As she hesitantly came up beside him, she placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier,” Lessia said, blinking against the drops of water hitting her face. “I… I didn’t know how to.”
“How was she?” Raine didn’t look away from the water rushing down the sharp stone, and his voice was nearly void of emotion.
“She was good.” Lessia wasn’t sure how to tell him what Solana had asked.
Raine was her friend, but… she didn’t understand him like Frelina did.
He mostly teased her when he was in the mood for it, and when he wasn’t… Lessia tried to stay clear because if Merrick was broody, Raine was… well, he was the grouchiest person she’d ever met.
Lessia’s eyes followed the dark clouds swirling above them, hoping that the storm that had raged since the night she came back to life wasn’t a bad sign. “She misses you, Raine. And she hated seeing you drink all those years. I think… I think she is proud of you for what you’ve been doing since the Lakes of Mirrors.”
A huff left the burly Fae, and Lessia knew it wasn’t just raindrops that wetted his face when she turned to him, her hand gripping him harder in support.
“She wants you to be happy,” she forced out. “She asked me to tell you… that she wants you to love again. That you deserve it. And… so does she.”
The jerk of Raine’s head toward the cabin told Lessia she didn’t need to elaborate on whoshewas.
“She… she said this?” Raine asked as his eyes finally met hers. “She knows?”
Lessia nodded. “Solana loves you. So much. But… she said it wasn’t your time anymore. Not now. Not yet. And… Raine, she wasn’t sad. She… she is moving on.”
The rest of Lessia’s words choked in her throat at the emotions pulling Raine’s brows, at how his lips twisted, at how his strong face pinched, and it felt as if her heart were being torn in two.
If someone had told her this about Merrick…
No.
Even before her eyes turned over her shoulder, she knew he’d be there.
Like he always was. Like she always needed him to be.
Merrick’s large hand enveloped hers, and she molded her body to his side as her hand dropped from Raine’s shoulder, her mate’s replacing it.
“Brother,” Merrick said. “It sounds like Solana.”
Only a low hum vibrated in Raine’s chest, and Lessia could tell the Fae was barely holding it together.
“She doesn’t blame you,” Merrick continued. “Nobody blames you. We can all see that you and?—”
Raine’s nostrils flared, his hands clenching, and even though Lessia didn’t want to back away from Merrick, she couldn’t stop herself when the air shifted into burning rage, the sharp jolts of it joining the already electric air, raising not just the hair on her arms but that of her scalp as well.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Merrick, so just… leave me alone,” Raine snarled.
Lessia’s heart skipped a beat when the damn silver-haired Fae didn’t back up but instead purred, “Are you sure? You might feel better after landing some punches. Iknow you’ve been pissed at me for what I did that day… that I risked the little?—”
Merrick’s face flew to the side as Raine’s fist drove into it, and Lessia snarled as someone pulled her back into another hard chest while Raine landed another blow to Merrick’s chest, then a kick to his legs, nearly forcing him onto his knees on the wet stone.
Lessia hissed through her bared teeth.
Merrick wasn’t even defending himself!
“Let them fight it out,” Kerym whispered into her ear as she struggled against his grip. “Merrick feels guilty for that day when he risked everyone else to save you, and Raine feels confused and probably half out of his mind. They need this.”
“Kerym—” she started, but he interrupted her again.
“Look at them,” he continued. “They need this.”
“Can’t you just siphon whatever brooding, stupid energy they need to get rid of?” Lessia hissed as she tried to shove the raven-haired Fae warrior off.
