Page 2 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

Her home.

She felt Merrick’s eyes on her and quickly tried to shake the melancholy that had begun filling her upon remembering the night she’d left, upon remembering the mother who’d made this place a haven.

The mother who was no longer.

The hand wrapped around her own tightened its grip, and when it pulled her to a stop once more, gently tugging at her to turn around, she let it.

“It wasn’t your fault, Elessia.” Merrick tried for a smile, but the darkness that now filled his eyes betrayed him.

And when a second voice—another familiar one, but this one filled with anger and resentment and disgust—broke the gentle melody floating around them, his grin collapsed completely.

Lessia spun around even before her father could finish his sentence, her heart shattering at the twisted grimace on his face.

“Of course it was her fault.” Alarin took a step toward them, and Lessia’s blood ran cold when she realized his white tunic and breeches were splattered with something dark…

Something red?

Despite the warning blaring within her, Lessia sniffed the air.

Iron overtook all the summer scents that had twined around them before.

Blood. It was blood that painted her father’s clothing—blood that ran down his hands, dripping onto the light stone lining the path as he continued to walk toward them, his amber eyes crazed as they flitted between her and Merrick.

“She killed her sister. And then she killed her mother.” Alarin stopped a few feet away, but drops of spit still landed on her face as he forced the words out. “She’s a monster.”

“No.” Lessia stumbled toward him, but Merrick’s grip on her hand held her back. “No, Father. Frelina is alive! I just saw her.”

Her father’s face crumpled with pain, before his arm shot out behind him. “If she’s alive, how do you explain the graves?”

Lessia didn’t want to look, but she couldn’t stop herself from following her father’s shaking hand, and when it revealed two white stones—one withFrelina Rantziercarved into it and the otherMiryn Rantzier, both with dark stains marring the shiny fronts—a scream burst from her lips.

“You should feel pain,” her father spat. “You killed my mate. My daughter. You should suffer like I have.”

No.

No, this was all wrong.

Lessia shook her head, barely able to see through the tears that welled up in her eyes.

Still, when her father unsheathed a sword hanging by his waist, she didn’t shrink back.

Instead, her eyes fixed on the graves of her sister and mother.

Two of the people she’d loved the most.

She did deserve this, didn’t she?

If they were dead…

If they’d truly left this realm to move on to the afterlife?

It must be her fault.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noted the sword flying through the air, the whistling sound brushing her ears, but it wasn’t until Merrick’s hand ripped from hers that she snapped her head up.

Tears spilled down her father’s cheeks as his arm fell to his side. “Now you’ll know.”

Know what? It was as if her thoughts refused to collaborate.