Page 81 of Bound to the Orc Warrior

“This gives us the means to open doors to five realms,” Lukendevener says. “As long as we can open all five in less than two hours, that will be enough to loosen whatever holds all the doors closed so that the rest will open.”

“There’s still another problem.” My mouth twists. “I’ve opened two doors of Faerie so far, but they both closed soon after. I don’t know how tokeepthem open.”

“Ah, now this I may have an answer for.” The red dragon unrolls another piece of parchment, and it’s fascinating the way his massive talons handle the paper with such precision. “I found an ancient scroll telling one of the myths of the founding of Faerie. The information is buried under layers of metaphor, but I think if you leave something of Alarria in those other realms, it will keep the doors from closing.”

“What would that be?” Aldronn asks. “I don’t want to leave behind people. If this Dark God has corrupted the other realms, they won’t be safe.”

My fingers stroke over the crystals on my necklace before I fully realize what I’m doing. Then it comes to me. I snap my fingers. “Crystals! We leave behind crystals!”

“Yes!” Ashley says. “It’s all about crystals!”

“We can spell crystal pairs to resonate with each other,” Sheevora says. “We’ll keep one here and leave its match in the other realm.”

“We have a plan!” Excitement skitters along my nerves as I hug Ashley, then spin toward Wranth.

Warring emotions cross his face, pride, affection, and… sadness.

It throws a bucket of water over the flames of my joy. Solving this problem, opening the doors of Faerie—in my gut I know this will break the tether.

There’ll be nothing stopping me from returning to Ferndale Falls.

And nothing that’ll make Wranth come with me.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Wranth

My bride glows with strength and purpose. She’s never looked more beautiful than now, when I’m about to lose her forever.

This is the reason the Moon Goddess brought Naomi here, to open the doors of Faerie. It’s far more important than her being my bride.

But I hate it. I hate that I’m not the most important thing in my moon bound’s life. I’m probably supposed to be all noble—kingly, even—and put the good of everyone else first and enjoy doing so.

I cannot.

I’ve spent my entire life having nothing and no one to call my own, plagued by the eternal question of where I come from and who my family is. Naomi helped me discover the truth of myparents and how much they loved me. She helped me find my cousin, Aldronn.

Yet all of that pales compared to her.

I got what I thought I always wanted, and it’s not enough.

I want her. I want her for always.

As she meets my eyes, the smile falls from her face, which only makes me scowl harder. This, I do not want. I never want to cause her pain.

I force my expression to clear by focusing on the task at hand. “What do you need to do this?”

“I think I should carry more red crystals on me, just in case.” Naomi’s beautiful lips purse. “And I think we should do this from the standing stone,mystanding stone, the one with the teleportation magic.”

“Agreed.”

A hand falls onto my shoulder, and Aldronn says, “Whatever you need. It is yours.”

“Thank you. I think we could use a couple of guards to keep the teleportation stone secure. The sluagh know where it is.”

“Of course.” He eyes his guards.

Grugg steps forward, assuming he’ll be picked, and my upper lip curls in a silent snarl. I don’t doubt he’ll fight for us, but I’d rather have someone I trust to give it his all.

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