Page 127 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

He jerked his head toward the other soldier. “Remove the chains from his left arm, but keep the one on his wrist.”

Lessia frowned as she continued to stare into Merrick’s eyes, and she didn’t miss his quick glance down, the tightening at the corners of his eyes as the man followed the orders.

A sense of foreboding despair settled on her chest, and it only worsened as the soldier continued to work on the bindings and the man who’d spoken walked out of Lessia’s line of sight.

She tried to collect herself as Merrick’s features remained passive, to make her locked muscles soften enough for her to speak.

“Y-you and me,” she got out, and Merrick smiled again.

A real smile.

Not the glacial one he’d offered the guard.

She forced her lips to form a shaky one back.

But when that guard returned to the spot beside Merrick and he held two sharp blades in his hands, there was no way she could keep it.

As the one who’d removed the shackles stepped back, the hooded soldier laughed darkly and dragged the tip of the blade over Merrick’s now-exposed arm. “You can still see the outline of the oath. But it’s definitely faded. Perhaps it’ll even disappear after a while…”

Lessia held her breath as she pushed away the thought beginning to form in her mind.

They wouldn’t.

Then the man laughed again, and her heart froze in her chest.

“It’s the mark of a traitor for the Fae, right? Why a snake, of all things?”

Merrick kept his mouth closed, his eyes fixed on Lessia.

“Answer me!” The knife moved to Merrick’s throat, and Lessia couldn’t take it when drops of blood trickled down his chest, pooling between those taut muscles.

“Stop it!” she screamed. “Yes, it’s the sign of a traitor! Rioner bestows it on us if he deems us to have betrayed him or the crown. It’s the crest of another noble family that the Rantziers defeated in a war a long time ago. They commanded snakes, and Rioner became obsessed with them. He keeps them as pets and will use them to kill if it pleases him.”

“So elaborate.” The man yawned. “I guess you Fae live so long you need to find things like this to entertain yourselves…” He brought the knife back to Merrick’s arm, balancing the tip against the skin right beneath his elbow.

Right where the snake tattoo would have begun coiling had it still been there.

“I don’t have that kind of time. But…” He pressed the knife until it broke Merrick’s golden skin. “You betrayed Ellow as well. Helping a spy in our election… That’s what I consider a traitor.”

“Please,” Lessia whispered as she watched the blood well up around the edge of the blade. “Please don’t do this.”

Merrick’s eyes caught hers when she lifted them, and once again he gave her a smile.

A smile she could barely make out through the tears beginning to cloud her vision.

Still staring into her eyes, he spoke in that lethally low voice she’d been used to before everything changed between them. “Mark me. Hurt me. I truly don’t care. But you should know…” Merrick licked a drop of blood off his full lips. “I will come for you. And once I do—it’ll be worse than your darkest nightmares. I’ll show you exactly why they call me the Death Whisperer.”

Lessia could see the shudder going through the man not holding the knife.

But the other one didn’t flinch, and that a smirk must twist his features was evident when he responded, “So cocky. Is it because you’re Fae or because you’re an idiot?”

Merrick’s canines scraped against his bottom lip as he cocked his head. “No. It’s because I’mthatdeadly.”

“M-maybe we shouldn’t.” The other soldier walked up to his friend’s side. “What if Loche…”

“Loche will not care,” the knife-wielding man snarled. “They betrayed him. Both of them! He only said to keep them alive.”

He spun around to face Lessia, his cloaked face bent, but she could still feel his loathing stare burn over her, and the fact that Loche wanted them alive barely registered as he took a step toward her.

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