Page 69 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

But you needn’t only survive Rioner but thousands of rebels and an entire nation of Oakgards’ Fae.

She swore at the voice bouncing against the walls in her mind.

“Fuck. If the wyverns aren’t coming, I think we have a problem.” Kerym’s curse had her eyes fly open again, and her gaze swept over the worried faces that must have started to realize the same thing she did.

Ardow’s pinched one.

Her sister’s devastated one.

Kerym’s worried one.

Thissian’s defeated one.

Raine’s hardened one.

The Fae soldier’s confused one.

But it was Merrick’s face…

The fear twisting his features. The fear—not for himself, not for his friends, not for this world, but for her—that had her say what she did next.

“Then I must go to them.”

Merrick seemed as if he was about to argue with her, a familiar vibration shaking his chest, but she captured his eyes and pierced them with her own.

“You made me promise to fight.” She didn’t care if the others heard their conversation. “This is me fighting.”

“This will not save your life,” Merrick growled. “Getting the beasts to help us might save this world, but those wyverns will not save you from the gods—from that prophecy. You promised me to fight foryourlife!”

“I also promised to save this world!” she screamed, her blood heating as his dark eyes refused to let hers go. “I promised the children… I promised it to myself when I left my home! I need to do this! We need them. I need them!”

“And I need you!” Merrick screamed back, color tinting the Death Whisperer’s cheeks as he threw out an arm. “We need you, Elessia! Don’t you see that?”

Tears blurred her vision as she followed his hand, and she swayed at the looks she got from the group of Fae and part-Fae before her.

“He’s right.” Her sister stepped forward, her lip trembling but her voice still carrying over the wind whipping across the wooden ship. “You promised not to leave me, Elessia.”

Raine nodded as he stepped with her sister, keeping Frelina steady. “This world needs you, Elessia. It will need someone with your heart and your loyalty and your passion to heal after the wounds it’s about to suffer.”

Kerym found her eyes as he also inched forward. “Trust us, Golden Eyes. The world will need as many of you as it can get.”

Even Thissian gave a swift bow of his head. “If anything… don’t do this to him.”

It was as if Kerym’s brother let all the pain from his own loss free, and Lessia actually stumbled back at the sight of it.

Was that what M?—

No. She wouldn’t go there.

Her eyes were desperate as they moved back to Merrick.

She didn’t want to do this to him… to any of them. To herself.

But what choice did she have?

They needed the wyverns if they were to survive.

A deep, familiar voice broke the loaded silence. “Maybe she can do both. Save herself and this world.”