Page 151 of Destiny of a King

Spotting Dravic, the men stepped away from whatever lay on the ground.

Dravic saw it then… Adira.

Everything inside him went cold. She lay crumpled beside a jagged rock, one arm thrown awkwardly across the ground, her dark cloak twisted beneath her. Blood stained the side of her head and the snow beneath her.

She did not move.

Her name tore from him in a heart-wrenching roar. “ADIRA.”

The mercenaries went for their swords, one barely having time to raise his sword.

Dravic reached him first.

His blade swept aside the man’s weapon and drove deep before Dravic wrenched it free and continued forward. The second mercenary lunged toward him, but Tharne intercepted the blow and answered with one that sent the man sprawling.

The third ran.

Neither Dravic nor Tharne went after him.

Ernach stood several paces from Adira.

Dravic spotted the dagger in his hand, saw the blood on the blade from where it had nicked Adira’s throat earlier, and then he saw nothing but Adira.

He ran to her, dropping his sword, and went to his knees beside her.

He barely got out her name, his throat choked with fear. “Adira.”

He touched her face carefully. Cold air had chilled her skin, but she was warm beneath it. That should have reassured him.

It didn’t.

Her eyes remained closed. Blood matted her hair near her temple, and she lay lifeless, not a stir or twitch to her.

Dravic slid one hand beneath her neck, afraid to move her and equally afraid not to.

“Adira, open your eyes.”

He got no response. His heart hammered so violently that his chest hurt.

He brushed the hair away from her face. “Wake up, Adira.”

Still nothing.

Behind him steel clashed, but Dravic barely registered the sound.

Tharne had gone for Ernach.

The warlord did not shout nor did he threaten. He simply attacked with a fury that required no words.

Ernach staggered beneath the first blow.

Tharne growled like an animal bent on revenge. “You should have kept your hands off my daughter.”

Ernach caught the next strike barely in time. “She was nothing but a means to an end.”

The foolish words unleashed Tharne’s fury.

That was the last mistake Ernach made.