Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105132 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105132 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Her fingers were icy and he quickly closed his hand firmly around hers, surrounding it with warmth as they continued deeper into the forest.
After a few steps, Adira stopped and pointed toward the trees.
Dravic followed the direction of her finger. He saw nothing of consequence.
She pointed again.
This time toward a pair of rabbits darting across the snow before disappearing beneath a fallen log. Before he could speak, she pointed elsewhere. Sunlight broke through the evergreen branches, scattering across untouched snow until it sparkled like countless tiny crystals.
Again, she pointed.
Bird tracks stitched delicate patterns across the white ground. Then to crimson berries clinging stubbornly to winter-bare branches.
He realized then that she was not pointing at just one thing. She was showing him the forest—not the hunting grounds he had ridden through countless times, nor the woodland surrounding his castle. It was a living place, filled with wonders he had never once thought to notice.
Adira knelt once again, this time brushing snow away from another patch of ground. Smiling, she pulled off her remaining glove and dropped it beside the first.
Dravic frowned. The cold would soon numb her hands. He caught her hand and pointed to the gloves lying in the snow.
Adira glanced at them briefly, then gently slipped her hand free and wandered off toward another patch of snow where something else had caught her attention.
Dravic glared at her back. How dare she walk away while he was in the middle of giving her a command? Muttering under his breath, he bent to retrieve the gloves. As he straightened, a tiny golden light flashed before his face so close that he jerked back in surprise.
It darted left, then right. Then it hovered so near his nose that he was forced to lean back.
Tiny hands settled firmly on tiny hips.
“King Fool.”
Dravic’s eyes narrowed. “Fairy.”
“Fiora. Are you too afraid to acknowledge me by name? Too afraid I would become all too real to you just as Adira may become all too real if you refuse to see the obvious.”
“I see Adira quite clearly,” he snapped, annoyed he was even speaking to the little pest.
Fiora’s tiny finger pointed toward Adira. “Is that so? Then you see that she hears with her hands.”
“At the moment, I see that her hands will freeze if she does not put her gloves on.”
Fiora rolled her eyes dramatically. “Your sight is far too narrow.”
“Mind your tongue,” he snapped again, growing more irritated.
“Or what?” she challenged, folding her arms. “You’ll finally catch me? You’ve not managed it yet.”
Dravic swung the gloves at her, striking nothing but air.
She had already vanished in a streak of golden light, her laughter dancing through the trees. “You missed!”
He swung again.
She darted behind his shoulder.
Again, he missed.
“A king who cannot even catch a fairy,” she taunted, laughing harder.
“I have had enough of your insolence,” he admonished and swatted once more.
Again, she slipped effortlessly aside.
Then—a snowball struck him squarely in the face. Snow slid down his cheek and along his jaw, before dropping onto his cloak.
Everything turned silent.
For one small heartbeat, Fiora stared in stunned silence, then she burst into delighted laughter. “She got you!”
The laughter died almost as quickly as it had begun.
Six guards reached instinctively for the hilts of their swords and hurried forward.
Dravic never looked their way. He simply raised one hand, the silent command stopping them where they stood.
His gaze remained fixed on Adira. She stood frozen, one hand still outstretched from throwing the snowball.
She had not meant to hit him in the face. She meant only to stop him from swinging at the fairy.
Her eyes darted from the snow still clinging to his cloak to Fiora, who hovered nearby laughing so hard she could scarcely remain aloft. Then she looked back to the king.
Slowly, very slowly, Dravic wiped the melting snow from his face. Then without a word, he bent and scooped up a handful of snow. Methodically, he packed it together, turning it once in his hands until it formed a perfect snowball.
The guards exchanged uneasy glances and took several steps back.
Dravic straightened, his eyes locked on Adira.
Then he threw it. The snowball sailed through the air right past Adira’s shoulder, striking the trunk of a pine several feet to her left, where it burst apart in a shower of white.
Adira stared, then she looked at the shattered snow on the tree, then back at the king.
She was not sure what to do. She had enjoyed snowball fights when she was young, had not had one since then. She simply could not let the joyfulness of those memories slip away.
A smile spread across her face, one that sparkled with mischief. She crouched, gathered another handful of snow and quickly fashioned a snowball.
Before Dravic could make another, she let hers fly.
It struck him squarely on the shoulder.
Fiora clapped her tiny hands. “A snowball fight. You get him, Adira!”