Page 70 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile (Compelling Fates Saga #3)

Lessia

H er hands flew to her chest, and Lessia gasped when she couldn’t find the dagger that had hurt so badly.

Glancing down at herself, she frowned.

She wasn’t wearing the damp fighting leathers anymore.

Instead…

Was this one of the dresses her mother had made her growing up?

It was, she decided as she placed her hands in the soft grass and pushed herself to a seated position. She recognized her mother’s stitching, the beautiful golden patterns she liked to sew into their dresses to accentuate her and Frelina’s hair and eyes.

Lessia splayed her fingers over the cotton, straightening the blue skirt before getting to her feet and looking around.

Home.

She was… home.

Ahead lay the forest she’d been riding in growing up. Behind her were the cliffs and the water that remained warm year-round. And to her left… that was their house, the door invitingly open as if it just waited for her to enter.

She wondered momentarily if this was another trick, if she’d perhaps never escaped Rioner’s capture and this was one of Torkher’s visions.

But it didn’t feel like it.

It felt real.

She could smell the grass and the salt in the wind.

She could feel the sun warming her skin.

And… there was no undertone of fear.

She felt truly… home.

Lessia started walking to the house when it appeared to call for her.

She must be dead.

She remembered riding on Ydren, the determination within her as they swam to avoid Rioner’s waves, the certainty that she was in the right place at the right time.

Somehow, she’d known she’d succeed. Even when she first met Rioner’s eyes and he’d grinned at her—too sure of his abilities—she’d known he was about to die.

She’d felt a moment of pure relief when her dagger found its way into his heart. Relief that shattered when the dagger he’d thrown—the one her father had once gifted her—settled in her flesh.

Lessia had fought with every nerve and cell within her to stay alive until Ydren did what Lessia silently begged her to do: bring her back to Merrick.

To see his eyes one final time.

Tears threatened Lessia again as she walked the familiar path, but they weren’t of sorrow.

She couldn’t have asked for a better goodbye.

Every person she loved had been there, and while she knew they would be hurting now, she’d done whatever she could to protect them—to let them live .

A smile broke through the tears as she stepped over the threshold and the scent of her favorite vegetable soup washed over her, but Lessia’s brows narrowed when she realized it wasn’t her mother standing by the stove but another woman.

A very short Fae with long white hair and eyes as dark as Merrick’s but without the silver swirls, which lit up as she turned to face Lessia.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” she chirped as she skipped to Lessia and pressed a goblet of rich red wine into her hands. “I’ve waited for you forever! Come, sit down!”

Still confused, Lessia did as she asked, her hands moving the cup to her lips before she knew what she was doing, and she groaned as the flavors exploded within her mouth.

“Good, right?” The Fae grinned at her before taking a swig from her own glass.

Lessia only nodded, her fingers moving across the cup as she eyed the female before her.

“You’re probably wondering who I am.” The smile brightening her features only seemed to grow as the woman tilted her head to study Lessia.

“I am.” Somehow, Lessia wasn’t worried, though. Not just because this woman was maybe a head shorter than her, so she’d hopefully be able to take her in a fight, but because she felt… familiar.

“Oh!” The woman wiggled her brows. “I think I’d take you. After all, I trained with Raine and Merrick far longer than a few weeks.”

Lessia slitted her eyes again. “And so you are?”

“Solana.” The female showed off all her white teeth. “I know Raine has spoken of me.”

Even with the smile, something glossy glinted in her dark eyes, and Lessia couldn’t help but jerk at the sharp tug in her chest as she stared into them.

This was Raine’s mate.

“He misses you,” Lessia said softly when the Fae remained quiet, watching as Lessia took in what she’d told her.

“Oh, I know.” Solana’s eyes moved to the window for a moment. “Even if this place is lovely, it’s been torment watching him slowly kill himself. I… Some days I would just do what he did and drink myself into a stupor to make the time pass.”

Lessia played with the rim of the cup, swirling her finger across it. “I don’t blame you.”

Solana shrugged. “Time holds the power to both mend and wound. We were lucky. We had years together.”

Years…

Years Lessia and Merrick wouldn’t have.

Solana must have caught the sadness ripping into Lessia’s heart, because she hurried to smile again. “I don’t think it’s over for you two. Not yet.”

“What do you mean?” Despite the summer warmth drifting through the room, Lessia shivered. She already missed Merrick so much she could hardly pull air into her lungs, but she didn’t want him to come here.

To join her. To die.

“This place.” Solana swept her thin arm across the room, to the windows with the forest beyond and the glittering sea peeking over the cliffs. “It took me a while to figure out what it was, but once I did… I’ve been waiting ever since.”

“So what is it?” Lessia took another pull of wine.

“It’s the afterlife but also not.” Solana refilled their cups before continuing. “For those of us whose soul is ripped in two when we’re separated from our mate… we can’t rest until both souls do so.”

Lessia swallowed. “Until you both die?”

“No. Until we move on.” Her white hair sparkled as she tossed it back, away from her face.

“I’ve come to understand we might not always be reunited in death, not immediately at least. For some of us…

there are bigger plans, but we need to wait until the one who lives on finds something or someone to fill the aching wound, so that the one who passed can finally go peacefully. ”

Lessia shook her head. “He won’t do that.”

She’d seen it in Merrick’s eyes. He’d never move on from this.

He’d rather die.

“I’m not talking about Merrick.” Solana leaned back in her chair, her smile spreading widely.

“Raine is fighting it right now, but I feel it. A few weeks ago, the world around me started flickering, a calm peace layering over me for a few moments until it was ripped away again. But it’s been happening more frequently since… ”

“He met my sister.” Lessia watched the Fae for any anger, perhaps even jealousy, but there was none in the deep darkness.

“Yes,” Solana responded. “Frelina is good for him. She challenges him. She understands him. She trusts him, and he trusts her. Raine and I were complete opposites… and that’s what he needed back then.

But now? He needs someone like him. Someone who will understand him when he is at his worst. Someone like your sister. ”

Lessia smiled as she thought back to how Raine had held on to Frelina. She’d known in that moment that he’d take care of her, and it had allowed her to let in some of that darkness pressing at the corners of her eyes.

“Will you tell him?” Solana reached over the table for Lessia’s hand, and her grip was surprisingly firm for such a small female. “Will you tell him to be happy? To love again? He deserves it. And… so does she.”

Tears, but not like those of her friends in her final moments, made Solana’s eyes glitter. “Tell him… we’ll find each other again when it’s time, and when we do… someone is waiting for Frelina as well.”

“Who?” Lessia’s eyes widened and then rounded further as the world before her eyes distorted.

“That, I may not say.” Solana’s voice drifted in and out, and she glanced behind her when everything continued to flicker, like a sputtering candle about to burn out. “Now, it seems your mate is about to break every rule the gods ever put in place.” Solana squeezed her hand. “Good luck.”

Lessia blinked, and in the next moment, she stood before a bridge, the halfway point veiled in dark shadows, but not ones that scared her. She could feel Merrick’s presence all around her, his voice breaking through the whispers—the near shouts—filling her ears.

There was a small light shining in that darkness—a familiar one, like a lantern leading her home—and he was calling to her from it. As she took a step onto the bridge, Merrick’s voice, his command to find him, grew louder.

“You and me,” she said. “You and me.”

She repeated the words as she neared the thick shadows where the whispers appeared to grow louder, and as she was about to take the first step into it, a hand folded around her own.

Merrick pulled her right into the darkness, but his silver being was all she could see—it was all that mattered—and he didn’t even let her speak before he kissed her with such passion she was surprised the shadows didn’t evaporate into steam.

“I’m here,” he mumbled against her lips when she wound her arms around his neck, her body desperate to know this was real. “I’m always here.”

“I know,” she whispered back when his lips released hers. “I know.”

There was no fear within her as Merrick pulled them deeper into the heavy darkness, because she knew…

He would always, always be there to light the way for her.