Page 58 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile (Compelling Fates Saga #3)

Lessia

“ A nd where have you been?” Lessia teased as Frelina leaned her elbows on Lessia’s knees, resting her chin in her hands as she looked up at her.

“I’m sure you already know,” Frelina mumbled, pink creeping over her cheeks. “Raine asked us to come say hi to his friends, unless you plan on sitting here all night.”

Lessia grinned at her sister as she let Frelina drag her off the barrel she’d been planted on for far too long, and they rushed their steps to catch up with Loche and the soldier walking straight-backed beside him.

When they had a few steps left, Lessia leaned into Frelina. “Is he good to you?”

Frelina raised a brow, and Lessia had to laugh at the look in her eyes.

“I guess I know better than to ask that.” Lessia laughed again as they fell into step with Loche, and more happiness warmed her gut when her sister elbowed her, a smile brightening her features.

Like Merrick, Raine wasn’t sunshine and rainbows but dark clouds and storms, although he must be doing something right if he could lighten Frelina’s steps almost to skips.

Their giggles quieted when voices drifted toward them, amplified over the water, and Lessia couldn’t help the prickle of irritation that crawled over her scalp when she recognized the voice of Iviry, the flirtatious Fae she’d met in the tavern on Midhrok, over the rest.

Her upper lip had curled even before they circled the bend of the ship, and Iviry’s flame-like hair shone like burnt gold in the moonlight ahead.

“A Rantzier, Raine. Out of all people?” Iviry and Raine stood with their backs to where Lessia and the rest approached, with Merrick ahead of them and a group of Fae unloading weapons from a smaller ship behind him.

Lessia felt Frelina stiffen beside her, and she disliked Iviry even more as her sister slowed her strides.

“It’s not like that,” Raine muttered. “She’s… a distraction.”

A hiss shot through Lessia’s teeth, and she was about to storm up to smack Raine’s and Iviry’s thick heads together when Frelina grabbed her hand.

“Don’t.” Frelina’s eyes were hard as they held on to Lessia’s. “Just leave it.”

Lessia shook her head, locking eyes with Loche over Frelina, and she noted that even his jaw flexed as he moved his glare to the Fae ahead.

That damned…

“Who is she?” Frelina demanded under her breath.

Merrick had just noticed them approaching, and Lessia hurried to whisper, “Iviry. We don’t like her.” It was childish and probably unfair, but she couldn’t help it.

As she uttered the name, the fiery-haired Fae spun around, and her eyes went wide as she took in the group, licks of crimson that mirrored Raine’s hair weaving up her neck.

Yes, you should be fucking ashamed, Lessia thought as she moved closer to her sister while Merrick overtook Iviry and Raine to meet them.

Raine’s eyes were also wide when he turned around, and she noted them fixing on her sister, something passing between them every step as they reached the group.

But while his eyes softened at the same time as her sister relaxed, Iviry’s gaze seemed to get wider and wider, her hand flying to her chest as if she needed to calm her heart.

Lessia gave Merrick a meaningful look when he slung an arm over her shoulders, and when he followed it, he stilled, pulling both Lessia and Frelina to halt about three or four feet away from Raine and the annoying female.

Loche also stopped, his confused gaze meeting hers before he asked, “What’s going on?”

Merrick laughed, actually laughed, in the strained silence.

Then Raine followed, his deep chuckle making Loche’s dark brows pull down as low as Lessia expected her own were.

Her sister also looked bewildered as Raine closed the distance between them, offering Frelina his arm as he got out between snickers, “Come on, let’s get some water and I’ll tell you.”

Frelina shrugged at her as she let Raine lead her away, and Lessia turned to Merrick, her hands flying out in a questioning gesture. Merrick didn’t respond to her silent question; he only tilted his head to Iviry, who remained still as a statue as she stared at them.

No…

As she stared at… Loche.

Lessia slowly moved her gaze between them.

She stared at him like… Merrick did her.

“Oh, shit,” Lessia mumbled. “No way.”

She waited for a jolt of jealousy to hit her and send her spiraling like it had back on Raine’s island, when Iviry tried to make Merrick dance with her.

But it never came. Not even a nudge of pain could be found within her.

There was only surprise, an element of amusement, and maybe…

if she was truthful, a little bit of relief.

“What is happening?” Loche demanded again when Lessia realized she was also staring at him.

Merrick pulled her closer, and she could sense him getting ready to steer her away when Iviry’s strangled response came.

“Y-you’re my mate.”

“I… What?” Loche tried to keep Lessia’s eyes, but Merrick had already begun turning them back to Loche’s ship, and she only had time to shoot him an apologetic grimace before his eyes were ripped from hers.

Bursts of laughter still shook Merrick’s shoulders a couple of times as they left Iviry and Loche on their own, since the soldier who had come with his regent must have read the situation and hurried after them, and Lessia let out a shocked giggle herself as she met Merrick’s eyes.

“That was…”

“Strange.” Merrick finished her sentence. “But knowing Iviry… it kind of makes sense.”

She was about to respond with something even more childish than what she’d told Frelina about Iviry when she caught herself.

Lessia didn’t know her.

Maybe she was a wonderful person.

Merrick laughed again, clearly sensing the wrangling emotions within her.

“No, you didn’t read her wrong.” He steered her toward the dance floor she’d been watching all night as he spoke.

“Iviry can be mean and shallow and rude, and she enjoys being the center of attention. But she is also loyal and brave and fiercely protective of those she cares about. She rose very quickly in the ranks amongst the Rantzier troops because of it, becoming the first female commander when she was merely a century old.”

Lessia threw a glance over her shoulder.

Neither Iviry nor Loche appeared to have moved a muscle.

“Why did she end up on Raine’s island, then?” she asked as she turned forward again.

“Because she believes everyone has a right to life.” Merrick’s eyes moved between hers. “She caught some of her soldiers forcing a group of half-Fae children to beat each other to death for sport, and… well, it didn’t end well for them. Rioner found out what she did, so she fled.”

So… she was a kind person.

Lessia was about to scold herself for the thoughts she’d had about the Fae when Merrick brushed his lips over hers. “No need for you to feel guilty. I kind of enjoyed seeing you jealous,” he murmured against her mouth. “Come. I want to dance.”

Lessia scoffed playfully even while allowing him to shift her into his arms as he backed her toward the music. “Why? You hate dancing.”

“Because we can.” Merrick’s eyes went serious for a second before he blinked and pressed her against his chest, where his heart beat a steady rhythm that heated her blood as she listened to it.

They weren’t even really near the dance floor. Their slow movements, the ones she’d fallen for so hard on Raine’s island, shifted them closer to the side of the ship, keeping them within earshot of the music but away from the crowd.

Resting her cheek against his chest, she let him steer her in a small circle, let his hands and heart be the only things she focused on while her eyes swept over the group ahead, where firelight, from the small lanterns placed across the ship and railing, brightened smiling faces.

Her friends still danced there, and she was glad to see almost all the Faelings joining in, Kalia even dancing with a human man who didn’t seem to know whether he should be enthralled or terrified by the white-haired beauty in his arms.

When Lessia finally looked away and lifted her face to his, Merrick bent down and kissed her.

His lips were soft, warm, moving lazily with hers.

As if they had all the time in the world.

As if this wasn’t the night before battle and many of the people on this ship probably wouldn’t see another sunset.

A sigh escaped Lessia, and he pulled back to look at her, mouth slightly red from their kissing and eyes filled with silver swirls that moved with the music.

“Is it bad that I am happy right now?” Lessia whispered when Merrick only continued to drink her in.

Because despite everything, she was. She was surrounded by everyone she loved. She’d seen each of them smile for a different reason.

“No.” Merrick rested his forehead against hers. “No, it’s not.”

They stood like that, silent and still, until she whispered, “There is only one thing that could make me happier.”

He must have sensed where her mind went because Merrick responded with a low groan, hands on her back moving down to her ass, pressing her against his hardening cock. “I thought you’d never ask.”

After whipping his head around, he gestured for her to follow him up a staircase she believed led up to the upper deck where Loche’s soldiers usually stood guard.

It was now dark apart from a single lantern shining its light on the wooden wheel and the small stools standing around it. A few bottles littered the floor, probably from the soldiers’ precelebrations before they were allowed to leave their posts.

Merrick took a lap around the deck—to make sure no one else had gotten the same idea they had, she presumed—and as she waited for him, Lessia picked at some of the items left on the shelf beside the captain’s chair.

There were a few coins, a sticky deck of cards, and some glasses, but it was the silver-encased mirror that drew Lessia’s attention, and she smiled as she picked it up, remembering her mother having a similar one that she would let Lessia and Frelina borrow sometimes when they wanted to play dress-up.