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)
Adira lost sight of him when a horse reared between them. The animal’s scream pierced straight through her.
She barely squeezed her eyes shut when a hand seized her arm.
Adira gasped and opened her eyes. It wasn’t Dravic.
With a rough yank, he dragged her toward him. She fought immediately, twisting and striking at his hand, but he tightened his grip.
Dravic saw and he let out a roar of fury as he easily cut down three men in his path to get to her.
The attacker spotted him and quickly released Adira and fled into the fighting.
Dravic caught her against him. “I told you to stay with me.”
Adira stared at him. Even furious, even with men fighting and dying around them, fear for her filled his eyes.
She hastily responded, grabbing hold of his hand and moving closer to him.
His hand closed around hers. “I will not lose you.”
She stared, the words a precious gift, but hearing him say it, a true blessing.
“My king!”
Dravic turned at Seger’s shout.
Three men were coming at them. He pushed Adira behind him, returning to the battle.
The fighting seemed to go on forever, though Adira knew it could not have been long. Slowly, the king’s warriors gained the advantage. Fewer attackers emerged from the trees. Several fled when they saw their companions falling more quickly.
“Don’t let them escape!” Dravic ordered.
Some of his men broke away in pursuit, the rest continued fighting.
Adira’s breathing came fast. She could still hear everything, but the terrible confusion of sound had begun to separate. She could distinguish the ring of swords from men’s voices now. She could hear Dravic breathing heavily as he fought only a few feet away.
Then she heard something behind her, a rush of footsteps.
Adira turned.
A man barreled toward her. She saw his face only briefly before he slammed both hands into her.
The force sent her stumbling backward. Her boot got snagged on something beneath the snow. She fell back with force and pain exploded through the back of her head when it struck the trunk of a tree.
Stunned, her body sank, her bottom hitting the snow-covered ground.
Then Dravic was suddenly there. She did not see him cross the distance between them. One moment the attacker stood over her and the next… he was gone, Dravic standing there.
He dropped his blood-covered sword and crouched beside Adira, his hands going to her face. “Adira.”
She heard him, though his voice seemed farther away now.
Her eyes fluttered, trying to clear her vision.
“Look at me.”
She did, though his face was fuzzy.
Relief flashed across his face, but it disappeared quickly beneath concern. His fingers moved carefully over the back of her head.
Adira winced when he found the tender spot.
“No blood.”
She heard that too.
Dravic slipped his hand beneath her chin, turning her face one way and then the other as he studied her eyes.
“You stay right here,” he ordered as he helped her sit more securely against the broad tree trunk.
Dravic looked toward his men, then back at her, plainly torn between his responsibility to them and his refusal to leave her. The fighting was nearly over, but he still had a duty.
“Fiora!” Dravic roared.
The fairy sped through the fighting, ducking and darting her way to Dravic.
“Stay with her,” Dravic commanded.
Fiora’s eyes widened when she saw Adira. “What happened?”
“She struck her head. Do not leave her.”
“Have no worries, I will stay with her.”
Though Fiora could be a pest, Dravic had come to realize she was a loyal pest.
He gave her a nod and turned to Adira once more. She managed to smile, faint as it was. So, it did little to ease the concern in his eyes, but he was king and duty called. He had to go. He rose, retrieved his sword and turned toward the aftermath of the battle.
Bodies littered the snow. Several of his warriors were injured, one sitting against a rock while another bound his arm. Seger was already moving among the men, assessing wounds and calling for those still able to help.
Dravic’s gaze swept them. “Who have we lost?”
Seger looked toward him.
Something in the Hunter’s face had Dravic moving before he answered.
Dravic saw the men gathered several yards away and knew before he reached them that something was terribly wrong. They parted at his approach, revealing Cadby stretched out on the snow, one of the Hunters kneeling beside him.
Blood covered the front of Cadby’s tunic and spread beneath him, staining the snow a deep red. His eyes were closed and his face had lost nearly all its color, while each breath seemed to require more effort than the one before it.
Dravic lowered himself beside him. “How bad?”
The Hunter looked at him and simply shook his head.
There was no need for words. Dravic had seen enough men die on battlefields to recognize when death had already laid claim to one of them.
His gaze settled on Cadby. The man had ridden out of Caerith with him without question, had followed him into Driochmor and fought beside him only moments ago. Duty demanded it, but it was loyalty, not to a king, but to the kingdom his warriors fought, and bravely. Now there was nothing Dravic could do but watch as the last of his warrior’s life slipped away.