Page 43 of Enchanted Crown
“Always,” she responded back.
Gods I loved this woman. I had fallen for Esta fast, but this old woman was quickly wiggling her space into my heart too. “I thought Reyald brought us to you solely for the purpose of showing me how hard getting Dra Skor’s approval would be.”
She snorted a laugh. “He likely did. None of my offspring will ever have my full approval. They have too much of my late husband in them for me to ever be that foolish.” She rolled her eyes. “But you’re notallbad.”
Without warning, I reached out around her for a one-armed hug. Probably not the place to, but I couldn’t help it. While everyone else was intimidated by her, I found her charming. It was only her cane you had to watch out for.
As I pulled away, she gave me the strangest look accompanied by, “It has been a while.”
“Since you’ve been hugged by an enemy?”
“Since I have been hugged,” she confirmed. “Normally I dole them out. Don’t get too many.”
I leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, “Even queens need hugs, Isolde.”
She smacked me with her cane on the shoe. “Go be charming elsewhere.”
Laughing, I spun only to find some very green eyes that I was quite familiar with.
“Your Highness,” I bowed.
“I—” she cut off. “Did you just hug my grandmother?”
“Yes.”
She gave her head a shake. “I shouldn’t be surprised considering all the touching you did upon your arrival,” a smirk gracedher lips, “yet I am astonished at how quickly the two of you have become thick as thieves.”
“Thieves of your heart, we can only hope.”
She glared at me, not falling for my cheesery. “I only came this way to let you know there will be a performance of sorts and then I will kick off the dancing and the evening will officially begin.”
“Thank you for the heads up.”
She shook her head as she spun to leave. “I leave you alone for an hour and you manage to hug Nana Ice.”
The smile on her face was worth it though.
Malachi sidled back up to me as soon as Esta left.
“Really?” I asked him.
“She terrifies me,” Malachi confirmed. “When we were kids, Esta and I would play this game where we would fly high, shift, and let ourselves fall in our human forms, before shifting back just in time to avoid death. Someone saw it and Nana got word.”
“Oh no.”
“Yeah. Never had my butt handed to me quite like that. She told me I was encouraging Dra Skor’s next great queen to make poor decisions. To risk her life. I felt about an inch tall.”
I smirked, wishing I could have known them all for longer.
At that moment the lanterns were extinguished. We all filed off the dance floor for the performance and I lost Malachi in the melee.
Dancers took to the floor, one dressed as a dragon, one as a wolf, one as a tigress, one as a horse. The way they wove around one another and together to the music was inspiring. More than once, I found I had chills. It was a musical representation of what the shifters could do together as one.
As the dragon dancer spun off the floor, a dragon swooped in from the open ceiling and landed just before shifting. Esta.
The wolf spun off next, and in swooped Whit from the ceiling, shifting and landing beside her.
The tigress was next, but instead of coming down from the ceiling, Amory sped out of nowhere, leaping up onto a platform.
