Page 97 of That’s My Orc, Tusk Off

Were we?

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yes.”

I wasn’t.

We pulled back the blankets. I took the left side while she climbed in on the right.

The bed was big enough for two orcs. For a human and an orc, it was enormous.

But it felt too small.

We lay on our backs with the light out, staring at the ceiling. The space between us might as well have been the Cassarian Sea. I could hear her breathing. Feel the mattress dip under her weight. She was close enough that if I reached out, my hand would find her hip.

“Thank you for doing this,” I said.

“I couldn’t let them take you.”

“What happens tomorrow?”

“We convince him this is real.”

“What if we can’t?”

She rolled onto her side, facing me. “Then we come up with a new plan.”

The word settled in my chest.

“I’m afraid that I’ll fail this,” I said. “Maybe my parents were right about me. I can’t do anything important without their strict rules.”

“You’re not failing anything.” Her hand found mine in the dark, threading our fingers together. “You built something important here with the others. You did that.”

“With help.”

“Yes. With help. That’s not weakness, Traig. That’s life.”

I brushed my thumb across her knuckles.

“What are you afraid of?” I asked.

She was quiet for so long I thought she wouldn’t answer.

“All you named, but also, that this is pretend,” she finally said. “That tomorrow the scribe will leave, and you’ll realize you don’t actually want me here.”

I turned onto my side, facing her. Our faces were close enough that I could see her eyes in the moonlight through the window.

“It’s not pretend for me,” I said.

She went very still. So still I couldn’t tell if she was breathing.

I’d said too much. Or not enough. Both.

I wanted to tell her everything I’d been carrying since the moment she’d walked through the door of the rescue league and reorganized my perfectly ordered world, but the words got stuck.

She shifted closer. Then more, until she’d curled against my chest, her arm across my side.

I eased my arms around her.