Page 96 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

As he stalked toward the bar, Frelina stepped into his path. “You need to stop that if we’re to win.”

Raine grinned at Lessia’s sister before lifting her off her feet and placing her back behind him.

“We won’t win,” he stated as he uncorked a new bottle and brought it to his lips.

Merrick’s fingers brushed hers as she watched her sister stare daggers at Raine, and the hair on her arms rose, the sensation tingling across her body.

With a quick smile at him, she walked over to the painting of the wyvern and the Fae, her finger skimming over the thick paper, over the unyielding faces of the males, over the small stone one of them clutched in his hand.

The thought had touched her mind before, but she’d been too preoccupied with everything else going on.

A sparkling stone.

That’s what the Fae in the painting held in his hand.

The memory of the ride with Loche surged within her.

The warm, glowing stone he’d given her to keep the darkness at bay.

“What if I said I might have a way for us to get that army?” Lessia spun around to face the others.

“How?” Merrick’s eyes were glued to her as he walked around the table, not stopping until he stood next to her again.

She glanced up at him. “Those stones that control the wyverns? I think I know where we can find one.”

“Wyverns!” Kerym’s voice broke through the haze that had formed as Merrick stared back down at her, his eyes glittering. “Thissian is missing out. He used to love fighting beside them. Although, come to think of it, it was probably because siphoning their energy made us quite high.”

Merrick rolled his eyes when Lessia snorted.

As they stared across the room, a humming, vibrating energy soared through the house, spiking every nerve in Lessia.

Ardow and Venko stood straight-backed, their fingers interlocked.

Her sister smiled at her, something akin to freedom brightening her eyes.

Raine pretended to be busy by the bar, but she didn’t miss how he stroked the dagger dangling from his belt.

Looking half crazed where he stood, Kerym muttered something about his “damn brother.”

Her father looked at them all, and although his eyes were worried, there was something in them that everyone in the room shared as her gaze locked with each of theirs.

Something that Lessia felt mounting within her.

Hope.

ChapterTwenty-Five

“So… you stole this ship?”

Lessia leaned one of her elbows on the railing, peeking over the wood at the spectacular warship, then moved her eyes back to Merrick where he stood on the deck beside her.

They’d bid goodbye to her father earlier in the afternoon, and Lessia could still feel his embrace, the warmth of his arms as they wrapped around her, holding on so tight it felt as if he never wanted to let go.

When silence had fallen in the room after their discussion of what to do, Lessia had pulled her father and Frelina aside to ask him if he wanted her to return his memories.

He’d hesitated, and when the first word out of his mouth was “no,” the sense of hope that had filled her nearly vanished before he pulled her into an embrace, whispering that he didn’t want to risk it when he was to return to his brother’s side.

As Alarin sniffed against her hair, a pearl of emotion escaped down her cheek.

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