Page 34 of Bound to the Orc Hunter

“You must be Pizza!” The woman’s voice gets even more excited than before, which shouldn’t be physically possible, since she already sounded like a six-year-old who’d been given about three Cokes too many, all hopped up on caffeine and sugar. “Make us pizza!”

“Yes, we want the pizza the other pixies speak of!”

The swords disappear, thank god, as both flocks descend on me in a mass of fluttering moth wings. Tiny fists cling to my T-shirt, to my ears, to the fallen locks of my hair. “Pizza, pizza, pizza!”

I stand still, frozen in shock. This is all so bizarre!

“She’s not Pizza,” Branikk roars, putting special emphasis on the word.

They fall silent, hanging from me with still wings as they all stare at the massive orc who looms in the dark. How much larger he must appear to someone so small!

“Grace doesn’t conjure food, but she’s made this Ferris wheel, which is an even more wondrous thing. Who wants to go for a ride?”

“ME!” The sound of all of them shrieking at the same time hits a high note that sets my ears ringing, but I’m laughing. I can’t help it. They’re back to being cute-cute again.

Little hands pat my cheeks as each leader hangs in front of my face. “Please,” one says. Then the next adds, “Let us ride your ride.”

“Okay, just for you, I’ll start it again.”

A loud hooray fills the air as I step carefully toward one of the bottom cars and open the door. “The first group gets this car all to themselves.”

The male pixie dives from my cheek to dart inside, his troupe following him.

I go to the other car and repeat the process. “And this is the car for you.”

The female leads her people in.

With the twin glows of the two groups of pixies lighting my way, I head back to the controls and start the ride, leaving the lights off.

“Wheee!” they scream in stereo as the wheel starts spinning.

I dart back between two moving cars to join Branikk, tipping my head backward to track the pixies as they rise into the air. Each group has plastered themselves to the front window of their cars, lighting them up like lanterns glowing blue in the night.

“Our enemies can still see that!” Aurora calls out.

“It’s pixie light,” Branikk yells back over his shoulder. “Everyone in Alarria knows pixie light is a normal occurrence.”

“Bah.” She goes back to grazing.

When the Ferris wheel gets to where their cars are at the top, another chorus of yells rings out. Then the light show shifts in each car as the pixies fly to the opposite window for the view out the other side during the descent.

We let them go around a few more times, then Branikk calls a halt, saying we need to eat dinner.

When I stop the Ferris wheel with their cars at the bottom, the pixies pile onto the levers and open the doors themselves, swirling out to fill the air with high, excited voices, and fluttering wings.

They surround me again, the leaders taking up position in front of my face.

“This is the first time we’ve ever been so high in the air,” the male says.

The female adds, “And we didn’t need to strain our wings to do it.”

They turn from me to look at each other, then fly forward to clasp hands. Before I know what’s happening, they’re making out in front of me. The rest of the pixies follow suit, the two flocks coming together in something that looks like it’s about to become a midair orgy.

I take a step back, unwilling to get slapped in the face by pixie “sticks.” “This is some real enemies to lovers going on.”

“It’s like the moving pictures you showed me.”

I’m surprised he remembered. My phone died a couple of days ago, so no moreBridgertonclips.

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