Page 193 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

Years…

Years Lessia and Merrick wouldn’t have.

Solana must have caught the sadness ripping into Lessia’s heart, because she hurried to smile again. “I don’t think it’s over for you two. Not yet.”

“What do you mean?” Despite the summer warmth drifting through the room, Lessia shivered. She already missed Merrick so much she could hardly pull air into her lungs, but she didn’t want him to come here.

To join her. To die.

“This place.” Solana swept her thin arm across the room, to the windows with the forest beyond and the glittering sea peeking over the cliffs. “It took me a while to figure out what it was, but once I did… I’ve been waiting ever since.”

“So what is it?” Lessia took another pull of wine.

“It’s the afterlife but also not.” Solana refilled their cups before continuing. “For those of us whose soul is ripped in two when we’re separated from our mate… we can’t rest until both souls do so.”

Lessia swallowed. “Until you both die?”

“No. Until we move on.” Her white hair sparkled as she tossed it back, away from her face. “I’ve come to understandwe might not always be reunited in death, not immediately at least. For some of us… there are bigger plans, but we need to wait until the one who lives on finds something or someone to fill the aching wound, so that the one who passed can finally go peacefully.”

Lessia shook her head. “He won’t do that.”

She’d seen it in Merrick’s eyes. He’d never move on from this.

He’d rather die.

“I’m not talking about Merrick.” Solana leaned back in her chair, her smile spreading widely. “Raine is fighting it right now, but I feel it. A few weeks ago, the world around me started flickering, a calm peace layering over me for a few moments until it was ripped away again. But it’s been happening more frequently since…”

“He met my sister.” Lessia watched the Fae for any anger, perhaps even jealousy, but there was none in the deep darkness.

“Yes,” Solana responded. “Frelina is good for him. She challenges him. She understands him. She trusts him, and he trusts her. Raine and I were complete opposites… and that’s what he needed back then. But now? He needs someone like him. Someone who will understand him when he is at his worst. Someone like your sister.”

Lessia smiled as she thought back to how Raine had held on to Frelina. She’d known in that moment that he’d take care of her, and it had allowed her to let in some of that darkness pressing at the corners of her eyes.

“Will you tell him?” Solana reached over the table for Lessia’s hand, and her grip was surprisingly firm for such a small female. “Will you tell him to be happy? To love again? He deserves it. And… so does she.”

Tears, but not like those of her friends in her final moments, made Solana’s eyes glitter. “Tell him… we’ll find each other againwhen it’s time, and when we do… someone is waiting for Frelina as well.”

“Who?” Lessia’s eyes widened and then rounded further as the world before her eyes distorted.

“That, I may not say.” Solana’s voice drifted in and out, and she glanced behind her when everything continued to flicker, like a sputtering candle about to burn out. “Now, it seems your mate is about to break every rule the gods ever put in place.” Solana squeezed her hand. “Good luck.”

Lessia blinked, and in the next moment, she stood before a bridge, the halfway point veiled in dark shadows, but not ones that scared her. She could feel Merrick’s presence all around her, his voice breaking through the whispers—the near shouts—filling her ears.

There was a small light shining in that darkness—a familiar one, like a lantern leading her home—and he was calling to her from it. As she took a step onto the bridge, Merrick’s voice, his command to find him, grew louder.

“You and me,” she said. “You and me.”

She repeated the words as she neared the thick shadows where the whispers appeared to grow louder, and as she was about to take the first step into it, a hand folded around her own.

Merrick pulled her right into the darkness, but his silver being was all she could see—it was all that mattered—and he didn’t even let her speak before he kissed her with such passion she was surprised the shadows didn’t evaporate into steam.

“I’m here,” he mumbled against her lips when she wound her arms around his neck, her body desperate to know this was real. “I’m always here.”

“I know,” she whispered back when his lips released hers. “I know.”

There was no fear within her as Merrick pulled them deeper into the heavy darkness, because she knew…

He would always, always be there to light the way for her.