Page 59 of Enchanted Crown
The prick just laughed.
“I felt something was off,” Esta said, rushing toward me.
“Nothing bad. I just have wings, as it turns out.”
“You have wings!” Jorah exclaimed.
Esta was beaming at me. “You have wings,” she repeated, looking them over. “Not small ones either.”
“Some might even say above average,” I deadpanned.
She laughed and reached for me, hugging me tightly.
“You are going to have to help me,” I told her. “I have no idea how to work them. And Malachi was no help.”
Malachi, still laughing away, commented, “You didn’t give me time to be. His wings finally shifted, and Keir just jumps off a balcony.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time, nor the last,” Jorah offered lightly.
“Keir,” Esta scolded. “That is not how we do things.”
“I was excited,” I argued.
Esta’s laughter softened and her eyes went glassy.
“Es?”
“You have wings,” she repeated. “Not just wings, butdragonwings.”
“Seems that way, though I don’t know how to put them away.” Hopefully I could, otherwise we were going to need a bigger bed.
“I just—” she swallowed hard. “This is... everything.”
“I know the feeling,” I told her as we took a moment to just stand there in the meadow. I added down our bond.I love you.
I was exhausted.I had only flown the one time. It had taken me close to an hour to get my wings shifted back, and in the end, I’d had to use my instincts with my own Enchantment, the shoving down of my magic to get them to go back in.
I was thrilled. Both that I had wings, and that they were not a permanent feature upon my person. There were just some things I wanted a full range of human motion for.
“They will eventually find out,” Malachi was saying to Esta, the three of us in my room.
“I agree,” Esta said. “I just think not telling anyone at first would be helpful to the two of us learning our new Enchantments.”
“The only catch to that being that Keir would have an extra level of protection once the rest of Dra Skor learns of your soul bonding,” Malachi countered.
She let out a sigh. “Dual Enchantments will be a big change. I am sure one which will earn my brother even more support.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I chimed in. “We are stronger together. Each of us having both.”
She spun from where she sat under my arm to look at me. “I know that. The rest of Dra Skor will learn it too. People just balk at what they do not know and cannot understand. It will take a moment. With everything else going on, I just don’t want to dump too much on them too fast. This way it will give us time to learn each other’s Enchantment.”
“Put a time limit on it though,” Malachi insisted. “A secret this large won’t keep for long. They never do.”
“No longer than a month was all I was considering,” Esta stated. “Of course, the guards we brought with us?—”
“Will not be a problem.” Malachi’s voice was laced with determination. “Say no more. The reason they’re here at all is their loyalty to the both of us. Leave it to me.”
“We leave for Dra Skor the day after tomorrow,” Esta reminded us. “I would like to get a better feel for Keir’s powers and he needs some flying and shifting lessons.”
