Page 10

There was no way they could be here, and yet, here they were.

My heart caught in my chest as it fluttered and struggled, my breath coming sharp and sudden with dread built from Blood Moon after Blood Moon. The first one was the worst. I could still hear the screams from the front lines down below as I stood up on the risers, my bow clenched in my trembling hands as I watched the young men who had been in that first year class go down, cut down by axes and swords, their blood spraying across green skin and leather armor.

The worst part about it wasn’t watching them die, it was clenching the bow in my hands and feeling a sick rage twisting around in my chest, wishing I was down there with them. Every time I was up on those risers, holding a bow, there was a part of my heart singing a song of violence.

Now those monsters were here, rushing down a narrow hallway towards me.

I didn’t have a bow. I didn’t have a weapon.

The fort around me was silent, unaware of the danger slinking through its halls. This was my chance to escape, but there was no escaping the monsters that slaughtered so many of my fellow students. The soldiers who would stop me from getting away were the same ones who would protect me from the Orcs.

I opened my mouth to scream.

Pristine white feathers blocked my view of the Orcs as Rí Túath Crystallo stepped in between me and the approaching squadron.

“I will protect you,” he murmured.

The panic in my heart stilled, flashbacks of bloodshed brushed away as I stared at his back, where the wings connected with his shoulders, muscles thick and knotted. He couldn’t even fly in this indoor space. He didn’t have a weapon.

And yet he stepped in between me and the approaching danger.

I stepped around him so that I stood beside him. I clenched my fists, my fear shifting into determination. I felt the brush of his feathers against my back as he spread his wings wider.

“I’m with you,” I told him.

Then the Orcs were there, their front line two yards away from us. The one in front, an orc with black hair pulled back in a braid, the sides of his head shaved, lifted his sword as he strode forward.

“May Chaos lead you towards the blood that must be spilled,” Crystallo said, his voice holding the timbre of ceremony.

The orc stopped.

“Do you fight for the next world to come?” the Orc asked, his sword still lifted.

“Chaos sings me to the air,” Crystallo replied. “With wings of fury, my people will ride to the call of his song.”

“Where is the blood to be spilled?” the Orc asked.

Crystallo pointed down the hall. “Seelie Ard Rí Adoivencal Terithni’i Unlar Starflower can be found in the fort’s throne room, or in the main suites that connect to a small door behind the throne.”

The Orc’s gaze fell on me. The skin around his eyes tightened as he spread his lips, baring his teeth.

“Come with us and kill the King, halfling,” he growled. He pulled out a long dagger from his belt and flipped it, holding out the hilt towards me. “Your place isn’t in the sky.”

I sucked in a breath. What did he call me?

Crystallo’s hand fell on my shoulder. “She is mine.”

The word mine slashed through me like lightning, igniting that smouldering fire between my legs even as a part of my heart rebelled, snarling in the darkness with its refusal to bend.I glanced at his hand, and he lifted it off my shoulder as if it had burned me.

“You cannot own an Orc,” the Orc spat out.

“I’m not an Orc,” I said. “I’m not a monster.”

“Orcs aren’t monsters anymore than I am one,” Crystallo said, his voice soft. “Anyone who looks at you can tell you have Orc blood in your veins.”

“Come with us,” the Orc said. “Join the clan of Morgra Mossbinder, follow the lead of Killian Moonchaser, and bathe in the blood of your enemies. We will teach you what you need to find vengeance.”

I couldn’t deny it appealed to me. The thought of finally learning to swing a sword and fight was something that rang in my very bones, but at the same time, there were other things that called to me. There was a part of me that wanted softness.