Page 16 of Bound to the Orc Guardian

Shock ripples through me. “You don’t have a unicorn’s self-healing power?” Unicorns have incredible endurance and can carry heavy loads because their magic continuously heals them as they run. But if Dash doesn’t have that, then he also lacks a unicorn’s other special magic—the ability to heal an injured person who hovers on the brink of death. That magic always offers a comfort. Goddess knows, Bruna’s fate would have been far different that day if a unicorn had been with us. I hadn’t realized I’d been without it these past few days.

“Of course I don’t.” He tosses his head.

“But you have a horn.” Although uncommon, fae have always married among the various compatible types. The younglings tend to take after one parent or the other in terms of their magic. Typically, if the child of a pooka-unicorn union has a horn, then they’re a unicorn with a unicorn’s magic.

“Yes, well, I’m special.” Dash whinnies a laugh. “Or haven’t you noticed that I’m using pooka travel magic?”

“I noticed,” I mutter. It just hadn’t registered that he lacked the other magic, though it should have. “So you have a horn, which means you should be a unicorn, but your magic is that of a pooka.”

“Precisely. As I said, I’m special,” he says, his tone amused. Then his voice becomes wistful. “It also means I don’t fit in with the unicorns.”

“Which is why you’re out here in the forest alone like a pooka.”

“Yes, well, the horn means I don’t fit with them either.”

The sadness in his voice tears a truth from me, one I’ve never admitted, even to Wranth. “I’m the same. Returning to my village should feel like coming home. And it does, in part. Everyone’s gone out of their way to be welcoming.” I pause for a moment. “But how can it truly be home if it’s the place of my life’s greatest tragedy?”

He turns his head enough to glance at me with one golden eye. “What happened?”

“My childhood sweetheart died,” I bite out the words, my tusks seeming to chop them into short, harsh sounds.

“I’m sorry.” He runs for a few silent strides. Then his voice brightens. “But Selena will fix everything. She’s your moon bound bride, so you’ll have love again. And with her as my rider, I can be just like the unicorns. Better even! I can self healanduse my travel magic. I’ll be the ultimate mount. No one will be faster.”

“No,” I growl.

“Yes, I will. You can already see how fast I am.” As if to prove his point, he gallops even faster, the darkening landscape flowing past more quickly than ever.

“I do not doubt your abilities.” No, the problem is the other half of his pronouncement. Pain fills my chest, sharper than the old ache of Bruna’s loss. “Selena isn’t mine. Thegoddess simply used me to retrieve her because I was closest to the healing stone.”

Dash snorts again. “Whatever you need to tell yourself, orc.”

Selena stirs in my arms, a soft sigh of discontent escaping, as if she can’t quite get comfortable.

“Stop,” I growl, unable to bear the thought of her discomfort. “Even if you can run all night, she can’t ride for so long.”

“When you put it that way…” Dash’s stride slows to a trot, and the blurred forest snaps back into sharp relief.

We move through a stand of pines, the trees growing so close together the ends of their branches brush over my bare arms and shoulders in a tickle of needles.

As much as I try to shield her, they touch Selena’s arms as well, and she stirs, murmuring a sleepy protest.

I pull her more tightly to me, curving my shoulders around her, and she settles again as we move into a more open forest. “Are there any places you can graze nearby?” Even if Selena’s healing magic allows him to run without breaks, he still needs to eat.

“There should be one just ahead.”

We round a wide clump of rhododendrons, their waxy leaves offset by beautiful lavender flowers, and move into a small mountain meadow. The setting sun hits the pillowy clouds overhead, making them glow orange and pink. Bluebells dot the tall grass, and a pair of magpies lift from the ground, the white bars on their black wings flashing in the air. Golden larks sing from the trees surrounding the open space, filling the air with sweet song.

I lift Selena fully into my arms and slide to the ground.

The movement wakes her, and she glances around, startled. But when her eyes meet mine, she calms.

The trusting look she gives me punches me right in the solar plexus, stealing my breath. I’ll do anything to keep her looking at me like that.

As I set her feet on the ground, Dash starts cropping at the grass, ripping up large mouthfuls and chewing quickly. It seems that even if Selena’s magic heals him, he still needs to eat a great deal to maintain the extended run times.

Selena deserves a real meal as well.

“I’m going to hunt. Watch her for me?”

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