CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

I stand in a clearing, victorious, the bodies of my enemies dead at my feet, felled by my hand. Yet my victory is a cold thing, distant, holding nothing of joy.

“You’re worth it, Sturrm,” a sweet voice says. “You’re worth everything.”

The icy cold rage that fills me sees everything in the world as nothing but threats to be conquered. I jerk toward her, sword at the ready, eager to defeat any foe.

Yet that voice…

“I’m yours, Sturrm.” The woman walks forward, empty hands extended outward.

I refuse to drop my guard. It could be a trick. I cannot speak, but a growl reverberates from deep in my chest, harsh and guttural. It should warn her off, yet she refuses to flee.

“You saved me. You did it. I’m safe because of you.” She takes another step, her copper-brown eyes warm and full of life. “It’s me, Selena. Your moon bound bride.”

Bride? Mine?

I shake my head. Such soft concepts have no place in my world.

Yet even as I try to deny them, a crack fractures the icy control wrapped around my heart.

“Please come back to me,” she says.

Something warm slips from the crack, straining toward her. The sword tip wavers in front of the center of her chest as she stops a hair’s breadth from it.

“I love you, Sturrm.”

Her words pound into me with the force of a blow. The icy shroud coating my soul shatters, and I throw my sword from me in horror at how close the blade came to her heart.

My heart.

She is my heart, out walking in the world.

The berserker rage drains from me, unlocking my muscles, and the great toll it’s taken rushes through my body. I drop to my knees, the edges of my vision going dark, but not before I make one last effort to force a word from between numb lips.

The word that means life, joy, and everything good in the world.

The only word that matters.

“Selena.”

I blink open bleary eyes and scrape a hand over my face. Goddess, what happened? I haven’t felt like this in years, wrung out and hollow. In fact, I’ve only felt like this once before, after I failed Bruna.

Cold clenches my heart. Selena!

With a soft rustle of cloth, Selena’s beautiful face comes into view, beaming down at me with the most glorious smile.

Relief rushes through me. She’s alive!

“You’re awake. I have to let the others know.”

“No, wait.” I push upright, and the golden-honey wood of the inside of a heart tree makes up the ceiling and walls around me as my bedroom comes into view. We’re in my cottage in Moon Blade Village. The walls are unadorned but for the lovely whorl of the wood, but the furs on the bed are mine, and my favorite guitar rests on a stand in the corner, the smaller travel guitar beside it.

I focus on Selena, reaching out to snag her arm and pull her back to me. She’s wearing orc clothing, brown leather pants and boots, and a bright-blue linen tunic that sets off her golden-tan skin. Everything’s been made to fit her human height and delicious curves, and she’s more beautiful than ever, because she looks like she belongs here.

“What happened?” I ask. “How did I get to the village?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“The ogre standing over you with his axe.” My lip lifts in a silent snarl. How dare he? “I fought him. I won. ”

“You sure did. That guy was mincemeat by the time you were done.” Pride shines from her as she sits on the edge of the bed, facing me. “You saved me, Sturrm.”

I shake my head slowly. Not because I disbelieve her, but because I can’t quite process the thought.

Murmuring voices rise in excitement, coming from the main room.

Wranth hurries in, followed by Gerna, who pushes past him. “Let me get to my patient.”

“Don’t you mean my patient?” Selena says.

“ Our patient.” Gerna grins at my bride. “After all, you sent his clothes to my apothecary that first day you met.”

I gape at her and then at my bride. “Is that where they wound up?”

“I guess my magic thought her apothecary was the doctor’s office when I stripped you for your ‘examination.’” Selena giggles. “No regrets.”

They each lean over to observe me, Gerna pressing various vials to my skin and noting their color.

“Why are you two looking at me like that?” I frown.

“Whatever happened to you wasn’t simply physical.” My moon bound touches my shoulder, and a thread of her warm healing magic weaves through me. “I healed your body as soon as you passed out, but you didn’t wake up.”

“The old myths say the berserker rage severs a warrior’s soul from mind and body, allowing him to do whatever needs to be done,” Wranth says.

“Even though Selena healed your body immediately, your soul needed time to fully reconnect,” Gerna says. She makes me drink something and asks how it tastes .

When I say apples, she grunts.

“How long was I out for?” I ask.

“Two days.”

“That’s all?” Shock thrums through me. “The last time I lost myself to the berserker rage, I lost consciousness for over a week.”

“You came back to yourself for just a second before you passed out,” Selena says. “You were you again. I saw it in your eyes. I think you’d already started to reconnect.”

“I came back for you.” I place my hand over hers. My memories of that time are hazy, but one thing shines through clearly—her beautiful face looking at me with the most precious expression of trust. Goddess, how I love that look.

But that doesn’t explain everything. She’s far too small to get me up onto the unicorn’s back, let alone keep me there for an entire day’s ride. “How did you get me to the village?”

“I was out hunting with Branikk,” Wranth says. “We heard the fight. It was over by the time we got there, but we were able to help everyone get to the village safely.”

I reach out, and we clasp forearms. “Thank you, my friend.”

“I also sent word to King Aldronn that you’d succeeded in your quest.”

Goddess, I’d forgotten about the quest for a moment, all my thoughts focused on my bride. “The crystals. Will they work for the antidote?”

“They should,” Gerna says. “I’ve got the first batch brewing. ”

Selena nods. “And even if they don’t, I bet I can heal the other humans of the deathsleep, since I was able to do it to myself.”

“My amazing bride.” I squeeze her hand. “Your magic is a blessing to us all.”

Tapping at the window makes everyone turn to face it.

Wranth strides over and throws it open.

“Thank the goddess,” Dash says, his tone amused. “I got tired of waiting.”

“Is Sturrm okay?” Bellavesaria’s head pushes into view, right beside the unicorn’s. It seems they’ve grown close, no matter how much they might bicker or perhaps because of the bickering.

“He is!” Selena calls out. “You know what that means.”

“On it!” Dash gives his whinnying laugh and disappears from the window.

“Not without me!” Bellavesaria calls out, darting after him. “I’m an important part of this, too.”

I glance at my bride. “What’s that all about?”

“Just a little surprise.” My moon bound leans in to kiss my cheek, her lips soft.

I frown. “I hate surprises.” The only ones I like are the ones I make for her.

“No, you don’t. Not really,” she says, determination filling her voice. “You just haven’t had any good ones, but I’m going to change that, starting now.”

I grunt, but I believe her. She’s already changed so many things in my life for the better. What’s one thing more?

Even though Selena healed any potential dehydration while I was unconscious, she makes me drink several cups of water before she’ll let me get out of bed. My stomach gives an impatient growl after the second cup. Water is good, but water isn’t food .

Gerna laughs. “Now I know my work here is done. If he’s ready to eat, he’s well on the mend.”

Selena chuckles as they link arms and leave the room together, my bride walking the herbalist to the front door.

Leaving me alone with my best friend.

“So,” Wranth says. “You went and got yourself a moon bound bride.”

I grunt, but it’s my pleased grunt.

“I don’t believe it.”

“Trust me, my friend,” I say, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. “I didn’t believe it either, not for the longest time.”

“What changed your mind?”

The happy notes of Selena’s laugh sings from the next room, pulling my gaze to the bedroom door.

“Ah, I see it now.” Wranth lets out an amused snort, his mouth quirking on the left side in his wry smile. He points at my face. “Lucky bastard.”

“Yes.” I glare at him. “And don’t speak of my mother that way.”

Goddess, my parents. I scrub a hand over my face. They never got over the hurt of me leaving so young, of staying away when I could have visited. Even though guards are granted leave several times a year for personal purposes, I never returned to Moon Blade Village unless it was in service of my king. Even being back here these last couple of weeks, I had only one awkward dinner with them, none of us comfortable. I need to fix it if I can, for Selena’s sake, and for the hurt I gave Mother and Father, unable to talk about what kept me far from home all these years. They know about Bruna, of course, but I never spoke of how much her death haunted me.

A rough bark of laughter escapes Wranth’s lips. “I guess if a grumpy ass like you got a bride, there’s hope for the rest of us.” But underneath the bluster, there’s a note of longing. My friend has even less of a home than I, having no village or family to return to. Children are precious in Faerie, since we birth far too few, and Wranth is the only foundling I know of, no one ever able to solve the puzzle of his origins.

I push to my feet and clap a hand to his shoulder. “She would be a lucky woman.”

“No, I—”

“My god, another one. Are all orcs this stubborn?” Selena bustles back into the room and cocks a thumb in my direction. “You won’t believe what it took to make this guy come around.”

“Oh, I have some idea.” Wranth smiles—actually smiles—for one of the first times in years. “I’ve tried for a decade to beat new ideas into that thick skull on the sparring field.”

“New doesn’t mean better,” I growl. “Especially not that one-handed uppercut you think is so fancy but which leaves your left side wide open.”

“It leaves it open on purpose.” He jabs a finger at me. “It’s called a feint. Look it up, old timer. ”

“Bah.” I knock his finger aside, fighting to keep from smiling, the old argument familiar like a favorite pair of pants slipped on for comfort.

“Get ready,” she says, pointing to my boots. “You can bicker on the way.”

I’m wearing a dark-blue linen tunic and pants, comfortable clothes for sleeping or lounging, and all I have to do is pull on the shoes to be ready to go. “Go where?”

“It’s a surprise, remember?” She flashes me a winning smile over her shoulder as she heads out of the bedroom.

I follow her out into the main room of my heart tree cottage.

The honey-colored room gleams in the last of the evening sunlight pouring through the windows, the walls, ceiling, and floor formed out of the living wood of the tree. Cushioned couches bracket the stone fireplace on my left, and a full kitchen waits on my right, the cupboards shaped from living wood. The door to the bathing room stands opposite the bedroom.

It looks a lot like the heart tree cottage I grew up in, only there aren’t any decorations yet or family mementos. I’ve lived a simple life for so long I haven’t acquired many personal items beyond my guitars.

Or at least that’s how I left it weeks ago. Now I see touches of Selena everywhere. One of the human paper cups that holds their favorite bitter beverage waits on the kitchen counter—Olivia conjures the drink for the women every morning, since they seem unable to function without it. A vase holding a spray of meadowsweet flowers sits on the dining table. A colorful blue blanket drapes the back of a couch. The leather jacket I made her hangs on a peg by the front door. They’re little things, but they already speak of my bride making this her home.

She’s already brought her warmth and light into this cottage I left bare just as she’s brought it into my life.

I need to do everything I can to make sure she never regrets it.