Page 36 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile (Compelling Fates Saga #3)

Loche

T he dark-haired woman didn’t hesitate as she sauntered up to the group, her movements so familiar Loche had to remind himself he was the regent of Ellow, not the child she’d abused until he couldn’t take her or the never-ending stream of men that passed through their small house anymore and he’d finally followed her demand to leave her house at only eight years old.

As she came to a halt before the silent group and he felt the people around him move closer—especially Zaddock, who kept his hand hovering over the sword by his side, and Kerym and Thissian, who stared at the woman and the Fae with strained expressions pulling at their features—Loche also forced himself to remember this woman was a shifter.

He’d seen all the shapes Geyia had shifted into before.

Shifters could become anything—any animal or human they’d come across, they could mimic.

The shifters who were especially good could even mirror gestures and body movements, like the swagger his mom used to propel her body forward, making it almost impossible to distinguish them from the real thing.

This could be a mind trick—an illusion to throw him off.

Plastering a smirk onto his face, the one he’d perfected over the years to hide the uncertainty he still felt navigating the rooms of older and more experienced men and women, Loche also took a step forward.

Best not to let her think she had some kind of advantage.

“We can’t drain them,” Kerym hissed into his ear as he stepped with him. “The curly-haired Fae behind her is blocking our magic. The pale one can blind us, so be ready.”

Great, Loche thought as he shot Zaddock a look.

His friend dipped his chin, turning his body toward the Fae with such pale hair and skin that he almost blended into the clouds hovering behind him, and who was focused so hard on the Siphon Twins that he couldn’t have noticed Zaddock preparing to take him out at a second’s notice.

Loche trusted Zaddock would get to the Fae, even blind. Z hadn’t been a great soldier because he was too emotional—he got too distracted in a fight when his friends all fought around him—but he was damned skilled with a sword.

Moving his gaze back to the woman in front, Loche caught her gray eyes.

No time to waste.

“I am guessing you’re the rebel leader,” Loche drawled, not bothering to extend a hand. “Seems time we finally met.”

“That’s not a very warm welcome for your own mother.” The shifter he guessed was Meyah clicked her tongue as she slowly dragged her sharp gaze—the one too similar to his own—over the group, stopping at Zaddock when he pulled a deep breath.

“You’re not my mother.” Loche didn’t let himself hesitate a beat as he responded. “I don’t know when you met her, but she got around before her death, so I am not too surprised.”

Meyah’s eyes flashed for a second before she locked down her expression.

“Such a strange group of people you surround yourself with. A lowly human—no surprise there, although I did have higher hopes for you. The Siphon Twins. Good to see you again, Kerym.” Meyah playfully wrinkled her nose at the Fae, prompting Pellie to move closer to him, and Loche scoffed at the similarity to his mother.

On the island he’d grown up on, in the outskirts of Ellow, she’d been known by everyone for her beauty and her blatant flirting.

There was nothing subtle or sweet about her.

She was the complete opposite of Lessia, and Loche suspected that was also why he’d been drawn to Lessia at first. She didn’t see—or care—about her own beauty, and whenever he flirted with her—when he told her the things he’d been thinking about—the blush that crept up her cheeks had warmed him inside out.

He was ripped from his thoughts of Lessia, and despite who the woman before him was, he was grateful for it. Remembering Lessia smile like that with her damned pink cheeks stole all the air from his lungs.

“You two, I don’t know.” Meyah sniffed the air, and the copper-haired sisters’ faces twisted into cold masks so quickly Loche noticed even Kerym’s brows flew up for a second. “You smell… I don’t know. What are you?”

“We’re friends of Lessia, and we heard you weren’t very nice to her,” Pellie purred, and Loche couldn’t help but admire how she managed to fill her voice with such a combination of coldness and disdain.

He’d need to practice replicating it.

“We don’t take very well to those who treat our friends unkindly,” Soria added, dragging her tongue across her teeth like she was a damned wolf or something, staring at its prey.

While Loche’s eyes widened at the sisters, who’d so far mostly been babbling and flirting but now appeared as lethal as the Fae brothers standing beside them, Kerym let out a low laugh.

“Remind me not to get on your bad side,” he mumbled.

Thissian rolled his eyes as Pellie responded, “You’d never, handsome.”

“You, on the other hand.” Pellie’s finger shot out so fast Loche thought it might smack Meyah in the face. “You tread very fucking carefully or I’ll make your worst nightmares come true.”

It was Loche’s turn to chuckle, but he made sure to keep it dark as he glared at the rebel leader.

“They’re right. It’s time for us to have a real chat.

You must end this rebellion right now, or we’re all doomed.

I…” Loche ground his teeth before continuing.

“I might not have approached our… discussions… in the most amicable way before, but I am here to listen now. I am sure we can find a middle ground before Havlands as we know it is lost and both of our peoples perish.”

Meyah’s eyes were narrowed to slits as they captured his. “Both of our peoples… You’re such a disappointment, Loche. I didn’t have particularly high hopes for you… but this… this is what it’s come to?”

“Enough with the act,” Loche snarled. “Show us your real face.”

The woman who looked like his mother threw her head back and cackled. “You keep proving me right, son. After all this time away from you, I thought perhaps my decision to leave you behind had been hasty, but you’re as useless and stupid as you always were.”

Loche kept his smirk on his face. He’d been called worse growing up and when he fought his way to the regency, and even now he knew what those fuckers in the council whispered behind his back.

“I said enough.” Loche took a step forward, and his friends followed, the already strained air growing heavier, whipping salt across their skin as the wind picked up, almost as if it felt the anger rising within him.

“We do not have time for your games. And you’re doing your people no favors by insulting me. ”

Meyah laughed again. “You truly don’t see it, do you?” Her hand waved lazily toward the tanned Fae behind her, who had an impressive mane of curly black hair falling down his back. “He is blocking all magic.”

A hand landed on his forearm, and Loche frowned at Soria when she shot him a small smile, her delicate face moving from side to side ever so slightly.

“So what?” Loche hissed when the rebel leader didn’t continue, but Kerym made a sound that made him spin toward the raven-haired Fae, his frown deepening when both he and his brother winced as they met his eyes.

“He’s neutralizing magic,” Kerym said, his tone almost apologetic. “She can’t shift.”

She can’t shift.

Loche shook his head so violently his hair lashed his cheeks.

No.

Because…

No.

This was not fucking happening.

Loche’s hands clenched and unclenched as he tried to lock down the surprise, the unease, the fucking guilt that seemed to have taken a permanent position within his body, and the only question he could get out was “Why?”

Meyah seemed amused as her gaze trailed across his face, reading way too fucking much into it, judging from the way her eyes lit up. “Why am I your mother? Why didn’t I tell you who I really was? Why are you such a disappointment? There are so many questions to be answered, don’t you think?”

She shook her head, her red lips lifting into a distant smile.

“I unfortunately can’t answer the last one, but I can tell you that I birthed you.

A night with too much to drink, and I wasn’t careful enough.

And before you ask, I have no idea who your useless human father is.

I wasn’t happy, of course. It’s difficult to get clients when you’re with child, although there are a few who seem to prefer it. ”

She flicked Soria and Pellie a glance. “I wouldn’t advise you to go looking for those men, though… they’re pretty vile. And it’s expensive to take care of children! You’re so needy…” Her top lip curled back in disgust. “The screaming… the sleepless nights. No, you weren’t for me.”

Meyah tilted her head as Loche only stared back at her.

He’d known she was a terrible mother—that he wasn’t wanted. The beatings, the name-calling, the hungry days informed him of as much.

But this?

“I was already part of the rebellion then. It was the only way I could stand letting these humans touch me, knowing that their silver went to the people they hated. Because they hated me, and they hated themselves even more for wanting me.” Meyah’s eyes lifted to the sky for a moment as she pursed her lips.

“Men… idiots, all of them.” Her eyes snapped to his again.

“Look at you. Falling in love and ruining your life. Was it worth it, son? I saw how she clung to the Death Whisperer when I met her…”

“Enough! It’s fucking enough,” Kerym snarled when Loche began shaking.

But Loche lifted a hand, silencing him.

He needed to hear this. He needed these answers.

From when he was a child, he’d always known he didn’t fit in, that there was something about him that was off—that set him apart from the humans around him. It hadn’t just been that he was born to the town whore or that everyone knew and pitied him for how his mother mistreated him.

There had been something else.

An otherness.

It was why he’d recognized it so quickly in Lessia.

He’d seen himself in her.