Page 37 of The Orc Outcast's Conquest

“No.”

Her breath shuddered, and she met his eyes. “I... I won’t run like that again. I promise.”

Govek said nothing, but his eyes flashed with something like surprise.

She wanted to ask if she could stay with him. Make him swear he wouldn’t leave her to fend for herself in the forest, but it wasn’t a fair request. She knew she was a liability.

Miranda, desperate for a distraction from her rounding thoughts, pointed to the spiral leaves in the muck. “What tree are those from?”

“That is from an oak born from the Great Rove Tree. One of the Fades’ Relics.”

“That’s not what oaks look like on Earth,” she said, referring more to how vibrant this Faeda tree was than the spiral leaf shape. “The Fades are your gods?”

“Yes.”

Earth had so many dang religions, Miranda couldn’t even fathom them all. In Earth’s ancient times, before lack of food became more important, humans often had wars over their religions. “Is... is your war because of them?”

Govek was silent, and Miranda met his gaze. His eyes skittered away, his hand dragged over his scalp, pulling his hair.

“The Waking Order,” he said slowly, “has deemed sentinels to be the cause of the blight and seeks our eradication. They also believe our demise will wake the Fades from their slumber and bring a new era.”

So, yes then. “All sentinels are orcs?”

“Orcs for the surface, goblins for the structure, and sylphs for the sky. All three races are sentinels to the Fades.”

Her lips thinned. “And the Waking Order are humans who are causing the war?”

His ragged sigh doused any hope she might have scraped together. “Yes.”

Miranda sagged, defeated, completely unsurprised. “Obviously it would be humans. Who else?”

The gentle breeze continued, but it didn’t cool her. Of course, he wouldn’t be keen on bringing her along. She was from the race his kind were at war with.

If he was going to leave her here, she might as well let him get to it.

“I’m sorry,” she said, meeting his eyes with as much gumption as she could muster. “If... if you want to leave me here, it’s okay. I’ll figure it out.”

He searched her face for what felt like an eternity. “You want me to leave?”

“No,” she said with a wry laugh. “God, no. I’ll probably...” she trailed off, not wanting to make him feel guilty with the truth that she’d likely get picked off by another saber cat the second he was out of sight.

Or maybe not. She’d been stupid lucky so far. Miraculously. She shouldn’t even be alive right now. She should have died with the rest of Earth.

But she hadn’t. She’d made it here. And nothing said she couldn’t survive Faeda too.

Govek was still crouching before her, his body tense, his eyes pensive. His hands were in tight fists, resting on his knees.

Miranda reached out and clasped them. Stroked her thumbs along his knuckles, met his wide, shocked eyes. “We’re even now. We’ve both saved each other. I know I’m useless to you, especially if you’re going to war. If you tell me how to get to that village, I’ll be fine on my own. Really.”

Everything seemed to still—the birds, the wind, even her heart.

And then Govek snarled, “No.”

His eyes fixed on her hands, and she gripped him tighter. Half of her hoped he would unfurl his fists and let her take them, and the other expected him to rip away from her.

“I have proclaimed you as my conquest,” he said firmly, determined. He leaned in closer, the heat of his body soaked through the cloak. “I will not let you go.”

She licked her lips. A million questions blurring through her head. What was a conquest? Where would they go now? What could she do to ensure he wouldn’t change his mind? She was afraid to ask any of them.

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