Orc Tested: A Monster Fantasy Romance (The Red Forest) by Cady Austin

Author:Cady Austin [Austin, Cady]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

“What is that?” Varl asked.

Alana tightened her hold on the leather-bound ledger she’d found in Lord Albright’s study, her other hand gripping the pommel of Sylph’s saddle.

“It’s Lord Albright’s diary. Appointments, notes, etcetera. I thought it might be useful.”

When Varl merely lifted a brow, keeping up easily beside her horse at the back of the train, she nodded in front of them at the survivors. “Potentially the people who wanted to buy an elf.”

“Hmm.” He eyed the leather ledger with more interest. “Humans would write that sort of thing down?”

“I think he did,” she said. She’d taken a peek inside and found enough to make her think it was worth saving.

“And you would turn against your fellow humans?”

She stiffened and scowled. “We might share a species, but we don’t share everything.”

“No, your soul proves different,” Varl said.

“What does that mean?” Said like that, it didn’t sound like a compliment.

With another gargled noise she took as a chuckle, he shook his head.

She looked up as the train began to slow, then halted.

They’d reached the Red Forest. Her breath gusted out of her in a fog, and she shivered, all too aware of her thin chemise now in the shadow of the wintry fairy forest.

Brun stepped out from the front of the train, standing taller under all the attention that oriented on him. “The coach can go no further without assistance. Stand back, for I will open the swiftpath to ensure our passage home is quick.”

He turned toward the forest. Taurin stepped up to his side and the two orcs stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the thick, impenetrable wood.

Their voices came out gnarled and twisted, syllables passing their lips that refused to form in Alana’s ears. They took shapes instead. The shape of opening and swiftness of an eagle’s wings and safety.

And the Red Forest parted.

Trees shifted aside in front of the two orcs, shuffling back on either side though the canopy remained overhead. A path as wide as the carriage had opened up, and Alana knew it would bring the elves straight to wherever their home was within the forest.

Her heart ached to see magic like this, strange and impossible, yet none of their expressions displayed how impossible this was. Brun and Taurin turned back to the waiting elves as if they’d simply opened a normal door. Creatures of magic that they were, this was as commonplace to them as dandelion seeds on the wind, yet wondrous to Alana.

It was also time for them to part ways.

Shoulders stiff as the coach and horses disappeared down the path, Alana held out the ledger to Varl. “Here, you should take this. Find out who was in league with Albright.”

“And where are you going?”

She tucked her chin against her chest, turning her head away. “I’m not sure yet. Maybe home first, and then…”

The future yawned in front of her, a dark sea churning with uncertainty and danger. Without anyone or anything, with the fall of the Albright estate and undoubtedly facing Lady Albright’s accusations, home would not be safe for long.

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