Page 11 of Orn and the Real Girl
“I’m so sorry,” I told her, knowing my words were small and pathetic and useless. But she squeezed me and gave me her thanks anyway. I panicked quietly as I struggled to think of what to say, wanting to know more but also wanting to respect her privacy and not dredge up anything worse than I had already.
In the face of her grief, something began to stir in me, something that I couldn’t say I’d really ever felt before. It growled and seethed, coursing through my limbs and making them feel restless. It needed something, this feeling, and I was afraid to focus on it because it reeked of copper.
Once she composed herself, she went on, her voice flat in an attempt to keep the emotion from overwhelming her again. I hoped she knew she didn’t have to tell me any of this, that I didn’t expect it, but I didn’t want to interrupt her to tell her. “I don’t know who did it, but there’s those in the hamlet below that fear and hate witches and resent our presence here. There’ve been attempts in the past to try and get us to leave, but these mountains belong to no one, so they couldn’t exactly evict us.” She lapsed into silence, sniffling and burrowing closer.“I just wish I knew what happened,” she continued eventually, her voice small and soft. “If they’re—if they’re okay, if they’re still alive. Gods, it’s like I’m missing a huge chunk of myself. A coven is such a sacred thing.”
The smell of copper was joined by a wild drumbeat thundering through my head, my veins, beating against the inside of my ribs. I’d begun to grind my teeth, tusks catching my upper lip and gouging into it hard enough to hurt. What was this? What was going on with me that I felt like this? I’d been angry before, but not like this. Nothing had ever been like this.
Sara squeezed me and seemed to realize just how tense and quiet I’d gone. She tilted her head back, looking up into my face, and even though I tried to hide my face behind my long black hair, she must have caught sight of my expression anyway. She sat up, her hands stroking my skin in soft, soothing motions that should have been calming me down. But for some reason, her sweetness only stoked the fire in my veins hotter and higher.
“Orn? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” She bit her lower lip, her brows coming together in concern. “Was all that too much? I’m sorry, I should have asked before laying that all on you—“
“No,” I ground out, horrified that she thought she’d done something wrong. I took a deep breath, trying to will myself calm, but the tension remained, the...thebloodlust. That was what it was—for the first time in my life, I felt the blood song, birthright of every orc, that had never so much as murmured through me before. But there was nothing else it could have been. I grabbed her face and tugged her close, wanting to smash my mouth to hers and claim her again, my cock already awakening despite being thoroughly drained twice already today. But I paused before my lips made it to hers. “Can I kiss you?” I asked, my voice a rough stranger in my ears.
In answer she closed the distance left between us, her mouth hesitant on mine for a moment, but she did bloom, andgodswhat a blooming she was. She was all that was good and sweet in this world. I knew it with a perfect clarity that defied our status as barely more than strangers. And then it clicked, the blood song finally taking on words I could hear and understand.
I tried to sear myself into her skin, devouring her even as I fed her all I had, wanting to mark her in an animal way that it took every ounce of willpower to ignore. It became a goodbye, because I knew that even though the thought was agony, she would be leaving me.
My body ached for something she couldn’t give me. It howled for blood, for the blood of those who had hurt her by stealing her family. It was a need greater than any I had ever felt before, more keen than the sharpest hunger, deeper than the worst thirst. I knew from my people’s stories that unless I pursued the song my body would sicken, my mind unraveling, until I couldn’t help but give it what it wanted. It was why my people were generally feared and thought of as brutal savages; but for this, I didn’t care about how another would see me.
The people who’d hurt my Sara would pay for their crimes. And I would be the one to collect on that debt.
CHAPTER TEN
SARA
ORN WASscaring me, a murderous rage flaring along every line of his body, only easing whenever he looked at me. It made my chest do strange swooping things that were entirely inappropriate right now.
Big angry, Lena said, watching Orn from my shoulder.Why leave? Snuggles good.I smiled sadly, scratching her chin.
“I don’t know,” I whispered, watching Orn pace and fume, occasionally grabbing an item of clothing and just about shredding it in his big clawed hands. Those hands had been so gentle and delicious on my body not all that long ago, but now their purpose as a murder weapon was clear as day.
“Orn,” I called again, trying for perhaps the dozenth time to get an explanation from him, “what’s going on? Are you leaving?”
This time he paused, my words finally reaching him. “Aye, I’m leaving,” he said, his Fenns accent stronger than I’d heard it yet. “I’ve important things to do, my sweet one.”
I ignored the pleased glow that settled in my belly at his tenderness, lifting my chin and squaring my shoulders, trying to look stern despite being utterly naked outside of the clumsy snake adorning my neck and shoulders. “I don’twantyou to leave, though.” I glanced at the nearest window. While the storm was beginning to calm, it was certainly far from safe fortraveling. Orn couldn’t go out in that, no matter how important whatever it was he was trying to do was. “It’s not safe. And I...I’d rather not be alone right now. I—I want you to stay close.” I lowered my eyes, just for a minute, hating how bare I felt, but I re-firmed myself a moment later; he needed to know I meant it.
Orngroaned, tossing aside the belt he’d been trying his best to strangle, and going to his knees at the bedside. He reached for me, cradling my face carefully. “I know now’s not a good time, but there’s no reasoning with it, sweetheart. It’s either give it what it wants or turn into a mindless beast. Gods know my words to be true: I don’twantto leave. But the song...”
Something tickled at my memory, something whispered about orcs, but that I’d never been sure was real. “The blood song?” I asked.
He nodded, his handsome face so tense, his neck a stark roadmap of tendons and veins, like he was holding back something massive. “I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t tend to it. It’s never come on before, not for me. Can you understand that?”
I nodded. “What is it that you need to do?”
His fury morphed into sheepishness, his thumbs stroking my cheeks. “It’s uh…well…”
I arched an eyebrow. “What is it?” I deadpanned, my hands coming up to rest over his, still cupping my face. I squeezed what I could of his huge mitts, looking up into his dark eyes. “Tell me, Orn.”
“It’s just…I-have-to-find-your-coven-for-you-and-murder-whoever-took-them-and-made-you-sad,” he finally spat out in a breathless rush.
I considered that. It made me uncomfortable to take still more help from him, to impose on him yet again when I’d already done so much of it, but I wasn’t actually asking for this. Strictly speaking, he wasn’t even offering to help me in this way; he was just telling me that he was going to do it no matter what.And there was no denying that having help with such a huge and frightening task was an enormous comfort.
Plus, there was just something so sweet about a man threatening murder for you.Big man is good, like him much,Lena murmured in my head.No more sad with him.
“Whoever it was might be dangerous, Orn,” I said softly, carding my fingers through his thick chest hair. “They took almost an entire coven, and they—they b-burned our home down.”
Orn frowned, a dark inferno behind his eyes. His gaze was pointed towards the far wall, but was clearly focused on something else, something only he could see. His hands gripped me more firmly, pulling me tight against him. He was burning up, feverish, every muscle taut. “They…burned your home down?” He began growling, the sound so low I almost couldn’t hear it. His nostrils flared as he met my eyes. “I mustdestroythem, Sara. Imust.”
