Page 12 of Rapunzel's Outlaw Orc
“I’ll write your eulogy in blood,” I promise solemnly.
She flashes a grin over her shoulder that does funny things to my heart as she disappears into the bathroom.
I cross the room and drop to sit on the rug in front of the stove, where the fire crackles. The flames pop and shadows dance along the walls. I sit cross-legged, warm air curling against my damp skin. My wet hair drips in lazy rivulets down my spine. Every so often, I glance toward the bathroom, where I hear Rapunzel humming to herself while scrubbing my clothes.
As she sings, I notice a small flower blooming from one of the roots. I frown. Strange.
“You don’t have to do that, you know,” I call out. “I’ve lived with worse.”
“I’m sure you have,” she replies, voice light but eyes tracking me carefully. “But you don’t have to anymore.”
My heart stutters. I’m not used to kindness. Not like this. Not from someone soft and sunny. Someone who looks at me like I’m not a monster. Like I’m worthy of care.
She reappears with a small pile of washed clothes, hanging them near the stove to dry. “They should be dry by morning, and then I’ll see if I can repair your shirt.”
“Thank you.”
She sits beside me on the rug, close but not touching. Her bare toes peek out from under her nightgown. Gods, even her toes are cute.
“Where were you going?” she asks softly. “Before my hair yanked you in here?”
I stare into the flames. The words taste like ash before I even speak them. “Nowhere. I was wandering. Lost.”
She’s quiet, waiting.
I exhale slowly. “I was banished from my realm.”
Her brow furrows. “Yourrealm?”
I nod, jaw tight. “I come from another place very similar to this one. A world where orcs like me had a purpose. Until the Border Wars ended and the peacekeepers decided we were expendable.”
She blinks at me, stunned. “You’re fromanother world?”
“Yeah.” I glance at her. “After the war, they exiled us. I didn’t take it well. I drank too much. Fought too often. Ended up in places I shouldn’t have been, doing things I shouldn’t’ve done.Got into a fight with a necromancer’s zombie, killed it, and that landed me in a void prison. Magic holding cell. There was no time, no sound, just me and my regrets.” I pause, then add bitterly, “When they let me out, they didn’t send me home. They opened a portal and shoved me through.”
The further I get from the incident, the clearer that particular memory becomes. I was cast out, shoved into her world to be forgotten, just as she’s been chained to her tower to wither away.
Her lips part, eyes wide. “And you landed here?”
I nod. “New world, new rules, same old ghosts.”
She stares at me, eyes soft and wide like she’s seeing me for the first time. “That’s... incredible.”
“It’s punishment,” I mutter.
She smiles. “Or maybe it’s fate.”
Chapter 6
Brannock
“Fate?” I scoff. I’ve never put much stock in that fairy tale. I prefer to deal with reality—with what I can see, touch, and destroy all on my own.
She shrugs. “You landed here after leaving your prison. Maybe I’m trapped, and maybe you’re angry, and maybe this forest wants to eat us both, but…” Her voice grows quieter. “It doesn’t feel like a coincidence.”
My chest tightens. I’ve faced war, pain, magic that could rip your soul apart, and none of it made me feel as exposed as this woman looking at me like I’m worthy of something more than disdain and fear.
“Maybe,” I say gruffly. “But that doesn’t make me a good man.”
