Page 40 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

When Ydren let out a low growl, her eyes flew up to find that the wyvern—despite her warning—had moved even closer.

Ydren’s warm breaths mingled with the mild breeze blowing through Lessia’s hair, and the wyvern’s eyes were glossed, a sheen covering the deep purple as she cocked her neck.

But as the wyvern’s snout nudged her, it didn’t fill Lessia with fear.

Instead, her own eyes misted with tears.

Clenching her jaw to stop them from spilling down her cheeks, Lessia got out, “I am lonely, too, sometimes.”

Most of the time.

Especially now.

When there was too much weight on her shoulders.

Too much she needed to do to make everything right again.

Ydren inclined her head and nudged her again.

“I miss my friends and family,” Lessia croaked as the pressure in her chest nearly stole her breath. “I miss them so much. I-I don’t know how to save them. I… I don’t know if I can.”

She did miss them so damned much.

She wasn’t just angry at Ardow…

Or even at herself.

She was angry because she’d finally felt that sense of home she’d craved for a small moment—barely a day—during the election…

And then it had been ripped away from her the same way it had that day when she hurt Frelina.

And now?

She wasn’t sure how to get it back.

A large tear rolled down the wyvern’s sparkling scales and splashed onto Lessia’s shoulder.

She hesitantly lifted a hand, and after meeting Ydren’s sorrowful eyes, Lessia placed it on the wyvern’s snout.

Pressing into it, Ydren let out another muted sound, her broad chest rumbling softly.

“Do you miss your family as well?” Lessia murmured as she stroked the surprisingly soft scales.

A cry worked its way through the wyvern’s throat, each note striking Lessia’s cracked heart.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

She had no idea how Ydren had ended up here.

From what she had read, the wyverns had left a long time ago, for somewhere far, far away.

Ydren butted her hand, another tear spattering onto the sand by Lessia’s feet.

They stood like that for a moment, quiet in their sorrows, until footsteps reached Lessia’s ears.

With a jerk, Ydren flew backward, sending a wave of water over Lessia as she dove deep into the sea, leaving large ripples on the calm surface, which twisted the sun’s reflection.

Drenched and with that strange energy still flushing her skin, she spun around.

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