Page 100 of A Tongue so Sweet and Deadly

“Punch her.”

A low growl escaped Merrick as he lifted his fist, but Lessia didn’t tense because she braced for impact. She tensed because hushed whispers reached her ears when Merrick’s magic roiled in anger, oily vibrations rolling off his large body.

“Do itnow,” the man ordered.

Merrick’s breathing became labored, and the whispers grew louder.

“I said now!”

“Merrick.” Lessia tried to reach out for him, but she couldn’t move her arms enough, the rattling chains restricting any movement.

Shifting so she could look up at him, she tried to make her voice soothing. “Merrick, it’s all right. You know why I am here; you know I want this.”

Another growl rumbled in his heaving chest.

“Merrick. Please,” she whispered as fear—not only of the guards and Frayson realizing who was amongst them but of what would happen if she was eliminated—danced over her skin.

“Fuck,” he snarled and finally reined in the magic that, judging from a glance behind him, it didn’t seem the others had noticed.

Then her head flew to the side, a spark of pain radiating through her cheek, down her neck.

Blinking, she tried to focus her eyes on the Fae, clenching her jaw as the dizziness from last night returned, only slivers of silver dancing before her eyes in the dark cellar.

“Elessia Gyldenberg, how did you get to Ellow? We have no records of your parents nor of your ancestry.”

She shook her head, trying to get her eyes to focus on the man approaching her and Merrick.

“Punch her again.”

She didn’t have time to close her eyes before her head snapped to the other side, her vision going entirely black for a moment.

“M—” Her voice cracked when a whimper escaped at the white-hot pain exploding in her head.

Bending her head forward, she forced out the words. “My mother was from Ellow.”

“We don’t believe you. Punch her again.”

Her head slammed into her shoulder this time, bile rising in her throat as stars continued to blaze before her eyes.

Lessia’s panting was in sync with Merrick’s, the barely controlled rage vibrating around him the only thing keeping her conscious.

“It’s all right,” she croaked when his hand squeezed hers. “I know… I know what you’re doing.”

He tried to aim his blows not to hit the same spot, to cause as little damage as possible, and he was definitely not using his full strength, barely that of a human man.

If he’d gone full Fae on her, the first blow would have already knocked her out.

“What was your mother’s name?” the man behind him screamed.

She wasn’t prepared for the emotional onslaught of pain,the chains clinking when her body slumped forward, trying to cave in on itself at the pain in her heart.

“You will look at us when we speak to you! Punch her stomach this time.”

Lessia was almost relieved when the pain from the blow in her gut made her lose her breath, forcing her mind to block out her mother’s golden-brown hair and kind blue eyes.

“Her name!”

“Miryn.” Lessia squeezed her eyes shut as she spoke her mother’s name for the first time in years, but she felt Merrick tense further beside her.

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