Page 65 of Bound to the Orc King

I grip my crystal with my free hand and close my eyes, muttering to my magic to read his mind. My face scrunches as I try harder, but after several moments, I give up. “It’s not working.”

“That’s all right. In fact, it confirms the rest of my theory.” He points to something on the scroll. “I think you heard the ogre because it was a life or death situation. Your magic could sense that you needed this information to survive, so it worked without conscious thought on your part. There are several recorded instances of dangerous incidents sparking the ability in elves in the past.”

“Elves?” I ask.

“They are the fae known to have this ability.”

“So you’re saying my bride has to be put in danger in order to practice her magic?” Aldronn scowls, his voice a deep growl. “I will not allow it.”

“What Isaidis danger sparks mind-reading abilities,” Luke says dryly. “I didn’t say it was how to train her.”

“So how?” I lean forward, ready to start.

“I need to do some more reading.” He turns away to unfurl another scroll.

I lean close to Aldronn. “How come the scrolls are so big?”

“I can still hear you,” Luke says, not bothering to look up. “And I’ll have you know they’re perfectly sized.”

“The dragons have only been able to access their smaller dual and fae forms since Naomi opened the doors of Faerie about a month ago,” Aldronn explains. “Before that, they spent the last three-hundred years locked in their dragon forms.”

“Ohhh.” Light-bulb moment. No wonder everything’s huge. God, what must their libraries be like?

Shadow and Rune return with two of the orc guards, each carrying a deer. Aldronn gets up to help prepare the meat. We’ll eat one of the animals tonight for dinner, and they’re going to cook the others and store the meat in more of the leather bags bespelled with preservation magic.

“Would you like to read about your ability?” Luke asks, sliding the original parchment closer to me.

I spin back to him. “Yes!”

“I have prepared a few translation crystals for just such an occasion.” He reaches into his invisible pocket and pulls out a small crystal and presses it against the back of my hand.

The rune-ish characters on the parchment swirl in a dizzying dance, reforming into English. The letters are huge. It’s like reading a billboard while standing only a foot away. But I don’t care. Excitement zips through me as their meaning catches my eye, and I read out loud: “‘His thoughts came to me as clearly as if he spoke them directly into my ear.’

“Oh, hell yeah!” I pump a fist in the air and unroll the top of the parchment to start at the beginning.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Aldronn

The sun dips low in the sky by the time I help the others pack the last of the cooked venison away in the special food-preservation bags orc leatherworkers make.

“This might help us,” Rune says, closing the pack he just stuffed, “but what are the unicorns going to do once we’re in the Northern Wastes?” He’s in his unfurred fae form to help with the meat, and his concerned expression is clear to read.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “We’ll consult with Starfall and the rest tonight to see if they have any ideas.”

“They can eat meat in their fae forms,” Shadow says.

“That doesn’t mean they’ll want to.” Rune frowns. “They’ve lived their entire lives as herbivores.”

“We’ll let them decide,” I say to stop their argument before it can start.

I can tell the shifters like and respect each other, but every time I’m around them, all I can think of is May’s whispered colloquialism that the two of them get along “like cats and dogs.”

“Let’s finish packing up so we’re ready with Naomi arrives.”

I turn toward the waterfall. Slanting sunbeams warm the cliff face around it and set the frothing water alight. The memory of May shoots through me, of how her back arched against the rock as I licked her sweet wetness.

She sits hunched over a scroll, her entire body alive with excitement as she reads, pausing only to point out something to Lukendevener.

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