Page 45 of A Promise so Bold and Broken (Compelling Fates Saga #2)

Chapter Forty-Five

H e was going to fucking kill him.

Which him?

The whispers constantly filling his ears echoed the question as Merrick fought against the wild waters around him, his eyes tracking the darkness to find light—to find the surface.

Both, he snarled back.

He wouldn’t discriminate.

He’d kill the king and Loche.

Rip their stupid heads off their bodies.

Make them scream as loudly as the souls in his mind.

Make them beg for mercy.

But as he imagined all the ways he’d kill those bastards, the softest, the most beautiful cry drowned the raging whispers.

Muted them like she always did when she spoke, when she touched him, when she looked at him.

You and me.

He heard Elessia’s scream as if she were right beside him as he swam toward the slight glow above him.

Merrick screamed it back.

Screamed it into the darkness of the sea.

Into their bond.

But the bond, once a scorching thread—one that had nearly killed him—was now merely a frayed whisper.

She was gone.

Merrick’s head burst through the surface.

And sure fucking enough.

The ship that had bobbed next to their own had been swallowed by the sea.

The whispers from the fucking souls always trying to break into this world filled his ears once more, pressing to be let out—to hurt and kill and destroy.

And he didn’t care to leash them when the first pair of eyes meeting his own were those damned gray ones of the regent.

Merrick snarled as he fought the water to reach the stupid human.

He was going to kill him for putting his lips on his fucking mate.

For being dumb enough to not only take away their powers but to step up beside him when they knew—when they fucking knew!—the curse talked of a Fae and human loving her.

Then he was going to kill the fucking king for daring to take Elessia away from him.

He would destroy the world until he found her.

Kill every fucking soul that dared get in his way.

And if he found her harmed…

The whispers turned into shrieks—so loud that Loche covered his ears where he treaded water before him.

He’d promised her that she’d never see the walls of that dungeon again.

If the king made him break it…

Merrick let the souls around him get a taste of roaming this realm—pushing the boundaries of what he once considered sacred.

There would be no more Havlands to save.