Page 76 of Bound to the Orc King

“I don’t want you to see these,”he says.

“I promise I’m not trying to look at the things you don’t want me to,”I answer. It’s true, and it’s a problem. I’m thrilled I’m able to use my powers, but I still haven’t figured out how to get them to do what I want.

When I float back out into the hallway, I pause. All of these first rooms are his distant past, but I want to connect with the Aldronn of now. I race down the endless corridor, doors streaming past so quickly they form a blur. Gliding to a halt, I open one.

A twenty-two-year-old Aldronn rides into a village on Starfall, his guards surrounding him. Awe fills me as I see the heart trees for the first time. They’re far wider than the biggest redwood but so short they look cute as hell. Crowns of branches sprout from their tops, each covered in bright-green heart-shaped leaves wider than my hands. He meets the village elders inside the pub, the furniture, walls, ceiling, and floors all made of the honey-colored wood I’ve seen throughout his mind castle. It’s his first set of village rounds after being made king, and he’s worried about doing a good job for his people.

I dash down the corridor, skipping several years. This time a mid-twenties Aldronn forces himself to smile at a young woman in another village pub. She’s pretty, her long black hair twisted into intricate braids, her tunic top bright yellow and heavily embroidered. Her father pushes her toward Aldronn, grinning widely. She giggles, one green hand covering her mouth as she glances shyly at her king. I feel Aldronn’s resignation—he’s not attracted to her. But this encounter is expected of him, and he will do his duty and pretend, so he doesn’t hurt her feelings and offend the people of the village.

“May, don’t watch this,”he says, his voice going bossy.

Instead of bristling against his order, I agree with him.“I wasn’t going to.”

It’s the truth. I back out of the room, not needing to see what happens next. I’m not the jealous type, especially not for something like this, when he didn’t even like her. But I’m only human—I don’t want to see something I can’t forget.

Another long flight down the corridor reminds me that Aldronn has twelve years on me. He’s in such great shape, with the kind of body any guy in their twenties would kill for, that I kind of forget it.

The next door I try opens on a battle scene. A thirty-year-old Aldronn fights a massive ogre in a small clearing. Around him, all of his guard, including Wranth and Starfall and Zephyr, fight as well. They’re all exhausted, worn out from riding hard for several days to stop this war party before they can attack another orc village. But you’d never know it to watch them, the orcs and unicorns battling the larger number of ogres. The only good thing I can see is there don’t seem to be any kelpies this time, so the unicorns can focus on the ogres, too.

An orc drops to the ground under an ogre’s battleaxe. Aldronn slices the head from the enemy he battles and leaps over the body to stand over the fallen orc. He yells, “Starfall!”

Her angry whinny cuts through the air as she lashes an opponent with her hooves, then wheels to gallop to Aldronn. He fights off another ogre as she gets down on her knees and touches the downed orc with her horn. It glows like a miniature sun, magic rippling through the air. The cut in the orc’s chest seals, and she sucks in a gulp of air and sits up at the same moment as Starfall passes out.

Damn! They told me unicorns could heal someone on the brink of death, but seeing it is amazing!

Aldronn fights on, taking several cuts as he protects Starfall until every last ogre is defeated.

The whole thing makes me gush.“You were wonderful.”

“I did nothing less than Starfall would do for me,”he answers. I can feel that it’s not false modesty—Aldronn really sees what he does as normal, as fulfilling his duty to others.

It’s so much more than that.He’sso much more than that.

I dash down the hallway again, pulled to a certain door. Inside the room, Aldronn meets Ashley for the first time. He hides it, but he’s startled by her shortness and the color of her skin, eyes, and hair. I suppress a chuckle—it really is true. Humans are the outsiders here, and none of us are green.

I also feel his amazement that the goddess has started gifting the orcs with moon bound brides, as well as his hope that he’d receive one, too.

“You got what you wished for, big guy. How’s that working out for you?”

“Better than I could ever have imagined.”

I grin.

Flying a bit farther down the hall, I open another door and step out into a campsite at night. Aldronn sits alone, staring at the fire, then leaps to his feet a few seconds before a man steps out of thin air! It doesn’t look the same as one of Naomi’s teleports. Instead, smoky tendrils appear first, followed by his foot, leg, etc, as if he’s stepping from behind an invisible curtain.

He’s tall, with pale skin and midnight-dark hair as long as Aldronn’s. He’s wickedly handsome, the bad boy effect magnified by his black leather clothes. Smoke tendrils spiral up from the tattoos decorating his skin. It’s the shadow fae! He must have come through the door to Avalon.

They fight for a few minutes before the man disappears back through the door. Aldronn plunges after him, and my consciousness goes with him into a new world. I can’t see much except the twin moons riding high in the sky… until the shadowfae flies across their brightness on a set of shadow wings he didn’t have before!

As soon as we’re back in the room, I say,“This is what you’re worried about. That he got away.”

“Yes. I worry he’s told his Dark God about our hidden realm and that even now they amass to invade.”

“But you’re here, doing this with me instead of preparing.”

“You are my bride,”Aldronn says, as if it’s that simple.“Besides, I hope the Moon Goddess wants to be freed so that she can protect us from this Dark God.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t that be great,”I mutter, wishing I had as much faith in his goddess.

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