Page 70 of Enchanted Crown
I clenched my teeth as I turned back to Archer and bit out, “And there was a part two to this?”
Archer gave his head a shake. “I’m not sure which is most unsettling. It’s the servants who were ordered to clean up the mess in Morana’s room.”
I cocked my head, listening. I felt down the bond Esta was okay. That was the only thing keeping my feet even remotely planted.
“The blood was . . . in a pattern.”
CHAPTER 25
“What kind of pattern?”
Archer shrugged. “Unfortunately, the servants have cleaned up too many bloody messes the past few months. The dining room had plenty. They could tell where things happened, but there would be random drips or sprays based on the extent of the injuries.”
Considering that some of that was likely Esta’s blood had my Enchantment flaring, raging.
“This though? Morana’s room? They said it was almostmethodical. Regardless of the amount, the servants say it was too clean if someone really killed her. Even the bloodied footprints were too perfect.”
“What does this mean?” John asked.
Archer’s eyes went to the balcony doors, still wide open from when Esta had left. “They think it may have been manufactured.”
A soul deep rage lit through me, resulting in my veins fully lighting up my body, wings included. With everything we had learned that day, all signs were pointing to Jagen being our traitor. Yet I knew better. There were too many thingsnotadding up.Jagen feeling framed. Samori acting off. Morana conveniently going missing when Nana Mallick began her investigating into the royal family in our absence. “Morana.”
“Is not truly dead at all, it seems,” John finished for me, as I was too angry to say anything but her name. “But wanted us all to believe so.”
“Not only is she likely not dead, she is trying to frame Jagen for everything,” I finally bit out.Be careful,I added to Esta, quickly filling her in on everything Archer just said. “The only question remains is if she is working alone or with her father or brother.”
“And the only thing standing between Morana and the crown is Jagen, Esta, and her own father,” Emric added. “I don’t think her father at his current health would last a month in those cells.”
All of these were things I already knew. But hearing them voiced out loud was making my rage go nowhere. I thought back to every interaction I had with the queen’s cousin and found there hadn’t been all that many. Yet a conversation from months ago came to the forefront of my mind. We had been at the ball she had requested, one to celebrate Malachi and Esta being healed.
“It always works out in the end if only our wills are strong enough to withstand the wait for opportunity,”she’d said to me.
But she hadn’t been waiting for opportunities to present themselves, she’d been wearing a mask of niceties while creating them all along. It’d been her. The puppet master. The face behind the mask. The grand orchestrator.
It was her. Disguised as the loyal cousin, general to the queen.
“We need to find her.” Yet there I stood. Still. In my rooms like a good lover. Not helping my soul bound mate. But I also knew Esta well enough. I knew she would want to up the patrols, move Jagen and Charlotte again tonight, and alert both her generals and advisors.
“Get me Malachi when he’s done helping Esta check in on Jagen,” I said to Miles. “Malachi and the advisors.”
“War room or here?” he asked.
“War room is fine.” I paused and looked to Archer. “Thank you. Your swift actions tonight likely saved lives.”
“It’s what I’m here for, right?”
I shook my head. “No. Tonight was above and beyond.Thank you.”
I was exhausted and angry, but it seemed the night was young. I would make sure that Esta’s advisors were waiting for her as soon as she was done.
We finally had a face to blame for all of this.
Hours later,we finally made it back to my room. No one had found Morana, but we did have the entire castle alerted that she was to be apprehended immediately, a threat to anyone who saw her.
I inhaled deeply and headed out to the balcony of my room. The place where Esta first slept over in her dragon form. Back when I didn’t even know what she looked like in her human form.
But I had known enough.
