Page 2 of The Orc Outcast's Mate

“You are not trapped, Miranda!”

But she was. This was the end. Another explosion roared around her. Her consciousness winked out for one blissful moment.

And then she was burning. Screaming. Pleading. The metal heated until she felt like she was being cooked alive. Her stomach rolled.

A burst of cold air hit her face.

She gasped, breathing it in. Something in the taste was familiar. Comforting.

Another gust. She heaved. Gripped tight to warm, soft flesh. Not metal. Skin.

“Come back. I beg you.”

Growling. Soothing growling. Her eyes unclouded, and the tunnel faded.

“Come back.” Hands stroked her hair, her neck, her cheeks. He exhaled gently against her face again. Air whistled across her overheated flesh. “Come back, Miranda.”

“I-I’m trapped,” she whimpered.

“Not anymore.” Govek gripped her fingers, right over the nails that should have been missing. They were gone a second ago.

“You’re in the goblin mines. On Faeda, not Earth.” He pressed her hand to the cool, rough texture of the wall. “With me. You are not alone. I will not leave you alone.”

His green eyes were glowing in the darkness as she stroked that wonderful rock surface. It abraded her fingers but soothed her agony.

“There are no bank vaults on Faeda,” Govek said, stumbling slightly on the foreign words. “No bombs. No quaking and destruction. No small vents.”

She shivered, clinging to his shoulders, and tucked her head into his fragrant neck. Spicy and clean. Nothing like it existed on Earth.

Her voice tore at her vocal cords, as if she’d been screaming. “But there is war.”

Govek’s grip tightened, and she relished it. The hold of his strong arms about her torso. Uneven pressure that gave when she squirmed against it.

This was Govek, the orc, not the air vent. She really was out.

Her throat closed and her eyes burned. “Earth is gone. We killed it. We killed our planet.”

She heard him gulp.

“We fought overeverything—gods, politics, food, and water. Oh, Govek, there wasnothing left. It was just ash and burned trees. Rubble, scorching heat, and poison. It’s gone and there’s no bringing it back.”

He cradled her, crouched on a hard stone floor. The darkness closed in around her and he breathed another gust of air onto her face. Her shoulders relaxed, slumping.

“Faeda is not Earth, Miranda,” Govek assured her, stroking his hands in gentle waves down her hair and back. “Our world was built by the might of the Fades and is protected by sentinels.”

“And humans are destroying it.”

His body grew tense, his movements stilled, and his breathing caught in his throat.

Miranda sobbed, because he didn’t deny it.

How could she have been inexplicably saved from the death of her own planet, only to be forced to relive that agony on another? It wasn’t fair. What had she done to deserve this?

“It isn’t your fault, Miranda,” Govek whispered as if he was reading her mind.

She choked out a half laugh, half sob. “How do you know? If it’s not my fault, then why am I the only one left? There were twenty-twobillionhumans on Earth, Govek. And I didn’t see one. Single. Body. I walked fordays. Where did they go? How is it possible? Why am I still alive? Why didn’t I die with them?”

She must have been in hysterics because Govek started to rock her slightly. The motion helped her to breathe.

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