Page 22 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile
“Answer!”
She kept her lips firmly shut.
“Stop this!” her father screamed at the same time as Frelina whimpered.
But when Kerym’s soft words reached Lessia’s ears, she realized her sister wasn’t making noises of pain for herself.
“She’ll be all right, little Lina. Your sister is strong.”
Kerym was right, Lessia thought as another fist crashed into her already broken ribs.
She was strong.
Because of Merrick.
Huffing a breath, she tried not to let her body coil farther in, but the pain wouldn’t allow her to straighten her back.
“May I?”
She vaguely heard Torkher utter the question, but when her body was roughly shifted to the side and her shackles clinked, she realized he must have asked whether he could free her to get better access.
That’s what he liked to do when they were alone too.
Having her strapped to something didn’t allow him to hurt hereverywhere.
“Fuck!” Kerym exclaimed when she was dragged away from his side.
“Lessia!” Frelina cried, the sound making Lessia’s knees buckle.
But the Fae guard only tightened his grip, his arms sliding in under hers to drag her across the hard floor.
Pain pulsated in the darkness of her blindfold, and when Torkher released her, she tumbled to the wet wooden planks beneath her.
“Keep her conscious,” the king warned. “I do not wish to have to come back. Especially if Merrick is on the way… we need to move quickly.”
A low sound rumbled in the Fae’s chest, and Lessia couldn’t help but whimper when he ripped her tunic off, the scent of iron telling her the force opened some of the wounds from yesterday that the fabric had clung to.
“I want him to come,” Torkher hissed into her ear as something cold and sharp played across her exposed back. “See, I want him to find your broken body and know exactly who did this to you.”
The blade dug into her skin, and Lessia couldn’t stop another scream when Torkher broke down the mental shield she’d managed to keep up for the past few days.
She was standing over her own naked and broken body, and the pain slicing through her was like nothing she’d ever felt before.
It was like a thousand daggers striking at once.
Like a fire blistering across every inch of her skin.
Like a darkness that swallowed the world, never to allow the sun to shine its soft light on it again.
With her hands on her knees, she tried to breathe.
But it wasn’t possible.
Neither was the scream she tried to force from her lips.
Instead, her eyes widened when they snagged on large, golden-tan hands, and she quickly straightened.
Behind the pale and bruised body was a lake, and as she stared at her reflection, she realized she wasn’t Lessia at all.
