Page 61 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile
Or rage.
Or desperation.
But awful, skin-crawling, blood-chilling fear.
The whispers always brushing his ears went quiet, their silence, which he usually sought, so deafening he almost wished for the roar of the fire to return.
He could feel it. Could smell it in the air. Could hear it in the waves. Could sense it in how the world stilled.
He knew whatever followed now… it’d be the end.
The king laughed again. “The Death Whisperer doesn’t even know his mate is destined to die with me.”
Merrick’s knees went out.
His vision began flickering, and something within him broke as the world around him exploded.
A torrent of water rose from the sea, and although everyone around him sprinted forward, including the vicious sea wyvern, it swallowed the king faster than they could blink.
The next moment, he was gone.
Merrick stayed on his knees.
This was what Lessia had kept from him.
He’d seen her on that other ship as she stared east, looking for her friends… The sorrow in her eyes had been there because she wasn’t certain she’d see them again.
It’s what he’d felt from her in her house… that deep need to be in control, the desperation as she’d clung to him.
Merrick’s eyes drew to the sky, and he cursed the gods then.
He’d questioned them before, sure. But he’d thought there always was a purpose—that perhaps he’d been given his gift to protect Lessia, to keep her alive…
But this?
He couldn’t even shake his head.
What was the purpose?
His gaze trailed across the deck as he fought with himself within his mind.
Raine tried to talk to him, but he didn’t respond. The wyvern used her wings to return to the sea, but he didn’t move. His eyes followed Lessia as she walked up to Torkher and slit his throat, silencing him so swiftly Merrick should have been proud.
But he couldn’t…
For the first time in his long life, he fucking… couldn’t.
He remained on his knees.
He heard Ardow ask Raine and the guard to join him in finding the others.
He remained on his knees.
But he met Lessia’s eyes as she walked up to him, and when she also knelt, wrapping her arms around him, he didn’t refuse her.
Instead, he folded her broken body against his broken heart and held her there.
They were both silent.
