Page 124 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile
There was anger in one pair. Sorrow in another. Love in a third.
Fear.
Hurt.
Pain.
All the feelings she still carried inside her.
But it was the desperation and hope that kept her going right now. That got her out of bed. That had urgency coursing through her blood at all hours of the day and night.
She felt it now as well, but she’d promised Merrick she’d try to find a way out of her death sentence. And if she was entirely truthful… she wanted that for herself as well.
Hello, child.
The voice rumbling through her was warm, like her mother’s embraces whenever she hurt herself growing up, but Lessia still shuddered.
The voice was everywhere. In her mind, in her body, in her blood, filling this entire room, or whatever she was sitting in.
Bracing her hands on her knees, she fought against something wanting to bow her neck, to submit, to… give in.
That small, small ember of hope within her wouldn’t allow it.
She was done bowing.
So brave.
Lessia didn’t say anything as the melodic voice thrilled through her.
It sounded female—warm and kind and motherly—and it brushed her mind with a familiar swipe, albeit not as forcefully as Raine’s or Frelina’s mind touch: more elegantly, more… experienced.
This must be Evrene, the god of mind.
“You know why I am here.” Lessia didn’t phrase it as a question.
If this was a god, she expected they would know every last thing about her.
Her thoughts, wishes, and dreams, and especially her fears.
Of course I do, child. I watched you with the Guardian of Death. I saw the dreams you carved into his flesh.
“Can I have them?” she whispered, already forcing the question out, now, because she knew if she waited, she might lose the nerve.
The air hesitated for a second, but that second was enough for a never-ending hollowness to spread within her.
You may have some of them.
She didn’t need to ask which ones.
She could feel it in her brittle bones.
There was no hope of survival, not for her.
“When?” she asked softly, shocked that no tears burned behind her eyes.
She’d been surprised on the ship, too, after the wyverns had declared they weren’t fighting, that she hadn’t broken apart.
She’d been disappointed, yes, but at least… at least she was fighting. She was doing everything she could now to save Havlands—to save their friends. To make it right with the people she’d wronged.
