Page 157 of Destiny of a King

His arm went around Adira. “I don’t have to. She can hear you.”

They stared in shock as did the others in the room.

Adira stared at them… her parents.

She had spent her life, after believing her mum had died, that she had no one. No family. No one who had chosen her. Only an old woman who had been kind enough to take her in. Yet standing before her were two people who had loved each other enough to defy what the world expected of them. Two people who had loved her enough to hide her.

Knowing the truth did not erase the difficult years she had spent wondering why she had been different from everyone around her. Why people shunned her, ridiculed her.

Her fingers tightened around Dravic’s. He was the one person who accepted her as she was from the start. It mattered not to him that she could not hear or speak. He spoke to her anyway. He kept her close. He protected her. He cared for her.

And most importantly, he loved her for her, afflictions and all.

The thought touched her heart, and she turned her head to him when she heard him say…

“If you both carried such gifts…” Dravic’s gaze moved between Faith and Tharne. “Then explain something to me. Why?” His voice hardened. “Why was she unable to hear or speak?”

Anger marked his words. Anger at the two people who had made that choice for her.

“You possessed magic. You possessed healing. Yet your daughter lived for years unable to hear the world around her and unable to make her own voice heard.” He shot an angry glare at each of them. “Explain.”

Faith took a slow breath and looked to Adira. “I will explain it all.”

“But the explanation belongs to both of us,” Tharne said, keeping his arm around Faith. “It was my magic that did it. But it was Faith who carried the burden of doing it.”

Adira looked between them, finding what they were saying difficult to believe. Both her parents had condemned her to a life of silence.

“When you were born,” Faith said, “your father felt the strength of the magic within you. If nurtured, he feared it would be unlike anything he had ever encountered. So, we decided not to nurture it. But to wait and see and only then do what was necessary to protect you.”

Tharne’s expression tightened. “I knew if it grew that others might sense it, they would come for you. So, I taught your mum a spell that would keep you safe until you were old enough and strong enough to no longer need its protection. Then it would fade away on its own.”

“And when you began to return life to forest animals that had recently died, I knew I had to use the spell, and I did so with a heavy heart. The spell also transformed me into an older woman so no one would ever suspect you were my daughter.”

Dravic heard her but it took a moment to settle in. Adira had brought dead animals back to life. That could only mean one thing, and he did not want to believe it.

“What powers does Adira actually possess?”

Adira was glad she could not speak for she did not want to admit to herself what her parents were about to say.

Fiora suddenly settled herself on Adira’s shoulder and whispered, “I will help you, however you choose.”

Adira nodded, grateful to Fiora for understanding what she was only beginning to realize.

Faith looked from Dravic to her daughter. “Adira is the superior healer you search for.”

A strange hush settled over the hall, almost as if people were afraid to speak, to take a breath.

Then Adira shot to her feet, startling everyone.

The bench scraped sharply across the stone floor as she released Dravic’s hand and hurried from the Great Hall.

He didn’t stop her, but he went after her. He knew where she was going… the forest.

He followed her out of the castle and across the grounds, catching sight of her as she reached the edge of the woods and disappeared among the trees.

Dravic lengthened his stride and caught up with her before she had gone far. When he was a short distance from her, his arm shot out, his hand gripping her arm, and turned her around.

“Enough,” he ordered, not a trace of anger in his voice.