Page 78 of Bound to the Orc Guardian

“Sorry! I was hoping that would get rid of their weapons!”

My sword whips through the air, slicing a black diagonal of blood across one of my opponent’s torsos. He bellows and steps backward, allowing me to spin and bury my sword in the belly of the second. One sharp jerk of the moon steel blade, and he falls to his knees, his hands trying to hold himself together. Black pours from the wound, and he topples forward to lie still.

“Don’t touch him!” I shout as Selena skitters backward out of the way of his falling form. “Your power might heal him.”

“Yeah, fuck. Good plan.”

A fresh opponent lunges from the right, scoring my side in a flash of pain.

I spin, the movement so quick, black blood flies from my sword.

As the female ogre backs out of reach, I turn to my first enemy. The cut on his chest didn’t slow him down for long. My side burns as I counter a brutal swing of his mace, the spiked ball stopping only a couple of inches short of my face.

A touch ghosts down my back, and my bride’s magic pours into me, warm and wonderful and immediately healing my side.

A feral grin splits my lips, the bloodlust raging within me now. With my amazing moon bound healing my every injury, the uneven odds no longerseem so dire.

I will do everything I can to win, to save her. I will die to protect her.

Darting forward, I strike the ogre’s thigh, opening a deep gash that bleeds profusely. It starts to weaken him, and I move in for the kill, my blade slicing into his chest and spearing him through the heart.

Triumph roars through my veins as I set a boot on his chest and kick him from my sword.

Until I hear it. A soft thud followed by a pained gasp.

I spin, and before me, my nightmare comes to life.

Selena lies on the ground, the ogre from the standing stone looming over her, his axe raised to strike.

It’s as if someone tore open my psyche and ripped my nightmare out into the daylight and made it manifest, the newer one, where Selena replaces Bruna on the ground.

It’s every bit as horrible as I feared, far worse than any memory of that fateful day from so long ago. The shock of it freezes my muscles.

Terror clutches my heart in wicked claws and squeezes until the entire world narrows to that axe, falling, falling, falling toward my bride.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Selena

Carajo! That pendejo from the standing stone snuck around the edges of the fight to dart behind Dash and Sturrm’s backs.

A meaty hand lands on my shoulder, sending that same weird frisson of disgust through me as it did the first time he touched me. My magic doesn’t reach out, doesn’t want to try to heal this ogre, and that’s a tiny bit of a relief—I’d hate to do anything that made him harder for Sturrm to fight.

“My little witch.” He tosses me to the ground. “You won’t run fromme this time.”

I land hard, pain flaring in my elbow in a flash of orange. My magic goes to immediate work, healing me, and I glare up at the gray monster, who fills the sky. I spit, “I’m not your anything.”

“You are now.”

“Hardly.” I roll my eyes. “The way I remember it, you were the one doing the running when Sturrm beat you. Just like he’s going to beat you now.”

“Mouthy bitch.” He raises his axe.

Dash yells, anger filling his voice. Out of the corner of my eye, his horn pierces the neck of an ogre.

Then a loud shriek comes from above, and Bella soars over the meadow, wide wings casting a shadow beaten back by the bright flash of fire as she takes out one of our enemies.

Then there’s only the ogre standing over me. He still brandishes the axe, stopping and starting a strike multiple times, as if trying to get me to flinch. His beady black eyes search my face, looking for fear.

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