Page 125 of The Orc Outcast's Miracle

Govek was too far to save them.

The cat was too close now. So near that the rotting stench of the blight made her eyes water.

“When it jumps, we have to dodge.” Miranda’s voice trembled and adrenaline thumped in her ears.

“I-I don’t think I?—”

It was too late. The beast screamed and sprang toward them. Miranda shoved Viravia with all her might and jumped the opposite way.

She landed on top of the log.

Wind whistled right above her. Something grazed her arm, grabbed her skirt, and dragged her down toward the edge of the cliff.

She clung tightly to the log, then the dirt. Her knees went over the edge.

The tension on her skirt snapped away.

There was a yelp, and moments later, a splash.

Miranda gasped, scrambled, clawed her way back up over the log to solid ground. She whirled around.

The cat was gone. It had fallen off the cliff.

Viravia was gone too.

And then her scream sounded, and it was the most beautiful sound Miranda had ever heard until she found her.

She’d fallen and now clung off the edge.

“Oh god!” Miranda scrambled over the log. Viravia hung by a root, face contorted with the effort.

Miranda snatched up the woman’s wrist, pulling. She dug her heels into the ground. She had to save her. She had to pull her up.

She wasn’t strong enough. “Oh god! I can’t!”

“I’m slipping!”

“Govek!” Miranda screamed his name into the woods, hurtled it into the wind, but the falls ate it up.

He said he would hear her anywhere. Please!

Miranda clenched her fingers around Viravia’s wrist, dug her feet into the crumbling soil, but the cliffside gave way.

They both fell.

Chapter

Thirty-Three

GOVEK

Govek could not think, could not breathe. His tongue tasted of bile; his legs exploded with prickling energy. He hurtled himself through the woods, to his home.

He never should have left her.

The door was already off the hinges, and he ripped his way into the house. Stormed from room to room. The floorboards should have cracked. He nearly overturned the bed in his haste to find his mate.

“Where the fuck is she?” he roared. His eyes bulged and his teeth gnashed and his blood boiled in his veins. “Miranda!”

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