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)
Dravic cast a glance at her chest as he bent his head to her mouth. There was no rise and fall in her chest, though he felt a faint breath against his ear, or his own desperate need imagined one.
“I cannot be sure.” The words nearly broke in his throat.
Tharne came down beside them, and for a moment the two men simply stared at Adira. The king who loved her. The father who had spent years searching for her. Neither could do a damned thing.
Fiora flitted nearby helpless, tears in her eyes.
Dravic touched her cheek again. “Adira.”
He had commanded armies with less force than he put into her name.
“Wake,” he ordered.
Nothing. Not even a slight stirring.
His control began to fracture. “You hear me now. I know you do, so hear this.”
Tharne watched him, watched for any sign his daughter heard Dravic.
“I forbid you to leave me.”
The command would have been absurd under any other circumstance. Now it was the only thing he had.
“You told me without words that you loved me. You made me believe you would stay with me. So, open your eyes and prove it.”
He watched for even the slightest movement, a flutter of her eyelids, a strong rise to her chest. Nothing. There was nothing.
Dravic lowered his forehead to hers. “Adira.”
Her name came quieter this time. It was not a command. It was a plea.
“I love you, Adira. Don’t leave me. Life would be meaningless without you.”
Tharne stared at the king, realizing how much Dravic loved Adira, his daughter.
A sudden chill swept through the forest.
Dravic lifted his head, and Tharne froze beside him.
The cold deepened. Not the ordinary bite of winter, but something sharper, something that seemed to move through the trees and settle over the small clearing.
It was familiar to Dravic. He had felt it before. His gaze moved toward the forest and he spotted it. The dark, ethereal form floated between the trees… the healer who defied death.
For one stunned moment, relief struck him so hard he could not breathe.
But he quickly found his breath. “Help her.”
The words left Dravic before the spirit fully reached them.
The healer drifted closer, her shape shifting like smoke held together by will alone. The raised hood hid her face, while pale strands of luminous blonde hair stirred around her despite the still air.
Tharne stared, shaking his head slowly.
Dravic’s patience shattered when the spirit stopped, not coming any closer. “I am king. You will obey my command. You will save her.”
The spirit drifted back.
“Wait,” Dravic called out, tempering the fear that drove his anger. “Please, I beg you. Please save the woman I love beyond all reason. Please don’t let death take her from me.”
The ethereal form raised one hand and made a small motion.
Dravic understood that she wanted him to move, and he did only after he paused to brush his lips over Adira’s cold ones and whispered in her ear, “Stay with me, my love.”
He backed away no more than a few feet.
Tharne remained where he was.
The spirit turned toward him and made the same motion.
Tharne scowled. “I am her father.”
The healer gestured again, more firmly.
Dravic almost would have enjoyed watching someone else being ordered about by a creature who refused to speak, if terror had not been eating him alive.
“Move,” he ordered Tharne.
Tharne glared at him.
“Unless you want to argue with the only being here who may be able to save her.”
That ended it. Tharne stepped back.
The healer floated to Adira, then stopped.
Dravic waited for her to hover over Adira as she had over Cadby.
She did not. Instead, the dark figure remained motionless beside her.
Seconds passed, too many for Dravic. But he wisely held his tongue, though he clenched his fists.
The ethereal form finally moved, slowly lowering herself until the shifting darkness brushed along Adira’s body.
Dravic watched as the edges of the spirit began to blur and it looked as though she would disappear. He went to step toward her, but Tharne caught his arm.
“Wait,” Tharne urged.
Dravic jerked free but stopped and watched as the healer continued to fade, not away… but into Adira.
The dark mist seemed to sink slowly into her body, curling around her shoulders, her arms, her face before vanishing beneath her skin. The luminous strands of hair were the last thing Dravic saw, dissolving like pale light before they too disappeared.
The healer was gone and the forest turned silent.
Dravic rushed to Adira, Tharne close behind him.
Adira remained motionless as Dravic dropped down beside her.
“Adira,” Dravic said with a deep breath as if he breathed for her.
Still, she didn’t move.
Panic surged through him. What had the healer done? Why hadn’t she saved her?
Tharne stared at his daughter. “Why doesn’t she wake?”
“I don’t know,” Dravic said and touched her face gently.
Her lashes moved.
Dravic froze. “Adira?”
Her breath came suddenly, deep and sharp.
Dravic caught her as her body jerked and she sat up.