Page 11 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile (Compelling Fates Saga #3)

To whom she didn’t know.

Because there weren’t any voices in her head anymore.

The gods no longer walked this realm.

And Merrick…

Merrick, I love you.

I love you.

Please hear me.

I love you.

She screamed it inside her head.

Screamed it down the brittle bond connecting them.

Even if she knew he wouldn’t hear her.

“Alarin, look at me,” Rioner demanded.

When her father didn’t move fast enough, the two guards dragged him to his feet, his head hanging between his shoulders as he gave Lessia a final look.

“P-please,” she whispered, tears nearly blinding her. “Please, don’t.”

Don’t do this to him.

Please, no.

Not yet.

Torkher laughed so hard it shook her entire body, and she couldn’t help it when her muscles slackened, the powerlessness driving all strength from them.

The Fae let out a disgusted sound as he pushed her limp body off him, but she didn’t catch herself as she fell to the floor, one cheek resting against the wet wood, the rest of her body lying at a strange angle.

“Alarin, I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now… But please. Break their bond.” She could hear the smile that must have twisted Rioner’s features as he spoke.

Lessia couldn’t stop herself.

She screamed when the words she’d feared slammed into her heart.

Break their bond.

Like everything that was gifted by the gods, the bonds were magic.

And her father…

She screamed again.

“Brother…” Alarin pleaded. “Do not make me do this.”

“I need her broken,” Rioner snarled. “And you’ve all just informed me this is the best way. And… I won’t lie. The Death Whisperer believing she is already dead? He won’t survive it. Not after everything they’ve been through. It’ll give me some more time to figure out what to do with all of you.”

No.

Lessia lifted her head from the floor.

Ignoring the panicked looks from the three others chained to the wall, she made herself face her father.

“Please,” she begged him, her voice so small she wasn’t certain if he heard her.

But he couldn’t miss the agony she was sure warped her face.

“Please,” she whimpered again.

She couldn’t do this to Merrick.

Not yet.

She would die.

Probably soon.

But she’d promised him more than one night.

You had two.

She felt like screaming again at the voice reminding her of what she’d thought earlier.

It wasn’t enough.

Two nights weren’t enough.

“Do it,” the king ordered. “Now!”

“No!” Frelina screamed from where she struggled against her shackles. “Father, no!”

Her father’s eyes left hers to look at her sister, and his face crumpled as he stared back and forth between her and Frelina.

Lessia couldn’t breathe.

Scrambling up to sitting, she didn’t care about trying to shield her bare torso.

Instead, she started crawling toward her father.

Toward the king.

She… she needed to kill him now.

Because if she was actually broken…

If her father followed through…

She might not have the strength left.

She needed to fulfill the prophecy.

For her family.

For her friends.

For any half-Fae out there.

For Merrick.

But a heavy boot on her back stopped her advance, and even when she started fighting, Torkher wouldn’t let up.

Pinning her to the planks, he again twisted her hair, pressing her face down into the floor as he drove a knee deeper into her back.

“Do it now!” Rioner screamed. “Or I swear I will let Torkher kill her before your eyes, prophecy or not.”

“I’m… I’m so sorry, my beautiful child.”

Lessia lifted her head in time for the air to fill with the vibrations of magic.

“No!” she cried when those flickers wafted toward her. “Please! No!”

Merrick! No! It’s not me!

I love you!

Please!

Something within her chest tugged, like a frail rope mooring a ship that was too heavy, fighting against the strong waves that inevitably would bring it out to sea again.

“No!” she screamed. “Don’t do this!”

Lessia fought with everything in her, fixing her golden gaze inward, trying to compel her father’s magic to leave her mind.

But it was no person. It had no soul.

It was like trying to compel the floor.

Ignoring the knee still pressing into her injured back, she started squirming violently, talking to herself as if she’d lost her mind.

Maybe she had.

“Merrick, there were so many things I never said. I love you so much. You brought me all the light. You brought me everything. Freedom. Hope. Trust. Love. Fight. I love you. Don’t die because of me. Please don’t die because of me. Live! Save this world. Please. Please. Please.”

The tugging stopped.

“Please,” she whispered again, feeling for the tether.

It was still there.

As frail and fragile as before.

But it was there.

Still barely able to breathe, Lessia raised her head again.

“I won’t do it.” Her father stared right into her eyes as he spoke. “Enough, Rioner. There is nothing you can say that would make me do it.”

“Is that so?” Rioner’s dark cape flew out behind him as he stormed up to her father, bridging the few feet in two or three long strides.

Alarin lifted his chin. “It is. It’s time for your rule to come to an end.

Your guards won’t stand for this. Only the wretched ones in this room, perhaps.

But I’ve heard the whispers. I’ve been approached by the council.

I know what they’re saying about you in Vastala.

They believe your greed is driving you mad, Rioner.

I didn’t want to believe it, but the cruelty in this room… No. I won’t do it.”

“That’s unfortunate.” Something glimmered in the air as Rioner leaned in farther. “I guess it’s a good thing I don’t need you anymore.”

The room filled with choking silence for a moment.

Then a scream—a blood-chilling, bone-shattering scream—followed.

Chaos erupted.

Lessia fought to see as more screams followed and chains shrieked so loudly she wondered if Kerym and his brother had gotten free.

But it wasn’t those sounds that terrified her.

It was the gurgling, choking sound, and the thud that followed.

And when the guards who had held her father in place backed away, their faces so ashen she wouldn’t have been surprised if they fainted, terror wasn’t enough to describe what she was feeling.

Blood pooled on the floor where her father lay motionless, a dark gash stretched from one side of his throat to the other.

And when Lessia tried to catch his eyes…

They were unseeing, amber circles staring into nothing.

Into the afterlife.

She screamed then.

At least that’s what she thought she did.

Then her vision went crimson.

And with every last bit of strength in her, she somehow forced the knee off her back, jumping to her feet and sprinting to where the king was wiping his blade on his cape.

She was going to kill him.

Rip out his throat with her teeth.

But something struck the back of her head.

And it all went black.