Page 49 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

And again.

When she cried with frustration, Merrick’s lips brushed her ear. “Switch up your pace. If you use the same tactic, your enemy will learn your approach from the first blow.”

Lessia snapped her teeth together, and before she could overthink, she crouched, crying out when it made the pain in her head worse but managing to shove one of the hilts into Merrick’s knee.

When he swayed, she shot up, both daggers raised and ready to sink into his muscled torso.

She hesitated for only a second.

Still, Merrick’s free hand clasped her wrists, pulling her flush against him before she could finish what she’d started.

Glaring down at her, he hissed, “You do not falter. Ever! It’s fight, flight, or die! That second just killed you!”

Her nostrils flared as she glared back at him, a blood-red hue filling her eyes.

And when he released her wrists, she didn’t hesitate.

She drove a dagger right into his shoulder.

A loud laugh burst across the beach behind them, and when she blinked and noticed Raine slamming his hands on his knees, she realized what she’d just done.

Lessia dropped the daggers as if she’d burned herself.

“I’m sorry!” she cried as she watched the blood trickle down Merrick’s tunic and stain the white sand beneath them red.

Stumbling the step she needed to reach him, she pressed her hand against the wound.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered as the warm blood coated her palm.

“Look at me,” Merrick said in a glacial voice.

No.

She couldn’t.

What had she done?

She’d stabbed him, for gods’ sake!

Overwhelming guilt—worse than she’d ever felt—chilled her blood, and she wanted nothing other than to be back in the king’s cellars, taking whatever punishment they saw fit.

What was wrong with her?

“Lessia, look at me,” Merrick rasped.

Her bottom lip trembled as she finally lifted her eyes.

But there was no anger in Merrick’s gaze.

Instead, a grin brightened his face, and his eyes glittered as he said “Good.”

His smirk widened when she stared at him with rounded eyes. “But you missed my heart.”

ChapterThirteen

Lessia sighed and rolled over on the bed when someone knocked on her door.

She’d spent the afternoon staring at the wall of her room as she tried to muster up any courage she could for what was to come and not let fear fester from the rebellion and the full-blown Fae war she expected they were to face.

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