Page 129 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

“I am not alone.” Frelina repeated the sentence as she got to her feet, as she started walking up to one of the reflections she’d avoided before.

“I am not alone.”

Halting right before it, she lifted a hand and pressed it against the glittering wall.

Her reflection—and the eerie, foreign expression on it—melted away, and she nearly fell forward when the entire wall followed, disappearing as if it had never been there in the first place.

Another sound reached her ears, and it stabbed into her heart like a dagger.

Raine was on the ground, head covered with his hands and knees tucked in close as he screamed, “Don’t do this to me! Don’t do this to me!”

Frelina sprinted up to him, dropping to her knees beside him and grabbing his shoulders. “Raine! It’s not real! It’s not real!”

The Fae warrior’s entire body shook, and something fell from his lap, clinking as it hit the mirrored ground.

That stupid flask.

Frelina hated it so much, but she still picked it up, trying to shove it into Raine’s hand.

“Here!” she urged. “This will help.”

A scream tore from Raine’s throat. One she wished never to hear again.

It wasn’t just pain that fueled it. It was agony, torment, and grief. Grief that she’d had a taste of in his memories, but that now was even more raw because… it wasn’t muddled.

“Th-they took it!” Raine screamed. “They took it!”

Frelina continued to try to give him the flask, and when he still refused, she unscrewed it herself, her nose immediately wrinkling at the harsh stench.

“Drink!” she tried to demand, but he continued to push it away.

“They took it,” he wailed again.

“Took what?” Frelina finally secured the lid, letting the flask tumble to the floor once more. “What did they take, Raine?”

She didn’t recognize his eyes when he looked up at her.

They were…

Clear. Not bloodshot. Not hazy or glassy but… clear.

Understanding pebbled her skin, and she couldn’t help the slight jerk weaving across her shoulders.

“They took it,” he said again, eyes going wild. “I can’t… I can’t do it. You know I… I can’t.”

“The alcohol? Raine, it’s still in there.” She’d smelled it, after all, and there was no mistaking that smell—not even as it mingled with the strange, otherworldly one of this room.

“No!” Raine shook his head so much his red hair flew around it, nearly whipping her own face. “They took m-my ability.”

“They took your magic?” Frelina could feel the color drain from her face.

Could the gods do that?

“No.” Raine’s eyes went unseeing before they shut, his closed eyelids twitching and features pulling as if he was in great pain. “I can’t… I can’t drink it anymore. They took it from m-me. S-said I was wasting… wasting my life.”

Oh.

Oh, fuck.