Page 21 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

Back up,she tried.

The wyvern inched backward.

She shook her head.

It worked.

But as a small smile spread across her face, her body convulsed.

With the adrenaline that had held her in an iron grip fading, black spots overtook her eyes, and panic once again chilled Lessia’s veins as her lungs forced her to inhale more seawater in their need for air.

As tears flooded her eyes, mixing with the salty squalls of the sea, she begged,Help me!

ChapterSix

“Stupid fucking wyvern. Wake up, Lessia!”

Something hard slammed into her back as a familiar voice broke through the darkness within her mind.

“Fuck! Wake up!”

Another strike had her chin slam into her chest, and as she came to, the sense of not being able to breathe made her eyes spring open, terror jolting through her blood.

Lessia caught a glimpse of beautiful swirling silver flecks for a second before a wave of nausea hit her and she expelled a grotesque mixture of seawater, algae, and whatever else the depths had forced her to consume.

A stifled sob escaped someone nearby, but she couldn’t look up as someone yet again delivered a sharp blow to her back, causing her to splutter and relieve her stomach and lungs of more water.

Lessia shuddered as the disgusting mixture left her raw throat, keeping her eyes above the mess she’d made, the dark plants layering across the sand like the snakes sunning themselves on the white rocks that surrounded the capital of Vastala.

After coughing a few more times—and finally only vomiting bile, which she was grateful for even though it burned her throat further—she could draw a breath again.

Pulling in one more, savoring how the air lifted the fog in her mind, she’d started lifting her head when yet another blow landed on her back, driving out the few remaining drops of seawater.

Her head snapped up when she heard air rushing once more, and she quickly rasped, “Please, stop hitting me.”

Merrick’s face came into view, and his eyes hardened as he growled, “Stop fucking dying, then.”

She wanted to snarl something back at him, but she swallowed the remark when his gaze flew across her body and a vein strained on his neck.

As she followed his furious eyes, her own widened when they snagged on her ripped clothing—on the large gashes in the black fabric.

Only one of her boots remained on her feet, and she cast a quick glance around her, finding the other lying a few feet away.

Her tunic was so severely ripped it barely covered her chest, while her trousers only had one leg remaining, and her cloak…

Nowhere to be seen.

Flying upright, Lessia quickly tugged at the ripped pieces to ensure all the essentials were covered before sweeping her eyes around their surroundings.

Mainly to avoid Merrick’s sharp gaze but also to understand where she’d ended up after the stare-off with the wyvern in the depths of the Eiatis Sea.

Eyes rounding further, she took in the white beach they stood upon.

She and Merrick were only a few feet away from where the sea lapped the coastline, the soft whispering of water vastly different from the violent waves she’d just escaped.

Behind them towered tall green grass, the blades rippling in the warm breeze, and as she drew another breath came the smell of summer: a sweet aroma of newly bloomed flowers and warm, dry earth mingled with the saltiness from the sea.

A small cottage stood a few hundred feet above the beach, and from the reflection behind it, Lessia guessed there was some type of river or stream weaving a soft path inland. When she followed the shimmering water, she glimpsed more buildings, these with straw roofs as yellow as the sun above them.

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