Page 31 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

That’s what she was.

Absolute perfect freedom.

That fragile bond that seemed attached to his heart flickered in response to heat welling within him, and he wished there was a way to grasp it, tug at it until he found her.

It flickered again, and his brows creased.

Why was it swaying?

Merrick focused on the bond, and only the bond, Lessia’s face fading into the background.

It flickered again.

Flickered like a candle about to go out.

Fuck!

His eyes flew open, immediately meeting Raine’s, and Merrick didn’t even realize his knees buckled until his friend’s arm wrapped around his back.

“What is happening?” Raine urged. “Merrick!”

He could only get out two words. “Bond. Breaking.”

Chapter 6

Lessia

Help us! Help me!

She wasn’t sure if she was dreaming when air finally traveled into her lungs, but she continued screaming at the voices that now drifted further and further away.

Help! Please!

As the fog in her mind lifted, the large shapes that had danced before her eyes, who had turned their heads in her direction when she screamed at them but who hadn’t spoken back to her, faded until only darkness remained.

“I’ll do anything, Rioner! Please stop this. Please! She’s my daughter!”

Her father’s raspy voice was the first thing she heard as she came to, but the coughing fit that followed swallowed all other sounds.

Lessia hacked with a raw throat, tears streaming down her face, until the choking sensation finally left her, although both her nose and throat still burned from the salt in the seawater Rioner had forced down them.

“You’re a fucking coward, Rioner.” Kerym’s voice was stronger than her father’s. “You’ve always been. She’s a fucking Faeling!”

“Careful, Kerym,” the king said in a low voice. “Your brother isn’t doing too well. You wouldn’t want him to take her place, would you?”

“Oh, fuck you.” Thissian’s deep voice didn’t waver either. “You’ve already ruined our lives. Do you think you can hurt Kerym and me more? You can’t. You’ve already taken everything. I’d gladly welcome whatever you can muster with that water and more if it just ended the misery that is this life.”

“Is that so?” Rioner mused. “And you, Kerym? Did losing your mate also break you?”

Lessia focused on her shallow breathing as Kerym’s silence told the king everything he needed to know.

“What about you, dear brother? You’re still fighting? Is it because of them? The halflings?” Rioner must have started walking around because a chill breeze peppered Lessia’s bare back with pebbles, and she pulled her legs up, trying to keep some of the warmth, to cover herself as much as possible.

“I-if you had… found your mate… you’d never do this.Please. Y-you saw… our parents. Y-you saw… what losing Mother did to our father.” Alarin was begging now, sobs interrupting each word, and the sound was so horrible that Lessia closed her eyes even though she still couldn’t see anything with the blindfold.

Chains rattled before her father continued, his desperate voice rising. “T-they’re my children! Lessia is twenty-five years old! Frelina a year younger! They haven’tlived! I-I know you… believe this prophecy… but what if it was just a way for the gods to get to us one last time? Y-you’re the one breaking apart the Rantzier family right now, brother!”

Rioner only laughed. “Those two are no Rantziers. But you all have given me an idea, so thank you ever so much for that.Torkher, take off her blindfold but hold her in place so she doesn’t get any ideas, will you?”