Page 64 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

“That’s a bold promise, brother,” Raine said softly, eyes locked on hers. “Let’s hope you do not have to break it.”

His eyes dipped for a second before he beckoned to the group. “Let’s just go home. I don’t expect any of us will be able to enjoy this night as we should.”

Merrick reached out with his hand again, and once Lessia took it, she held on to it the whole way back to Raine’s cabin.

And Merrick’s promise echoed in her ears with every steady step across the small island.

ChapterEighteen

Her hands dug into the sand as she stared up toward the darkening sky, and Lessia tried to catch her breath from once again having crashed into the ground after misinterpreting one of Merrick’s impossible-to-anticipate moves.

As she pulled a wheezing breath into her lungs, a shadow blocked the sun, and her eyes narrowed when Merrick rasped, “You plan on staying down there all day?”

Ignoring his outstretched hand, she pushed herself to her feet, wavering slightly as the effects from the Vincere still lingered within her.

They’d been out here since dawn, when she, as usual nowadays, awoke before the others and repaid Merrick for all the times he’d stormed into her room.

Dragging off his cover, she’d jumped out of the way of his death glare and asked, “Are we training or not?”

He’d growled something back about rest also being important, so Lessia had pulled his quilt entirely off and brought it with her as she sprinted out of the room.

She couldn’t rest.

Her mind wouldn’t let her.

If she got even an hour of sleep these days, she was lucky.

A yawn crept up her throat as she glared at Merrick, who stalked in a circle around her.

But an involuntary hiss replaced it when one of his brows shot up, and his sword lowered an inch, a question in his eyes.

She could almost hear his voice in her mind as she violently shook her head.

You should rest.

She might not have gotten any sleep last night, and it wasn’t because of the dread she’d felt when she realized just how much the Fae here hated the Rantzier family.

Her family.

No, it had been the swirling guilt clogging her throat as she tried to imagine how she’d tell her parents why she’d left.

What if Frelina had told them, but they’d been so furious that her father decided not to come looking for her?

What if they’d decided Frelina was enough?

She shook her head again as doubt danced across her skin.

They couldn’t know.

Her father had loved her too deeply to leave her to fend for herself.

Hadn’t he?

“You done?” Merrick asked.

Eyes snapping to his, she shook her head again. “No.”

The Vincere had been a respite today.

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