Page 139 of Enchanted Crown
Now,I again told Esta. Even as I sent more and more magic out to cover us in thicker protection. I willed that the domes would be fireproof. This worked in the fire in the forest the night before my father tried to kill Krew, so why wouldn’t it work now?
If it didn’t work, Esta’s fire would kill us all and I knew without a doubt she would never forgive herself for it. Never recover.
It’s going to work,I told her. We had a narrow window here. Mere seconds before my plan would be shot to hell.
I can’t do it. I can’t use my flame on you.
I felt her anguish. I felt how wrong this all felt to her. That her dragon fire would go anywhere near me. I looked to her, to see a lone dragon tear fall from her eye.You can do this. You won’t hurt me, sweetheart.
Morana tried to move to a hostage since she couldn’t get the dagger from me. I was sure she had other weapons hidden nearby.
We had to do this now. We were out of time.
Esta,I snapped.Now.
I love you,she cried just before she inhaled deeply and rained molten hot flames down onto us.
CHAPTER 46
Dragon flames burned with the strength of a thousand suns. Esta’s orange and yellow flames were all around me, surrounding the barrier of magic around me and immediately suffocating all air. Dragon flames did not merely burn, they were highly concentrated. Theyconsumed.
Much to my own shock, even as she kept breathing flames onto us, I saw and felt Esta’s purple magic race across the floor and add to my own. Strengthening it.
I heard a scream I hoped was Morana’s as I focused and sent more of my power out, hoping the barriers held. I let out a yell of my own under the weight of the flames. The sheer heat of them.
A little more,I urged Esta, even as I fell to my knees.
And when I felt the flames lick at me, even from around my dome, when I felt my barriers cracking, only then did I tell her to stop.
My barriers fell at almost the same time her flame did, the world slamming back into focus. The smoke was thick and everywhere, burning my eyes and throat both, causing me to cough.
Zaire was crouched behind Esta, shielding his still-human face from the heat, and Morana was nowhere to be seen.
I spun one way then the other. Where the hell could she have gone? I swore I had heard her cry out in pain, yet there was no body to be found among us. No ashes.
She ran,Esta informed me.I stopped the flames as soon as she did.
I could feel down our bond what she wasn’t saying. The reason she hadn’t already tore after her was her concern for me. She had to make sure she hadn’t killed me. More than she needed Morana dead, she needed me alive.
“I’m fine, Es,” I told her.
Zaire was there before I had another thought. “I have to get that out of your wing.”
He grabbed hold and pulled on the dagger. I couldn’t restrict the scream in my throat from the pain of it.
She will never hurt you again,Esta promised, already stomping for the entrance to her lair.
She didn’t have to say a thing more, I understood a dragon on the hunt when I saw one.
One of the hostages was yelling through the rope in their mouth, so much so that Zaire reached down and cut their rope with the dagger. It was the farmer from Rael.
“Ronan,” I greeted.
“Her lair,” he gasped out. “It’s—” He stopped to cough, the smoke still settled in Esta’s lair, a deadly fog.
Everything slammed into place in my head in that moment. I distinctly remembered Avril’s words.She has a way out. She’s always had a way out.
“It’s a tunnel,” I finished for him.
