Page 6 of Bound to the Orc Guardian

Now that the crystals have gone dark, my eyes adjust enough to see deep night all around. There’s no golden glimmer of lit windows or streetlights anywhere close. No wait! Tiny blue dots move in the distance, zipping back and forth. After watching them for a bit, I settle back down onto the stone with a little laugh. Fireflies. Nothing to get that excited about.

No city lights, no heavy humidity coating the air, which smells sweet and fresh.

If the magic in the crystal is real, does that mean Faerie is, too?

Morning arrives with a trill of birdsong and sunlight warming my face. I roll upright and stretch my arms as a yawn cracks my jaw. My ankle still feels great. In fact, my whole body feels fantastic. I slept on hard stone all night but somehow don’t have a single ache from it.

“Dios mio,” I breathe, climbing to my feet. Trees stretch into the distance, pines shaped like tall Christmas trees mixed in with trees covered in… blue leaves? I spin, and mountains rise behind me, their rocky peaks cutting impressive lines against the bright-blue sky.

If this is Earth, it’s an unspoiled part. There’s not a single building or road anywhere. Could it really be Faerie? Time to explore.

It’s a good thing I don’t move much in my sleep, because I’m not just on a platform—I’m on top of a pillar of rock a good twenty feet high.

The sheer sides of the stone column taunt me as I lean over the side. If there’s one thing I’ve realized from all my hours volunteering in the ER, it’s that a certain percentage of people wind up there because they try something stupid they convince themselves will work.

Looking at the twenty-foot drop to the ground, Iknowthere’s no way I can make it down on my own without breaking something.

“Hello! Can anybody help me?”

All the happy birdsong comes to an abrupt halt for a moment, as if the forest around me holds its breath.

I hold mine, too, ears straining…

There! A new sound. Some kind of repeated thumping. It gets louder and louder.

“Over here!” I yell, waving an arm overhead, even though I can’t see anyone yet. I’m just so fucking relieved someone found me.

A huge gray monster riding the horse from hell breaks out of the trees. A hairless head tops a crudely shaped face, complete with a blob of a nose and a ragged gash of a mouth. A horrible fascination lights his beady black eyes when he sees me, and he bellows a meaningless string of syllables.

He’s taller than the tallest human and at least twice as wide, heavy with muscle. He wears nothing but an animal-pelt loincloth and a big double-headed axe, leaving little to the imagination. For once, I find myselfnotcurious about how a body is put together. There’s something abouthim that’s repulsive on a primal level. Dedicating my life to medicine means I’m supposed to be above such things, but I’m not—not when it comes to him.

And the horse! It’s yellow-green and covered in scales instead of hair, with a mane and tail made of waxy fat ribbons in dark olive green. Shark teeth fill its mouth, and I could swear it stares at me with malice.

“Carajo!” What is all of this? Mami always told stories of strange and fabulous things that happened to my long distant abuela, but those were just stories.

Weren’t they?

The monster leaps from the horse and runs up to the stone. I’ve spent the past several hours wanting a way down, but right now, I’m thrilled the sides are too steep to climb.

Or not. Just my luck. Monster man went to the same school of “why not try? I’m sure nothing bad will happen” as all those people from the ER. He wraps his too-long arms around the sides of the stone, grunts, and…

Mierda. Yep. He’s climbing.

More grunts, and he’s halfway up, grinning up at me in a way I don’t like.

I back away from the edge, but the top of the stone’s so small there’s nowhere to go. My hand wraps around my crystal unconsciously. I drop it as soon as I realize. Even if I didn’t imagine things earlier and it healed my twisted ankle, what’s it going to do to stop monster man? Nada.

He crests the edge, one long arm swiping out, only a couple of inches short of touching me. With another heave forward, he hooks my leg, yanking me so hard I fall across his shoulder with an oof of expelledbreath.

His skin’s rough and thick, like a leathery hide. Mierda, he smells so sour and rank I gag. Thank god, various anatomy and physiology labs have given me a strong stomach, because otherwise I’d be sick all down his back. Actually, he might smell better covered in vomit.

But he’s climbing down to ground that’s still too far away. If he dropped me from this height, I’d end up with some kind of cervical fracture at a minimum.

Okay, Selena, let’snotthrow up on the guy who literally holds our life in his hands. I swallow convulsively several times.

As soon as his feet touch the ground, I start to struggle. He’s so tall I’m still eight feet off the ground, but my skin’s crawling—my body wants away from his with an almost animal panic. “Let me go!”

A huge hand clamps over my butt, pawing at me, a deep voice saying something that sounds more like rocks crashing together than words. Monster man grabs me and sets me down in front of him. I thought being on his shoulder was as bad as it could get.

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