Page 22 of The Orc Chief’s Baker (Orc Mates Of Faeda #4)

Chapter

Thirteen

TRINIA

W ater raged around her, threatening to pull her down.

She was submerged in water to her ankles as it sucked her toward a blackened tunnel.

Waves crashed and ripped into it like a deadly funnel.

She clung to a root desperately. Her grip on the slippery wood was so strong, it’s a wonder she didn’t break it.

The underground current was dark and frothing. She’d be sucked deep into the ground. Into a hole that was growing bigger with every gasp of breath she took. Chunks of grass and mud splashed into the raging current, soaking her with each plunge.

She screamed, but she was too deep in the woods. No one could hear her!

She should never have come out here.

She was going to die.

She was going to die and Ronhold the asshat and his sniveling son were going to get her bakery!

Her throat closed up and her tears streamed down her face. Her mouth opened in a wail and spilled a name.

“Brovdir!”

She didn’t know why she called him. She’d met him twice. He was just as far from her as Headman Gerald, or her sister, or literally anyone else from Oakwall Village or Rove Wood Clan.

But if anyone would make it to her in time, if anyone would hear her way out here in the woods, it would be him.

And she had so much she wanted to say to him! She’d thought of little else for an entire moon.

Fades, she wasn’t going to be thinking anything soon .

The root started to give way.

She looked up and saw that the dirt had been shaved away to the bush to which the root was attached. It shook at the precipice of the cliff, slipping downward. The water was up to her calves.

She didn’t have the strength to pull herself up. Years of kneading dough for hours every day hadn’t been enough. She was going to fall in. She was going to get sucked down into the underground cavern below her and drown in the murky, pitch black water. No one would ever know what happened to her.

The bush jerked and her stomach plunged. The water splashed all the way to her thighs. The current was so strong!

The root gripped her wrist so hard she felt like it might break. But then she was being yanked swiftly upward.

The bush barreled past her, caught in her hair and scraped her already gashed cheek. But where it went down, she went up .

Into a hard wall of naked green muscles.

Trinia gasped as the body holding her jerked away from the hole, ran backward past trees that were being sucked into the churning water. Over a massive, downed log covered in moss.

Oh Fades! I am alive!

She couldn’t seem to get enough air into her lungs. Her eyes stung and tears coursed hot tracks down her icy cheeks.

She was plopped down on a boulder. Mud caked her body, and her dress was soaked.

“Trinia.”

The deep growl warmed her up from the inside out and her eyes snapped to meet the gaze of her savior.

Brovdir.

Her vision blurred with tears. “Y-you really saved me,” she managed on a gasping sob.

“Yes.”

The confirmation hooked deep in her guts and stirred them up until they felt as tempestuous as the deadly water she’d just survived.

She couldn’t believe it. He was here . Right now. Just in time.

Just like last time.

Gratitude and relief were palpable in her chest and she took a deep breath, ready to babble her thanks. “I can’t believe you’ve been ignoring me all this time and now you show up.”

Her mouth snapped shut as Brovdir’s eyes widened to engulf his face. Fades, that hadn’t been what she’d meant to say at all .

But it was too late now. Everything else in her life was already in chaos. Why wouldn’t she ruin things with the male who had saved her life?

Saved her life . . .

The roaring of the sinkhole right behind her flooded her senses and her feet scrambled as she tried to get away.

Brovdir held her firm, keeping her from bolting blindly into the forest. “You’re safe.”

She’d almost died. Died .

“Hush . . . no harm will come to you.”

The low sound was so soothing in her ears and her terror eased. Brovdir held her tightly, and she leaned into him. He was huge. And warm. And she felt like a half-drowned rat and probably didn’t look much better, but there was nothing she could do about that now.

“Fades, have mercy.”

Trinia yipped with surprise at this new voice and whipped around to find that Sythcol had appeared at the tree line. He was gasping for breath, his hair disheveled, and his robes soaked to the knee.

“This is...” Sythcol’s eyes were stricken with horror as he walked through the brush toward the still raging sinkhole.

“D-don’t go close!”

“This is three times the size of the others.” Sythcol’s words pummeled her in the chest and her mind lit up.

Others?

The powerful conjurer held out his hands toward the bubbling water. A tightness swirled through the air. A shuddering sensation tingled up her spine as the orc spun his magic. She could not see it, but she knew it was there.

And the water stopped its churning. It stopped ripping away at the land. The growth of it slowed to a halt, and the water level receded to the point that she could no longer see it. She wasn’t sure what was more unnerving—churning destructive water or a seemingly bottomless pit.

Sythcol lowered his hands and stepped back, breathing a sigh of relief as he examined his handiwork. He’d stopped it so fast.

Like he knew exactly how to already.

She managed to keep the tremble from her voice. “There’re more than one of these? You’ve seen them before?”

Sythcol’s back straightened and Brovdir, who was still sitting directly in front of her, tensed noticeably.

“You have,” Trinia gasped. “Is that how you found me? Have you been keeping track of them?”

Neither male spoke nor met her eyes.

Anger burned at her throat. “If you knew about them then why wasn’t I warned? Why hasn’t anyone been warned? I never would have run out here had I known!”

“This doesn’t concern you,” Sythcol said. “Brovdir, take her back to Oakwall.”

“Doesn’t concern me?” Trinia’s voice was shrill as she got to her feet and pushed Brovdir out of her way. Her sopping wet gown was so heavy she almost couldn’t rise. “I nearly died just now!”

Warmth caught right around her chin and her face was tipped slightly as Brovdir examined her. His eyes were intense and bright. They glowed green in the dim light so there was no confusing his brooding expression. She’d forgotten orcs’ eyes glowed in the dark. She saw them at night so rarely.

Brovdir let out a low growl that shot tingling heat throughout her body and she could do nothing but suck in air as he said, “You’re wounded.”

She gulped as he gently stroked her cheek right below the stinging cut. She could feel the heat radiating off him. Just like before, he hadn’t worn a shirt, just a pair of worn leather slacks. His dark complexion and rippling muscles threatened to undo all the thoughts from her mind.

He looked like he was sculpted by the Fades themselves.

But he’d also avoided her for over a moon. Hadn’t even sent a note .

She pushed his hand away. “I’m fine. Let me go.”

Brovdir flinched away and made a strangled noise in the back of his throat that made her heart twinge. Had she been too harsh? He was the one who’d ignored her . Why should she feel guilty about upholding the boundary he’d put up?

But then his head drooped, and his floppy hair covered his dejected eyes and she’d never seen an orc look more like a kicked puppy.

Why did that make her stupid heart flutter?

She went back to the matter at hand, desperate to cover up the fact that her cheeks were heating. “Sythcol, tell me what is going on. Right now. And don’t you dare try to tell me it’s not of my concern again.”

“They’re sinkholes.”

She jerked her attention back to Brovdir.

“Brovdir!” Sythcol snapped. “I told you we can’t?—”

“Sinkholes,” Brovdir confirmed again, ignoring Sythcol’s anger. “Started opening a moon back.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “That’s so long ago! Why don’t I know about them? Or anyone? Headman Gerald?—”

“Your headman doesn’t need to know anything ,” Sythcol said as he rubbed at his blackened hands.

“What do you mean he doesn’t need to know? Of course, he needs to know. You have a moral obligation to?—”

“I have this under control,” Sythcol snapped. “This crisis will be over soon. There is no need to cause panic among the humans over a problem I’ve nearly solved.”

“Nearly solved?” Trinia snapped with disbelief. “I nearly died . ‘Nearly solved’ isn’t fast enough.”

“But you didn’t die because my methods are working. We’re tracking them. Keeping them in check.”

“If you really had them in check, I wouldn’t have fallen in one in the first place!” Trinia cried, “What if I’d been a child? Or an old woman out for a stroll? What if I hadn’t been strong enough to hold on to that root?”

Brovdir made another choked noise, and she looked up to find him pale and stricken in the dimming light. She saw his hands twitch as he reached for her, but he didn’t grab. Didn’t force anything.

The cold of the night was penetrating her sodden gown, and the snow crunched as she shifted her feet. The urge to fall into his arms and let him warm her up was almost overwhelming.

She took a step away to combat the desire and Brovdir’s face fell.

“They aren’t opening up near the village,” Sythcol’s voice was hard and unyielding. “All of them have been on the opposite end of the clan.”

“ This one did!” She looked from Sythcol to Brovdir.

Was Brovdir not going to say anything? His expression was still downcast and stricken.

Whose side was he on in this?

“This one is an anomaly.”

“Anomaly or not, I insist you tell Headman Gerald. He needs to know of the danger that?—”

“ Enough! ” Sythcol’s roar had Trinia’s mouth falling open in shock. She’d never heard the male raise his voice. “ I am chief and I will not be swayed by anyone! Especially not a woman who knows nothing .”

Brovdir instantly barreled toward Sythcol. The only thing louder than the pounding of his feet was the ferocious snarl that left his lips.