“Moreann is used to being in charge and in control. Of course, being an empress for so long has a way of doing that.”
Cain could well imagine Moreann and Usaeil butting heads. Both coveted power—and neither shared it well. “The times you saw Usaeil and Moreann together, how were they?”
“Tense. As far back as I can remember, their alliance was tenuous at best. But Moreann needed Usaeil, and at the time, Usaeil needed Moreann.” Noreen shrugged. “Things changed for Usaeil.”
“But no’ Moreann.” Cain thought about that for a moment. “I doona think the empress was blind to what Usaeil was doing.”
Noreen twisted her lips as she moved her hair away from her face. “Moreann never said anything specific to me, but she was very distrusting of Usaeil, and it had gotten worse these last few years. Not that either of them could do anything.”
“The magic binding them,” Cain said with a nod. “That kind of bond is extremely powerful, but there are always ways to get out of such a promise.”
“Not this one.”
“Why do you say that?”
Noreen blew out a breath and looked at the lake. “It had to do with the words used. And before you ask, I don’t know what they were. I just remember one night, not long after my parents were killed, that I woke to hear arguing. It was Moreann and Usaeil, and they were talking about the promise that bound them.”
“Did one want to break it?”
“I don’t know,” Noreen said with a frustrated look in his direction. “I can recall the voices because I recognized Usaeil’s as well as Moreann’s, and I can remember the heated argument regarding the magic used in their promise to each other, but everything else is fuzzy.”
Cain raked a hand through his hair and turned in a slow circle to look around him. “Doona worry about it. Everything you’re telling me is important.”
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
“Whoever formed this shield. It didna make itself.”
Noreen threw out her hands before letting them fall to her sides. “You flew over the entire area and saw nothing. There isn’t anyone here.”
“No’ now, but they could return.”
“We’ll deal with them when and if it happens.”
He swiveled his head to her. “And if I’m no’ here?”
“Then I’ll do whatever I need to do to survive. Now, let’s get back to discussing Moreann and the Others.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Earth
“We can’t find her.”
Magic sizzled in Moreann’s hand at the sound of Brian’s voice behind her. “You mean you can’t find her.” She whirled to face him. The moment her gaze landed on him, he took a step back, and his face paled. “How hard did you look? I’m guessing not very.”
Confusion filled his features. “That isn’t true at all. I looked everywhere.”
Off to her left, Orun stood in the long, white robes favored by many on their homeworld. The drough had been Moreann’s advisor since her second year on the throne. He was also her counterpart on the Others. Orun had despised Brian from the first moment they met.
Then again, Orun hated everyone. She knew he even disliked her. She didn’t take it personally. It was just his way. The fact that he was loyal was enough for her.
“I did warn you he wouldn’t measure up,” Orun stated.
Brian’s gaze snapped to him as fury blazed in his silver eyes. “It wouldn’t matter if I had found Noreen and brought her here, you’d still find fault with me.”
“Yes,” Orun replied. “Because you’re lacking in all things.”
“I’m an Other. That means, I’m something,” Brian retorted.
Moreann rolled her eyes and held up a hand, silencing both of them. Her gaze moved behind Brian where the two human Druids stood. The females, while lacking the power flowing in Brian’s Fae veins, had more backbone than he. It was too bad they were mortal.
If they had been born on her realm, then they would’ve been strong. Or they might have been, if the magic stopped draining away. What had begun as just an odd happening had turned into more and more of her people being born without power until she could no longer ignore it.
That’s when she had taken matters into her own hands and looked around for another realm for herself and her people. It had taken many, many years before she found the perfect location—Earth. The only problem was that it was occupied by beings stronger than she.
But that hadn’t deterred her. Moreann was nothing if not resourceful. She watched the dragons for years, moving from clan to clan to see how each worked and figuring out the hierarchy of things.
That’s when her plan formed. The dragons were noble creatures, and she had guessed that they would protect those weaker than they. It was a calculated risk, but one that had to be taken.
When she chose those among her people without magic, she hadn’t told them what was going to happen to them. She simply wiped their memories of all but their names and dumped them on Earth. Then she sat back and watched.
There had been a moment where she’d thought the Kings might just eat the humans, but to her amazement, they welcomed her people instead. And with that one move, the Kings sealed their doom.
Though they hadn’t yet realized it.
Moreann wasn’t just resourceful. She was patient. While the Kings, dragons, and mortals were learning to live alongside one another, she was using the most powerful of those on her realm to her benefit.
She still regretted their deaths, but they sacrificed their lives in the hopes of saving their species—even if they did it unknowingly. She had known exactly what would happen to them. And while the strongest Druids of their realm were kept protected in case they were needed in war, Moreann had ignored the rules put in place eons before that ensured their realm was always guarded.
Because she knew she could protect it if need be. So, she’d made the hard decision and ordered those Druids to channel their magic and combine it. Once they did as she commanded, she used them to see into the future of the dragons and Earth. She learned so very much about the Dragon Kings and how she could bring them down, but unfortunately, she didn’t learn everything.
The magic she forced the Druids to use killed each and every one of them before she could see the end to the war. Moreann had been making decisions for the last decade based solely on her gut. She hadn’t known that the Kings would find their mates, or that Usaeil would turn on her. And she certainly hadn’t seen that Usaeil would fall for Constantine.
“Empress?” Orun called.
Moreann lowered her hand that she hadn’t realized was still raised. For so long, she had known exactly which moves to make because the Druids had shown her. Why couldn’t they have lasted long enough to bring her clarity on the final war? Then again, Moreann had believed that everything she’d done would be enough to bring the Kings to their knees.
How wrong she’d been.
And Noreen. That was something that would be dealt with soon. Very soon.
“I’ve always been able to find you,” she told the others in the room. “Do you know why?”
“Because of the strength of your magic,” the mortal Druid with dark skin and hair said.