Page 25 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

Of how surprised she’d been at his eyes.

You’re quite broken, aren’t you, little Faeling?

She felt as if her legs would give out when the memories finally faded.

But the presence remained inside her mind, holding her body and mind hostage, and she could still only open her eyes, glimpsing the drop of sweat trickling down Ardow’s temple to her left and how terror filled Venko’s expression where he faced forward to her right.

“Why are you here, Merrick?”

Lessia’s gaze flew forward when the Fae finally spoke out loud.

Like the rest of them, Merrick stood rooted in the sand, but the air around him rippled, and she could almost feel how close he was to losing control over his whispers.

Gritting her teeth, she thought she might prefer the oily whispers layering over her body to these sharp talons holding her mind in a death grip.

At least Merrick couldn’t read her mind, even though he seemed to pick up a lot just from studying her.

“Always a pleasure, Raine,” Merrick said quietly, but the warning in his tone was as evident as the sea beside them. “You’ve seen it all in my mind, and you still need ask?”

Holding her breath, Lessia watched Raine flick the sharp blades in his hands before elegantly sheathing them across his back.

“I’ve heard it’s the polite thing to do.” Raine shrugged.

Merrick’s teeth glinted in the sunlight when he bared them in a snarl, and Lessia’s eyes widened when his taut shoulders shook from restrained anger.

“Get out of my head. I will not warn you again,” Merrick hissed, his eyes squeezing shut for a moment before they snapped open.

“Threatening me, Merrick?” Raine’s lips curled back to show off his own teeth as he crouched, hand shooting out to gesture toward the wyvern. “You know how quickly I could tell those weak humans to greet Ydren here.”

Raine’s gaze flicked to her for a moment, and her heart began thundering against her ribs at the look in his hazel eyes when a smile curved one side of his mouth. “And while the young mind-bender seems to have some power, she isn’t strong enough to resist me.”

A snarl burst out of Merrick, and whispers exploded across the beach.

If she could move, Lessia would have flinched from how thick the air became—like an oily shield wrapping around her, the soft wind almost shimmering—as if the air had somehow turned solid.

Venko let out a strangled cry when the oily ripples intensified, and Ardow’s eyes seemed as if they would pop out of his head before they crashed shut.

Even the wyvern backed up an inch where she hovered a few yards from the shore.

“You know I could kill you in a second,” Merrick growled. “We used to be friends, Raine. You’ve seen what is coming for Vastala in my mind! You’ve seen why we’re here… We used to fight these threats together.”

“That was a long time ago, Merrick.” Raine shook his head. “I haven’t seen you for years, and today you come to my sanctuary, bringing two angry humans and a Faeling who is so broken she might fall apart right here. For what? To ask me to fight for the realm that destroyed everything I loved?”

Lessia’s eyes met Ardow’s briefly, and she would have snapped her teeth at him if she could at the pity brightening his brown ones.

Forcing her gaze forward, she locked it on Merrick’s tense back, watching how the curls of his hair slowly shifted in the wind—or perhaps within his whispers—she wasn’t entirely certain what had them dancing around his face.

“No,” Merrick gritted. “We came because we had nowhere else to go. We only need a safe place to stay until we figure out our next step.”

A scoff left Raine. “Those two humans plan to escape you the first chance they get. The one over there”—Raine nodded toward Ardow—“is planning to convince the others to join those ignorant rebels and leave you behind. The other one seems content finding somewhere far away from all of you.”

Ardow sucked in a breath beside her, and he refused to meet her eyes when she sought his.

She slowly exhaled through her nose.

How had Ardow become such a stupid bastard?

She’d saved his life.

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