered who was really pulling all of these strings. It had to be someone of influence. Someone close to the crown. Surely not Esta’s own parents though? And after the conversation I had with Jagen, I didn’t think he was the mastermind behind all of this either. Then again, maybe he was just playing nice. Even my father could be nice when he chose to be.
“The people of Dra Skor are already arguing over who we believe. The human Enchanted or the shifters. Dra Skor is at war, not from outside influence, but from within.”
“We came here to avoid a war,” Dex groaned.
“You walked right in on one instead,” Mina stated. She looked back to me. “If the land dragon fights back, the queen has every right to end him; him fighting her will be seen as an act of treason on the crown.” She paused, “But he has to fight back or else?—”
“Or else she looks like the monster they say she is,” I finished for her. I hadn’t been all that worried about what was going on outside until Mina just said that. “I owe you one,” I offered over my shoulder, already moving.
I hadn’t really understood how truly backed into a corner Esta was. And if there was anything I had learned over the past few years, it was that when backed into a corner, you didn’t always think the clearest.
Amory had moved down the shore farther. The queen was still talking to the land dragon, Savanna and Kian looking on from the shore. It was safe to say a conversation was going on, one that all of us were left in the dark for.
Whatever the dragon said, Esta clearly didn’t like it as she bolted for him, knocking him into the sand, both of them going rolling.
Having a brother, I understood well enough that sometimes physical fights were unavoidable. Seeing Mina’s fear, I now understood with the growing concerns about the shifters this needed to be taken care of immediately. Did Amory and Esta understand the scope of what was going on right now? That even this could be part of the plot to strengthen the distrust of the shifters.
I didn’t know what was being said, but the queen seemed to be getting angrier and angrier.
Amory sucked in a breath. “That prick.” She started walking for the fight like she wished to join in. The queen now had the land dragon under her, her talons wrapped around his neck as he gasped for air.
I grabbed Amory by the arm and hauled her back. “What is happening?”
Amory looked around us before whispering, “I’m only getting what Malachi sends me. He won’t fight her nor disclose much of anything about who he was working for, other than that he placed and buried the anchors in the sea, the ones the netting was attached to. He keeps taunting her though. He just told her she’d only be queen for a few months longer so to enjoy it while she could.”
I stole a glance at what was before me. He was provoking her, but because the people couldn’t hear it, they didn’t understand. I was moving before I thought twice about it. If no one else would explain to Esta what was really going on here, I would.
“Keir,” Dex snapped. “Dammit.”
The land dragon must have said something else because the queen roared in his face, and I was certain death of a reptilian variety was exactly what came next. But I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t allow what my father did to take even more from her than it already had.
I went around the side of her, yet would also have to get past Serkan to get her attention. “Queen Esta!”
She must have been locked into a conversation as she gave me no attention. That or she just chose not to.
Serkan growled at me.Stay out of it, Prince.
“No,” I said back, taking another step closer to the queen. “I see what’s truly going on here and I need to speak with the queen.”
What is truly going on is that this traitor is about to get what he deserves,Serkan snapped.The most dishonorable death in Dra Skor, via dragon talons.
I put my hands up. “I don’t doubt that, but whoever is working against herwantsthat.”
He stilled for only a moment, and I used that moment to my advantage, using my magic to slide myself past Serkan and in between the dragon and the land dragon who was only a few seconds from the kiss of death.
Which meant that kiss of death was now currently aimed at me.
“Queen Esta,” I began, trying not to flinch under the cruelty in her gaze. Her breathing was loud, smoke was leaving her nostrils with every exhale, and she looked every bit a feral monster in this moment. And that was all that mattered. It didn’t matter how she was provoked or what this jackass did to deserve her wrath.
Move,she snapped at me.
“I cannot,” I said calmly. “This is what they want.”
