Page 19 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile (Compelling Fates Saga #3)

Charging forward, using one of Raine’s tactics to throw the Fae off, Merrick drove him farther away from where Lessia and Ardow still stood, while at the same time landing a strike squarely on the Fae’s nose.

The crunch that followed was so satisfactory Merrick offered the Fae a half smile before kicking him back and lifting his sword between them.

A steady stream of blood ran down Torkher’s chin, but the Fae didn’t even appear to notice as he flung his sword out, meeting Merrick head-on.

“She begged for you, you know. Called out your name in her sleep. She didn’t think you’d come. She thought you’d given up,” Torkher taunted him as their swords clashed.

Again.

And again.

Pressing forward, Merrick used Torkher’s words to fuel his anger and held back the souls begging to be released. He wanted to take this fucking bastard down himself.

“Sh-she won’t survive… this.” Torkher panted now as he lifted his sword once more, and Merrick lunged, refusing to give him a moment’s rest. “Halflings don’t belong in our world. You… you know this.”

“She belongs wherever the fuck she wants,” Merrick snarled as he cornered Torkher against the railing, his sword finally knocking Torkher’s out of his hand.

As the blade clattered down the side of the ship, Merrick’s half smile lifted into a full one, and he angled his sword toward Torkher’s neck.

But the Fae’s eyes weren’t on his as he said, “It appears the afterlife is where she wants to belong, then.”

Merrick couldn’t stop himself. He whirled around, and his heart nearly burst from fear.

While Raine had managed to get the two guards whose minds he’d captured to sit at the side of the ship, he was now fighting for his life against the fire wielder, with Rioner standing safe behind the flames, seemingly directing his guard.

But that wasn’t what had Merrick let out a choked sound.

It was Lessia ripping her arm free from Ardow and sprinting around the flames to approach the fire wielder himself, or… the king.

The king, who’d already noticed her.

“N—” Merrick’s scream was cut short as something lodged in his gut.

Pain struck him with such force that he couldn’t hold back the jerk that racked his body.

Letting his eyes fall, he found a dagger—the damned dagger he’d gifted Lessia, the one with the rubies to complement his gemstone-decorated sword—sticking out of his side.

Let us go!

We will kill him!

The whispers screamed at him as he reached down and ripped the blade out, tucking it into one of his sheaths and refusing his body’s wish to double over to protect itself from more harm.

No! he growled back.

He was doing this by himself.

Fucking quickly, so that he could get to Lessia.

Without a second’s warning, Merrick spun around, and he had no idea what Torkher saw in his face, but it was the first time he’d ever seen the Fae shrink back.

Merrick didn’t bother savoring the moment. Instead, he dropped his sword, and just like he’d planned, Torkher’s eyes followed.

He had to resist shaking his head.

The dumb bastard.

Then he attacked.

Gripping the Fae’s arms, he pressed them against the intricate wooden railing, and when Torkher began kicking for his gut or chest—exactly as Merrick knew he would—he ducked under them, forcing Torkher’s legs up, so the Fae landed on Merrick’s bowed back.

Shooting upward as fast as he could, before the idiot could realize this wasn’t the best position for him to be in, Merrick flipped Torkher over the railing.

But Merrick still held on to his arms, and when they stopped the Fae’s backflip…

he moved Torkher’s flailing arms so he could hold them with one hand, and then he used the other to push harder, until a loud crack broke through the air and Torkher screamed.

Merrick didn’t wait before he dragged the Fae back onto the deck. He wasn’t letting him go until he was in fucking pieces—when Merrick knew he would never be able to recover.

Torkher moaned as his broken arms lay at awkward angles around his half-sitting body.

With a glance backward—his pulse thundering impossibly fast at the sight of Lessia still charging around the flames—he realized he still had a second. Maybe two.

And… Lessia had claimed this bastard.

Removing his belt and ignoring how that made the blood flow more freely from his gut, Merrick quickly tied the Fae’s broken arms as tightly as he could, and when Torkher cursed him, he slammed a boot into his face so hard the Fae must have lost consciousness.

He didn’t bother double-checking, though, as his hammering heart beat faster, his senses warning him of danger. As he spun around, a wave of heat immediately washed over him, forcing him to squint as he sprinted back toward the middle of the deck.

Smoke began twirling toward the sky, shrouding what was happening from view, and Merrick swore to himself as he stormed farther into the dark clouds.

He needed to find her. There wasn’t another option.

“Lessia!” he screamed across the deck, not giving one shit if that betrayed his location.

The answering scream chilled him to his bones.

It wasn’t his name.

It wasn’t a word at all.

But it was hers, and it was filled with pain.

“No! Lessia!” He tried to run faster, but it was impossible as the smoke thickened.

Merrick had to slow his feet to walk, listening to try to see where everyone was.

“You’re going to die! You…” Lessia’s raspy voice sounded somewhere to his left, but that’s where the wall of fire still burned bright, the crackling of the flames silencing the rest of her words.

“Lessia!”

Fuck, he was panicking now.

Merrick tried pulling on the bond tethering them, but it was still so damned weak. Probably because she was weak, a small voice in his mind dared pipe in.

Fuck that!

He needed to find her.

He needed to protect her.

Just fucking needed her.

“Lessia! Answer me!” Merrick screamed at the fire, but the flames roared louder.

And then… another scream. “Lessia, no!”

The cry was Raine’s, and Merrick had no air left, only smoke filling his lungs, but he still tried to call for her, refusing to let the smoke consume her name.

“Lessia. P-please.” His words were harsh whispers now, the smoke devouring his voice, and he stumbled within the shadowy world around them, begging to find her.

“No!” Ardow’s voice sounded closer. “Lessia, don’t!”

Something metallic clattered, and Merrick tried to see, pried his eyelids open as far as they’d go, but between the smoke and the tears they forced out, it was fucking impossible.

Lessia!

Please!

He screamed down the bond.

Tell me where you are!

I love you!

I fucking need you!

Don’t do this!

The bond wavered for a second, but that second was enough. Merrick released every grip he had on his magic, letting it fly across the ship, the sea, everywhere in this damned world the souls wanted to go.

He knew they wouldn’t be able to do anything—not against the elements; he’d learned that the hard way—and he couldn’t control who they killed if he couldn’t see.

But it didn’t matter. He had to fucking trust they wouldn’t kill her.

They’d kill Raine.

Ardow.

She’d hate him for it, but she’d be fucking alive.

Lessia!

“Stop!”

He froze in place at her voice.

“Merrick, please stop!”

He started pulling in his magic when something roared above him. Merrick flicked his gaze up, his eyes widening even within the painful smoke.

Ydren had risen from the water, using her large leathery wings—wings Merrick hadn’t known she’d been able to control, since wyverns only used them in fighting—to keep herself half flying out of the water.

His eyes rounded further when Lessia climbed—fucking climbed with her broken hands and body—up her long spikes to reach the beast’s head. Then his heart stopped.

Lessia screamed something lost in the wind for him, pointing down with her entire arm, and Ydren didn’t wait a moment before she dove toward the deck.

Opening her massive maw, the wyvern unleashed a torrent of water on the ship before her entire body slammed into the wood, making the vessel quiver.

It was quiet for only a second.

Then the smoke cleared, and more screaming began.

But Merrick didn’t call Lessia’s name again. He could only watch as his mate slipped off Ydren’s head and stormed forward, tackling the fire wielder as he gawked at the wyvern, and the golden glow that followed wasn’t from flames.

No. Even though he could not hear what Lessia told the Fae, he knew she commanded him to be released from the blood oath. Because that’s who she was.

She wouldn’t kill him. Not when he hadn’t chosen this himself.

That overwhelming feeling of love slammed into Merrick. He couldn’t understand how it even fit within him. How his dark heart could survive it. But somehow… it did.

He loved her so damned much.

He could hardly take it when she pushed herself off the Fae and reached out a broken hand to help him to his feet.

The Fae didn’t take her up on the offer.

Fucking thankfully. Otherwise, Merrick might have had to kill him.

His heart thrummed in his ears, and when Lessia’s eyes searched the ship, finally landing on his own, he thought it might escape his chest.

She was so fucking beautiful.

Bloodied.

Sooty.

Her hair hanging like stringy curtains around her face.

Her skin barely visible under the dirt.

But those eyes… The amber glittered like gemstones in the sun that broke through the smoke.

She was alive. Alive and fighting, and he’d never loved her more.

He’d meant it when he said he’d fallen in love with her more every day, watching her fight for her fucking life.

She was a force of nature, and when she beckoned for him…

The Death Whisperer’s legs nearly gave out. But he forced himself to walk toward her—to close the distance he wished to erase forever.

She offered him a small smile as she slipped a bloodied hand into his, but then her nose wrinkled. “You’re injured.”

He was injured? Merrick nearly snapped at her that she was the one fucking injured when she rolled her eyes and sliced them forward instead.