Page 171 of Destiny of a King

“In one day, I learned that Feena was my mother, Tharne was my father, my life had been altered by magic, and I was the healer everyone had been searching for. Everyone knew who I was.” She shook her head. “Except me.”

“You are and always will be Adira.”

“To you.”

“To everyone,” he said, as if commanding it.

She shook her head. “Nay. To my parents I was their daughter. To those who sought the superior healer, I was someone with a power they wanted. To Scotara I would become the king’s queen.”

She rested her hand over the swell of her stomach. “But I needed to know who I was to me.”

“And now?” he asked, impatiently.

Adira smiled. “I know.”

He waited.

“I am Adira.”

Dravic’s eyes scrunched in annoyance. “I told you that before you left.”

She laughed softly. “Aye, you did.”

“And it took five months to realize I was right? You didn’t think once of coming back to me?”

“I almost did many times.”

“You should have,” he said, that she almost did but didn’t, hurting more than he expected.

“I wasn’t ready.”

Dravic looked ready to argue.

“I needed the time, Dravic,” she said, no excuse, simply the truth.

He remained silent.

“And I needed to know that when I returned, it was because I chose the life waiting for me. Not because you commanded it. Not because my parents expected something from me. Not because Scotara needed the healer I might become.” Her eyes held his. “But because it was the life that the new me was capable of embracing without bringing harm to others.”

“You mean people chasing after you because of your abilities,” he said, having given thought to that himself.

She nodded. “It took me time to understand them, embrace them, make them part of me, and know I was capable of handling them, controlling them.”

“Your abilities, your power, mean nothing to me. If you never want to use them, I don’t care. I care only that we are together.”

“I feel the same, but I cannot ignore what is part of me, and I will not have it control me.”

“And have you learned to control it?” he asked cautiously.

She laughed once again. “I have, and I owe that to you.”

“Me?” he asked, perplexed.

“Dealing with a king was no easy task, but it gave me the patience and understanding to embrace what otherwise could have been a difficult task.”

“Are you saying I am difficult?” he asked sternly, a slight smile peeking through.

“Not at all, my king,” she said and kissed his cheek.