Page 39 of How To Woo A Warrior Orc

“I want to remember this moment forever.” I put my hands up, bracketing his face like a frame. “The moment you finally felt bad about tricking someone into a deal.”

He has the grace to let out a small laugh, then slumps, his face in his hands.

I cross the distance to sit across from him at the table.

A moment passes, viscous, as I wait for him to speak on whatever it is he’s troubled by. This isn’t like him. Not at all.

I can’t remember one time when the wise-cracking fae wasn’t able to deflect all sorts of horribleness with an ill-timed joke.

“What are you thinking?” I finally ask, cracking under the heavy silence.

“He’s right,” Caelan says slowly, and there’s despair in his eyes when he finally drags his face away from his hands. “He’s right. The inn is a waypoint. There is strong, thick, wild magichere. That’s why, I think, none of us realized what Hash was up to when he disguised it. This place… it’s full of secrets, and I am sure they are not all for me to find out. The witches, the coven, the Seelie queen’s appearance—there is something headed towards Wild Oak Woods, and I do not know what it is.”

His face is stricken, and I swallow hard at the unsettling sight of an emotion on Caelan that isn’t pure chaotic glee.

“You think someone is guiding events? Our expulsion from the Underhill…” I pause, shaking my head in disbelief. “I’m just an orc. One stolen by a trickster fae, not even a proper orc.”

Now his expression turns manic again, the Caelan I know and love. “Oh, not a proper orc? I suppose your Piper had some complaints then, did she? About your proper orc performance.”

I stare at him with a hard face until he chuckles and glances away. “We all will have a role to play in whatever it is that’s coming. But it’s building, whatever it is.”

“That’s what they tell me too.” A new voice pipes up, and when we both startle, glancing towards the west hallway, the newcomer witch is there.

Violet.

The dark circles under her eyes are still there, but there’s a new-found strength shining in her eyes, too.

“Who told you what?” Caelan asks, confused.

“The dead,” she says simply, shrugging one shoulder.

Caelan swivels back to me, his eyes wide. “Because that is an entirely normal thing to say.”

I try not to laugh, for the sake of the willowy witch who I know must be scared out of her mind, yet was brave enough to traipse into the front room with an orc and an Unseelie and then eavesdrop on their private conversation.

“It is decidedly not normal,” Violet says with a huge sigh. “And frankly, I am not sure how I feel about any of this. Butthe dead told me to come here, and now I am, and they whisper amongst themselves.”

The hairs on the tops of my arms rise.

“They say too, something is coming. Something from the old woods.” Violet shrugs again. “I’m going to bed. I came to tell you both thank you for your kindness.”

I incline my head automatically, the odd niceties of the violent fae court ingrained in me at this point.

“Well,” I draw the word out long, stretching my legs out in front of me. “I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse,” I say lightly.

It makes me feel much worse, and I decide I can’t even be mad at Caelan for striking an unwilling blood oath with Kieran.

“The old woods,” Caelan repeats, his brow furrowed. “The Elder Forest.”

It clicks the moment he says it, and I very nearly smack myself in the face for not realizing it beforehand. “The Elder Forest.”

Of course.

“Do you think the bookstore witch has anything on the Elder Forest?” Caelan asks me. “That rude one? With the cat?”

“I knew who you meant by bookstore witch, Caelan,” I reprimand him. “You didn’t need to add the rest. Her name is Ruby.”

“Of course it is. Why would I call her Ruby when bookstore witch works just as well?”

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