Page 110 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile
“Will you not kneel for me?”
Even her voice was spot on.
“Loche,” Lessia pleaded. “Look at me, darling.”
He could fucking smell her on the wind.
“Loche.” Another female voice reached his ears. “Remember who you are.”
His eyes flew open.
He was the regent of Ellow.
And this wasn’t Lessia. This was his damned mother. The rebel leader. The one who had killed people he loved. Who now planned to kill even more people he cared for.
Loche glared right into the amber eyes before him. “I willneverbow to you.”
The mirror of Lessia flicked her hair, but the irritable expression on her face betrayed Meyah. Lessia would never twist her lips like that, narrow her eyes in disgust, or drag her gaze across his friends with that vicious hint to it.
“Suit yourself.”
The world before his eyes went dark.
Chapter 22
Frelina
“Well, that was a waste of time,” Raine declared as he lifted his flask to his lips when the final wyvern disappeared into the cerulean sea.
Frelina fought an urge to slap it out of his hand, throw the silver bottle overboard, and let the depths swallow it forever.
“It wasn’t,” Elessia responded softly, although Frelina could see the twinge of worry flitting across her sister’s face when she turned toward the cabins. “They’re coming with us.”
“But they’re not fighting.” Raine shook his head. “We have no chance.”
Her sister halted with a foot in the air, her back still turned toward them, and it was quiet for a beat, the soft waves lapping the hull the only sound as the ship continued weaving through the island-littered sea, somehow steering itself.
Then Elessia spoke again. “There is always a chance. However small that chance might be.”
Frelina winced at the crack snaking its way into her voice, and she took a step forward when Merrick stormed past her,reaching Elessia in a few long strides and swooping her up into his arms, burrowing his face in her neck as he marched them both inside.
“They’re in a hurry,” Raine muttered as he finally sheathed the swords he’d drawn to protect them. “Guess we have to make the most of it now…”
How he thought those blades would do anything, Frelina didn’t know. While they looked terrifying, it didn’t seem like they’d do a lick against the hard scales covering the wyverns’ massive bodies.
“Can you blame them?” Frelina asked when Raine sighed deeply again, mumbling something about this being “pointless.”
Raine rolled his eyes as he made a move to take another damned sip of liquor, and the sight of it ignited a rage within her that burned so hot it seemed her eyes heated as well.
“Do you have no empathy?” Frelina snarled.
“Oh, I have plenty.” Raine waved with his flask. “This just cures it.”
She ground her teeth so hard her head hurt.
She hated that liquor. She hated how she’d catch Raine’s eyes from time to time and see something real only for it to be replaced with muted glossiness as soon as he sipped from his flask.
“Why so angry, little Rantzier?” Raine shook his head, making his hair fly around his face and his reddish stubble sparkle in the sunlight. “I am just saying what everyone is thinking. It is pointless now. We won’t win this. We should just run.”
