Page 94 of Bound to the Orc King

“No.” Ashley shakes her head.

The music fades. “Turn back!”

She loops out into the crater in a circle that brings us back to the wall. We fly past that same area again, going a lot slower. When I hear the first strains of music, I squeeze her shoulders. “Set us down here!”

As soon as my feet touch the ground, I run forward. There’s the faintest of indentations in the crater wall, a crack running up and arching overhead to come back down several feet away. I press my palms to the center of the slab of ice, and the faintest ghost of the goddess’s voice whispers across my mind,“May, I need you.”

“She’s here! We found her!” Excitement races through me as I spin around and jump up and down, waving my arms overhead.

Everyone waiting in the center of the crater surges forward. The dragons arrive first, and I point to the ice. “Can one of you melt it?”

“You could have asked me!” Drake says, his tone a little petulant.

“Hush, child.” Sheevora’s massive clawed hand moves her son out of the way, and she roars fire at the ice.

Heat blasts over my face, and I give a startled yelp and skip backward. I thought I’d gotten far enough away, but nope!

The flames lick at the ice, which sizzles under the assault. When Sheevora finally stops, foot-thick ice circles a wide area of exposed rock. The lines of the door are still there, but there’s no obvious way to open it.

Luke steps forward and shoves with all his great strength. When that doesn’t work, he hooks his claws in the crack and heaves, but nothing happens. Snorting in irritation, he shoves his hand into his hidden pocket, pulls out a large crystal, and waves it over the door. “It’s as I thought. This door can only be opened with magic.”

“What kind of magic?”

The pounding of hooves grows louder as the unicorns reach us, orcs and witches on their backs. The panthers and wolves arrive, too.

Aldronn leaps down and strides over to me. “What have you found?”

“It’s a door, but Luke says only magic can open it.”

“It’s a good thing you’ve got me,” Taylor says, bouncing forward. The tiny witch raises her hands, and an invisible bolt of magic blasts through the air.

The rock door shivers and slides back several inches.

“So it’s going to be like that, huh?” Taylor stares at the door and cracks her neck from side to side. “Game on!”

She hits it over and over with her power, until she’s shaking with effort.

I lean over to Naomi and whisper, “Isn’t she using the red crystals?”

“They only do so much.”

Selena hurries over to Taylor and lays her hands on the other woman’s shoulders. Selena’s crystal glows on her chest, and the smaller witch stops shaking. Taylor’s next blasts hit the rock in powerful pulses until it finally crashes backward, slamming into the ground with a resounding crash.

Instead of a dark tunnel, the ice-covered walls flicker with the green and purple of the aurora.

“May!”the goddess cries out, louder now.

“She’s in there! I hear her!” I whirl, excitement zipping along my nerves. We’re going to do it!I’mgoing to do it! I’m going to free a freaking goddess!

Aldronn smiles at me, his eyes shining with pride.

Behind him, blackness blooms like a miniature storm cloud.

Horror grips me, icing my spine and freezing the breath in my lungs.

A hoard of dark fae enters Alarria.

CHAPTER FORTY

---