Page 52 of The Orc Chief's Baker
Oh Fades! I am alive!
She couldn’t seem to get enough air into her lungs. Her eyes stung and tears coursed hot tracks down her icy cheeks.
She was plopped down on a boulder. Mud caked her body, and her dress was soaked.
“Trinia.”
The deep growl warmed her up from the inside out and her eyes snapped to meet the gaze of her savior.
Brovdir.
Her vision blurred with tears. “Y-you really saved me,” she managed on a gasping sob.
“Yes.”
The confirmation hooked deep in her guts and stirred them up until they felt as tempestuous as the deadly water she’d just survived.
She couldn’t believe it. He washere. Right now. Just in time.
Just likelasttime.
Gratitude and relief were palpable in her chest and she took a deep breath, ready to babble her thanks. “I can’t believe you’ve been ignoring me all this time andnowyou show up.”
Her mouth snapped shut as Brovdir’s eyes widened to engulf his face. Fades,thathadn’t been what she’d meant to say atall.
But it was too late now. Everything else in her life was already in chaos. Why wouldn’t she ruin things with the male who had saved her life?
Saved her life . . .
The roaring of the sinkhole right behind her flooded her senses and her feet scrambled as she tried to get away.
Brovdir held her firm, keeping her from bolting blindly into the forest. “You’re safe.”
She’d almost died.Died.
“Hush . . . no harm will come to you.”
The low sound was so soothing in her ears and her terror eased. Brovdir held her tightly, and she leaned into him. He was huge. And warm. And she felt like a half-drowned rat and probably didn’t look much better, but there was nothing she could do about that now.
“Fades, have mercy.”
Trinia yipped with surprise at this new voice and whipped around to find that Sythcol had appeared at the tree line. He was gasping for breath, his hair disheveled, and his robes soaked to the knee.
“This is...” Sythcol’s eyes were stricken with horror as he walked through the brush toward the still raging sinkhole.
“D-don’t go close!”
“This is three times the size of the others.” Sythcol’s words pummeled her in the chest and her mind lit up.
Others?
The powerful conjurer held out his hands toward the bubbling water. A tightness swirled through the air. A shuddering sensation tingled up her spine as the orc spun his magic. She could not see it, but she knew it was there.
And the water stopped its churning. It stopped ripping away at the land. The growth of it slowed to a halt, and the water level receded to the point that she could no longer see it. She wasn’t sure what was more unnerving—churning destructive water or a seemingly bottomless pit.
Sythcol lowered his hands and stepped back, breathing a sigh of relief as he examined his handiwork. He’d stopped it so fast.
Like he knew exactly how to already.
