Page 140 of Enchanted Crown
He gave me a nod and said between coughs, “Yes. It’s how she got us here. Into The Drak. Without the other dragons knowing.”
“Can you get the others out?” I asked him. They looked exhausted. Starved.
He gave me a sure nod. “Yes.”
“Get him free so he can cut the others free and get them out of the smoke,” I told Zaire. “You’re with me.”
He did so and we were half running, half coughing for the entrance. “Malachi and Nyx?”
“I’ll shift as soon as we are out and tell them what’s going on, if Esta hasn’t already drawn their attention or done so herself,” he explained.
“No,” I argued. “I need you in your human form.”
Zaire was quiet a moment. As if he disagreed.
“Do you trust me?” I asked.
He tilted his head. “I do not alwayslikeyou, but I do trust you, Prince. Lead the way.”
Even amid this battle, I felt my lips turn up at the corners. “She fled to her lair because it isn’t just a lair anymore. It’s a tunnel. We need to chase her through it and trap her on the other side.”
Esta,I snapped.
She and Nyx were at Morana’s lair already, half of Nyx’s body already in it, his spiked tail out of it. But he wouldn’t be able to reach her. Not in his dragon form. Because it wasn’t just a cave anymore.
I need you to get to the skies. You and Nyx both.
Her head snapped my direction, smoke still flowing out of her nostrils.
Her lair is a tunnel. She’s trying to escape out wherever it leads.
She let out a roar which shook the ground beneath my feet.
I don’t know where it comes out, but you and Nyx have to find it. Or she will get away again. We will chase her on foot. You two find her exit.
She’s not getting away.
With that, she launched herself into the air, Nyx following. Herwords were not just wishful thinking, they were a promise laced in threat.
Have Malachi help the hostages.I realized he was likely somewhere watching and going to be irate with us for his lying in wait if we all made it out alive.
And that was dependent upon if they could find the exit of the tunnel.
Zaire and I took in a few pulls of clean air and we were sprinting.
As we hit the entrance to Morana’s cave, I heard movement behind us. I didn’t know if it was some shifters arriving or Malachi heading for the hostages, but we had no time to stay and find out.
We ran around large piles of treasure. Esta had alluded to the fact that her treasure was the largest in Dra Skor, and though Morana had said she never felt comfortable in her dragon form, she still had mounds of it. Apparently, she couldn’t ignore some dragon instincts.
As the ceiling got lower and lower, the lair kept going. Deeper and farther. Hidden by that treasure trove.
We kept running. I found I couldn’t will my wings away with one wing hurt, so I tucked them in and kept moving. As my eyes adjusted back to the darkness of the lair, I noted on the walls were long gashes.
Claw marks.
“It would have takenyears,” Zaire said between breaths. “Years and years to dig this out. Likely from the time of her first shift.”
“And she did this part before she helped poison all of you.”
