Page 87 of Bound to the Orc Renegade

“More important than her health? Now out of my way, or I’ll tell her your childhood nickname.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” His eyes narrow.

“Try me.”

I bite back a laugh when he moves.

“Hi, Taylor. I’m Gerna, Krivoth’s sister.” She starts pulling things out of her satchel. “I’m also an herbalist, and I’d like to run some tests to see how the deathsleep affected you.”

Krivoth stands by the door, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall with one shoulder.

“Examine away,” I say.

She has me sip various potions and asks how they taste. Then one of them makes my hands turn purple, and she looks a little nonplussed and pulls out a book to confirm everything’s okay.

By the time the color fades to my normal tan, she pronounces me healthy and two human women come rushing into the room. They’re both dressed like orcs, in leather pants and boots with linen tunic shirts.

One’s short, plump, and pretty as can be, with flowing red hair and a wash of freckles spread across her pale cheeks and nose. Her wide smile’s totally infectious, and she ignores my hand to wrap me in a bear hug. “I’m Ashley, and it’s so good to see you awake!”

The other one’s taller, with long brown hair and a beautiful face with an olive complexion. She looks a little more athletic than me, not that that’s saying much with my skinny-assed muscles. Her hug’s a little less enveloping, but just as warm. “I’m Olivia.”

Gerna looks at Olivia. “Taylor needs to eat.”

“Ready to see some magic?” Olivia holds out a hand, and a tall paper coffee cup appears, complete with insulated sleeve. “One caramel macchiato.”

I grab it from her and take a gulp, the mix of sugar and coffee and milk so heavenly on my tongue I moan. “Oh, god, that’s good. How’d you know I like caramel macchiato?”

“Who doesn’t?” She gives a quick shrug. “What’s your favorite food? What sounds really good right now?”

“Normally, I love a good cheeseburger and fries, but right now…” I’m hungry—really hungry—but my stomach kinda feels like a cheeseburger might be too much. “Pancakes with syrup and bacon.”

A plate pops into view on her hand, complete with a banana. At my questioning glance, she gives another shrug. “Figured you needed some potassium.”

“Your power is so cool!” I look at Ashley. “What’s yours?”

She grins and floats a foot into the air. “I can fly!”

“Awesome!”

“I’ve got a broomstick and everything.” She settles back down on the bed.

“So we’re really witches?” I ask.

“Yep.” The redhead nods. “I think it runs in our families, but when all the doors of Faerie closed three-hundred years ago, Earth got cut off from magic.”

“What’s your power?” Olivia asks. “Krivoth talked about it, but how do you think of it?”

“It’s telekenesis, kinda. I can ‘push’ things away. That works really well—I just blast a wave of power out.” I grin. “I can also ‘pull’ things to me, but that’s not really as useful. I can’t pull small things, and if I pull a big thing…” I smack my palms together. “Whack.”

“What about levitation?” Ashley asks. “Can you make something fly?”

“I don’t know!” I reach for my power, and my necklace warms on my chest, glowing through the linen of Krivoth’s shirt. I stretch out a hand toward the chair and think, Up!

Nothing happens, and I let my power drop. “I feltsomething. But it’s like when I tried to pull a pinecone to me—the chair’s too small for my power to grab onto. I’ll have to practiceon something bigger outside, without a ceiling.” It’s the safest option, especially since my “something bigger” tends to be Krivoth.

I glance over at Krivoth to find him talking to two other orc men. They’re both as big and muscular as he is and handsome, though I don’t find them as good looking as Krivoth. “Good god, what do they put in the water around here?”

“I know, right?” Ashley says, her green eyes glittering with mischief. I have a feeling she’s going to get along with Mist. “The hot one with the beard is my husband, Dravarr.”

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