Page 16 of Enchanted Crown
The result was that he mumbled in our heads to us, but we couldn’t understand a damn thing he was saying. It was gibberish. I hadn’t been sure it would work. The shifter telepathy was odd, but I assumed if I stilled his head, whatever he used to speak to us would also be stuck. Our communication capacity was all in the brain, was it not?
Malachi let out a hearty laugh. “That.Thatis amazing.”
Enoch tried to speak to all of us again, his eyes squinting, the result the same. He just gurgled.
That is fantastic,Nyx breathed.Where was this the whole way here?
Esta gave me a smirk. “Okay. I’ll go get Emric.”
“Take Whit or Nyx, please?”
I’m going,Whit declared.Not a chance she flies alone.
I will also go,Zaccai said with a low nod to me. Which was odd. It had almost seemed like a bow.
As soon as they left, I turned to the land dragon who looked mad as hell, his tail and body lashing out in place of the words he had been using to do the same.
“Here’s the thing,” I said calmly, crossing my arms and leaning up against the edge of the cage. “After the blatant disrespect you have shown Esta, there’s not a chance in hell I let you loose.”
He started murmuring again.
I ignored it. “You are going to stay in a cell for a long time, but I remember from the last time our paths were unfortunate enough to cross that you were so miserable from being stuck in one form for so long, you partnered up with the wrong sort. A wrong decision.” I paused long enough to note that he was hanging on my every word. “So here’s the thing. I am going to drop my Enchantment momentarily and allow you the opportunity to make a right one. You tell us the name of who you were working for, and I will shift you back. You don’t go free, but you get to feel your human skin again.”
I gave that a moment to sink in before dropping my magic.
Surprisingly, he didn’t have anything more to say.
“All it takes is one name. One name of who bribed you to trap Kian and you get to feel your skin again. I’ll have to pour my Enchantment around you to rid the poison but look at Malachi here. It worked.”
Malachi stepped toward me as if punctuation to my point.
I could make up a name,Enoch stated.Any name.
“You could, yes, but this has to be the name of who you wereworking for. And we know the name is that of someone who knows the innerworkings at Halikaara. It would be quite unfortunate for you to be finally back in your human form after all these years, only to find death calling because you gave us false information.”
Enoch went quiet. Considering. Finally, a few minutes later, he said with sheer defeat,Either way, I will die.
“Not if you give us the information we want,” I countered. “You are free to spend the rest of your sentence in your human form if you give us this information. To be clear, this is a hell of deal we are offering you. You, a prisoner, getting a jump on the lottery. Not even all the queen’s advisors are healed yet.”
Enoch was so still you’d think my magic had turned him to stone.It’s not that.
Nyx whipped his tail around in anger.This is pointless.Let’s just kill him instead. One less mouth to feed.
I held up a hand to him and continued speaking to our prisoner. “What do you mean?”
My name for you. The name is not what you really want. You’ll kill me anyway.
Malachi and I looked at each other while we waited for him to further explain.
The only name I can give you is not the real person pulling strings. Merely another puppet, someone else being blackmailed. Numerous are these strings which entangle Dra Skor.
“I’m listening,” I told him. “How about you tell us the name and what happened. Without hurling insults everywhere. As long as it’s the truth, you can be in your human form within a few hours.”
Enoch let out a huge sigh and sloshed water around himself. I was engaged to be wed before the disease hit Dra Skor. Obviously, it is hard to work things out when stuck in two different forms. She eventually married someone else.A pause.And had a child with him.The person behind all this kidnapped that child. I do not even knowwho the true culprit is; I just knew that whoever it is had kidnapped my former fiancé's child. And though I knew that my life with her was over, I also couldn’t allow her child, a child that could have been ours under other circumstances, to die. So I worked with her husband to help free the child.
So the culprit took someone’s child to blackmail both Enoch and this other person?
Malachi ran a hand down his face. “Damn.”
