Page 44 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile
Frelina burst into tears again.
“And you always cry like this. Apart from when it’s you lying there.” Lessia cocked her head as she stared at the fake sister, at how she lost her breath from sobbing so hard.
Torkher was truly going all out with this one.
“Listen to me.” Thissian shifted so his chains squeaked. “And look at me.”
This was new. Thissian had never spoken to her before. Her visions of Kerym’s brother were usually of him crawling up in a corner of whatever room Torkher conjured.
As Lessia turned her head his way, she wondered whether the intense pounding within it would remain or perhaps even intensify once Torkher released her mind.
Thissian’s blue eyes bore into hers, and she couldn’t help but stare at how similar he looked to his brother, even with the sorrowful expression darkening his beautiful features.
But the longer she met his eyes, the more she realized they weren’t a mirror of Kerym’s at all.
Where Kerym’s eyes were blue like the sea around Midhrok or the cerulean crystals sometimes found in the caves back in Vastala, Thissian’s eyes were dark, like the evening sky right before the stars began shining or like the deepest parts of the lakes in Ellow.
She wondered for a brief second how that happened, until Thissian interrupted her thoughts. “It’s not a vision, Elessia.”
When she began rolling her eyes, Thissian snarled softly, and she barely had time to react before he threw something at her. Something that hurt as it bounced off her bare skin.
“Use it,” Thissian hissed.
Shifting forward as much as she could, she twisted her torso so her hands could grip the sharp stone that had fallen to the floor.
Staring at it—or as much as she could, with her hands barely able to pass her hips—she asked slowly, “What do you want me to use it for?”
This was also new.
They didn’t usually interact this much.
The thing in her hand was a part of the stone wall from behind Thissian, the edge looking as sharp as either of thedaggers she’d brought, but still, it wouldn’t be enough to break through the cuffs around her wrists.
“What do you think? Hurt yourself!” Thissian urged.
She lifted her eyes, and a smile spread across her face as she met each pair of eyes of the three visions before her.
Of course.
Torkher wanted her broken.
Rioner wanted her broken.
And if she killed herself in this vision…
Lessia shifted the stone into her left hand, twisting the right one painfully to line up her wrist with the sharp edge.
“Wait! What are you doing?” Kerym exclaimed. “Just prick yourself to see that this is real!”
Lessia ignored him as she pressed her wrist down, moving it from side to side.
Fuck, that hurt.
Had visions always hurt this much?
Blood started welling around the stone, and the smell of it made Lessia dizzy.
But she continued.
