Page 66 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

“Stop it,” she mumbled to herself. “Stop it!”

She hadn’t chosen to betray him.

But the same guilt that slumped Raine’s shoulders drove the air from her lungs.

She might not have chosen it, but she’d done it all the same.

Like Raine, she’d given up.

There must have been a way for her to tell Loche of her oath to King Rioner before the king told him himself.

But she had barely tried…

A sharp slash of water made her eyes dart to the side.

Ydren swam dangerously close to the shore, her violet eyes fixed on Lessia and her large body gliding through the water like the snake that had once marred Lessia’s arm.

The wyvern’s head jerked up and down, and Lessia dug her boots into the sand when Ydren’s long tail whipped toward the horizon.

Something white glinted where the sky met the sea, and Lessia swallowed loudly when she realized it was a ship.

Her father’s ship.

A stifled sound left her.

She wasn’t ready.

Her eyes crashed shut.

She didn’t know how to do this.

How did you tell someone you were their daughter?

How could they forgive her for the thirteen years she’d robbed them of that knowledge?

She couldn’t do this.

As her mind began spinning out of control, Lessia heard something slosh, and she didn’t have time to react as a wave of water fell over her—drenching her tunic and trousers and making her hair fall down her shoulders like a heavy curtain.

Eyes flying open, she glared at the wyvern. “What was that for?”

She swore the wyvern gave her a pointed stare back.

Pushing some wet strands of hair out of her face, Lessia was about to flash her teeth at Ydren, perhaps even use her magic to tell her never to do that again, when she realized…

The water had forced her out of her spiraling.

Lessia brushed her arms, savoring the smoothness—it had also washed away the sand from her failing to heed Merrick’s instructions—and gave the wyvern a small smile.

“Thank you,” she got out.

With a dip of her large head, those terrifying spikes pointing in Lessia’s direction for a moment longer than she liked, Ydren spun in the water, swimming swiftly to the side.

Then the wyvern sent another wave of salty water over the still-quarreling Merrick and Raine.

Despite the ominous vessel growing larger on the horizon—the only silhouette disturbing the clear sea, apart from Ydren’s whipping tail—Lessia giggled when Merrick spluttered and Raine’s mouth fell open.

She was starting to like this beast.

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