Page 106 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

After a look at the others, she knew it was pointless to try to convince any of them to stay back, so with a soft sigh, she responded. “Yes. We’ll return as soon as we can.”

Auphore hesitated for a second before doing that head throw again. “If you survive.”

Chapter 21

Loche

The 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 didhave 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 lethalas the Fae brothers standing beside them, Kerym let out a low laugh.