Page 37 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

“That’s unfortunate.” Something glimmered in the air as Rioner leaned in farther. “I guess it’s a good thing I don’t need you anymore.”

The room filled with choking silence for a moment.

Then a scream—a blood-chilling, bone-shattering scream—followed.

Chaos erupted.

Lessia fought to see as more screams followed and chains shrieked so loudly she wondered if Kerym and his brother had gotten free.

But it wasn’t those sounds that terrified her.

It was the gurgling, choking sound, and the thud that followed.

And when the guards who had held her father in place backed away, their faces so ashen she wouldn’t have been surprised if they fainted, terror wasn’t enough to describe what she was feeling.

Blood pooled on the floor where her father lay motionless, a dark gash stretched from one side of his throat to the other.

And when Lessia tried to catch his eyes…

They were unseeing, amber circles staring into nothing.

Into the afterlife.

She screamed then.

At least that’s what she thought she did.

Then her vision went crimson.

And with every last bit of strength in her, she somehow forced the knee off her back, jumping to her feet and sprinting to where the king was wiping his blade on his cape.

She was going to kill him.

Rip out his throat with her teeth.

But something struck the back of her head.

And it all went black.

Chapter 7

Merrick

He couldn’t hear what the others around him were screaming as outraged whispers exploded across the deck, so violent and furious that he wouldn’t have been surprised if the world was to end soon.

Had he not felt that frail tether still connecting him with Lessia, he would have let go entirely, would have unleashed the storm of souls that now whirled all around him, would have fucking laughed as they took whatever was left of this wretched world.

But he did feel it.

She was alive.

She was somewhere in Havlands.

Still, she was too far away.

Merrick closed his eyes as the whispers roared louder, screaming out the frustration and rage and wrath he kept within him, crying for revenge, for death and destruction, and punishment.

Lessia might believe he was good, that he waskind, as she’d once said…