Page 8

Chapter 8

Deegar

T he diner was closed the next day. After breakfast, we sat on her tiny front porch, drinking coffee and sucking in the amazing scent of the sea.

“There are lakes and rivers in the orc kingdom,” I said, savoring the beverage and Cat’s company. The sun was warm on my lower legs where I’d tugged up my gray pants, and it dappled the sidewalk dusted with orange, red, and gold leaves.

I could tell already it would be a nice day, not too hot or chilly.

“Will you tell me more about your home?” she asked.

“That’s just it,” I said. “Is it my home?”

“You grew up there. You lived there until . . . See? I don’t even know when you left the mountain.”

“Two weeks ago.”

“For the first time?”

“Yes.” Before that, my father said there was too much for me to do for our people, that I couldn’t go to the surface. It was only when it was clear I was going to bolt that he relented to my request to join the team coming here to help negotiate more conditions in the treaty.”

“Was it a big culture shock? From what I’ve read, the orc kingdom was built deep below the surface and in enormous caves. You have many cities and thousands of people.”

“That’s right.”

“Is it dark there?”

“We have natural lighting, though it’s not the same as the sun.” I tipped my head back and soaked in the feeling of it shining on my face. I loved it here and never wanted to leave. “The first time I saw the sun, I pretty much gasped. Those around me who’d been here before laughed, though in a friendly way, telling me they’d done the same thing. The roofs of our caves are lined with tiny blue creatures that emit light intermittently, and it’s pretty, though not the same. We have night like you do and what’s similar to daytime, though it’s not as bright as what you get from the sun.”

“Are the lights insects like fireflies?”

“They’re actually a plant. We foster them when we open a new area, carefully planting them in cracks in the stone. They live off the moisture in the air around us.”

“That’s incredible. Natural lights. Do you have electricity?”

“Something similar to hydroelectric, I believe you call it here, generated by rivers.”

“I can’t imagine living in a city built within an enormous underground cavern. Is it damp?”

I shrugged and finished my coffee. Cat quickly poured me some more from a carafe keeping it hot. “Sometimes it is, but our caves are so big that it doesn’t feel the same as, say, when it rains here.”

“It sounds amazing. You lived in the city, right?”

“Yes.” In the castle. “My family has a large house.”

“Ah, you live together. I’d moved out of Mom’s house and into my own place before she died.”

“It’s common for orc families to share one big residence.”

“You said your cousin lives with you. I assume it was just her and your parents?”

“Her parents died, and she moved in with us when she was ten. She’s like a younger sister to me. I love Valina a lot.”

“Is she much younger than you?”

We hadn’t discussed ages. “I’m thirty and she’s twenty-six.”

“Four years is a lot when someone’s ten and the other fourteen. I bet she followed you everywhere.”

I smiled. “She’s sweet and . . .” Our people loved her. I didn’t want to mention that. Sometimes, the words to tell Cat who I truly was hovered on my tongue, but I held them back. What we had felt too new. Fragile.

I didn’t want to ruin it by telling her I was the heir to the orc kingdom.

“She’s an amazing person,” I finished. I added cream to my coffee, plus five spoons of sugar, something that shocked Cat when I first did it. Now she just smiled.

“I’m glad you were able to grow up close to her. I was an only child.”

“I was lonely before Valina moved in with us, so I understand.”

We sat, holding hands, watching people pass on the walkway beyond Cat’s small fence. I planned to start scraping and painting it soon.

“Would you like to take a walk on the shore?” she asked. “There’s public access not far from here. We can splash in the waves if you’d like.”

“That sounds fun.”

She opened her phone and frowned. “I was accepted into your fan club. You have over a hundred members already.” Looking up at me with wide eyes, she shook her head. “They don’t even know who you are. I think you’re perfect, but how do they know that?”

I loved that she thought I was perfect, but I wasn’t. I was just an orc trying to find his place in the world. “I don’t understand any of this.” They couldn’t know who I was, or they’d announce it. “What are they saying about me?”

“Not much, just gushing about how cute you are, which they’re totally right about. They’re following all your posts.”

“I’ve only made two.” I’d found some photos of the diner online and shared them.

“That’s nice of you to mention the diner.”

“I hoped it would bring you more business. You deserve all the best in the world, and a lot of that comes from success.”

“I didn’t know your last name is Aerensten,” she said. “I guess I should’ve looked closer at the paperwork you filled out when I hired you.”

I nodded but said nothing. Aerensten was my mother’s name before she took the royal name of my father. It wasn’t a complete lie to use it since it was one of my five names.

“So far, they’re just talking about how gorgeous you are and how they’d love to meet you,” she said.

“I doubt they’ll come here.”

“Probably not.”

She put her phone on the little table, and we left her house, walking toward the water. I’d seen the ocean a few times since I arrived, though in the Boston area where the treaty was being negotiated. It was much more crowded there than here.

“It’s off-season, now,” Cat said as we took off our shoes to feel the sand between our toes . “Most of the tourists have left. We’ll see an influx of leaf peepers soon, and then some more tourists around Christmas, but for now, it’s mostly locals.”

We took a path meandering around mounds of soft sand with bits of green grass spurting from the tops and walked out into an open area with the ocean ahead and sand stretching forever on both sides.

Stopping, Cat sucked in a breath and released it. “There’s something wonderful about the smell, the sound of the waves, and the view that relaxes me completely. Whenever I come here, I leave feeling refreshed.”

“It’s incredible.”

People walked along the shore or sat on blankets, locals or tourists. Houses had been built back from the water, and I could picture myself sitting on one of those decks.

Turning, I marveled at how breathtaking the ocean was.

Waves rushed up the shore and crested, dropping with a powerful force, their white foam creating a roar that echoed through the air. The ocean’s deep blue hue caught my gaze and held it, pulling me forward. It seemed so vast, rising all the way to the sky. The water shimmered under the sunlight, each droplet like a precious jewel. As the wind tousled my hair, carrying with it a briny scent, the raw energy surrounded me.

“I see what you mean,” I said with complete awe.

Cat squeezed my hand. She turned toward me and curled her finger, bringing my face down close to hers.

And when she kissed me, my shaky world righted itself all over again.