Page 83 of Bound to the Orc Hunter

I can’t help but watch her face closely as they do, and my heart clenches to see her remain still. It’s wrong. It’s all so horribly wrong. My bride likes to be active and doing things,fixing things. If she were awake, she’d be working on the ride or playing with the pups or helping with the unconscious cu sith.

Riselda calls the younglings away, and I wave to her to let her know their visit was all right.

Then I hold my bride even closer and whisper in her ear. “Come back to me, my love. The world is terribly empty without you.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Branikk

A huge shadow dashes across the ground of the clearing, and a deep voice calls from overhead, “Turn off your machine or I will break it! You cannot keep me from my son.”

“Sheevora!” Ashley leaps to her feet and runs over to the carnival ride. She taps at the control panel, and the great spinning top of it begins to slow, the straps and chains falling from horizontal to hang straight down by the time it comes to a halt.

“Mother!” Drake stands on top of the hill, bobbing his head, his crest raised.

“Move, child, so that I may land.”

He leaps forward, snapping his wings out for a split second to turn his fall into a glide. Then he refolds them before they canhit anyone else in the clearing, landing on the soft moss with a thump.

Deep wing beats sound overhead and an artificial wind whips everyone’s hair as Sheevora lands on top of the hill. She’s five times his size, a magnificent green dragon, who radiates magical power.

I’ve never spoken to her before, but that doesn’t matter. I stride out from under the trees, my bride cradled in my arms. “Please, great Sheevora. You must take us to Moon Blade Village.”

“Imust?” she booms, right as Drake glares at me and says, “She’s the ‘Magnificent,’ not the ‘Great.’ That title belongs to a lesser dragon.”

“Sheevora the Magnificent.” I bow my head. “Forgive my words. Worry added to my haste. My bride suffers under the deathsleep, and we still don’t know enough about how the sluagh’s new formula affects humans. I merely hoped that after the service she did your son, you might return one in kind.”

“You always were the cheeky one,” Dravarr mutters, stepping up beside me. “I would have asked for this boon had you a moment’s patience.”

Yet I have no more patience to spare. Everyone else wants to set the rest of the world to rights, and I wish them well. But all my effort turns to only one goal. Grace.

Instead of answering me, the dragon looks at Drake. “Does he speak true? Has the human witch done you a service?”

“The witch created the machine that drove away the soul stealers while I was helpless due to deathsleep.”

“Then, yes.” Her huge amber eye lands on me, the vertical pupil widening. “You have first claim. Come. I will take you.”

“We need help disposing of the sluagh,” Dravarr says, pointing to the cloud over Aurora.

“And more deathsleep antidote,” Ashley says.

Riselda steps forward. “And to discuss the cu sith joining your alliance.”

“I will address all of this when I return,” Sheevora says.

Dravarr looks as if he wants to argue, but settles for scowling at me.

Rune simply says, “Go. As fae, our people are safe enough in the deathsleep. If it is broken today or tomorrow matters little, as long as it is broken soon.”

I nod to him and stride for the path up the side of the hill, only slowing when I pass by Aurora. “I’m sorry. I know we need to destroy all the birds to free you of the burden, but…” I lift Grace.

“Go. Take care of her.” Aurora bats my shoulder with her horn, and her voice regains its grumpy tone as she says, “Besides which, the sooner you do, the sooner the dragon will return and aid me.”

“Thank you, my friend.”

“Branikk, wait!” Ashley runs up to me and tucks a long-sleeved linen shirt into my hand. “Put this around Grace. It can be cold up there.”

“Thank you.”

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