Page 33 of A Promise so Bold and Broken (Compelling Fates Saga #2)

Chapter Thirty-Three

S he’d thought she’d have to fight Merrick to take the lead up the stairs, but as soon as she lifted her foot to take the first step, he moved to the side, allowing her room to pass.

The pounding footsteps above them rumbled right through Lessia, the dust falling from the ceiling tickling her nose, and when Loche’s deep voice reverberated down the spiral staircase, she almost turned right back around.

Only because Merrick’s hand clasped around her own did she find the strength to continue upward.

“You are surrounded,” Loche called out. “And we have your friends, so do not try anything, or they both die.”

“My magic is still not back,” Kerym hissed. “I’ll have to fight the normal way if it comes to that.”

Trying to pull on her own, she found her veins still filled with that horrible clogged feeling, and she could tell Merrick’s magic wasn’t back, either, from the sound that rumbled in his chest.

Lessia threw a glance over her shoulder when Raine whispered, “I am getting some back. Do you want me to try to take out his guards before we ascend?”

Flicking her gaze from him to Kerym, she hesitated but finally shook her head. “Me using my magic was what ruined everything last time. Let’s… let’s try without first. But… be ready.”

As she turned forward again, Merrick rushed his steps so that he climbed the final ones beside her, and Lessia prayed they wouldn’t have to control Loche’s mind the way they had on that cliff.

She would do it if needed.

But she wasn’t sure if she could bear it.

If it would be the thing that finally changed her forever.

Her blood roared in her ears as she took the last step, and every muscle in her body went taut when gray eyes snared hers.

Lessia’s heart skipped a beat as she took the regent in.

He looked the same.

Dressed in his usual black leathers and with his dark hair out of his face, he was lethally handsome. And as his perceptive gaze flew over her, that sense that he read too much into her every movement made apprehension coat her skin.

When a smirk—the one that had infuriated her so much during the election—played across his lips as she pressed herself against the wall, she tore her eyes away.

Instead, Lessia shot a quick look across what seemed like a dated living room, with a small couch and table, but she couldn’t make out Soria and Pellie anywhere, and her stomach churned when those terrifying masks Loche’s guards wore followed her every movement—like a flock of deadly black birds spread out behind their leader.

“Hello, Lessia.” As she forced her eyes back to his, Loche’s sharp gaze flew down to the hand Merrick still held on to as he casually leaned his back on the wall beside her, and he clicked his tongue before continuing. “Death Whisperer. Not bothering with the glamour anymore?”

Merrick flashed his teeth back. “Seems we’re past that point.”

“We are, aren’t we?” Loche nodded to himself, holding up a hand when his guards—who stood posted at almost every inch of the wooden walls in the large sitting room—stepped closer. “No need. I’m confident Lessia and her little band of Fae warriors won’t try anything. Especially since her friends in the cave would not fare well if something happened to me… or if I seem a bit too accommodating.”

Cursing silently, Lessia shot Merrick a quick look, and he dipped his chin the tiniest bit before locking his gaze ahead.

From the outside, Merrick appeared calm, his legs crossed and shoulders lowered, but Lessia could see the vein straining on his neck—could feel how his fingers rhythmically brushed the back of her hand.

He was anything but.

Raine and Kerym growled softly as they took up the spots next to Merrick, keeping a hand on their blades and fixing the regent with their glares.

Despite it all, she pursed her lips.

They probably didn’t appreciate being called little.

“Look at that.”

Her eyes snapped up when Loche spoke once more.

“It’s almost the full brotherhood.” Loche cocked his head, his smirk not once wavering as he dragged his gaze over the four of them. “Are you here to declare war against me, Lessia?”

“N-no,” she got out.

After clearing her throat, she quickly continued. “We’ve come to warn you.”

Loche let out a low laugh that had her clamp her lips shut. “Warn me… Do you have a death wish? I told you I’d kill you myself if you ever set foot in Ellow again.”

Lessia hushed Merrick when he let out a low growl.

“I know,” she said as she took a step forward.

The only step she could take, as Merrick had her hand in a death grip.

“Loche, the rebels are planning a devastating attack. And not just from the sea—there are people all across Ellow who are part of this. And… and that’s not the only threat Ellow—we—are facing. Another realm of Fae is heading here—the Oakgards’ Fae—and Rioner is working with them. He’s going to help them take over Ellow. There is a curse… I don’t know all of it, but he believes you’re destined to destroy the Rantzier family and bring him to his knees, so he needs to take you out.”

Not a single muscle in Loche’s body, nor a single feature of his face, shifted.

Lessia’s pulse quickened as she eyed him, and the thumps within her accelerated when he eyed her right back.

“He knows.” Merrick sidled up next to her. “Don’t you?”

Sucking his teeth, Loche waved for his guards to retreat out the door behind him—into the gray light shining through the small window to his right. “I need a moment with them alone.”

As a few guards lingered, their steps hesitant as they followed the others, Loche hissed, “That was an order.”

Loche didn’t waste a second when the door slammed shut behind the last one.

After a quick look out of the dusty window, he stormed up to them.

Merrick immediately shifted her behind him, so that he was the one who met Loche’s glacial eyes when the regent halted a few feet away.

Shaking his head, Loche laughed again. “So, you finally came to your senses.”

Merrick straightened so that the one inch or so he had on Loche became evident as he snarled, “Do not test me, human.”

“Merrick.” Lessia tugged on his hand when whispers started to boom through the room, growing louder when Kerym and Raine snickered. “Please.”

She was surprised he could harness his magic so quickly.

Her veins were still filled with the dry, lead-like feeling the Vincere unleashed, not an ounce of magic simmering beneath her skin.

His nostrils flared as he turned his head to look at her, but when she repeated “Please,” Merrick finally retreated a step, although he remained an inch or so ahead of Lessia, his muscles coiling beneath his leathers.

There was a coldness in Loche’s eyes—one that made her hair stand on end as she met them. “So… you’re with him now?”

Lessia opened and closed her mouth a few times, unsure of how to respond, and the unease crawling over her skin mounted with each silent second that passed.

She hadn’t even spoken to Merrick about it yet.

As she sliced her eyes to the Fae, his night ones already waited for her, and whatever thought had started to form in her mind evaporated at the depths of the feelings shining in his dark gaze.

You and me.

“Noted,” Loche snorted, and she moved her gaze back to him.

“I guess this should hurt me?” Loche dragged a hand through his dark hair, messing it up in the way she’d loved during the election process. “It’s strange… knowing the feelings I had for you, knowing they were there, but not feeling them.” He shrugged. “Probably for the better, anyway, if you could sway so quickly.”

“Excuse me?” Lessia dropped Merrick’s hand as she took a step toward Loche, shoving a finger into his chest. “You left me ! You let me fucking crawl after you. I told you I loved you, and you… you told me to erase me! You do not get to judge me, regent .”

Loche’s gaze slowly rose from the finger poking his jacket to her eyes, and when he raised one of his hands, she couldn’t stop herself from recoiling.

But he only used his fingers to brush a strand of hair that must have lain across her forehead, and she watched quietly as he frowned at it before tucking it behind her ear.

As Loche’s eyes traveled down, she saw the exact moment he noted the tattoo.

His eyes rounded for a second before he locked down the shock, but there was no mistaking how his hand shook as he ran his fingers over the aching letters, and she swallowed loudly when his teeth snapped together.

“Do not touch her.” Ice dripped from Merrick’s voice as he pushed the regent back a step. “You lost that privilege that night. Get back before I kill you.”

Loche offered Merrick a lazy smile. “I don’t think you will. See… I don’t think she’d forgive you if you did.”

Merrick’s growl shook the entire cabin.

Or whatever this place was.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lessia could see Raine and Kerym inching closer, their eyes flitting from the seething Merrick to the seemingly unbothered Loche, and she quickly stepped in between the two males.

“Stop it,” she ordered as she placed a hand on Loche’s chest. “Loche, this isn’t about me! It’s about Ellow—all of Ellow. Everyone here is in danger!”

“But it is about you,” Loche said slowly, as if he were testing out the words. “I can’t feel it now, but I can remember the desperation—why I asked you to remove the memories, the feelings. This… this is all because of you.”

“What do you mean?” Lessia stared at him, then turned to Merrick, and whatever fought over his features didn’t reassure her.

Not one bit.

“You weren’t supposed to come back.” Loche began pacing back and forth before them, his unbothered mask slipping as her hand dropped to her side. “I’d set up everything perfectly to ensure it. I made sure the three of them were in the cells together so that when you ran, it’d be easy for you to take them with you. Having Zaddock overhear… I knew he’d understand—that he’d think I’d been acting too quickly… Why are you back, Lessia?”

“I told you!” she responded, her voice sounding more high pitched than she’d like. “Rioner has a plan to kill you! To take out all Ellow and give it to the Oakgards’ Fae. I couldn’t let that happen, could I?”

Loche slammed his fist against the wall, and the cracking of the stone fractured something within her even before she met his broken gaze. “I should have realized you’d be too damn noble!”

Stalking up to her, he ignored the warning rumbling in Merrick’s chest. “Do you not think I know what Rioner has planned? I might not remember what memories you took away from me, but if I loved you and you loved me… you must have known me better than that.”

Her mouth fell open when Loche dragged his hands down his face, and an emotion she’d never seen him carry before flitted across his features.

Guilt.

Raw guilt.

“I risked everything for you,” he said, emphasizing each word. “My land. My people. For you. And even now… even when I don’t feel what I know I felt, when I don’t remember… I can’t. I can’t sacrifice you.”

“Sacrifice…” Lessia threw out her hands. “I have no idea what you’re talking about! Why are you risking anything for me?”

Merrick let out a choked sound, and she stumbled back when she met his dark eyes.

Wide dark eyes.

In a face white as a sheet.

“He just figured it out.” Loche eyed the hand he’d struck the wall with, wiping the trickles of blood running down his knuckles off on his trousers.

“Merrick?” she demanded.

Lessia met Raine’s and Kerym’s eyes over Merrick’s shoulder when the Fae remained quiet, his jaw clenching so hard she wondered if he was about to crush his teeth.

They looked as confused as she felt, wrinkles lining their foreheads as they stared from the regent to the frozen Death Whisperer.

“What is going on?” Lessia whipped her gaze from Loche to Merrick, and when still neither deigned to respond, she stepped into Merrick’s space and waved her hand before his glassy eyes.

“Merrick, you’re scaring me,” she told him shakily.

His eyes finally focused, finding hers as he lifted them.

But when his hands landed on her shoulders and he clasped them in a way that made her feel as if he never wanted to let go, pure, undiluted dread roiled within her.

“The curse isn’t about Loche,” Merrick said in a monotone.