Page 95 of Bound to the Orc King

Aldronn

Dark fae boil from the door to Avalon.

Around them dart smaller shapes that take to the air. Black birds with blood-red eyes, claws, and beaks screech angry cries. Fuck. They’ve brought sluagh with them, the soul stealers who kill one greedy peck at a time, draining you of your life force until you die, your soul trapped for an eternity of torment.

“Grace!” I yell.

“On it!” The tall blonde waves her hands, and one of the tree-like carnival rides springs into being. She lunges toward the controls, starting it up. Loud and ludicrously joyful music blares as the ride begins to spin. Grace turns the noise off right as thewhirling chains reach enough speed to fly outward, forming a protective barrier over the area.

Brannik hurries to the edge of the ride’s reach, one of his bride’s net guns held confidently in steady hands. The hunter shoots a bird out of the sky, and Riselda runs over to scoop up the netted bird. As soon as it’s trapped, the rest of that flock of sluagh stop fighting and hover in the air over the wolf.

On the other side of the great spinning contraption, Olivia flings one of her pizzas at the sluagh bird that flies for her face, tangling it in sticky strings of melted cheese. Her husband Rovann grabs it as it falls from the air, subduing another flock.

Dravarr roars and leaps toward a dark fae, his moon steel blade slicing through her shadows. The other orcs and unicorns join him.

Wranth pulls his own sword free and yells over to me, “Go! We’ve got this!”

“I know you do.” There’s no one I trust more than my cousin to lead my people. It’s difficult to turn away, but my battle isn’t here. I have a higher calling.

I have to help my bride free the Moon Goddess.

As soon as I spin around, May meets my eyes and nods. She grabs Naomi’s hand, and we race for the opening, Starfall hot on our heels. Rune and Shadow follow, along with Lukendevener in his dual form. The pixies must be coming as well, because their tiny high whistles echo down the tunnel.

“We’re quite the group,” I say.

“This prison doesn’t stand a chance.” May flashes me her mischievous grin as she pulls off her dark glasses.

Goddess, I love this woman! I love her unwillingness to be cowed. I love her ability to smile in the face of something that would leave most warriors shaking in their boots.

The tunnel curves exactly enough to keep the way ahead out of sight, so it’s a surprise when we make one last turn and rushinto a sizable cavern. The ceiling arches high overhead, and the walls glow and flicker bright green and purple, like someone trapped the aurora in ice.

The top half of a sphere rises out of the middle of the floor, glowing white. Yet the surface is still, and no blue lightning flickers across it.

May darts forward, her hands sliding over the surface. “It’s like a shell around the Moon Goddess.”

We gather around, everyone touching the surface. It hums with powerful magic, making the hair on my body raise and shivering through my bones.

May raps her knuckles against it. “Any ideas how to break it?”

I strike it with my sword, which ricochets off with such force, my shoulders almost wrench. The weres slash it their claws. Starfall hits it with her horn. Lukendevener bathes the surface in fire, proving that dragons indeed have access to that magic in their dual form.

Nothing works.

May strips off her gloves and lays her palms on the surface, closing her eyes. Without looking at what she’s doing, she runs her fingers over the sphere, this way and that, until she squats down. “I found something!”

It’s a small opening in the shell, down close to the floor, with a small pile of pearlized dust mounded in front of it, as if something bored the hole from the inside out. She tries to shove her hand in, but it won’t fit.

My premonition magic flares, plucking at my nerves in warning. I spin toward the tunnel, my sword leaping free. “Someone’s coming!”

A dark fae rushes into the room, sword in hand. It’s Severin, their king.

We meet in a clang of metal.

He fights like a man possessed, a terrible dark fury burning in his eyes, swamping the green and flowing outward across the whites. The solid black echoes with emptiness, as something massive and distant and uncaring looks out from deep within him.

May mutters a curse, and those soulless eyes flick past me to land on her.

No. A horrible chill goes through me in a shiver of premonition. I swing wildly, doing everything I can to bring this monster’s attention back to me.

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