Page 99 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

Kerym smiled at her, and she couldn’t help but smile back as warmth crawled over her scalp, the feeling similar to the warmth of the alcohol she’d ingested the night before.

“It is,” she said softly as her breathing slowed, the frantic beat of her heart, which never seemed to dull, finally easing.

Kerym hummed somewhere around her, but she was too tired to continue following his movements.

Sleep.

She wanted to sleep.

Maybe she’d sleep right here?

The wooden planks beneath her looked quite welcoming.

Someone cleared their throat before her, and a voice rolled through her like a gentle wave lapping the white beach of Raine’s island.

Don’t lose focus.

When Kerym halted before her, she met his crystal gaze, and it felt as if she were dreaming.

His golden skin brightened, his dark hair started shining like newly polished leather, and his blue eyes became clearer than the summer sky that should be hovering somewhere above the fog.

A wrinkle formed between her brows as she tried to rack her tired brain.

Kerym’s white canines glinted as his lips curled into a smile.

But it wasn’t a nice one.

No, even if her features itched to mirror the man before her, something inside her made her uneasy—a feeling of dread coating her body, joining the droplets from the mist that danced over any bare skin.

Lessia shuddered when she sluggishly tried to rub her hands over her arms to get it off.

It wasn’t dread coating her skin.

It was magic.

Clamping her eyes shut, Lessia tried to feel where and how Kerym’s magic connected with hers.

Siphon Twin.

Like Raine, he also wielded mental magic.

Which meant…

She forced her gaze inward—like she’d done when she believed Raine threatened Merrick.

Even if she moved slower, her energy worryingly low, she soon could open an eye within her mind.

Staring back at her were two sapphires, glittering within the darkness that was her mind.

She’d been too rushed when Raine had stalked toward Merrick—hadn’t really given whatever she saw a second thought.

But now she wondered whether this was actually her mind or if she somehow subconsciously had decided these shadows, the hard floor that reminded her of Rioner’s cellars, was her consciousness.

She pushed the thought away when her knees went weak, her arms blindly moving behind her to try to find the railing she knew existed somewhere in the real world.

Instead, she glared right into the gemstones before her, ignoring the deepening shadows around them.

“G-get out,” she stuttered as she pulled on her magic.

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