Page 91 of Bound to the Orc Renegade

The four of us walk through the trees, the large trunks leading us on a winding path. A pang of sadness fills me. Is this the last time the OG team will be together? I really wanna form a permanent questing guild with the three of them—we could have a name and everything.

We round one last trunk, and a large, circular open space appears ahead. Heart trees surround it in a ring, and glow stones dangle from their lower branches like lanterns, adding their golden glow to the fading sunlight. Wooden tables and chairsare spread across the moss-covered ground, and there are orcseverywhere.

Dravarr steps forward. “Welcome to Moon Blade Village.”

“We do this every so often.” Ashley waves a hand to take in the space. “We bring all the furniture from the pub outside and celebrate as a clan.”

“And today, we celebrate the return of Krivoth, who brought us a cure for deathsleep and a moon bound bride!” Gerna calls out, and the whole village breaks into cheers.

Storm joins several other unicorns at the edge of the green—one of them a lovely black and gold instead of white and silver—and Olivia magicks them up bags of oats before making Mist a plucked and prepared pheasant.

As everyone settles at tables, Krivoth leads me to the one right beside where Ashley and Olivia sit down with their husbands. Gerna joins us, along with a male orc. He’s a little leaner than Krivoth, but just as tall, with long black hair. He’s handsome with a wide mouth that breaks into a big smile.

“This is Branikk,” Krivoth says, “my best friend.”

Oh! My mouth drops open. I mean, of course, I hoped Krivoth had friends—it just hasn’t come up yet. There’s still a lot we need to learn about each other, but we have time now. All the time in the world.

“So happy to meet you,” I say.

“Krivoth’s a lucky, lucky man,” Branikk says, his deep voice playful.

This one’s sure a charmer but in a sincere way.

We sit, and Olivia’s in the middle of asking everyone what they’d like for dinner, when two loud choruses of shrieks come from opposite sides of the green.

The sprites fly in from the left, and a mass of glowing blue fae fly in from the right. They’re just as big—or rather little—as thesprites, but everything about them is a light blue that glows, and their wings are more of a solid color, like those on moths.

“Pixies,” I breathe.

The sprites stop above my table, hovering in the air, and the pixies halt only a foot away, right above Ashley and Olivia’s table.

“You can’t have her!” The head sprite flutters in front of me, turned to face the pixies. “She’sourAlmost Elf!”

“We don’t need her. We have Pizza!”

“Oh, my god. Who’s ‘Pizza’?” I ask, giving the word the same capitalization the pixie did.

“That would be me,” Olivia said. “It’s the first type of food I ever made for them, and now it’s the only thing they’ll eat.”

“The only thing?” I curl up my nose. “I love pizza, don’t get me wrong, but I wouldn’t want nothing but pizza for the rest of my life.”

“Wrong, wrong, wrong!” A pixie hears me and flies into my face, ignoring the angry squawk of the sprite. She starts counting things off on her fingers. “There’s red pizza, green pizza, spicy pizza, egg pizza, and sweet pizza.”

“Regular pizza, pesto pizza,” Olivia translates. “Chicken masala on naan, omelets, and waffles.”

That last one makes me laugh. I shoot Olivia a look, and mouth “sweet pizza.”

“They’ll only eat flat food.” She grins and shrugs. “And no matter what I make, they name it pizza.”

She does so now, making pizzas and waffles appear on her hands. The pixies swoop down and take them from her, flying away in little coordinated teams.

The head sprite glares after them, her hands on her hips. Then she looks at Olivia. “Make us berries, and we’ll turn them into Faerie Fruit for you. You could be one of our Almost Elves.”

“Oh, hey, wait.” I hold up a hand like a stop sign and look at the other human women. “The sprites are great, but I have to warn you about the Faerie Fruit.”

“It sounds yummy,” Olivia says.

“Oh, it is… if you want something that feels like doing tequila shots topped off with a Spanish Fly chaser.”

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