Page 182 of Enchanted Heir
A voice rang out from a way off. “Jorah!”
I spun. I would know that voice anywhere. But had it just been my imagination playing with me, or had it been real?
“Jorah!”
Bodies and movement cluttered the street. The remaining two lone streetlights provided the only light now that the fires were out, so I couldn’t find her. But two people stepped aside and there she was. My mother.Alive.
“Mother!”
And then I was flying, meeting her more than halfway, hugging her hard. Both crying, we slumped down onto the streets in front of the charred and smoking remains of our bakery.
* * *
It wasclose to dawn by the time we loaded the carriages to return to Kavan Keep. Upon arriving in Nerede, Keir had headed the opposite direction we had and evidently put out so many fires and cleared so much smoke, pushing himself to the brink of exhaustion with his magic, that he had only stopped when a trail of blood ran out his nose. He’d needed to drink some water and eat some food before we left just to regain some strength.
I didn’t know what had moved him to come to Nerede to help, but I was grateful for it all the same. While Krew and I had selfishly headed in the direction of the people we loved most, Keir and the others had just gotten to work helping anyone and everyone they could.
I was forever indebted to them all.
Keir, Krew, and Sasha had a long overdue chat about the king in our carriage on the way back to the castle, only half of which I stayed awake for.
As it turned out, Sasha was a forward-thinking man. He’d done what he had to to survive the king, but he was more than ready to see an exchange of power. I wondered how many others in Savaryn were. All along I had thought the people of Savaryn to be the king’s pawns, so it had never occurred to me that there were more of us on the side ready for a new king than there were not. It had never been clearer to me how many of us there were that loathed our king.
The problem was the king’s power. He was just too powerful to kill while he had the queen’s magic.
As soon as I knew Sasha was on the right side of things, I put my head on Krew’s shoulder and passed out somewhere between Rallis and Savaryn.
I woke when we dropped off Sasha in Savaryn. Once in Kavan Keep, the carriage pulled right up to the castle this time, none of us having the energy for the walk in the forest after a long night.
As soon as we were at the doors, a guard was there. “The king requests your presence in the throne room.”
I glanced at Krew, horrified, remembering the last time that I was in that room.
“Not this time, love,” Krew gently told me. “I’ll make sure of it.”
So Owen, Keir, Krew, and I were left with no other choice than to walk to the throne room. It had never felt so far away. Honestly, why did a castle need to be so grossly large? There was vanity and then there was compensating for something.
“The fires are out?” the king asked as we entered.
As light poured in the tall windows of the throne room, I took a good look at us. I had ash everywhere. I wasn’t sure I would ever get it all out of my hair. My light blue dress was more of a gray now and was torn in multiple places where I’d stepped on it. It was done for. As was my coat. And Krew and Keir, though looking more regal, were also covered in dirt and ash. None of us had slept much at all.
“Yes,” Keir responded.
“You knew we’d go, didn’t you?” Krew asked. His voice was calm, but entirely too calm. He was lethal. “That’s why you protected the fires with magic.”
“I did,” the king responded. “I thought it would do them good to have an example of why Nerede needs the Enchanted.”
I opened my mouth, about to tell him that Nerede wouldn’t have needed the Enchanted at all if their evil king hadn’t lit the entire level on fire. What they needed was a different king. Or to not be lit on fire in the first place.
Krew squeezed his hand in mine. “Jorah managed to talk to a few people, berated them for the attack on me, and has basically been handed control of the disloyal in Nerede.” He paused. “So there is that. Now she will not only know what all their plans are, but also who is involved.”
The king’s eyebrows reached upward. “Well done.”
I glared. I didn’t smile. I didn’t acknowledge. And I had never wanted to kill a person so badly in my life.
“Nothing, Jorah of Nerede?”
I shook my head in disbelief of this entire last day. “You could have killed my mother. You destroyed our bakery. And my mother is not a disloyal, in case you were wondering.”
