Page 150 of Destiny of a King

A small golden light shot through the doorway beside the dais, catching Dravic’s attention.

Fiora flew straight toward him. “Dravic!”

Something in her voice turned his blood cold. “What happened?”

“Ernach has men everywhere. Hundreds, maybe. They’re moving out now and then they will strike the Driochmor High Council, killing them all. He plans to take all of Scotara.”

“Where is Adira?” Dravic demanded with worry, though relieved to hear the fighting dying behind him.

Fiora hesitated, a rare tear appearing in the corner of one eye.

Dravic’s heart slammed against his chest. “Tell me, Fiora.”

“Adira tried to escape.”

Tharne was suddenly beside Dravic, blood streaking one sleeve, his blade red. He stared at Fiora, waiting.

“She fell, hit her head, blood pooled beneath. She hasn’t moved.”

Dravic let out a savage roar that froze everyone in the room.

“Take me to her,” he ordered Fiora.

“I go with you,” Tharne said forcefully.

For the first time since entering the Great Hall, neither king nor warlord stood against the other.

Together they followed Fiora.

Chapter Thirty-Five

A Life Lost

A Power Awakened

Dravic followed Fiora into the forest at a run.

Branches whipped at his cloak and caught at his sleeves, but he barely noticed them. He heard Tharne behind him, keeping pace without effort, the heavy strike of the warlord’s boots never far away. And somewhere behind them, his warriors followed.

Neither man spoke. There was nothing to say.

Adira lay somewhere ahead of them, bleeding and unmoving. That knowledge had stripped everything else from Dravic’s mind. Ernach. The crown. The mercenaries. The attack on the High Council. Even the truth about his parents had been shoved aside beneath one overwhelming need.

Get to her.

Fiora’s golden light darted between the trees, disappearing for a heartbeat behind thick trunks before reappearing farther ahead.

“Hurry!” she called.

Dravic’s jaw clenched. As if anything in this world could make him move faster than the thought of Adira lying hurt somewhere beyond his reach.

The ground began to slope.

Fiora suddenly dropped lower. “There!”

Dravic saw the men first.

Three mercenaries stood near the bottom of the slight incline. One was bent over something on the ground while another looked as if trying to decide whether to flee or fight. Beyond them stood Ernach.