“He’s trying to save his herb garden,” Sasha explained. “I’ll go help him.” She came to the edge of the bed, though, and hugged Kaius briefly. “I’m glad you’re okay. You really scared us.”

  Kaius sat up, wincing when his sore back rubbed against the pillow. “It’s just a scratch.”

  Sasha tsked. “Sure. Never get scratched like that again.” She turned on her heels, but before she exited the room, she threw over her shoulder. “Congratulations! I can’t wait to meet my baby brother.” At the look of surprise on the orc’s face, she chuckled and rushed out the door, like she’d just pulled a cute prank on him.

  “She knows.”

  “I had to tell her. I mean... I wasn’t planning on it, not when you were bleeding to death in my arms and Ulgan had just snapped the other mage’s neck... But it slipped. Later, we talked about it.”

  “And is she... all right?”

  “Yes.” Grace smiled. “Didn’t you see? She’s thrilled.”

  “In a good way?”

  “Thrilled is positive. So yes, in a good way.”

  He smiled widely. “We’ll give her a baby brother.”

  “With green skin and sharp tusks. She won’t be an only child anymore, but she’ll still be the better-looking child.”

  Kaius frowned. “Bad joke.”

  Grace laughed. “No! Admit it, it was a good joke.”

  “I’m not laughing.”

  “So, you’re saying your son is going to be more handsome than my daughter?”

  He grinned. “No...”

  “Good. Because I wouldn’t want us to have an argument when you’re still in bed, not feeling a hundred percent. I could easily overpower you.”

  “You could never overpower me.”

  He made his point by tackling her to the mattress. She yelped, laughed, and he covered her mouth with his. Her giggles turned into a moan, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. They couldn’t find clothes to fit him, so Thrak had helped her remove his torn, bloodied shirt, and now Kaius was in his leather trousers alone, and barefoot. As the kiss deepened, she greedily ran her hands all over his shoulders and chest, careful not to let herself be carried away. For now, his back was off limits. The scar was tender, hot, and throbbing. On another note, she could feel another thing throbbing, and this one, she was free to touch. His hard cock was pressed against her stomach, and she would’ve loved to position it lower.

  Kaius broke the kiss and looked into her eyes. “Grace, I love you.”

  “Aww... I love you too.”

  “But there’s something I need to do first.” He rolled off her and off the bed.

  “What?” She sat up, watching him worriedly. “What are you looking for?”

  “My boots.”

  “By the door.”

  He put them on.

  “My sword.”

  Grace sighed. “You need more time. Please come back to bed.”

  “My sword.”

  “It’s outside. There’s a coffee table... you’ll find it there. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to keep a weapon in the room. After what happened...” She shuddered. She’d never get used to having enchanted weapons around. Birma had almost died because of one.

  Kaius walked out of the room, grabbed his long sword, then went back inside.

  “Take me to see Goroth. You know where he’s being kept, don’t you?”

  “Oh God.” She stood up and looked for her own shoes. “Yes, I do.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Goroth the Devourer was kept in the back, in a shed. When Kaius stepped out of the room, all the orcs he met on the corridors, on the stairs, and down in the large living room stopped to pat him on the back. He walked with firm steps and kept his spine straight, even though Grace could see he was in pain. But it was important for his orcs to see that he was back on his feet and that not only had they not lost their captain, but he was stronger than ever.

  Outside of the house, there weren’t many orcs, as most of them were out in the fields, checking the extent of the damage and rounding up bodies to bury, or up the mountain, still dealing with the remains of the horde they’d destroyed. Sasha was nowhere to be seen, and Grace let out a sigh of relief. It was better for her to be with the mage than to be around and witness whatever was coming next. She followed Kaius closely as they crossed the back yard.

  In the shed, Goroth was guarded by Dharg the Giant. Thrak was also there, sharpening his sword. His second in command had stuck close to the house, in case his captain needed him. Both Thrak and Dharg shot up to their feet when Kaius and Grace entered.

  “Captain,” the Giant acknowledged him respectfully.

  Thrak was all business. “We captured him alive, as you asked.” He motioned towards the prisoner, who was tied up to a wooden pole now, with the same enchanted chains. He looked worse than a few hours ago, which meant that Ulgan hadn’t had time to heal him out of the goodness of his heart. Grace was sure that once the mage had seen his ruined herb garden, the last thing on his mind had been to keep the one who’d caused all that destruction alive.

  Goroth’s dark-green skin was all ashen now, and to Grace’s surprise, even his black hair had turned slightly ashen. He sat with his one eye closed and his chin resting on his heaving chest. It was hard for him to breathe.

  “Release him.”

  Thrak blinked and didn’t react right away. The Giant seemed even more confused than he was.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Release him. The magic has poisoned his body so deeply that he can’t even move. He isn’t a threat to anyone.”

  Thrak shook his head as he did as he was ordered. Grace took a step back and looked around for something she could use as a weapon. Then her eyes fell on the long sword Kaius had hung from his belt, and she forced herself to breathe evenly and relax. She had to trust him. Plus, the Giant and the Butcher were there, and they were heavily armed, too. She had to start seeing Goroth for who he was, not for what his frightening name made him seem to be. He was a disgraced orc captain. He’d lost a battle he’d started, and in their world, there was no bigger sin than that. Even if he got out of here alive, no orc would ever respect him again. He had no horde to rule over, so he’d be an outcast. Grace had no idea what happened to orc outcasts.

  “Get up,” Kaius said to Goroth when the chains were off. “Get up and face me.”

  Goroth let out a heavy sigh. He first took his time to touch his wounds, – the ones he could reach. He rubbed at his arms and wrists, trying to get the blood flowing. With a grunt, he pushed himself to his feet and slowly raised his gaze to meet his rival’s. He grinned, but then he saw the long sword, too, and nodded in understanding and a sort of sinister acceptance.

  “Was there something you wanted to say to me before you kill me, Kaius the Fierce?”

  “No. I’ve said enough. In the past. You never listened.”

  Goroth shot a glance at Grace. She fought the urge to look away from his mangled face. He revealed his bloodied teeth and gums.

  “As if anyone should ever listen to a weak captain.”

  “I feel like there’s something you want to say to me.” Kaius moved his hand to the hilt of his sword. “Go ahead. Take advantage of the minutes you have left.”

  “Yes, there was... there was something... Let me remember. I’m sorry, all this poison is making my mind foggy.”

  Grace couldn’t believe that even in the horrible situation he was in, even knowing that he was going to die, Goroth could mock them. Not that she’d expected him to beg for his life, but maybe simply being silent and humble would’ve helped his case.

  “Ah yes!” Goroth fixed Kaius with a cold gaze. The fact that he only had one eye now made him look even scarier. A cruel grin played on his lips. “Since no one cares to tell you the truth, I’ll do you a favor and open your eyes for you. Your mistake was to take a human bride. Humans make us weak. Especially their females. And to make matters worse, this one,” he tipped his chin towards Grace, “came with a human child. They made you soft, Kaius the Fierce. They made you unworthy of your name. You should renounce it and ask them to call you Kaius the Soft instead. Because now you care about humans more than you care about your own.”

  “Is that all?” Kaius said through gritted teeth.

  Grace didn’t feel particularly offended. So far, Goroth had only spilled out clichés, and he was dead wrong, too. Not even Thrak or Dharg seemed to be impressed by his nonsense.

  “I must confess I did tell one little lie when I had your bride and her spawn at my mercy. I told her that I would make her mine when I was done with you.” He looked at Grace. “I’m sorry pretty, but that was a lie. I don’t know why I said that. Maybe to amuse myself. The truth is I would never soil my blood with that of a human’s. I had every intention to kill you and your child when your mate and his horde were in the ground. I was never going to keep you. The last thing I needed was to risk your getting under my skin, because I must admit... you’re a pretty thing, indeed. I’m not calling you pretty for nothing. But you would’ve made me soft, and no amount of warm, wet pussy is worth getting soft for.” He chuckled. “Metaphorically soft. Physically, of course your pussy would make me hard.”

  That made Grace gag a little. She shot him a disgusted look, shook her head, and took a step back. She had a feeling about what was coming.

  Kaius drew out his sword.

  “Enough. I shouldn’t have let you open your filthy mouth. I cannot let you live after you’ve destroyed my lands so many times, instigated violence, and endangered the lives of my bride and my daughter. I cannot let you live after you’ve uttered such vile words.”

  Grace’s heart skipped a beat. He’d called Sasha his daughter, and that was everything.

  Goroth slumped his shoulders and shook his head as if in terrible disappointment.

  “What has become of us? What has become of this race of warriors who only knew blood, death, and victory, and were happy to welcome all or either? We are doomed.”

  Kaius took a step forward. “No, we are not doomed. We’re changing, because this is not our world. It is theirs, and if we want to thrive, we need to adapt.”

  “I’d rather die than adapt to something that is so far removed from my beliefs, from the traditions I was born and raised into.”

  “Then that is your mistake. Your weakness. The saddest part is that your horde had to suffer for it, and now they’re all gone.”

  “They did what was right. They followed their captain.”

  Kaius nodded. “They died with honor, but that doesn’t mean they had to die. You could have made different choices, choices that could have saved them and helped them prosper in this strange new world we’ve all been exiled to.”

  Goroth spat on the ground. “Better dead than living in exile.”

  Grace sighed. The orc was repeating himself, and this was going nowhere. She wondered what Kaius hoped to get out of him before he ended his misery. She wondered whether it might be better if she just turned around and walked out of there. Did she need to see this? She glanced at Thrak and the Giant, who stood silently on either side of Goroth, ready in case anything unholy crossed his mind. Thrak caught her gaze. It was only for a second. A quick exchange. But that was enough for Grace to decide that, yes, she had to stay. Kaius hadn’t sent her away, which meant he believed she was strong enough to witness this and not have nightmares later. She had to keep reminding herself that she needed to start acting like an orc bride, not like a scared little human.

  “Then you won’t despise me for granting your wish,” Kaius said.

  He didn’t wait for Goroth’s next retort. If he waited, they’d just go around in circles for another minute or two, prolonging the inevitable. He squeezed his fist around the hilt of his sword, pulled his arm back to gain momentum, then pushed the blade straight through Goroth’s chest, penetrating his heart. The orc grunted in pain, his eyes widening for a moment before his expression softened and he slumped forward. Kaius placed his other hand firmly on his shoulder and kept him steady as he pulled his sword out. Then, Goroth’s body hit the floor with a heavy thud.

  Grace had one hand over her mouth to keep herself from making any noise, and the other over her own heart. She didn’t look away, didn’t close her eyes. When Kaius turned to her, she met his gaze and nodded. Kaius nodded back, then sheathed his sword and looked at Thrak and Dharg.

  “Take him back up the mountain and bury him with his horde. He is unworthy of being buried where he fell. This was the last of Goroth the Devourer. We are free from him.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “It’s time to go home.”

  On the way back to the house, Kaius gave orders left and right. He asked for someone to find Ulgan the Mage. Dharg was in charge of burying Goroth, and he took a grunt with him up the mountain. Kaius kept Thrak near, since he was his most trusted raider. Not that he didn’t trust the Giant just as much, but the Giant was even more quiet and grumpy than the Butcher.

  “You need to rest,” Grace tried.

  For the moment, they stopped in the living room, where Kaius inspected the place and deemed the couch and the coffee table a good and imposing enough space to talk to the orcs he’d demanded to see.

  “I’ll rest when everything is back in order, and we figure out how to rebuild what we’ve lost.”

  Beka the Wanderer was the first to answer the captain’s call. She walked into the living room, clothes still dirty and hair tangled, forming a weird nest on her head.

  “Captain.”

  “How is your sister?”

  “She’s doing better, thank you. She’s still asleep, and Sasha and I are trying to get her fever down. Unfortunately, she’s not as strong as you are. Which is understandable. She seemed better when we came down the mountain, but then her wound started oozing again.”

  “How is my daughter doing? Is she helping?”

  “Yes.” Beka’s face lit up. She shot a glance at Grace, and grinned when she saw how proud the captain’s bride was of her daughter. Their daughter. “Birma wouldn’t have survived without her. While Ulgan was healing your wound, Sasha kept the infection at bay.”

  “Good. I’m glad to hear it.”

  He made a dismissive gesture with his hand, and Beka bowed slightly and walked out. Grace couldn’t help but notice that the orcs in the horde were showing more respect towards their captain than before. The fact that he’d been at the brink and returned to them in a matter of hours, and was now back on his feet and giving orders was important to them. That, or the fact that he’d led them into a battle form which they’d emerged victorious. There was no one to challenge them over the ownership of the valley anymore, and his bride and daughter were safe and sound. And another thing worth mentioning – his bride was already pregnant with his baby. They were probably all hoping it would be a male baby.

  Ulgan the Mage appeared in the doorway. Kaius waved him in, and Ulgan sat in an armchair opposite the sofa. There were dark circles under his eyes, he had a permanent frown on his face, and one of his eyebrows was burned. Grace looked more closely at him and noticed that, in fact, the hair on that side of his head was also slightly burned. She didn’t remember him missing an eyebrow a few hours ago.

  “What happened?” Kaius asked, eyes wide and worried, as if he was afraid of what the mage was going to say.

  Ulgan started gesturing wildly. “Fire is not good for the earth if the air doesn’t cooperate. The winds need to change, or all will be gone. I sent Sasha to bring water from the river.”

  Grace blinked in confusion. “You... what?” She knew he was referring to the river that crossed the valley and that the orcs used to irrigate the land. Or so she hoped. “Did she go alone?”

  “The river is not far from here,” Ulgan said firmly, for once making sense. He’d made sense before, under extreme stress.

  Grace raised her arms, then let them fall in defeat. “Sure, set chores for Sasha, why don’t you?”

  “Sasha is my apprentice. If she wants to learn how to do magic and become a healer, then she needs to do what I say.”

  Grace’s jaw dropped. Ulgan had just put so many words together, in the right sequence, and she didn’t know if she should be happy for him or angry that he was ordering her daughter around. Her six-year-old daughter!

  Kaius looked from Grace to Ulgan, and then Grace again.

  “What is he saying? Is Sasha his apprentice, or is this just more of his nonsensical babbling?”

  Grace shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess... Sasha did say she wants to learn how to heal wounds, and in general do what he does. I doubt she can learn orc magic, but she’s excited.”

  “Does it bother you? Do you want me to put a stop to it?”

  “No! Oh my God, no! She loves it, and I’m glad she found a hobby. I mean... it’s not a hobby. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t use that word.” She gave a very unhappy Ulgan an awkward smile. “It seems to be... her calling? And she was truly helpful when Ulgan wasn’t available. I was frozen, paralyzed with fear, and she was so brave. She had the presence of spirit to focus on those who needed help.”

  Kaius nodded. “All right. It’s settled, then. Sasha is Ulgan’s apprentice. She will learn what he can teach her, and she will one day become a healer. Maybe even a mage. I don’t know if humans can learn and perform orc magic. Ulgan?”

  The mage shrugged. “Humans are fascinating birds with colorful feathers.”

  Grace sighed. “Well, it was nice while it lasted...”

  Kaius grinned. “He’s not wrong, though.”

  Grace cocked an eyebrow. “And where exactly are my colorful feathers? Maybe I’m hiding them under these old clothes that don’t even belong to me?”

  Jokingly, Kaius poked her right in her cutely raised eyebrow. Which reminded him...

  “Ulgan, what happened to your eyebrows and your hair?”