Page 31 of Enchanted Crown
No. They celebrate. Today was the start of the lottery. Seven shifters were healed today. They celebrate you.
CHAPTER 12
Esta’s head was on my lap as she slept. Conversation had flowed from the rather humorous stories of life in the castle with Warrick to the more pressing matters of Wylan. Though she had tried to hang with us for most of it, Esta’s breathing eventually slowed, and she slumped over onto me, content to be with us even as she slept.
“The solar lamps we brought with us should go over well then,” Owen said.
I nodded my agreement. “Definitely. We need about a hundred more, but the few dozen you arrived with will be put to use immediately.”
Krew looked at me, never missing a thing. “Why are you so tense?”
I let out a sigh. I had actually been significantly less tense since Krew had arrived. And if he still picked up on it, that only proved how bad it’d been. “Because we are finally healing this land and its shifters. The lottery requires and demands it. And these people definitely deserve that. All but one. Or a handful. Whoever has been orchestrating all of theunrest, forging this civil war. I’m terrified I am about to hand over more power to them.”
“Even if you do,” Krew stated smoothly, taking a sip of his water, the whiskey long gone, “you’ll be able to handle it. Perks of having to take down the strongest Enchanted in the realm, we trained until we were also two of the strongest Enchanted in the realm.”
Owen let out a laugh. “Keir, how have you managed to be a part of two separate rebellions in the past two years though?”
“It’s a skill I wish I hadn’t had to reuse,” I admitted. “And rather than fanning the flames of this one, it absolutely needs to be squashed.”
“Dra Skor is beautiful,” Krew said, a sadness to his tone. “Truly. I want to hate it on principal, as it is taking you from us, but I cannot. She is lovely.”
Were we talking about the country or her queen now? “I can’t believe you return home tomorrow already.” We had one meeting to attend in the morning and then I was seeing Krew off to the ship. “Though I am sure Warrick and Jorah will be wanting you home.”
Just then Esta stirred, her body tensing in her sleep. My magic flared, racing along my forearms. Already knowing how to fix this, as I had numerous times before, I sunk my fingers into her dark hair and ran my fingers downward.
I looked back up to find both Owen and Krew looking at me, Krew’s grin from ear to ear.
“What?”
He snorted and gestured with his head to Esta. “And how long has that been happening? Or are the three of us just going to pretend like we all didn’t just noticethat?”
I inhaled deeply. “Yes, we are. Because I know what it could possibly mean. I know what Iwantit to mean. But I do not want to get my hopes up. Not when it’s out of my control.”
“Because you don’t think she will bond to you?” Krew asked carefully.
“No. She would like to when we come to Wylan.”
“What?”Owen hissed.
I shrugged, careful not to jostle Esta. “She would like to see Wylan and be bonded there, if we think it will be safe for us to do so on Wylan soil. It’s harder on the bigger shifters, apparently messes with their instincts, and she will be down for about a week. We do not have it all figured out, but she would like to come after the Yule celebrations. In a month or so.”
“She will be safe,” Krew promised. “You both will be.”
A silence blanketed the three of us, the two men I trusted more than myself. They were giving me the space to speak, but I wasn’t sure I had the proper words. “I always thought with you and Jorah becoming soul bound that it was inevitable. It was fate. And I was merely in the way. A pest.”
“Keir,” Krew said affectionately.
“Let me finish.” My thumb on Esta’s back ran slow circles without even thinking of doing it. “The more wrapped up in Dra Skor I become, the more I fall for Esta, the more I realize that these bonds might possibly be less about fate and instead about how fiercely we choose one another instead.”
“And you choose her,” Krew interpreted.
“In a thousand lifetimes. A thousand realms. I’d scale a mountainside with bloodied fingertips if I had to. Only to find her.”
Owen gave his head a shake. “You say that, yet you don’t think it’s possible the two of you will be soul bound when you bond?”
“No,” Krew responded for me. “He just doesn’t want to be disappointed if they are not. He wants it. Suspects it. But won’t mentally let himself go there because he will willingly bind himself to her regardless of the outcome of if they are heart bound or soul bound.”
Krew knew exactly what was going through my mind. Ofcourse he did. He’d felt this way about Jorah long before they bonded.
