Page 63 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile
The dark-haired Fae waved for her to move to the side so that he could cover her, like he’d done when Elessia had been tortured. “Your sister will surely come back to haunt me if I don’t at least try to keep you alive.”
Try to keep you alive.
While she hadn’t spent much time with Kerym or the others before everything, she had noticed they weren’t ones for false hope, and she very much doubted she’d be alive for much longer. Still, she shuffled into the spot where the wall curved slightly, allowing Kerym to shield her almost entirely.
If Elessia wasn’t successful in killing the king… then Frelina would have to try.
She didn’t expect to succeed, but like her father… like her sister… she’d go down fighting.
She was a Rantzier, after all.
Some of that wickedness their family was known for flowed within her veins, and she’d use every last drop of it should she need to.
They remained silent for a while, only their shallow breaths and wild heartbeats filling the musty air around them.
Then the ship heeled again.
Not as violently as the first time, more… focused, as if whatever was doing this wasn’t in a rush anymore.
“Something left the ship,” Thissian murmured.
“Yes, but what?” Kerym asked.
Neither Thissian nor Frelina responded, but a ripple went through the air once more, something like sorrow-filled acceptance thickening it, joining the stale and dead scent.
If Elessia had jumped…
If the king and his men had left…
They were stuck here.
Despite her best efforts, Frelina’s bottom lip began trembling.
She didn’t want to die in this stupid cabin. She hadn’t even seen Ellow yet, the one thing she’d promised to do when her mother passed.
She hadn’t gotten to know the sister she’d missed for more than half her life.
She hadn’t even loved yet… had never been kissed, had not even been hugged by anyone outside her family, had never felt even close to what she knew Elessia felt for Merrick, and he for her.
She’d never even experienced heartbreak, not in the way Elessia had when that regent rejected her.
Perhaps that wasn’t what anyone in their right mind would seek, but after twenty-four years of life with parents who meant well but tried to shield her from ever feeling anything other than joy…
Frelina wanted that kind of pain—the kind she’d read about in books—that only love for another could bring.
Frelina wanted it all.
All the feelings.
All the joy.
All the sadness.
All the love.
All the hurt.
Even now… even seeing her father from behind Kerym’s broad back, she couldn’t regret those wishes.
