Page 10 of A Promise so Bold and Broken (Compelling Fates Saga #2)
Chapter Ten
S he didn’t stop running until she reached the shoreline, where the crystal-blue sea mocked her with its tranquility.
Not even a stupid wave ruffled the glassy surface, and no damned cloud floated across the cerulean sky.
Completely in contrast to the storm that raged within her.
Panting, Lessia finally slowed to a stop when water lapped her feet, and she realized she hadn’t put shoes on before bolting out of the house.
Gods, that made her even more furious.
Her head spun—the anger coursing through her causing her body to thrum with energy and warmth to flood her blood, making it feel as if it were blistering through her veins.
Lessia flexed her hands as she stared out over the sea, barely able to remain still from the emotions pounding through her body, and she didn’t even flinch when Ydren popped her head through the calm surface.
As she met the sea wyvern’s glittering eyes and Ydren began swimming toward her, Lessia’s lips lifted into a warning snarl.
There wasn’t room for fear within her.
She was done being scared of damned creatures.
And… damned males.
Rushes of clear torrents dripped off the wyvern’s long neck as she closed the distance to the shoreline and towered over Lessia, casting long shadows over the white beach.
“Not another inch,” Lessia hissed between her teeth. “I won’t warn you again.”
The wyvern tilted her large head, her purple scales reflecting the morning sun as she eyed Lessia.
But even though her spiked tail lashed the water, Ydren slowed to a stop, head still cocked to the side and eyes firmly locked with Lessia’s.
With magic buzzing in her ears, Lessia glared right back at her.
But there wasn’t anger, or even fear, in the wyvern’s eyes as she continued to meet them.
Something else brimmed in the violet gaze.
Something that made Lessia swallow audibly as the pressure she’d gotten so used to in her chest tightened, driving some of the rage away and replacing it with the same feeling reflecting in Ydren’s eyes.
“You’re lonely,” she whispered.
Ydren blinked, her head dipping for a moment.
Drawing a few deep breaths, Lessia tried to soothe the emotions tangling inside her—tried to push down the anger, the sense of loneliness, and whatever other emotions she struggled to identify within her.
But filling her lungs did nothing to calm the energy sparking through every nerve.
She frowned as she glanced down at her feet, finding them shaking with held-back vigor, then to her tightly clenched hands and taut muscles.
What was happening to her?
When Ydren let out a low growl, her eyes flew up to find that the wyvern—despite her warning—had moved even closer.
Ydren’s warm breaths mingled with the mild breeze blowing through Lessia’s hair, and the wyvern’s eyes were glossed, a sheen covering the deep purple as she cocked her neck.
But as the wyvern’s snout nudged her, it didn’t fill Lessia with fear.
Instead, her own eyes misted with tears.
Clenching her jaw to stop them from spilling down her cheeks, Lessia got out, “I am lonely, too, sometimes.”
Most of the time.
Especially now.
When there was too much weight on her shoulders.
Too much she needed to do to make everything right again.
Ydren inclined her head and nudged her again.
“I miss my friends and family,” Lessia croaked as the pressure in her chest nearly stole her breath. “I miss them so much. I-I don’t know how to save them. I… I don’t know if I can.”
She did miss them so damned much.
She wasn’t just angry at Ardow…
Or even at herself.
She was angry because she’d finally felt that sense of home she’d craved for a small moment—barely a day—during the election…
And then it had been ripped away from her the same way it had that day when she hurt Frelina.
And now?
She wasn’t sure how to get it back.
A large tear rolled down the wyvern’s sparkling scales and splashed onto Lessia’s shoulder.
She hesitantly lifted a hand, and after meeting Ydren’s sorrowful eyes, Lessia placed it on the wyvern’s snout.
Pressing into it, Ydren let out another muted sound, her broad chest rumbling softly.
“Do you miss your family as well?” Lessia murmured as she stroked the surprisingly soft scales.
A cry worked its way through the wyvern’s throat, each note striking Lessia’s cracked heart.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
She had no idea how Ydren had ended up here.
From what she had read, the wyverns had left a long time ago, for somewhere far, far away.
Ydren butted her hand, another tear spattering onto the sand by Lessia’s feet.
They stood like that for a moment, quiet in their sorrows, until footsteps reached Lessia’s ears.
With a jerk, Ydren flew backward, sending a wave of water over Lessia as she dove deep into the sea, leaving large ripples on the calm surface, which twisted the sun’s reflection.
Drenched and with that strange energy still flushing her skin, she spun around.
Merrick stalked toward her, sand whipping around his boots and dark eyes flashing, and she quickly averted hers, snagging on the small bandage wrapped around his hand.
Despite the furiousness of his gait, a smile tugged at her lips at the sight.
He deserved it.
But when she felt the rage simmering in the air, she quickly bit it down.
Best not to rile him up further.
“Most people take off their clothes to bathe,” he growled.
Her eyes clashed with his, and when she noted his furiously lowered brows, she squared her shoulders, forcing back a wince when the wet tunic shifted uncomfortably as she did so.
“Are you trying to get me undressed?” she taunted, ignoring the small voice in her mind warning her that she’d just decided not to agitate him more.
A vein throbbed by his temple. “If I were, you’d already be splayed out on the sand beneath me, begging me to join you.”
He…
What?
Heat flooded her face, and she groaned to herself when he lifted a silver brow.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” she forced out, using every ounce of willpower within her to keep meeting his eyes.
The corner of Merrick’s mouth twitched, and she sighed again as the smile she’d repressed earlier pulled her lips upward.
A low chuckle left Merrick when she lost the battle to keep them down, and she couldn’t stop a muffled laugh from escaping her as they continued to stare at each other.
She shook her head as more laughter bubbled up.
Stupid Fae.
She wanted to be furious at him.
Not laugh.
Merrick lifted his wrapped hand. “Don’t worry, I’m aware.”
She could smell the iron staining the white bandage, and when an ember of guilt clawed its way into her chest, her lips finally dropped.
Wincing, Lessia took a step toward him. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
She’d been so damned angry at Raine.
And when Merrick tried to keep her quiet…
Merrick offered her a crooked smile. “Not many have managed to draw blood from the Death Whisperer. You should be proud.”
More shame tore through her.
After what Raine told her last night…
She hated that he called himself the Death Whisperer.
He was so much more.
But she didn’t know what to say.
Didn’t have the words to tell him that’s not how she saw him.
Not anymore.
Merrick’s smile fell as well as he studied her, his gaze narrowing as it swept over her face, down to the hands she’d begun twisting.
Lessia opened her mouth to say something—anything—but no words left her lips as Merrick’s eyes snapped back to hers.
The air grew heavy, the wind dying down around them, and the intensity of their locked gazes became too much.
She didn’t understand the indignation swirling in his darkness, why a crease formed between his pearly brows, why his jaw locked and unlocked.
When a shiver of worry danced across her shoulders, she glanced down at her feet, the warning from earlier not to anger him echoing in her mind.
Merrick finally cleared his throat as she stared at the sand seeping between her toes. “The others are on their way down to train. You should probably get some boots. Raine fights dirty, and he’d not hesitate to stomp on them if it came to that.”
With a quick nod, Lessia started walking back to the cabin, unable to meet Merrick’s eyes again—even when she could feel his lethal presence all around her as she passed him.