Page 36 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

For her family.

For her friends.

For any half-Fae out there.

For Merrick.

But a heavy boot on her back stopped her advance, and even when she started fighting, Torkher wouldn’t let up.

Pinning her to the planks, he again twisted her hair, pressing her face down into the floor as he drove a knee deeper into her back.

“Do it now!” Rioner screamed. “Or I swear I will let Torkher kill her before your eyes, prophecy or not.”

“I’m… I’m so sorry, my beautiful child.”

Lessia lifted her head in time for the air to fill with the vibrations of magic.

“No!” she cried when those flickers wafted toward her. “Please! No!”

Merrick! No! It’s not me!

I love you!

Please!

Something within her chest tugged, like a frail rope mooring a ship that was too heavy, fighting against the strong waves that inevitably would bring it out to sea again.

“No!” she screamed. “Don’t do this!”

Lessia fought with everything in her, fixing her golden gaze inward, trying to compel her father’s magic to leave her mind.

But it was no person. It had no soul.

It was like trying to compel the floor.

Ignoring the knee still pressing into her injured back, she started squirming violently, talking to herself as if she’d lost her mind.

Maybe she had.

“Merrick, there were so many things I never said. I love you so much. You brought me all the light. You brought meeverything. Freedom. Hope. Trust. Love. Fight. I love you. Don’t die because of me. Please don’t die because of me. Live! Save this world. Please. Please. Please.”

The tugging stopped.

“Please,” she whispered again, feeling for the tether.

It was still there.

As frail and fragile as before.

But it was there.

Still barely able to breathe, Lessia raised her head again.

“I won’t do it.” Her father stared right into her eyes as he spoke. “Enough, Rioner. There is nothing you can say that would make me do it.”

“Is that so?” Rioner’s dark cape flew out behind him as he stormed up to her father, bridging the few feet in two or three long strides.

Alarin lifted his chin. “It is. It’s time for your rule to come to an end. Your guards won’t stand for this. Only the wretched ones in this room, perhaps. But I’ve heard the whispers. I’ve been approached by the council. I know what they’re saying about you in Vastala. They believe your greed is driving you mad, Rioner. I didn’t want to believe it, but the cruelty in this room… No. I won’t do it.”