Page 163 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

“He’s a good man.” Zaddock strolled up to them, and Lessia and Ardow shared a glance when Amalise tried her best not to look his way, her legs dangling lazily over the edge of the barrel. “I wish I could do the same, but you’ll be safer on the cliff, Amalise.”

“Who is going to save you when you get another knife in your back, then?” Amalise snapped, her eyes slitting as she glared at Loche’s right-hand man.

“Are you worried about me?” Zaddock shot back as he stepped closer, blue eyes twinkling as they flickered over her friend.

“No,” Amalise muttered, her arms crossing over her chest. “I just think my talents will be wasted on that stupid cliff.”

“She is worried about me,” Zaddock mouthed to Lessia when she snickered, and she realized he must have had a cup or two of the wine because his face didn’t have the sharp lines it usually did when Amalise was around. The ones that made Lessia believe he was on high alert at all times, looking for any danger that might pose a threat to her friend.

“I. Am. Not.” Amalise went red when Ardow also began laughing. “Stop that!”

Amalise went to slap Ardow when Zaddock swept in and grabbed her hand, swiftly bending his back in a bow. Looking up at her while keeping his body bent, Zaddock asked, “Will you do me the honor of a dance?”

Amalise pulled at her hand, but even Lessia could see it was half-heartedly, especially as Zaddock’s gaze filled with innocent hope.

“Just one,” he continued softly, and Lessia had the urge to look away—the moment seeming too private. “If I die from one of those daggers to the back tomorrow, you’ll still have made me the luckiest man alive if you just give me one.”

When Amalise hesitated, Ardow shoved her off the barrel with a “For fuck’s sake, you two are going to make me cry,” and Zaddock sent her friend a drunken salute before he led a bloodred Amalise onto the dance floor.

Ardow did have tears in his eyes as they caught Lessia’s again, and he cleared his throat. “She is really giving him a hard time.”

“You know why,” Lessia responded as she watched Amalise’s blonde hair sway over the arms Zaddock had wrapped around her. “She is scared of getting hurt again.”

Ardow enveloped one of the hands in her lap with his own. “I know. But if the past months have taught me anything, it’s that time is not on our side.” He turned to her, and the air between them became heavy with seriousness. “I haven’t apologized enough for what I did to you—to all of you.”

Lessia began waving her other hand, but when Ardow whispered “Please,” she dropped it again.

“I fucked up, Lessia.” His eyes searched hers. “So, so bad. But I am doing what I can to make up for it.”

“I know, Ard.” She did know. She could see it in his eyes, in his shoulders, in his back, and in his gait. “It’s all right.”

“It’s not…” Emotions raced over his face. “I can’t help but think I set everything in motion with my actions, and”—his voice broke—“your father.”

Lessia took a shaky breath. “Was not your fault. His death wasn’t anyone’s fault but Rioner’s.” She squeezed Ardow’s trembling hand. “I understand why you did what you did. Even here, even now, when we’re all fighting on the same side, there is a divide. We all see it. And it needs to change.”

Her eyes reflected in his, not in the way they did when her magic captured someone’s mind but in understanding, and Ardow’s pinched face finally softened.

“Do you think we’ll be alive to see it happen? See humans and Fae and half-Fae and shifters unite as one?” Ardow asked, his voice barely a whisper as Venko approached them.

Her grip on his hand tightened further.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I have to believe itwillhappen.”

“Believe what will happen?” Venko asked as he rested a hand on Ardow’s leg, the other lifting a goblet of wine to his lips.

“That our men will finally ask us to dance,” Lessia said, blinking away any wetness that might have formed in her eyes.

“That’s why I came over here.” Venko grinned. “But I think your man is still on the other ship waiting for Raine’s friends, so I can wait.”

“No, no.” Lessia shook her head. “I’ll be fine.”

“Don’t be silly,” Ardow responded. “We’ll wait until Merrick is back.”

“No, you go ahead.” Lessia pressed Ardow’s hand back into his lap. “I could do with a few minutes alone.”

She actually could use some time by herself. All day she’d been catching up with the Faelings, with Ardow and Amalise and Soria and Pellie—she honestly had no idea why the sisters still were here, deciding to fight, when she’d never seen them do much more than drink wine and bed men—and while she’d found that short time with Merrick on the cliff, her pulse was still heightened from all the socialization.

Ardow seemed to read as much into her expression because he bowed his head before jumping off the barrel, and with a squeeze of her knee, he led Venko onto the dance floor, taking up a spot beside Amalise and Zaddock, who were still moving in acircle even though Lessia was quite certain this would count as a second dance.