Page 136 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

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 leftme! 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?”

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