Page 114 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

“You must… must truly love her,” his friend got out between fits of laughter.

The memory switched again.

Wearing the same clothes, Raine walked down an alley lined with white flowers, toward the female he loved so much he could barely speak when he was in her presence.

A blur of faces looked up at him from the grass, but he could see only her.

Solana giggled as she reached out a hand and clasped his.

“It’s you and me forever now.”

More memories flooded Frelina.

Raine and Solana moving into a house with a haunted-looking Merrick helping them.

Sunny days in forests and fields and water.

Holding hands before fires.

Holding hands while cooking.

Love. So much love.

Then another memory.

It was misty outside their house, and Raine tapped his foot while waiting for Solana to come home.

He was hungry, and he’d spent all day preparing a new meal for her.

It definitely shouldn’t have taken this long, but he’d burned the first two batches of bread, so he’d had to start over twice.

He’d never admit that to her, though.

When the door burst open, Raine turned around with two glasses of wine and a broad smile on his face.

Finally.

But it was Merrick’s terrified and white face that met him.

The glasses fell to the ground, where they shattered in the same way that fear exploded within him.

“He has her,” Merrick said, and Raine knew his world was about to change forever.

Frelina started shaking at the next memories that assaulted her mind, and Raine’s arms locked around her, his breathing quickening.

War.

Death.

So much fear and terror and so many haunting scenes.

Both within Raine and those around him.

And all the time… Solana in his mind.

Seeing her in Rioner’s cellars.

Seeing her beaten and hurt and broken.