Page 20 of Enchanted Crown
“And you don’t think my son has anything to do with it?”
I could be wrong where Jagen was concerned, but something in my gut told me it wasn’t him. “If Jagen wanted to kill her, he would have done it before I came along.”
He squinted. “And you don’t think Esta is strong enough to protect the crown herself?”
I had to clench my jaw before responding. “Canshe? Or is the better questionshouldshe have to? I think she is the strongest person I know, but I also think it isn’t her responsibility to clean up everyone else’s messes. She shouldn’t have to go this alone. You are the one still coming to advisor meetings though she has been healed for the better part of a month, so please do not preach to me about what I think she can do as queen. Unless you would like to weigh your belief in her against my own, in which case, I can assure you, mine will win.”
“I—” his anger chilled with his sigh. “I am worried. About the throne of Dra Skor, yes, but also just for my daughter. That is why I still come.”
“Also, you don’t like not knowing things and think your ways are always best. Thoughshekept this country together during the disease. A tragedy you never had to endure during your own reign.”
“Keir,” Esta warned.
My eyes reached for her green ones. “No.Youare the queen of Dra Skor, and I am tired of him treating you like the crown is still his. Like you’re borrowing it. His blood may have put that crown on your head, butyouare the queen.” I paused to push down my magic again. “And if he really is as worried as he suggests, he should be more forthcoming about the tension in the Mallick family. My father only let one of his siblings live to be old. I know exactly what royal blood can do to a family.”
“I may have been wrong about you,” Reyald said, defeat tinging his tone. “My wife definitely gave me an earful.”
I didn’t back down. “So tell me, what is going on with you and your brother and why is he still free if threats are being made on Esta? The person with the most to gain, aside from Jagen, if she were to perish.” Even just speaking those words made me want to burn the realm to the ground. It was a good thing I couldn’t breathe fire.
“My brother I doubt could be behind all of this,” Reyald admitted. “He is... not well. And hasn’t been for years. Not from the disease, rather it is his heart. He is deteriorating quickly.”
People who were on their deathbeds could be motivated in the most visceral of ways.
Her father continued, “He always resented me for being born first. For being the heir. For the favoritism I received, not from our parents necessarily, but from others. From commoners to the generals. They all looked upon me differently than him. Though I do not wish for him to die, I do look forward to the day where all that hostility can finally be gone.”
“There is none of that between my brother and me. We worked hard to make it that way.”
“I tried,” Reyald admitted. “Maybe not as hard or fast as I should have. I was too busy being groomed to be king. By the time I heeded my sister’s and mother’s urging, it was too little, too late, I’m afraid.”
Esta added, “Lennix gets treatments multiple times a week from the healers. Soon there will be a healer assigned to him to be at his bedside. That is why I didn’t suspect him in the first place.”
“The cousins and your sister then?” I asked Reyald.
“Amaya would never,” he said without delay. “Nor her children. We have always been close, her family and ours. I can be man enough to admit that I have at times treated you poorly, Keir. I had too many dealings with your father. Too many notions I did notwish to let go of while finding out my country was wounded by that man. But I can see the way you look at my daughter. The way you are working to heal Dra Skor. And if you truly think there is something going on within the Mallick family, then you need to speak with my mother.”
Esta inhaled sharply.
I looked to her in surprise. “Your grandmother is alive? You didn’t tell me this.” Granted I’d been a little distracted the last time we spoke of her family.
“She was queen consort to my grandfather. And is the reason as a woman I was able to take the throne as the Mallick heir. She made it law that no matter her heir, whoever was born first would rule. Nana Isolde is...” in her pause Reyald grinned. “Well, we always called her Nana Ice behind her back. She’scold.”
Reyald added, “But no one,no one, knows us all better than she. And if your interest in my daughter happens to be long term—” he held up a hand, “despite my interferences—you are going to have to meet her eventually anyway.”
Was it truly necessary to bring up the fact that he had tried to marry me off to Amory? I was actively trying to forget it.
Esta ran a hand down her face. “I should have spoken to her long before now.”
“She was not at any of the balls?” I asked.
Reyald shook his head. “Hated them when she was queen, so avoids them all now. Lives as quiet a life as that woman can muster in Arava. Let’s see what she has to say.”
Was Reyald truly trying to help me here or was he wanting me to meet a woman he knew I would never gain the approval of?
Esta flewus to Arava to a small cottage on the outskirts of the city. A cottage so small I wouldn’t have thought a former queenlived here, were it not for the pair of guards on either side of the door.
Whit and Zaccai were flying with us, Reyald on Zaccai as we began to land.
“Looking forward to the day I can finally shift again,” Reyald admitted as we landed.
