Page 47 of Orc's Little Human
She believes in me.The realization cuts through the paralyzing fear, replacing it with something harder, sharper.She thinks I'm strong enough to protect her.
"Thali," I say quietly, never taking my eyes off the two men. "Remember what Korrath taught you about running? About getting to safety?"
"But I won't leave you?—"
"Yes, you will." I pour every ounce of authority I possess into the words. "When I say run, you run to the water and you hide. Don't come back until Korrath finds you."
Halvdan chuckles, the sound low and ugly. "Cute. Teaching the little beast to scamper. But we're not here for the orcling pet, girl. Just you and that pretty mark you're wearing."
The casual dismissal of Thali—calling her abeast, apet—ignites something volcanic in my chest. How dare they? How dare they look at this bright, curious, brave child and see something less than human? How dare they stand in our camp, our space, and threaten everything that's become precious to me?
"You're not taking anyone anywhere," I say, rising to my feet with the knife held ready. The weight feels more familiar now, like an extension of my will rather than an inadequate tool.
Jorik laughs outright. "Look at this, Hal. The camp rat thinks she's a warrior now. Few months playing pretend with the orcs and she's forgotten what she really is."
What I really am.The words echo through my mind, carrying all the weight of months in captivity, of being reduced to property, to useful flesh, to a canvas for magicalexperimentation. They want me to remember being powerless, being nothing more than what was done to me.
But I'm not that anymore. I haven't been that since the moment Korrath looked at me and saw something worth protecting, since Thali decided I was worth trusting, worth loving.
"I remember exactly what I am," I tell them, shifting my weight forward onto the balls of my feet. "The question is whether you're smart enough to walk away before you find out."
Halvdan's expression shifts, humor fading into something more calculating. "She's got teeth now, Jorik. Might be more fun than we thought."
The threat in his voice makes my skin crawl, but I don't let it show. Can't let it show, not with Thali watching, not when her safety depends on my ability to be stronger than my fear.
"Run," I whisper to Thali, and she moves without hesitation, darting toward the water with the fluid grace of a child raised by orcs. Smart girl. Brave girl.
Jorik lunges after her, clearly thinking she's the easier target, and something primitive and furious explodes in my chest.No.Not Thali. Never Thali.
I move without conscious thought, the knife leading as I throw myself between him and my—sister. Because that's what she is now, what she's become. Family. The most important thing in the world.
The blade finds the soft spot between Jorik's ribs, sliding in with surprising ease. He looks down in shock, like he can't quite believe what's happened, and I twist the knife the way I learned in darker moments than I care to remember.
His blood is hot against my hands, copper-bright and final. When he falls, it's with the heavy sound of meat hitting earth, graceless and somehow smaller than he seemed when he was standing.
Halvdan roars something I don't process, coming at me with his own blade raised. But I'm already moving, already committed to this path. The knife comes free with a wet sound that should horrify me but doesn't. Can't. Not when Thali's life hangs in the balance.
This time the strike is messier, my angle wrong, but desperation lends strength to the blow. Halvdan staggers back, hand pressed to the spurting wound in his neck, his eyes wide with disbelief.
"You—" he starts to say, but the words dissolve into a gurgle of blood and air. He drops to his knees, then forward onto his face, twitching once before going still.
Silence crashes over the clearing like a physical weight. The only sounds are my ragged breathing and the distant splash of Thali reaching the water. Both men lie motionless in spreading pools of crimson that look black in the filtered swamp light.
I killed them. Both of them.
The knife slips from my fingers, hitting the ground with a small, final sound. My hands are covered in blood—their blood—and I should feel sick, should feel horror at what I've become.
Instead, I feel... steady. Grounded. Like something that's been loose inside me has finally clicked into place.
"Selene!" Korrath's voice cuts through the clearing, raw with panic and fury. He crashes through the underbrush like a force of nature, taking in the scene with eyes that miss nothing—the bodies, the blood, my bloodstained hands.
"Where's Thali?" His voice carries the kind of deadly calm that precedes violence.
"Safe." The word comes out stronger than I expected. "In the water, hiding like you taught her."
Relief flickers across his features before his attention returns to the dead scouts. "They came for you."
It's not a question. He knows, has probably known since the moment he saw their faces, that this was always a possibility. That my past would eventually catch up to us.
