Page 70 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

How had she ended up here?

Needing comfort from the Death Whisperer to speak to her own father.

“E-Elessia? Is that your name?” her father asked, his gaze flitting to Merrick for a second before meeting her own.

Thankfully, the tears she’d found there before were gone.

She swallowed. “Yes, but I go by Lessia now.”

Dragging his hands down his face, her father sighed. “I should have known. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I met you in Ellow. You look so much like Frelina a-and Miryn.”

“It’s my fault. I…” Her voice faded away like the breeze over the sea.

Merrick squeezed her hand when she shook her head, wondering if she could continue.

But that conviction—his conviction—seemed to flow freely between their linked hands, and as she drew a breath, she was able to get out a few more words.

“I thought I killed Frelina. It was horrible. And I…” Her voice broke once more as the memory of her parents’ devastated faces, the blood marring their clothes and hands as they told her Frelina had jumped from the roof, surfaced in her mind.

“She told me what happened when I received your letter.” Her father nodded toward Merrick. “I can’t believe she kept it to herself all these years. I just wish…”

Tears began spilling down her father’s face again, and it felt as if her chest were splitting wide open when his tall frame began to shake from the sobs.

This was worse than she’d imagined.

A lot worse.

“I’m so sorry,” Lessia whispered. “It’s all my fault.”

“No.” Her father shook his head. “It isn’t.”

Lessia’s face broke as she stared back at him.

Of course it was.

She was the cause of these tears.

She was the cause of their family being broken apart.

Of Frelina having to live a lie.

“You were a child. Twelve years old! Nothing was your fault. If it’s anyone’s, it’s mine.”

Her bottom lip trembled as her father took a step toward her, opening his arms.

When she faltered, Merrick gently nudged her forward, and she nearly collapsed when her father’s leathery scent cloaked her, his arms as strong as she remembered them.

“It wasn’t your fault,” her father whispered into her hair when a low cry left her. “You were just a child.”

“I thought…” Lessia hiccuped. “I thought I lost you forever.”

“We’re here now.” His arms wrapped tighter around her. “We’re not leaving you again.”

As she let herself hug him back, even with the guilt berating her, telling her she didn’t deserve it, she asked shakily, “Where is Mother?”

Her father froze.

And so did her blood when she pulled back to look at him.

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