Page 16 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

“What is this ruckus?”

Lessia fought a relieved grin and cried out again when the king’s voice drifted toward her.

“Stop her right now!” the king demanded. “She’s so fucking loud, any ships within a mile will hear her.”

She almost nodded to herself as she let out another harsh shout.

She’d known the king wouldn’t want to be found. Not with her father chained up beside her. Not with the Siphon Twins—the twins still considered heroes amongst the Fae—shackled beside him.

The sound of her scream died in her throat when her head flew to the side, and sharp pain exploded behind her eyes as whoever had slapped her used far more strength than her sister had done that one time.

Still, she forced out another shriek.

“Enough!”

The fist that connected with her nose was entirely unforgiving, and hot blood flooded her mouth when her bone crunched.

Head-splitting pain burst through her face as she tried to scream again, but it was muffled when whoever hit her stuffed something foul-smelling into her mouth, hindering her ability to breathe.

The moan that followed was a real one as Lessia had to draw a breath through the nose she expected was shattered, and when her body twitched to curl into itself as the air stilled, she let it.

The next strike still rang true.

Her head slammed so hard into the wall behind her that she must have lost consciousness for a second, because when she came to, her father was screaming at Rioner.

“—enough! She’s a child, Rioner! My child! Your niece!”

Lessia shook her head, realizing the blindfold had slipped off somewhat from the beating, and by squinting, she could make out Torkher grinning coldly where he squatted before her, the king standing behind him with four guards on either side.

Even though the dirty piece of fabric still covered some of her vision, Lessia could tell the guards—apart from the damned sadist Torkher—were uneasy.

Their gazes flitted so fast between her father and his brother and then back to each other, she wouldn’t have been able to make it out if she hadn’t been half-Fae.

But this was good.

They were loyal enough to the king that they’d kill her—or at least find a way to break her entirely.

But she didn’t believe they’d let her father die.

Hopefully not even her sister.

Her family was innocent.

She’d bet on that as soon as she’d seen how they stared at her father in that cage on the ship—how they’d hesitated at the king’s orders, mumbled to each other when they followed his demands, and the disapproving jerks of their heads as they led Thissian onto the deck.

Only she would be the one to lose her life.

And Rioner, if she was able to bring him with her.

Blood trickled down her throat as she pulled in another wheezing, painful breath through her nose, but she ignored the agony when the king opened his mouth.

“It’s enough when I say it’s enough, brother.” Rioner’s face remained bored as his eyes flew across the chained group. “She is meant to dethrone me. I will sooner die than let a fucking halfling—one that’s related to me, at that?—”

“Don’t say another word, brother.”

Lessia flinched at her father’s warning—his tone so eerily similar to the cold one of the king’s as he glared up at him.

She twisted so she could see him better, and another jab of pain stabbed at her.