Page 6 of Enchanted Crown
Getting dressed in proper advisor meeting attire was the last thing I wanted to be doing the next morning, but if one was going to storm an advisor meeting and slap a treaty down on the table, being dressed to the nines was obviously required.
I had stayed with Esta all night to allow her to rest, moving her myself from the couch to the bed. I had stayed up most of the night thinking through things. Wondering if Zaire really was such a worthless being that he would orchestrate all of this from his human form, if he could have recruited Nyx and the other dragons to his cause. And when those thoughts hadn’t haunted me, I’d considered what we could do to smoke out this traitor among us.
Normally, I thrived on a good scheme. I knew what the end goal was, was used to wearing a variety of masks when needed. This time, so much more was at stake. Instead of Krew’s and my possible reign swaying in the balance, it was Esta’s. It was Esta’s wellbeing. And that made everything matter so much more to me.
I loved that dragon queen more than I would ever love crowns and thrones. Thrones would always be passed on or even toppledin some instances, but how I felt for her was as steadfast as the mountain of Kavan Keep.
Emric rubbed my shoulders as John and I finished planning with him what should be said. “You’ve got this, Keir. While your father saw a darkness in Krew that he tried to tap into, even though the prick caused it and he wasn’t successful, he also saw how good of a diplomat you were and tapped into that with you. All of that is coming to a head right now. You have been working toward this your whole life.”
I hadn’t realized I needed that pep talk, but he was right. My father, as twisted and horrible as he had been, was the reason I had been writing letters and forging relationships with the other countries for years. Everything had led me here. Directly to her.
“Does Esta know about the treaty?” John asked as we stood and reached for our jackets.
The advisor meeting had started almost an hour ago. “No, I asked if we could crash the meeting, if Reyald could also be present, and she told me what time would be best. She will not be surprised about our showing up, but she doesn’t know why we are coming. She assumes I want to be there for her and also watch her father’s interactions.”
John smirked at me. “You want a lot more than to merely be there for her.”
I let out a sigh. “Is this the part where you again warn me to guard my heart and that Esta has the potential to destroy it? Because believe me, I am aware.”
“No,” John said firmly. “I—no. Not at all. You care for her greatly. That is a testament to who you are as a person. I will always support you, Keir.” He paused and seemed to be struggling with something he wanted to say. “Your father was a horrible man, and you are the farthest thing from it. While I watched him hurt you repeatedly over the years, I always fancied myself another such father figure in your life, but a decent one.”
I had never considered that. I’d always been close to John, pestering him constantly with questions growing up. Had I also been searching for the father figure that I had always wanted, but had figured out by age ten that I would never have? I couldn’t count the number of times I had found comfort or distraction at the library with the sages. John was a huge part of that. “You have always been there for me,” I finally stammered out.
“And I will be no matter how things end in Dra Skor, whether that finds you as king consort, or heading back to Wylan. When I warned you, it was the worries of a man who sees you like the son he never had. I was simply being protective.”
I took a moment to process that and swallow down my emotions. “Thank you. Thank you for always being the man that I could turn to with anything.” I gave my head a shake. “Not entirely sure how I am supposed to be witty and amazing in the war room now with everything else going on.”
Emric slid his hands together in anticipation. It was decided he and John would join me as usual, meanwhile Dex and Owen were getting a training session in, trying not to draw too much attention to what was about to go down. “You need me to run this one?”
“No,” John and I both said at the same exact time.
Emric feigned offense while I smirked. I could count on the two men before me. I could count on John to always have my back and I could count on Emric to be appropriately leading the emotions where they needed to go.
“Let’s go do this then,” Emric stated as we all left to head to the war room. “Think they’ll write a sea shanty about this one day?”
“Gods, I hope not,” John muttered.
“Wylan and Dra Skor entered into a treaty,” Emric sang out deep and with gusto to the same tune of the other sea shanty, the sound echoing in the hallway. The queen’s guards were there with us, the first people to know a treaty was in play thanks to Emric’s wailing.
“He’s just going to write this on the fly?” I whispered to John. “Before it is even presented or signed?”
Emric ignored us and continued, “The Wylan prince spoke to the queen oh so sweetly!”
“Do you really want children singing that?” John asked Emric.
Emric stilled. “Well, I couldn’t very well say that their passion is...greedy?”
John shook his head. “That—thatneeds some definite work.”
“Fine,” Emric deadpanned. “We’ll workshop it. Let’s go bring the entire realm peace instead.”
The doors openedas the guard stepped into the war room to tell Esta that theambassadorsfrom Wylan had arrived.
“Here goes nothing,” I said under my breath.
As I entered the room my eyes went first to Esta. She was wearing what I assumed were flying leathers as I had seen Malachi wear the male version of, and she was sitting in her position as queen. Though she could have worn makeup to cover her bruise, she didn’t. I had to admit I was a big fan of the leather pants look on her. It was equal parts intimidating and enticing.
Her father was there for this meeting sitting directly to her right. He might be suspicious of me, but I was suspicious of him right back.
