Bound to the Orc Warrior (Brides of the Moon Blade Clan #5)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN（Untitled）Wranth

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Wranth

My head snaps back with a growl.

A massive red dragon hangs overhead, wings spread like sails that blot out the sky, throwing the entire clearing in shadow.

“Who is this, Sheevora?” Aldronn asks. “And why did he hide?”

“This is Lukendevener, the premier dragon scholar specializing in all the various types of traveling magic. I was about to introduce him.” She waves a taloned hand at the trees that surround us. “And he did not hide as much as attempt to make himself less of a distraction, since there’s no place for him to land.”

“He’s testing Stenoverlar’s new invisibility crystals, isn’t he?” Bella says, her purple head bobbing with excitement. “They finally work!”

“Why didn’t I know about these crystals?” Drake asks, staring at his sister.

“It’s not my fault you’ve been too busy growing to keep up with common knowledge.”

The young green dragon gives an angry squawk. “How dare you? I’ve been learning! I’ve been learning lots about the humans that you don’t know.”

As the siblings continue to bicker, Naomi tugs on my arm, and I lean over so she can whisper in my ear, “What’s going on?”

“Bella’s older but is growing more slowly than her brother, and his larger size is a sore spot for her. And dragons prize knowledge above all else, so to accuse him of neglecting his studies is a grave insult.”

“We have a bigger problem,” King Aldronn says, his voice ringing out with the snap of command. “And I do mean that literally. Where can we meet with room enough for all? The village’s unicorn meadow?”

“Don’t you dare,” Zephyr says. “If the dragons set down, all the grass will be smashed flat for a week. I despise eating smashed grass.”

The rest of the unicorns surrounding her all nod and make grumpy huffs of agreement.

“Fine,” Dravarr growls. “Clear more of the forest. We need firewood for the coming winter, anyway.”

Dragons have the strongest magic of all fae, but if anyone doubted their physical might, watching them tear full-grown trees from the ground like a farmer pulling carrots would put paid to it. Sheevora yanks them from the ground, and a hovering Lukendevener takes them from her and tosses them onto the pile.

The noise is too loud for talk, which gives me a few more moments to prepare myself. I hadn’t expected the meeting to focus on Avalon right away. I thought we’d discuss my bride’s powers and how to use them to open the doors of Faerie permanently.

How do I tell everyone who I am when I’ve barely absorbed any of it myself?

Everyone remains focused on the dragons—everyone, that is, but Sturrm. His eyes narrow as he studies my face. Then he claps a hand to my shoulder and yells in my ear, “Are you all right?”

A spurt of that old familiar anger flares in my chest. How dare anyone assume I’m not all right? Yet this is my friend, and my normal defensiveness has no place here. I shake my head in the tiniest of motions, but it’s enough.

He sees. “What can I do?”

“Believe me when I speak.” I meet his gaze.

“Of course, I’ll believe you.” He gives my shoulder one last squeeze.

The ripping of roots from the ground continues, followed by crashes as the trees are tossed onto a pile of their fallen brethren.

It’s a painful thing for any Wild Fae to see, and Dravarr scowls. It’s true we need wood for winter, but we usually log nearly dead trees from throughout the forest instead of clearing an area like this. Yet what else can we do? The dragons are good enough to travel to us for these meetings, since they can fly, so we need to accommodate them. I snort. That feels like such a kingly decision to make.

With a burst of magic, Lukendevener settles in the low spot made in the subsided ground, but it does little more than bring his towering head a bit more even with ours. He’s even larger than Sheevora. “Now,” he says, pulling his red wings tight to his back, “explain how you went to Avalon. All my studies indicate such a trip should be impossible without something connecting you to the realm.”

Naomi glances at me, and I nod. Then she turns back to the dragons. “You’re right. I did use something that connected to Avalon. I used Wranth.”

Shocked noises come from all around.

“I wanted to help him find his home, his family.” She places a hand on my arm. “I used my magic to reach inside him and find a connection. Then I teleported us to that place.”

“Avalon.” Aldronn looks at me, his voice full of wonder. “That’s why my parents could never discover your origins. But how did you get here? No one saw the Moon Goddess light the night sky.”

Naomi shoots me another questioning glance, and she’s right. This is my story to tell.

“My mother had an elf ancestor.” This isn’t shocking. Elves and orcs intermarried upon occasion back in Avalon. “And my mother had elf magic instead of that of a Wild Fae. She could teleport, like Naomi, and she used the last of her life force to send me here.”

“How did she know of Alarria?” Sheevora asks. “It’s a lost realm hidden away. No one knew of it until the Moon Goddess brought us here.”

“She didn’t know of Alarria, in and of itself. She asked Titania to take me somewhere safe.” I look at Aldronn. “Somewhere with family.”

His lips part. What will he think of my news? Will he be glad? Or will he see me as a threat to his reign? I have no desire to rule in his place.

There’s nothing for it but to speak. I will not hide from the truth.

“I’m an orphan no longer.” I lift my chin. “I am the son of King Strakk and Queen Belva.”

I don’t know who’s more surprised, Aldronn, Sturrm, or the rest of the king’s guard, who gape at me from where they stand at the edge of the clearing. Grugg looks especially confused, his gaze darting to me and looking away over and over.

My lips pull back from my teeth in something half smile, half snarl as I catch his eye.

“Good.” Sturrm claps me on the back. “It’s good that you know who they were.”

King Aldronn snaps out of his shock to shoot me a piercing look. “There are stories told in my family that when the Moon Goddess brought us to Alarria only part of the royal family made it. A princess, sister to the queen, was never found. Now it’s clear she remained in Avalon and carried on the family line.”

“It happened to many families,” Dravarr says. “Mine included.”

Sturrm nods. “Same.”

Aldronn steps forward and pulls me into his arms. “Welcome, cousin.”

I hug him in return, this family member I can now claim as mine.

Growing up, Aldronn was like a big brother to me. He couldn’t stop the teasing when he wasn’t around, but whenever he was, he made sure the other younglings kept their taunts to themselves. But being a decade older put him ever out of my close reach, his studies and duties always too different until we both became adults. He took his crown, and I joined his guard, and he’s always been good to me. Additionally, I know he didn’t do it because he sensed some familial connection—he did it because it was the decent thing to do.

“I’m glad it’s you who’s my family,” I murmur.

“Me, too.”

When we part, I raise my voice that all might hear. “I think Naomi and I discovered why the Moon Goddess brought us to Alarria.”

Sheevora’s head dips down on her long neck. “Speak, I beg of you. This is one of the greatest mysteries that’s plagued the dragons these past three centuries.”

I repeat everything Tumbletoad told us about my parents, the Dark God, and the rise of the dark fae. Naomi adds extra details about Avalon, with all its darkness and frozen, twisted magic.

“No more elves?” Aldronn’s brow creases. “I don’t understand.”

“They’re called dark fae now,” I say. “They’ve been changed, but I don’t have any details as to what the differences are.”

“Unless that’s why our elfin forms have fangs,” Zephyr says. “Although, I suppose that means we shouldn’t call it the elfin form any longer.”

“I suppose we can call it the fae form, even though we’re all technically fae.” Shadow says, his voice sardonic. “How like the fae ‘previously known as elves’ to make it all about them even in this.”

Zephyr snorts in amusement. “On this, we can agree, cat.”

“Has this Dark God changed anyone else?” Shadow’s voice becomes serious for once. “What of the cat sith?”

“Yes, or the cu sith?” Rune adds, his wolf ears pricking forward on his head.

“I don’t know.” I spread my hands wide. “We weren’t there for long. My tracking magic felt no one near but the brownie. We were in the middle of what should have been a forest teaming with life, yet there was none.”

Silence falls for a moment as everyone tries to absorb how such a thing could be. I understand their difficulty. Here, in Alarria, surrounded by uncorrupted magic and life, it’s hard to imagine. These things are crucial for Wild Fae. To live without them would be torture. My parents were strong indeed to carve out a life filled with love in such a bleak place.

“Do we know if the Dark God is confined to Avalon?” Aldronn asks.

“No,” I grunt.

“I wonder if some similar blight has befallen Umbria,” Zephyr says, naming the unicorns’ home realm.

“Or Dularia,” Sheevora says. “Many of our dragon brethren should still be there.”

“Is this why the Moon Goddess brought you all here?” Naomi asks. “To protect you from this Dark God?”

“Perhaps.” Aldronn tips his head.

“Then why didn’t she bring all of the orcs and dragons and everyone?” Ashley waves a hand at all the types of fae filling the clearing. “Why not save everyone?”

“We don’t know,” Lukendevener says. “In fact, we don’t know much about her, period. She’s not in any of the histories from before the doors of Faerie closed.”

“Clearly, we need answers. We need to know the state of the other Faerie realms.” Sheevora cocks her head and stares at my bride with an intensity that sparks my protective instincts. “And we have just the person to do it.”