Page 73 of Bound to the Orc King

I hold the crystal toward Starfall and shoot her a questioning glance. She taps her horn to it.

May starts to crouch beside the first scroll, but I clasp her shoulders and pull her to standing. “I’d like to try something.”

“Okay.”

“Instead of spending hours dissecting each scroll carefully, I’d like for you to skim each one and see if any of them resonate with you.”

“And if none of them do?” She glances at me over her shoulder.

“Then we go back to doing a closer study.” I wave at the long pieces of parchment. “Which of these have you already read?”

She points out two of the scrolls.

“Did either of them strike you as interesting?”

“Not really.”

I step around her to pick them up and move them to the side, rearranging the remaining scrolls in front of my bride. “I will study these two while you look over the rest.” Perhaps I’ll see something the others have missed.

“Why are you doing this?” She catches my arm before I can fully turn away. “I saw you working on all that king-stuff yesterday. You didn’t get all the way through the stack of paper Kronn has for you.”

“Trust me. There’s always more paperwork. Today, I want to help you.”

“The mission.” She nods. “I get it.”

“No, May. I want to helpyou.” It’s clearly been bothering her that she can’t get her magic to work, and I’ve hated seeing it. Her telepathy is strong. If anyone knows that, it’s me, who’s felt her power firsthand. “I know you can do this.”

She swallows, her beautiful brown eyes shining with a glaze of tears. A vulnerability lurks in them, one she typically hides behind mischief and smiles.

The sight pierces my heart with a pain so sharp it’s startling. I grew up surrounded by adults who constantly told me I was destined to be king. They believed in me, even as they pushed me to succeed.

Yet everything she told me about her life makes it seem as if no one believed in my bride. How could they fail to notice and admire her strong spirit? It takes the heart of a queen to stand up to a goddess, and my May has such a heart. I can see it, even if no one else can.

I grip her shoulders and lean over to press a kiss to the top of her head, whispering so that only she might hear, “I believe in you, May.”

Her soft inhale of shock is nothing like the ones she makes in bed, yet it’s just as precious. A tear glides down her cheek, and I brush it away with my thumb, cupping her face as she beams up at me, her strong spirit blazing like the sun.

About an hour later, May rocks back on her heels and shoots me a mischievous glance. “Gotta say I like the sound of this one.”

It’s just the two of us left. Starfall gave up a half hour ago, trotting back over to join the other unicorns. “Bipeds write about the most boring things.”

I agree with her. Many of these scrolls are written in an overcomplicated language that makes them especially tedious. So the thought that May found something is a relief.

“Really?” I lean over to look at the passage she points to, one describing a ritual where the practitioner dances naked under the light of twin moons. “Thisis the one you want to try?” I smirk. “I’m far from opposed to the special… requirement of the ritual.” I imagine May, dancing in a grove, her body limned by moonlight. “Sadly, it specifically invokes the power of the moons of Avalon to work, and I’m not letting you go there.”

“Yeah, I hadn’t really thought about that part.” She shrugs. “It caught my eye because I like dancing, and also because it’s the last scroll. If it doesn’t have the answer, I’m out of options.”

“I refuse to believe that.” I stride over to Lukendevener and jab a finger back toward the scrolls. “Thiscannotbe all of the information on mind reading.”

“Of course it’s not,” the dragon snaps, his wings rustling with irritation. “I carry my own personal library, not the accumulated knowledge of all dragonkind.”

“Did you ask Sheevora if she has anything?”

“I did, but the study of elfin magic has never been one of her specialties.”

“And you have nothing else?” I narrow my eyes.

When the dragon hesitates, I stretch out my hand, putting the snap of command into my voice. “Give it to me.”

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