Page 45 of Fractured Shadows

I watch as Krug leaps at him. Nero barely manages to get out of the way, and then the others are there, trying to pull Krug away, but all it does is make it worse, sending him deeper into a feral rage that makes him see all as foe rather than friend.

I cover my mouth in horror as blood flies. He’s thrown toward me and lands on his hands and knees, skidding to a stop as he pants with rage and fear. His head snaps up again, then his eyes lock on me and he freezes.

“Goldie, no!” Bracken calls, but I ignore him. I step before Krug, showing no fear.

I don’t fear him. Not the broken man I saw in the cage who has given into years of hurt and anger to escape those memories. “Come back,” I demand.

He snarls again, his body vibrating with the force of it, so I drop to my knees before him and cup his face, staring into his eyes.

“I need you. We need you. Come back. You’re safe. I would never let anyone hurt you.”

Something akin to humanity bleeds into his eyes for a moment before one of the guys moves and he snarls at them.

“Stay fucking still!” I yell, my eyes on Krug as I grip his face harder and force him to look at me once more. “Come back,” I whisper as I lean in and brush my lips softly across his. “Come back to me.” When I pull back, he lets out a shuddering breath, his eyes filling with emotions.

“Little human,” he rasps out, and then collapses to his side, groaning and shaking as his memories overwhelm him again.

I place my hand on his shoulder, offering him comfort. “It’s okay,” I tell him, and his head turns, pressing against my arm, and I swallow.

Pulling him into my arms, I move his head to my lap, stroking his hair and face as he shivers. “Shh, hey, everything is okay. You’re safe. No more cage. No mistress. You are free. You are safe.” I keep repeating it as the others circle us, protecting us silently as they allow the orc to break and rebuild himself.

“Sing to him,” Zee says, and when I lift my head and meet his eyes, I notice they are stricken. “It always helped me to sing.”

Licking my lips, I look down into Krug’s eyes and start to sing a song I used to sing while working in the fields. We used to sing it as a group, my voice joining dozens of others until it was a choir of agony, exhaustion, and conformity. Now, singing it here with Krug, it’s a different sort of song, one of hope. All the while, I stroke his face, and when he starts to relax and close his eyes, I don’t stop. I sing one song and then the next until they flutter back open again, alive and soft.

“Hey,” I murmur, cutting off the song.

“You have a beautiful voice,” he croaks out and rubs his face, his cheeks tinting a darker green. Is he blushing? “Fuck, I don’t know what happened.”

“The same thing that happens to me when I see chains,” Zee remarks and shoots Krug a friendly, knowing look. “It is nothing to be ashamed of, brother.”

Krug nods but won’t look at me. I refuse to stop stroking him though, and he doesn’t move away. Eventually, he sighs again. “I feel so weak, so helpless, but when there’s a cage…” He looks up at me. “I’m sorry I wasn’t much help back there.”

“We all have our weaknesses. That’s why we work together.” I shrug, hating the self-hatred I see in his eyes. “Your past is your own, but it is nothing to be ashamed of. For me, it’s not a cage, it’s belts.”

“Belts?” He frowns.

“My father would whip me with them while I was asleep…while I was eating. He would force me onto my knees and berate me as he ripped open my skin time and time again,” I explain, laying my pain bare for him. “It still haunts me, even here, where I know he could never touch me again.”

I feel the other guys shift restlessly, but I watch Krug as he nods in understanding. “The people who hurt me are long gone. I hunted them all down and killed them.”

“Good.” I grin, and he chuckles at the look on my face.

“I will never be able to talk about…everything they did,” he begins, and I still before continuing to stroke him. “But you need to know why I hated you so much at first. I was given to the humans as a gift. The first night, one tried to rape me, and I killed her. I was punished for that over and over again. I was tortured, then made to kill and fight for them. When I won, I was given to a human for the night, and if I tried to kill them… Well, it was worse than death. My choices were taken away, apart from being raped or forced to kill. I was kept in a cage smaller than that.” He points to the cage behind him. “Sometimes for days, until I would go mad.” He looks up at me. “I blamed the humans, but it wasn’t just them. It was some of my people too, and I’m starting to realize that.”

“Krug.” I shake my head. “I’m so sorry.”

“My past is that—my past. I cannot change it, so instead, I did everything to move on from it, but one look at you and it all came back.” I wince and try to move away, but his hand comes up and stops my movement. “I needed that. I needed to face it instead of running. If you cannot hate our kind for what we have done to you since you arrived, then I cannot hate you for something your people did to me. I am so tired of being angry and filled with hate…of being afraid.”

“Me too,” I admit.

“Then let us not be.” He nods like it’s decided, then squeezes my hand. “Together.”

His words stay with me as we clean up the area, giving him time to recoup, and then we begin our journey again, getting away from the creatures that Grim called pixies. But something has changed now. The others keep a watchful eye on Krug, protecting him like they protect me, and that’s when I realize exactly what’s happened.

He’s one of us now.

With a smile, I look up at the orc king at my side, and another puzzle piece locks into place.

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