Page 91 of The Orc Outcast's Miracle

“It is as she says. She is not of Faeda.”

“Where the fuck did you find her?”

“She fell out of the sky before my eyes.”

More whispers, too many. Miranda’s head spun, and she watched the seer gasp as he clutched at his head and shivered in agony. His muscles bunched, he was twitching, and tears flooded her eyes. He’d witnessed the horrors she’d seen. She’d forced them on him.

On everyone.

“Hush,” Govek said near her ear, and she shut her eyes again to soak up his comfort. “Let’s go somewhere quiet.”

She nodded eagerly.

“We cannot go.” Evythiken’s voice rang out, and for a second, Miranda thought he was ordering her and Govek to stay, but instead, the seer turned to Karthoc. “We cannot go.”

“Enough with this seer,” Karthoc snapped. “We will speak of it later.”

“We cannot leave the Rove Woods!” Evythiken slammed his hand down on the table and cups clattered. One bowl slipped off the edge and splattered on the stone floor. Stew and ceramic exploded in thick droplets and sharp shards.

“I have told you, Karthoc. Too many times. Far too many. But now you must listen. This is a sign. The Fades brought her here to show me this.” Evythiken drew all the attention in the room. Miranda could feel the eyes leave her and finally she managed to take a full breath. “We are meant to be under this Great Tree. In the Rove Woods. The Fades want us here, so they can complete their work.”

“I ask you again,” Karthoc demanded, storming over to the male. “Here and now in front of these witnesses. What fucking work? You spout about it day and night, driving me daft with your demands to bring my legions here. To call the clans to settle in the Rove Woods. To tell our overlord to gather his thousands of orcs, give up fighting for our lives, and retreat to this Great Tree, but why?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know! They just keep screaming at me!” Evythiken’s voice broke, his body shook, and his hands grasped his head. “They won’t stop screaming!”

“For fuck’s sake! You want me to drive our overlord to stop fighting for our fucking lives without just cause? Without any reason? How can I tell any of my males to simply sit and allow the Waking Order to slaughter them? You see how mad that is, don’t you?”

“They can’t reach here,” Evythiken insisted. “The Waking Order cannot breach the Rove Woods.”

“Explain. How?” Karthoc demanded, face contorted, spitting rage. “The Waking Order knows of this place. They will come. They will burn it. There is no one to stop them except for my warriors. The Fades won’t help us. Nothing can help us. We must fight!”

“We can’t!” Evythiken pleaded. Still writhing, knees buckling, bracing his weight on the table. “We can’t. We have to end the war, or our world will be destroyed. Just like hers.”

Miranda’s stomach dropped, and her eyes grew hazy.

Govek swung her up into his arms and carried her out of the hall. The continued fighting between Karthoc and the seer followed them out the door. The words banged around in her head, beating against every corner of her mind, spilling acid into her marrow.

Our world will be destroyed.

“Miranda, look at me.”

Govek set her down on a rock near the edge of the path. Thankfully, everyone who’d been outside had already gone into the hall. They were alone, and she collapsed all over again.

“Miranda,” he said, soothing, desperate. “Miranda, come back.”

“I am.” She sobbed. “I am back.” And fuck, she wished she wasn’t. She wished this was just another one of her episodes. That what she’d seen and heard in that hall were only delusions. Conjurings from her mind. That she could focus on the present, on the woods and the clean soil, and the rumble of water and the twitter of birds and know that the horrors she experienced on Earth hadn’t been real.

But they had been.

“I can’t be your savior.” Her voice caught. “I don’t know what to do. Govek, I don’t know what I should do.”

“You don’t have to do anything, Miranda,” Govek said, cupping her face, pulling her into his chest.

She knew he was wrong. God, she wished he wasn’t. But the pull to speak to the seer was still hot in her gut and her hand trembled with the need to take his.

It wasn’t done. The compulsion to seek out the seer hadn’t abated yet.

“It’s not fair.” She curled into Govek’s arms and tucked her face in his neck. “I don’t understand.”

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