A Bond so Fierce and Fragile (Compelling Fates #3)

by Sophia St. Germain

Every time she thought she might finally break, the love she felt from him wrapped around her and healed those broken, jagged pieces she was made up of.

Do you want me to tell you no one—mate or not—has loved anyone the way I love you? That I would laugh as the world fell apart as long as you stood by my side? That even if I could only have one fucking night—one night pretending you’re mine—I’d take it?

“Merrick, there were so many things I never said. I love you so much. You brought me all the light. You brought me everything. Freedom. Hope. Trust. Love. Fight. I love you. Don’t die because of me. Please don’t die because of me. Live! Save this world. Please. Please. Please.”

“I don’t want to live in a world where she doesn’t exist.”

But just because she was broken… it didn’t mean she was useless. She just wasn’t the same as she’d been growing up. She was something new. Something forged in pain. Something born out of guilt. Something bound by love. Because every broken piece that remained now was just that… Bound by love.

He loved her. Utterly and completely. With every dark corner of his mind and heart.

“Please. I nearly lost my mind the past few days, so please allow me to be an overprotective bastard. Just today.”

For only in their ultimate sacrifice can a new world be born—the world they have dreamed of, battled for, and wept over.

Solana always said no hurt was the same. We all hurt in different ways and for different things, but that doesn’t take away anyone’s right to pain.

It wasn’t a physical wound that kept the Death Whisperer on his knees. No. It was a mental one. One that cut through hearts and souls and tissue without drawing blood. But one that would scar all the same.

“You’ve fought so bravely for so long. Please. Please just fight a little more.”

She smiled against his lips. “People like you and me don’t get happy endings, do we?”

“Perhaps we only get endings.” Merrick’s eyes searched hers, something in them flickering—an understanding, the way he always understood her, joining the night sky. “But let’s make that ending one for the fucking books, shall we?”

Pressing his hands to his aching chest, he thought perhaps he had lied to Lessia back there. He didn’t have any hope of finding what she had. And even if he did, he didn’t want it. Because that meant he would risk feeling like this again.

It was brutal. There was nothing beautiful about it. It was a pain that should shatter bones. That should crush souls. That should end lives.

“Merrick,” she started. “Lessia,” he interrupted. “As soon as I saw you in that fucking cellar, I was yours. Perhaps even before. Perhaps I’ve always been yours, and I’ve just been waiting for you to come into my life.”

“Like this one, I want yours and mine to be the same. You are mine. I am yours. That’s just how it is. The good and the bad and the pretty and the ugly. We will fucking share it all. That’s how it was meant to be, and it’s how it will always be. I want the world to fucking know it. I want everyone I ever meet to see that every part of me—every dark corner of my soul—belongs to you.”

“For only in their ultimate sacrifice can a new world be born—the world they have dreamed of, battled for, and wept over,” Lessia whispered as she rested her cheek against his back.

“I love you with all the broken pieces I have.”

“Time holds the power to both mend and wound.

“Will you tell him?” Solana reached over the table for Lessia’s hand, and her grip was surprisingly firm for such a small female. “Will you tell him to be happy? To love again? He deserves it. And… so does she.”

“Tell him… we’ll find each other again when it’s time, and when we do… someone is waiting for Frelina as well.”

He would always, always be there to light the way for her.

“And so a soulbinder shall help her rise to take her throne—her right as a veiled queen.”