Page 110 of The Orc's Captive Bride
Maybe he could. Maybe orc eyes were better adapted to low light.
She followed, keeping her steps careful and her breathing controlled.
The tunnel sloped downwards and the air grew colder. She could hear water somewhere. Dripping. Echoing.
We’re deep beneath the city now. In spaces that predate everything above.
The thought should have been claustrophobic. Instead, it felt safer, as if they’d slipped through the cracks of the world into a space Lasseran couldn’t reach.
Not yet, anyway.
They walked for what felt like hours. Maybe it was hours. Time lost meaning in the absolute darkness.
Her legs ached. Her shoulders protested the weight of the scrolls, and her eyes strained uselessly against the dark, but she didn’t complain.
He was doing this for her. He’d betrayed everything he’d ever known for her. The least she could do was keep walking.
Finally—finally—she saw a faint grey light ahead. The promise of dawn or just the ambient glow of a city that never truly slept.
Khorrek picked up the pace.
The tunnel ended at what looked like a natural cave mouth. Rock formations framing an opening that looked out over a steep slope descending from the base of the cliffs Kel’Vara was built upon.
Fresh air hit her face, carrying the scent of pine and stone and freedom.
Khorrek stopped at the cave mouth and scanned the landscape beyond looking for threats. She joined him and looked out at the world spreading below them.
The city rose behind and above. A massive structure of stone and ambition clinging to the cliffsides like a parasite.
Below, the land stretched away into darkness. Forest. Hills. The wild spaces between kingdoms where anything could be hiding.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.
“It’s dangerous.”
“Can’t it be both?”
He glanced at her. “Yes. I suppose it can.”
She smiled and squeezed his hand. “Thank you for this. For choosing to trust me. For risking everything.”
“I didn’t have a choice. Not really.”
“Yes, you did. You could have stayed loyal to Lasseran. You could have turned me in and done what you were raised to do.”
“No.” His voice was rough. Honest. “I couldn’t. Not once I—” He stopped and looked away.
“Once you what?”
“Once I saw you. Really saw you. Not as a mission or a problem to solve. But as someone who mattered. Someone worth protecting.”
Her throat tightened. “Khorrek?—”
“We should keep moving. Dawn’s coming and we need to be far from here when Lasseran realizes we’re gone.”
He was deflecting, hiding behind practicality because emotion was too raw. Too new.
She understood. She was doing the same thing.
