Page 115 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

When the next memory came, Frelina’s knees buckled, and she wondered if Raine hadn’t held on to her for support after all, as he pressed her so hard against him that she couldn’t move.

Solana was still too thin, but her smile was as bright as ever as she chased Raine through the woods outside their house.

Raine threw a glance to the south as they reached the pebbled path to the small cottage, even if he knew Merrick would never walk down those steps again, not after swearing that oath to Rioner.

The fucking martyr, giving up his own life for Solana and Thissian’s and Kerym’s mates, making Raine feel equally guilty and so damned grateful.

Solana, always knowing what was going on in his head, wrapped her arms around his waist, looking up at him as she said, “We’ll get him out. We’ll get strong and then get him away from him.”

Raine gave her a smile, albeit a weak one, before his eyes drifted to the woods again.

Something glimmered there, but he didn’t have time to react before Solana jerked.

Then jerked again.

Something in him pulled, and as he looked down at his mate, blood bubbled out of the corners of Solana’s mouth.

“No!” he screamed as she went limp in his arms.

The thing within him that had pulled snapped.

And his entire world broke.

Frelina panted against the pain that surrounded her, that filled her, that suffocated her.

She knew it was Raine’s. This was what he carried each day. But she couldn’t shake it.

Her eyes were still closed when Raine’s broken whisper brushed her cheek. “Do you see now? Do you see why… why I can’t?”

Frelina only nodded, fresh tears falling down her face, mingling with Raine’s as he pressed the side of his face against hers.

They gripped each other as if the world would end if they didn’t.

And who knew? Perhaps it would.

It wasn’t until the air around them truly quieted that they let go of each other, and fear replaced the sorrow within Frelinawhen mirror images of their ship, of them, of Merrick and Elessia running up the stairs shimmered all around them.

“I guess this is the Lakes of Mirrors,” Raine whispered as he wiped his face, releasing her but remaining close as their ship continued traveling on the lake, amid the water that rose around them as if it were walls and met above them to form a ceiling.

Chapter 23

Loche

Loche gripped his sword as he screamed “Zaddock!”

A groan sounded from one of the Fae twins, and Loche clutched his blade in one hand while grabbing Soria’s arm with the other so as not to accidentally stab her in his blindness.

Utter chaos, chaos in damned shadows, ensued.

Loche had no idea who he was fighting, but he pushed his way back to the railing, heart thumping in his chest, keeping Soria between the railing and himself as he slashed with his sword in the darkness.

“Zaddock!” he screamed again, worry for his friend breaking through the adrenaline rushing in his blood.

“I’m alive!” Zaddock responded.

Fucking thankfully.

“So am I, thanks for asking!” Kerym called out. “Not”—metal clangs echoed between the Fae’s words—“sure how much longer, though! Thissian?”