Page 103 of A Tongue so Sweet and Deadly

“Perhaps we ought to give her a little more time,” Frayson cautioned.

“No! Do it now!”

She braced herself as much as she could, but Merrick didn’t approach her.

He stalked to tower over the two men. “What is wrong with you? One more, and she’ll be out. Look at her!”

“If you don’t do it, we will.”

Merrick leaned down to glare into the man’s face, and Lessia was almost relieved he couldn’t look into her eyeswhen the man immediately cowered, stumbling back several steps.

But the other guard slipped around him.

He sprinted toward her with a large wooden stick in his hand, and before she realized what was happening, the man slammed it into her chest.

Lessia let out another scream as more ribs cracked.

Her vision blurred, shadows creeping in.

The last thing she heard was a man’s groan before everything went dark.

Chapter

Forty-Five

“Iam not going next. I don’t care if you eliminate me. You bastards broke her! This did not happen to anyone last time. What was it, a way for the guards to get back at the Fae?”

Lessia pried her eyes open, meeting Loche’s feral ones where he towered over one of the guards that had stood along the walls in the cellar room.

Loche’s eyes widened when they found hers, and he pushed the guard out of the way to stalk over to her, ignoring him as the guard argued that it was his turn.

“Stay back. I will not warn you again, regent.”

Shifting her gaze up, she realized Merrick’s furious face was inches from hers and that the comfortable place she rested was in his arms.

Blinking hard to clear her blurry vision, she glanced around.

A healer sat crouched down beside her.

Merrick sat against the wall, and her body lay atop his lap.

“I don’t take orders from you, Merrick. You’re the onewho did this!” Loche’s eyes were black as he dropped down on the other side of the healer and cupped her chin with his hand.

Her eyes followed his fingers as they shifted a strand of wet hair away from her face, then traced her aching jaw, a shiver running through her when his finger trembled.

A warning growl vibrated in Merrick’s chest, and Lessia winced when it shifted her body and jolts of pain shot from her ribs.

“You men need to stop this right now. She is hurting, and you are making it worse,” the healer ordered.

“It is your turn, regent. You must come at once, or you will forfeit your participation.” The guard Loche had screamed at eyed them cautiously.

Ignoring both of them, Loche leaned in farther, eyeing her surely bruised face, then trailing his eyes down her body, his hard features twisting.

But when his eyes met hers again, only concern flared in them.

Lessia cleared her throat. “I’ll live, Loche. You need to go.”

He really did.

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