Chapter 38 #2
Her gentle laugh stopped him for a moment, his heart hammering in his chest hearing it. Then all the anger he had carried through the long winter simply disappeared and he hurried to her.
He caught her face between his hands. “You are truly here.”
“Aye,” she assured him, her smile wide.
“And you are well?” he asked anxiously.
“I am.”
His gaze dropped once more to her rounded stomach. “And our bairn?”
Adira took his hand and placed it on her stomach and as if the bairn knew his da’s touch, he let loose with a kick.
Dravic’s eyes went wide with wonder. “He is strong.”
“Like his da,” she said with a whisper.
Dravic pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
He had kissed her many times, but this felt different. It felt as if part of himself that had been missing returned. Two joined as one. He felt whole and he never wanted to feel as empty as he had without her ever again.
He had barely lifted his mouth from hers when a small golden light shot between them.
Dravic jerked back.
Fiora hovered directly in front of his face, hands planted on her hips.
He stared at her. “So, this is where you’ve been, you bloody traitor. Here with Adira.”
“Someone had to look after her,” Fiora scolded.
Dravic scowled at her. “You could have told me where she was.”
Fiora laughed. “Not my place.”
“Not your place? I spent the entire winter miserable without her, worried senselessly about her. And you could have prevented all that.”
Fiora darted to Adira’s shoulder. “See? I told you he would be angry.”
Dravic’s eyes sparked with anger.
“You said furious,” Adira corrected.
Dravic glared at them both.
“She needed time to improve,” Fiora said.
“She needed no improving,” Dravic snapped.
Adira smiled, hearing him defend her. That had not changed.
Dravic pointed at Fiora. “You, however, remain a bloody nuisance.”
“And yet I found her before you did.”
“I am going to find a good cage to keep you in,” Dravic threatened.
“A cage, you say.” Fiora let loose with a hearty laugh. “You’d have to catch me first. Something you haven’t been able to do since I snuck into your castle.” She flew up away from him. “I will leave you two alone since I take pity on you for taking so long to find her.”
Her laughter followed her as she disappeared into the trees.
Dravic shook his head. “Bloody fairies.”
Adira smiled and took his hand, leading him toward the cottage.
He followed, his gaze dropping again to the roundness of her stomach. He was going to be a father, secure an heir to the throne, see his bloodline survive, but most importantly, it would not be accomplished because of duty. It would be done out of love.
He tightened his hand around hers.
Adira glanced at him.
“I am making certain you do not disappear again.”
“I am not going anywhere.”
“I will have your word on that,” he ordered.
She gave it without hesitation. “You have my word.”
“Good,” he said, overwhelmed with relief.
They reached the cottage, and Adira led him inside.
The door barely closed behind them when he said, “You owe me an explanation.”
Adira’s brow rose.
“You left me sleeping and disappeared.”
Adira took hold of both his hands. “I did not leave because I stopped loving you.”
“That was never a question in my mind.”
She was relieved to hear that and explained, “I needed to know who I was.”
Dravic said nothing. He listened.
“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.
Dravic captured her lips in more than a light kiss. “Are you ready now? Will you return to Caerith with me?”
Adira’s heart caught. Dravic did not command. He did not tell her what would happen. He asked. Tears filled her eyes.
His brow drew down. “Why the tears?”
“You asked.”
“Of course I asked.”
Adira gave him a look.
Dravic frowned. “I ask you things.”
“Rarely.”
“I asked if you were harmed.”
“That is not the same.”
“I asked if you loved me.”
“You told me I did.”
“I spoke the truth.”
Adira laughed.
Dravic’s mouth curved, but then his expression grew serious again. “Will you come home with me?”
Home.
She had thought of Caerith that way countless times during the long winter. Not because it was a castle and certainly not because she would become queen. There was only one reason… Dravic.
“Aye,” she said.
The single word brought a look of relief to his face that he quickly tried to hide.
Adira wasn’t fooled. “And will you still marry me?”
Dravic stared at her as though she had lost all sense. “That was never in question.”
“It was to me. I did not know what my absence might change.”
“I told you before you left that you would be my wife. Nothing has changed.”
Adira smiled. He was still the demanding king she loved. But she knew him well enough now to know what he would have no other way.
He lowered his voice. “Will you marry me, Adira?”
Her heart filled with joy that he asked her. “Aye, Dravic, I will marry you.”
“That is good, since Tavish had the wedding plans all set. We will wed upon our return.”
“You were that certain I would return?”
Dravic drew her against him. “I was that certain of us, of our love.”
Adira wrapped her arms around him.
This time when she kissed him, there was no goodbye hidden within it.
She was going home.