Page 60 of Bound to the Orc Guardian

“It’s amazing,” he says. “Your magic makes it so I never get sore or tired, and I can run all day instead of only a couple of hours before needing to stop, and that’s mostly because I need to eat.”

“That’s our solution.” I spread my hands wide. “I’ll heal the gnomes while they work, and everything will go faster.”

“Fast enough?” The gnome looks skeptical. “The sluagh will get here soon.”

“We have to try,” I say. “And if this doesn’t work, we’ll travel through rock with you.”

Sturrm grunts his no grunt and starts to open his mouth.

I talk quickly before he repeat voice his objection. “We won’t need to do that if this works, so let’s try it!”

The gnomes shove up to standing and climb on top of each other to make a cheerleader pyramid! A chuckle escapes me as the head gnome clambers right to the top, forming the apex of the structure.

It puts him at my height, and I set my hand on his shoulder. My healing magic immediately pulses into him,and the orange glow of fatigue that suffuses his whole body fades. Then I heal the two below him, and so on down to the bottom row.

They all stretch one hand forward, their balance good enough that the loss of support doesn’t make the pyramid waver. Another blast of magic barrels from them and into the newly forming tunnel.

Now the formation does tremble a bit as they all drop their hands tiredly to use them for support.

I stand and go through it all again, healing their magical fatigue, one after the other.

It becomes a mindless routine, with me doing more squats in one day than I have at any other point in my life. There’s nothing but defeating the orange glow, again and again. I don’t even keep track of what their magic is doing to the rock.

After an indeterminate amount of time, I shove to my feet for another round, my magic flickering through me, healing my tiredness.

Sturrm grips my shoulders, breaking me from my trance. “Selena, enough. You need to rest.”

I blink up at him, then look into the tunnel. “How far along are we?”

“Twenty feet.”

“How much farther to reach the crystal cavern?” I touch the head gnome’s shoulder and send a pulse of healing magic into him.

“We’re halfway,” he says with a relieved sigh.

“Then we keep going.” I reach down and heal the next row.

Sturrm growls, “Selena—”

“No.” I shake my head and ignore the burn along my nerves as I heal another row. Mierda. My magic’s starting to… hurt a little bit with each use. Then it hurts a little more as it heals that hurt. It’s turning into a continuous loop, with shorter and shorter pain-free interludes. But I refuse to give up. “Don’t stop me. I’m doing this.”

I’m doing this for the quest.

And I’m doing it for him. We have to succeed so he can see himself like I see him—someone amazingly competent and sure. Someone worthy.

Someone to believe in.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Sturrm

Even Selena’s amazing healing magic can’t rehydrate her or produce calories from thin air. Worry eats at me as her movements return to their mechanical cadence—she crouches and stands in a never-ending cycle.

“Is she okay?” Dash asks, stepping up to my side.

I grunt.

Instead of letting it drop, he pokes my side with his horn. “How long can she keep it up? How much magic does she have?”

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