Page 137 of Enchanted Crown
“Ihave worked just as hard for the crown,” she said defensively, almost yelling.
“No,” I argued, “you have worked just as hard todestroyDra Skor. There is a big difference between the two.”
“Esta made you a general,” Zaire bit out.
“Out of pity!” she yelled.
I said far more calmly than I felt, “Whatever it was out of, you are still the one who chose to poison and weaken your entire country so you could make a selfish move for the crown.”
“Worked though, didn’t it?” she sneered.
I snapped, “What about the man you used to blackmail Mikael? The man you had steala child? There couldn’t have been a more dishonorable way to make a move for the crown than all you have done.”
She snorted a laugh. “Rux? Well. Death does keep secrets best.”
I should’ve known from the moment Morana admitted to working with my father exactly what was going on here. Morana, much like Enoch, had to know there was no way out. Which was why she was willingly telling us her greatest secrets. She wanted us to know what she’d done. Her only goal now was to destroy as much as she could on her way out. She had to know it was over, she had to know that there was no escape. And that knowledge multiplied my concern for Esta a hundredfold. I had to get her away from Morana. There was only one way I saw a way out of this. One way which didn’t result in Esta or more hostages dying.
I wasn’t even certain it would work, but I would give my last breath to try it. Avril had said to trust my instincts after all.
“Take me instead,” I blurted out, changing tactics.
Keir,Esta snapped.
I ignored her momentarily. “You want to hurt Esta? You want to give her a taste of the pain you have had to live with? Then it ismeyou hold at knifepoint.”
She stilled and I could see her thinking about it a moment.
“I won’t do it,” Esta bit out.
I have a plan,I told her down the bond.Hopefully her want to hurt us outweighs rational thinking right now.
“Walk closer, slowly,” Morana demanded. Esta’s adamant refusal seeming to sway her.
“You will trade me for her?” I asked.
“For now.”
“I refuse!” Esta exclaimed even as another bead of blood trailed down her neck.“No.”
I took careful steps forward, and with every footstep across the damp floor, I readied my magic, letting it build but willing it to remain unseen. “You know the thing that I just don’t understand in all of this, though?”
“What?” Morana snapped.
“Why you murdered Samori and Savanna. They were not main players in this game. They were not even in the damn game.”
She let out a sigh. “I did not enjoy killing them. He found out I was up to something and threatened to take it to Esta.” She swallowed hard. “He tried to blackmail me into backing down. It had to be done.”
“At least have the guts to say Samori’s name when you discuss killing him,” Esta hissed.
“So who killed your shifter friend?” I asked, taking two more steps forward. “The one who was impaled?”
She gave a shrug. “He did. Not sure if he even meant to.” She let out a derisive snort. “All these years and no one even noticed what I was up to. And of all the people to figure me out, it had to be a kid, had to be Samori. Young and vibrant Samori. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Saw an exchange of information which made me complicit.”
I was almost close enough now to reach out and touch Morana. But I needed for Esta to swap positions with me. I felt confident from this angle I could rush at and attack Morana, letting Esta get free from the dagger. But there were still five hostages I had to worry about. And if a single other hostage died, I knew Esta would carry those deaths as her responsibility. It wasn’t enough to just get Esta out of here alive. We had to do our best to get the others out too.
Morana explained, “I’m going to switch the dagger to Keir, and Esta, you are going to step away slowly. Or I can just kill you both right now and we can have a love story gone tragic in record speed. Got itQueenEsta?”
She thought she was toying with us. The predator messing with her prey. The lure of watching Esta break while she hurt me was too much of a draw for Morana. Little did she know she had just secured her own death.
