Page 90 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

It wasn’t as overwhelming as it had been, though.

As Lessia slipped through the squeaking back door and headed toward the rippling creek behind the house, she thought perhaps guilt was necessary to do what was right… to stay on the right path.

It was the reason she hadn’t given up on Loche and the rest of Ellow and just tried to get Amalise and the children out.

It was the reason she hadn’t used her magic to get riches and fame but instead had understood the responsibility that came with such a “gift.”

It was the reason she’d taken in the children in the first place and risked her own and her friend’s lives to give others a better one.

You’re a good person,Merrick had said.

Another voice flickered to life in her mind—one she’d spent years repressing.

But now she could hear her mother so clearly it was as if she stood beside Lessia.

Good people also do bad things, but it’s how you handle yourself after that matters.

Her mother had told her that once, when Frelina had destroyed one of Lessia’s bracelets on purpose because Lessia hadn’t wanted to play with her just that second.

The weight on her chest lifted.

Just an inch.

But it was enough for Lessia to draw a breath of dewy morning air, the warm smell of the yellow flowers lining the creek bed filling her nose as that determination—that conviction from last night—ran like a current over her skin.

She needed to pay the debt she owed to Ellow.

Not just because of Loche.

Or the children.

Or her friends.

But because of her mother.

The kindest human she’d ever known, whose light she needed to remember, whose light she needed to ensure could continue to shine on the lands where she’d been born.

While her mother might not have known of Lessia when she passed… Lessia would do everything she could to live up to her memory.

To make her proud.

And to do that, she needed to be strong now.

Fight for what was right, even when it hurt.

Perhaps especially when it hurt.

Lessia smiled as she dropped the towel on the grass and walked into the cool water.

It had been decided.

She’d do whatever she could for Ellow and Vastala.

And if she died…

Then at least she could move on to whatever came after this life with her head held high—right into her mother’s waiting arms.

Diving into the clear water, she relished the cold coating her skin, how the water caressed her body and drove the lingering murkiness from her mind.

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