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Story: Bound to the Orc King (Brides of the Moon Blade Clan #6)
May
The gorgeous fae from Aldronn’s memory steps out of the door. He’s even more striking in person, his features so angular he blows past handsome all the way to land on the dictionary definition of “male beauty.” He wears only black-leather pants and a vest that leaves his tattooed arms bare, and if the cold bothers him, he doesn’t let it show.
The orc guarding the crystal leaps to his feet, sword sliding free. Before he can do anything, shadows whip from the dark fae’s arms, wrapping around the orc’s neck.
The other guard leaps in from the side, her sword slicing through the shadows that strangle her friend. Once freed, he collapses, gasping, to the ground.
She lunges at the dark fae, but he sends more shadows shooting toward her. They wrap around her legs, locking her in place. He yanks his hand, and the coil tangling her ankles jerks, pulling her feet out from under her. She topples backward without dropping her sword, slapping at the ground with her free hand to try to absorb some of the force of the fall.
Two more dark fae step through the door. One of them has the same coloration as the first guy—all pale skin and black hair and inky tattoos—but he’s built bigger, his features harsher. The other has tan skin and ice-blue eyes, his long hair a pure silver that reminds me of a unicorn’s mane. He’s the only one that’s smiling, showing off an impressive set of fangs.
“Fuck me sideways with a rusty spoon,” I mutter, all worries about being cold skittering from my mind. Just one of these guys took down two highly trained orcs, and orcs are the best fighters I’ve ever seen.
While I stand frozen in shock, Aldronn and Wranth sprint forward. Their swords are a silver whirl as they spin them in front of them so quickly the blades form semi-solid disks.
The first shadow tendrils reach them, only to be chopped off by the spinning swords.
“Watch your feet!” the woman on the ground yells, trying to get up.
“Stay down there,” Aldronn orders as he comes to a halt beside her. “ You protect my feet.”
She grunts agreement.
Wranth does the same thing, standing over the other downed guard, who gets his breath back enough to raise his sword and chop at the shadows racing across the ground toward Wranth.
The fight turns vicious. No matter how hard the orcs try to guard themselves with their swords, the shadows can come from every direction. It’s an impossible task. No one can block everywhere at once.
Aldronn takes a hit to the head and lets the blow move him instead of fighting it. He turns it into a deliberate spin, his sword slashing out and carving a diagonal line across the lead fae’s chest, a slash of red against all that black and white.
The dark fae leaps into the air, his shadows forming wings that lift him into the sky. He starts attacking from above, adding yet another direction the orcs need to guard against.
My heart clinches. I want to run forward and punch these assholes for threatening Aldronn, but it won’t do any good. I know enough about martial arts to realize I’m way outclassed and will only get in the way.
“I can do it. I can teleport everyone out,” Naomi whisper-screams at me, clutching my shoulder.
“No! Wait!” I shake my head. “Something about this doesn’t add up. Why are there only three of them?”
“Three seems like plenty.” Naomi winces as a shadow tendril punches Wranth in the left kidney while he’s busy cutting three others that attack his right side.
“I know, but Luke says there are hundreds, if not thousands, of these guys. So where are they?”
Two more orcs emerge from the caves, alerted by the sounds of battle. Aldronn rallies them around him and the others, using hand signals to tell them what to do.
Even with their help, it’s not going to be enough, especially with that one fae attacking from the air. I need to do something.
“I’m going to try to read their leader’s mind,” I say. “I’m going to be completely out of it while I do.”
“I’ve got you.” My best friend grips my elbow, her beautiful eyes serious. “I’ll teleport us out of the way if any of them get close. You go get ’em.”
Her belief in me rocks me to my core. Maybe she’s always believed in me more than I realized, and I thought she didn’t because it’s what I thought about myself. There’s no time to dig into this now, so I give her a quick thanks and close my eyes.
My crystal flares warm in my palm, my magic zipping through me, eager to work. Aldronn’s mind came to me as a stone castle, so what do I picture for the lead fae? Maybe it’s the surroundings, maybe it’s the cold sneer his imperious face wears, but what comes to me is an ice palace. It’s far fancier than Aldronn’s castle, with lots of intricate carving and tall, thin spires that look like spears thrust into the sky. It’s prickly and cold and beautiful, just like the fae.
There’s no outer wall, so I swoop down to the silver double doors barring the entrance and shove. They remain closed. I throw all my mental “weight” behind it, and somewhere distant, I feel my pendant burn into my palm at the effort. Thank god I’ve got several of the protective red crystals shoved into various pockets. But no matter how hard I push, the doors refuse to budge.
I float backward and eye the palace. The shadow fae doesn’t want to let me in, and I don’t have time to batter down the front doors. What does a fancy guy like him always forget? The servants’ entrance!
Flying low, I circle the ice-blue walls, finally finding a small door of plain, dull metal. It hinges open with a squeak that makes me flinch, but instead of stopping, I dive into the dark, half-formed hallway behind it. Wherever I am, it’s not a place the fae thinks of much. There aren’t any doors—I’m going to have to get into the main part of the “palace” to discover anything useful.
It feels like I fly forever until I finally find a tiny, winding staircase tucked into a shadowy corner. I dash up it at record speed, coming out on a hallway so well-lit the walls gleam the rich blue of thick ice. It feels weird that the asshole who wants to attack Alarria has such a beautiful mind. It makes me uneasy.
Something’s wrong with this picture.
I follow the hallway back toward the front of the palace and emerge into the grand foyer. It’s an echo of Aldronn’s, with a double staircase, but everything here is heavily carved and ornate. A beautiful chandelier spans the entire ceiling overhead, each candle a star in its galaxy.
“Who are you?” I call out, cutting to the chase. I don’t have time to search all of his memories like I did with Aldronn. If nothing else, maybe talking to him will make the dark fae stop fighting in the real world when he discovers I’m in his mind.
“I am Severin, king of the fae,” a deep and resonant voice says.
Huh. They don’t call themselves dark fae. That’s interesting.
“Why do you attack us?” I ask. “We’ve done nothing to you!”
There’s no answer, but the light coming from the archway ahead brightens, beckoning me forward.
I fly into another spectacular room, lit by both chandeliers and tall, arched windows made of stained glass depicting scenes from nature, each filled with trees of different types. Fluted columns decorate the long rectangle of the room, leading to an opulent throne carved from bright silver and inset with emeralds.
Instead of sitting on it like I expect since he named himself king, the dark fae crouches in front of it. It’s a seriously deceptive pose. From the back, it must look like his head is bowed in subjugation. But it’s really so his long black hair falls forward, shielding his face, hiding his defiant sneer, hiding the rage snapping in his emerald-green eyes. A heavy silver chain wraps around his ankle, and the position of his body also hides the hand gripping the chain as if he wants to rip it away.
A chain that leads to…
I try to look at what waits on the throne, but I can’t. A presence pushes me away, orders me not to look.
Oh, hell no! This girl doesn’t do orders.
I grit my teeth and force my eyes to move upward. Then I gulp.
A whirling ball of black energy hangs in midair, dark-blue lightning flashing across its surface.
It’s like someone took the Moon Goddess and applied the invert filter to her, turning everything light, dark.
Deep, thrumming music pours from the swirling sphere, full of drums that speak of battle and blood.
“The Dark God.” It slips out of me as a shocked whisper, but it’s still enough to get the god’s attention.
“Foolish mortal!” a skull-piercing voice booms. “You dare!”
A gigantic force smashes into me and sends me hurtling backward out of the dark fae’s mind and into the real world in a blast of agony.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
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- Page 12
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- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
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- Page 23
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- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33 (Reading here)
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- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
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- Page 44
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- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51