Page 19 of A Promise so Bold and Broken (Compelling Fates Saga #2)

Chapter Nineteen

L essia couldn’t breathe as the ramp from the small boat landed on the beach, and the thud of wood hitting sand reverberated through her so loudly it drowned all other sounds.

The sun had already begun its descent behind the house at their backs, and she blinked in the dappled light when a hand landed on her back.

“Is that your father?” Ardow breathed.

Without turning around, she nodded.

“Are you all—”

Ardow’s question was cut off when someone—she suspected Merrick—slapped their hand over his mouth.

Regardless, she was grateful for it when her father’s golden-brown hair came into view, and the lump that seemed ever present in her throat grew.

Her father reached out a hand, and when a smaller figure emerged from the boat’s head to be helped off, she thought she might tumble to the ground.

Her sister’s eyes found hers, and she didn’t hesitate as she overtook their father.

Frelina’s skirts billowed in the breeze as she stormed up to them, and Lessia took a stumbling step toward her, drinking in the sight of her round face, the amber eyes that were identical to her own, and the hair that had flowed nearly down to her waist—like Lessia’s still did—but was now cut short, coming just beneath her ears.

Lessia opened her arms when Frelina was a step away, her eyes closing as her sister’s flowery scent floated toward her, and a small piece of her broken soul seemed to fuse together.

Then, her head slammed to the side.

“Well. Shit,” Ardow gasped somewhere behind her.

Eyes flying open, Lessia touched her burning cheek and met Frelina’s furious gaze.

“How could you, Elessia?” she hissed as she lifted her hand once more.

“I’m so—” she started, but Frelina slapped her again, so hard the taste of iron filled her mouth, and the words were clipped by a sob.

“Enough!” Merrick stepped in between them, his glare fixed on her sister. “Do not hit her again,” he warned quietly.

Or perhaps the maddening noise in her ears made his voice seem soft.

Her blood roared inside her, heating every inch of her skin, not just the cheek her sister had struck, as devastating grief filled her to her core.

Her sister’s blazing gaze became blurry as Lessia’s eyes burned with tears.

She had been so occupied with the guilt toward her parents when she found out Frelina was alive…

She hadn’t even considered what she’d say to her sister.

The sister she’d compelled to jump off a roof.

Her father rushed to their side, but as he tried to pull Frelina behind him, she ripped her arm free and slammed her finger into Merrick’s chest. “The Death Whisperer, Elessia? Really? That’s what you’ve been doing all these years?”

Upper lip curling back, she turned to Raine, who’d stepped up to Lessia’s side. “Get the fuck out of my mind. I won’t tell you a second time.”

“Frelina…” Her father reached out for her sister again.

Spinning toward him, she snarled, “No! I lied about Elessia to protect you! You do not get to lecture me.” Her burning eyes flew across the group before she stalked off toward the cabin with a loud “Fuck all of you!”

Lessia breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth as she tried to stop the pressure building in her chest and the familiar black spots flickering in the corner of her eyes.

Staring at the rest of the group, she fought with everything in her so as not to succumb to the panic.

But as Ardow, Venko, Raine, and even Merrick looked back at her with pity, her legs went out.

Dropping down beside her in the sand, Merrick reached out to pull her against him, but she pushed his arm off, incapable of standing the gentle gesture.

She wasn’t the one who deserved comfort.

She couldn’t even meet Merrick’s eyes.

Not with the sympathy she expected to flare within the darkness.

This was her fault.

Frelina hating her was warranted.

Like it was warranted for L…

She dragged her hands through her hair, pulling at the roots and squeezing her eyes shut.

It was all her fault.

“I thought I was called to battle, not a catfight.”

The foreign voice had Merrick jump to his feet, his sword in his hands in less than a second.

But Lessia couldn’t muster more movement than tilting her head upward, the tears that filled her eyes spilling over and tracing down her cheeks.

A Fae with ebony hair and crystal-blue eyes smirked at Merrick’s tense stance before lazily shifting to meet her eyes and offering her a wave. “Hello, little Faeling.”

Merrick shook his head as he sheathed his sword. “Kerym.”

“That’s all I get?” Kerym wiggled his brows. “I know you’re not usually one for hugs, but it’s been a few centuries. I thought I’d get at least a handshake.”

She couldn’t take in any more information, her mind feeling as if it’d been struck by lightning, so instead of listening to Merrick’s response, Lessia’s eyes traveled toward her father.

She immediately wished they hadn’t.

Tears spilled down his own cheeks, his face crumpling as he stared back at her.

“Raine,” Merrick barked.

Nodding, Raine grabbed Kerym by the arm, and after a glance at Venko and Ardow, he made them all venture back to the house—the same way Frelina had stormed off.

Lessia’s gaze flitted from Merrick, who eyed her closely, to her father, who looked as devastated as she felt.

“So… it’s true. You’re my daughter,” her father whispered, his voice raw.

When Lessia only stared back at him, Merrick cleared his throat. “It is.”

He reached out a hand, and when she allowed him to pull her to her feet, Merrick continued. “Alarin, there is much we must discuss, but you two need to talk first.”

As he motioned to follow the others back to the house, unease coiled around her neck, and she reached out to grip his hand.

“Please,” she whispered when Merrick met her eyes over his shoulder.

He hesitated for only a second before he nodded.

Turning back around, Merrick firmly laced their fingers as he took the place by her side, with her father opposite them, his eyes falling to their joined hands.

She followed his gaze to the large hand enveloping hers for a moment before lifting her gaze again, and if Frelina’s slap still didn’t burn on her cheek, she might have laughed.

How had she ended up here?

Needing comfort from the Death Whisperer to speak to her own father.

“E-Elessia? Is that your name?” her father asked, his gaze flitting to Merrick for a second before meeting her own.

Thankfully, the tears she’d found there before were gone.

She swallowed. “Yes, but I go by Lessia now.”

Dragging his hands down his face, her father sighed. “I should have known. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I met you in Ellow. You look so much like Frelina a-and Miryn.”

“It’s my fault. I…” Her voice faded away like the breeze over the sea.

Merrick squeezed her hand when she shook her head, wondering if she could continue.

But that conviction—his conviction—seemed to flow freely between their linked hands, and as she drew a breath, she was able to get out a few more words.

“I thought I killed Frelina. It was horrible. And I…” Her voice broke once more as the memory of her parents’ devastated faces, the blood marring their clothes and hands as they told her Frelina had jumped from the roof, surfaced in her mind.

“She told me what happened when I received your letter.” Her father nodded toward Merrick. “I can’t believe she kept it to herself all these years. I just wish…”

Tears began spilling down her father’s face again, and it felt as if her chest were splitting wide open when his tall frame began to shake from the sobs.

This was worse than she’d imagined.

A lot worse.

“I’m so sorry,” Lessia whispered. “It’s all my fault.”

“No.” Her father shook his head. “It isn’t.”

Lessia’s face broke as she stared back at him.

Of course it was.

She was the cause of these tears.

She was the cause of their family being broken apart.

Of Frelina having to live a lie.

“You were a child. Twelve years old! Nothing was your fault. If it’s anyone’s, it’s mine.”

Her bottom lip trembled as her father took a step toward her, opening his arms.

When she faltered, Merrick gently nudged her forward, and she nearly collapsed when her father’s leathery scent cloaked her, his arms as strong as she remembered them.

“It wasn’t your fault,” her father whispered into her hair when a low cry left her. “You were just a child.”

“I thought…” Lessia hiccuped. “I thought I lost you forever.”

“We’re here now.” His arms wrapped tighter around her. “We’re not leaving you again.”

As she let herself hug him back, even with the guilt berating her, telling her she didn’t deserve it, she asked shakily, “Where is Mother?”

Her father froze.

And so did her blood when she pulled back to look at him.

She could sense Merrick stiffen behind her, his unnerving presence moving closer.

Her father stared at her, and she bit her cheek at the devastation in his eyes.

“I’m s-sorry. She’s… she’s dead.”

Lessia shook her head as she took a step back, shaking off his warm embrace.

That was a lie.

Her mother couldn’t be dead.

The woman with the softest hands.

The woman with the kindest smile.

The woman with the most beautiful singing voice.

No.

“She’s— No!” Lessia violently shook her head again. “She’s not old enough to die yet.”

She hadn’t been more than a few years past forty when Lessia left.

Humans could live to at least eighty. Perhaps even ninety if they were lucky.

“She was sick.” Her father’s eyes pleaded with her as she continued to back away. “I brought a healer to help your sister after… after the accident. When she was updating us on her progress, she realized almost immediately that your mother… that she was ill as well.”

Lessia’s back collided with Merrick’s chest, but she couldn’t even feel his arms around her as her father continued.

“There was nothing we could do. It’s… humans, they get diseases we don’t. She’d been so happy, it had masked its progression, but when everything happened—”

Lessia pushed Merrick off and sprinted away, her hands flying up to cover her ears.

No.

No.

No.

She repeated the word with every step she took.

Her legs didn’t take her to the cabin but toward the cliffs on the other side of the island—their darkness and lonely position mirroring the empty abyss within her.

She might not have killed Frelina.

But her mother had died because of the worry she’d brought into her life.

And…

She’d died not knowing Lessia existed.