Page 41 of Bound to the Orc Renegade

Taylor

I hold out my right hand and grip my crystal with my left. Maybe closer contact with it will help? My magic leaps and surges within me, more eager than ever to be let out since I didn’t use it yesterday.

I try, over and over, but my magic remains locked inside.

God, I can feel it! Why can’t I use it?

My eyes pop open and immediately go to Krivoth, who stands patiently to one side, watching me with a burning intensity that I feel all the way to my core. As soon as he sees me looking, his expression shifts to something more neutral.

But I saw it. He wants me.

And god, I want him, too.

“How can I help?” he says, and all those hours of riding in front of him with his hand splayed across my stomach come back to me. The way a traitorous part of me longed for that hand to slide lower, to give me all the pleasure of that fateful evening again… and more.

“Focus, Taylor,” I mutter to myself. Where’s all my discipline gone? I used to be able to play for hours at a stretch, doing whatever it took to learn a new skill. But gaming sure as hell never had anything as distracting as a seven-foot orc with killer cheekbones and smoldering eyes.

Andbigfingers… and an even bigger cock.

My thighs squeeze together.

I have to clear my throat to answer him. “Can you touch my shoulder from behind? I want to see if I can feel how you tap into your magic with less contact.”

He nods and strides around me, and the firm weight of his hand settles on my right shoulder. His right hand. The hand that wasinme.

Get it together, girl, I say internally.

I lift my arm, grip my crystal, and reach for his magic instead of mine, but it whispers across my senses, remaining just out of reach.

“It’s not enough contact,” I say. “I can’t feel your magic.”

“How about this?” Krivoth drops to his knees behind me, which makes him only a little taller instead of a lot. Both his arms wrap around my stomach, pulling me back until we press together from my calves to my shoulder blades. His voice is a deep rumble that vibrates through me. “Can you feel it now?”

I sure as hell feelsomething. Desire shivers through me, along with the tingle of his magic. “Yep,” I gasp, unable to say anything more articulate.

Magic, Taylor, I remind myself. Focus on the magic.

Closing my eyes again, Krivoth becomes my entire world. My magic leaps at the feel of his, which flows easily through his whole body. But no matter how hard I try to do the same, I can’t.

Only… I’m not fae. I’m a human witch. The magic inside me comes from the standing stone, which we left miles behind. So how can I channel it? My pendant is part of it, but also…

I strain harder, feeling this timepastKrivoth, feeling the magic in the ground beneath my feet. An ocean of power roils below me, huge and unstoppable, a force of nature. It’s Alarria! I’m feeling the power of this whole world!

Krivoth taps into it, too, but more to connect with it than to draw power from it. That’s what I’ve actually been feeling when I attune to his magic—how he connects to Alarria.

I picture a line of power connecting me to the ground, brilliant white shot through with bolts of pale-green lightning. My crystal warms in my hand, and I nod, the feeling soright.

This time when I open my eyes and cast my hand forward, the power inside me makes a complete circuit, traveling up from the ground and into the well inside me, where the tint of green changes to lavender—it’smymagic now, filtered through my witchy powers.

The toadstool explodes in a cloud of red and white, and I let out a whoop. “Yes! I did it.”

“I knew you could.” Krivoth’s arms tighten around me.

His words mean the world to me, and I sway back into him for a moment. Then I step forward enough that he has to let me go. “Sorry. I’ve got to try this without you touching me.”

“What will this prove? You usually get your magic to work even once I stop touching you.”

“You’re right.” I nod, glancing over my shoulder at him. “In all of our previous practice sessions, I clung to the feel of my magic once I got it working. But this time I’m purposefully going to let it go, so I can practice bringing it back by myself.”

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