When we woke the next morning, the fire had dried our clothes. As we put them on, I tried to make conversation. Rhux ignored me. Guess she didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe talking about it in the morning light would ruin it.

We sniffed at the venison that had been hovering over the fire, but it smelled spoiled now, so we collected our blades and what little gear we had and left the little house.

A part of me wanted to stay in that house with Rhux for a few more days, but I didn’t think she’d go for that, and we needed to get a move on. And I needed to get to Lucas and get home. I wondered if I’d ever have another night like that again in my life.

We saddle our horses without talking, and Rhux led us away from the crumbling town and out into the open fields of the grassland.

Rhux kicked her horse up to a trot, and mine followed suit, not wanting to get left behind by its partner. I just held on for the ride.

As we rode, I alternated between watching the scenery go by, a combination of hills and flat land, and staring at Rhux’s back, her long hair swishing back and forth between her shoulders. Every time I tried to talk, she ignored me. I found myself wondering how she felt about me. And how I felt about her.

She’d read me like a book. I had no idea why, but I’d wanted her to tell me she loved me, even if I knew it wasn’t true. I’d felt the same about Martha. And maybe even Harper. Or did I feel more for Harper? I didn’t know.

Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer. “Are we going to talk about last night?”

She continued to ignore me.

“Come on, Rhux. We’ve been riding for hours, and you haven’t said one word about last night. Are we going to talk about it? Are we good?”

She slowed her horse, and I kicked mine to get next to her.

She looked straight ahead, her green breasts jiggling in her leather corset with the horses bouncing gait.

She said, “Those are two different questions. To answer the second question, yes, we are good, Jack. Don’t worry about it. You worry too much.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said. “Good to know.” I was still a little confused. “And we’re still going to Citadel City to save my brother, right?”

She nodded. “I’m going to rob the treasury, but yes, we’re still going.”

“Okay…” We rode for a little while without saying anything.

“And the first question?” I asked. “Are we going to talk about it?”

Rhux stood up in her stirrups like she was trying to see something in the distance. She must not have seen anything because she sat back down and relaxed.

I thought she was going to continue to ignore me. When I’d just about given up hope and opened my mouth to ask again, she sighed angrily. “No, Jack. We are not going to talk about it. And since you’re not getting that, let me make it clear.” Now she looked at me, and the look in her eyes made me wish she had kept avoiding me. “It happened, Jack. And… I don’t want to talk about it again. Ever.”

“Okay,” I said, grumpy at being scolded.

Her tone didn’t soften, but she said more. “And it may happen again. Who knows? I don’t. But if it does…” She held up a finger and pointed it angrily at me. “But if it does… We won’t talk about it then, either. I’m not into feelings, Jack.”

I was catching onto that.

“Okay,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. “I won’t mention it again. And if we do it again, I won’t mention it then either.” I mimicked locking my lips with a key, but I couldn’t help but smile.

Rhux rolled her eyes at me. “Shut up.”

I laughed and saw the corner of Rhux’s mouth turn up slightly. That was the best I was going to get. I’d take it.

We kept riding after that, keeping our horses at a decent pace so they wouldn’t tire out but also going as quickly as we could. Rhux kept standing up in her saddle like she was looking for something but never said what.

At some point, we came to a small copse of trees surrounding a small pond. We stopped and got down from the horses to stretch our legs and let them have a drink. Rhux scooped water from the pond with her hand and drank it.

I filled my hands with the water, but it was brown and stinky. I was thirsty. And didn’t know when we’d get another chance to drink. I closed my eyes and tried not to think about how it looked. Or how it tasted. It was better than nothing.

I was hungry, but we didn’t have anything to eat. We’d left the roasting deer behind. I was pretty sure that because Rhux was half-orc, she could have eaten it without giving herself the flaming butthole, but I knew it would have messed me up. It didn’t smell all that great, so I’d passed. Rhux had passed out of solidarity.

She must have seen my concern about the water and the food on my face.

“There’s an inn ahead. We’ll be there by nightfall. I’ll spot you a meal out of my coin, but you’ll have to pay me back from your cut of the gold from the Citadel.”

“You’re very generous.” I splashed water on her.

She laughed. “Actually, I think you’ll have to pay me back, plus interest for that.”

I didn’t care about the gold. I just wanted to get Lucas and Sarah Beth and get home. “Rhux… You help me get my brother back, and you can have everything I can carry out of there. I promise.”

She smiled at me sympathetically. “I’ll hold you to that, Jack.” I knew she would.

My stomach rumbled. I was starving. I hoped this inn we’d come to later had good food. But before I could tell Rhux that her accommodations needed to meet my standards, we heard a noise coming straight for us.

It sounded like a herd of wild animals was storming toward us, ready to mow us down.

“Shit! I knew it.” Rhux ran for her horse. “Get on, Jack! Now!” She didn’t have to ask me twice. Whatever was coming was coming fast and loud, and I didn’t want to be around when it got here.

I ran to my horse, but he was already spooked by the noise of whatever was coming. He was wild-eyed and nervous. I grabbed the reins and then grabbed the saddle horn. I tried to put a foot in the stirrup so I could mount up, but the noise, louder now and sounding much closer, was sending the horse over the edge. He twisted away from me as I tried to hold him and simultaneously step up into the saddle. I looked like a drunk cowboy trying to get on a drunk horse as we circled each other.

I finally got one foot into the stirrup, but the second I did, the horse jerked his head and pulled the reins from my hand.

The noise was even louder now, and I wondered how that was even possible. It was deafening, a combination of rumble and screams in my ears.

The horse started to run. My foot hung in the stirrup.

I hit the hard ground face first, my foot still jammed into the stirrup. The horse bolted, and suddenly, I was being dragged across the ground.

My mouth filled with dirt, and my chin bumped along so hard that my teeth clacked together hard enough to make my ears ring.

The horse screamed, a loud, piercing cry, then there was a thick noise, and I was no longer being dragged along the ground.

Everything on me hurt. My stomach and my chest hurt from being dragged. My chin hurt from bouncing along. I felt the coppery taste of blood in my mouth. But I think my pride hurt most of all. The next time I came into a strange world, I was going to learn how to ride a horse first.

The noise around me was still deafening. I rolled to my back, spitting dirt and grass from my mouth.

I tried to wipe my eyes but couldn’t clear them enough to see what was happening.

Then a giant hand grabbed me by the neck and picked me up. My feet left the ground, and I was hoisted into the air.

I managed to get my eyes open enough to see what was going on.

A huge green orc held me high above his head, at least a dozen feet off the ground. Other orcs riding massive, vicious-looking wolves with snapping jaws and giant boar hogs with massive tusks circled our little pond where we’d taken a break.

I looked down at my horse. He’d stopped running so suddenly because his head had been chopped off. The Orc holding me up held a huge axe in his other hand. It was dripping with the horses’ blood.

That sucked. I liked that horse.

But I had more important things to worry about. Like, what were these dudes about to do to Rhux and me?

I saw Rhux. She was still on her horse, but it was being circled by some of the orcs and their mounts, which were snapping their teeth at her and the horse. Her horse was terrified and reared up, trying to escape the circling predators.

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Rhux didn’t look scared, just resigned to whatever this was. She slipped deftly from her horse's back, pulled its head down, and quietly whispered something in its ear to try to calm it. While she did, she reached into her boot and pulled out her knife. Then she thrust it into the horse’s chest. The beast fell almost instantly, its heart pierced by her blade.

Rhux stepped away, and some of the wolves and hogs the orcs were riding jumped into feast on the horse.

There was a cheer from the orcs riding them.

Rhux walked calmly over to the Orc, holding me up, and said something I didn’t understand. I assumed the language she was using was the Orc’s native tongue. It was harsh and guttural and full of grunts.

The big Orc spoke back to her in their language, all grunts, and growls. Rhux listened, then said something else.

The big Orc tossed me down in front of her. I hit the ground hard again and landed on my shoulder and ribs. I groaned with the pain. I was getting tired of falling down.

Rhux pulled me to my feet. “Listen, Jack. Don’t make trouble, and we might get out of this.”

Might?

#

The orcs let their mounts feast on our horses while they tied us up. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but while they tied Rhux’s hands, she spoke angrily to the big Orc, who was obviously their leader and someone she knew from the past.

I really hoped he wasn’t an ex-boyfriend who was pissed at me for being with her. That wasn’t going to end well for me.

Once we were tied, a couple of orcs tied us to a wagon being pulled by a very old-looking wolf whose snout had turned grey. The wolf was as big as a horse, but it seemed old and wobbly like it would keel over any second. But the orcs were using it to pull the wagon anyway. I guessed this was what happened when the wolves were too old to be ridden any longer. That or they ate them.

The wagon was stacked with the dead carcasses of deer, elk, and some other weird creature that looked like a combination between a moose and a bear. I assumed the orcs had been out hunting and stumbled upon us.

The wagon was being driven by a tall but skinny orc that looked emaciated and worn down. Maybe he had orc cancer or something. All of the other orcs, the ones riding the wolves and boars, were powerfully built with thick muscles and huge bottom teeth that stuck up over their lips. They all had vicious-looking scars all over their bodies.

The skinny Orc turned around in his seat on the wagon and said something to Rhux in their language, then laughed. Rhux said something angrily back, but the Orc ignored her. Then he whipped the wolf to get it moving.

The hoard of orcs rode ahead, their big leader out in front, shouting and waving their weapons while we trailed along behind. Luckily, either the old wolf couldn’t walk too fast, or the Orc wasn’t going to push it, probably out of fear that it might drop dead, so the wagon traveled slow enough for us to keep up with a fast walk. Otherwise, we would have been dragged along behind when we couldn’t run anymore.

“What’s going on?” I whispered to Rhux. “Do you know these guys?”

She looked pissed. The leader had taken her sword and her knife. “Don’t worry about whispering.” She kicked the ground out of frustration as we walked. “The one driving the wagon is Thurl. He doesn’t care if we talk.”

“Okay…” That was good, I guess. “So… can I ask what the fuck is going on? You seemed to know their leader. Please tell me he’s not your ex-boyfriend or something and can, like… still smell what we did last night.” I envisioned the eight-foot-tall monster ripping me in half.

She shook her head. “No, nothing like that. It’s worse, actually. Remember how I told you Orc’s don’t like me because I’m half-human.”

“Yeah…” I had no idea what could be worse than having Rhux’s ex-boyfriend rip me apart.

“Well, these orcs really don’t like me.”

She was beating around the bush here and it was starting to piss me off. “And why the fuck is that, Rhux? Fill me in here!”

The Orc driving the wagon turned his head to see what all the commotion was about. Rhux glared at him, and I could tell she wanted to give him some smart-ass remark but thought better of it and held her tongue until he turned back around.

“What is going on?” I said, a little quieter. “What is gonna happen?”

She whispered this time, even though I was sure the Orc couldn’t understand us. “What’s going to happen is we’re going to escape. Because if we don’t, they’re going to kill us.”

That sounded sucky. “So this guy wants to kill you, but he’s not your ex-boyfriend?”

She shook her head again and looked angrier than before. “Worse. He’s my brother.”

#

Since we had nothing else to do for the rest of the day, as we walked, Rhux explained everything.

It seemed her father, Chief Vakgar, was the leader of the Orcs. However, Chief V, as I was affectionately going to be referring to him, was now basically on his deathbed. Rhux hadn’t known this before we were captured, but her brother, Urog, made sure to tell her this.

The reason this was important was because Chief Vakgar actually kind of liked his only daughter, even if she was half-human. Which was pretty much against the Orc code or something. I got the impression from Rhux that during times of war, Orcs raped captured humans, and that was okay with the Orcs. Whatever offspring were produced by these spoils of ware were either not their concern or, if brought to their attention, were promptly eaten. Gross.

But Chief V hadn’t raped anyone. Instead, it turned out, Chief V had done something even worse.

He’d fallen in love with a human.

Rhux told me that a long time ago, Chief V and some Orcs were out on a raid – back then, the Orcs liked to raid some of the human villages from time to time – or a hunting party, Rhux wasn’t sure which, and it didn’t really matter - when human soldiers ambushed them.

Rhux then proceeded to tell me a little history about the kingdom and how the Orcs and the humans hate each other, but King Josep, Queen Jillian’s father, had brokered some kind of tenuous peace with them, swearing humans wouldn’t come into their lands if they wouldn’t raid farms anymore. It seemed the peace lasted a long time until recently, the new queen, Queen Zayne, had pissed the Orcs off somehow. Rhux wasn’t too sure how.

My ears perked up at that. But Rhux didn’t know any more about it because she didn’t care about any of it, so she went on with her story.

So, during the ambush, a lot of humans got killed, and a lot of Chief V’s orcs got killed, and Chief V was severely wounded but managed to get away.

He hid out, just trying to get back to his village so he could gather his men and come back and kill the humans, but his wounds got the better of him, and he passed out. Rhux said he had been close to death.

That’s when a beautiful, raven-haired young woman found him. Rhux said the woman wasn’t afraid of him for some reason. Him being pretty close to death probably helped, I thought. And somehow, I think, using a rope and a horse, she got his eight-foot-tall orc ass back to her small farm. The woman was a widow whose husband had died just a few months before.

As we walked and Rhux talked, I could tell this was a story she didn’t often tell, if ever. But she trusted me with this, and I was glad.

She got misty-eyed when she talked about her mother. She described her as beautiful, with long dark hair, blue eyes, and a singing voice like an angel.

I looked at Rhux and knew she looked exactly like her mother. Just with her father’s green skin and pointy ears.

So, back to the story. Somehow and for some reason, the woman nursed the Chief back to health. Rhux was light on details here. But apparently, he spent a month or two at the woman’s small farm recovering from his wounds.

And in that time… They did what people and Orcs do…

After recovering, the Chief knew he had to return to his village. They would think he was dead and would avenge him if he didn’t return. He didn’t really want to return, but he knew the orcs would raid the farms, and he didn’t want them to find him alive and living with a human woman. So with a broken heart, he left, never expecting to see the beautiful woman again.

So imagine his surprise when a few years later, this woman, this raven-haired beautiful human woman, walked into his village, leading a little girl by the hand. A lovely little green-skinned girl.

Rhux didn’t know how old she was when this happened. She just knew that she had been young. And that her mother was sick.

Her mother would cough up blood every night and could hardly stand during the day. But somehow, she’d summoned all of her strength and courage and walked for days to present her daughter to her father.

A tear slipped down Rhux’s face when she talked about this. If I could have put my arms around her, I would have, even if she’d have punched me in the face for it.

Now, the thing Chief V forgot to mention to the dark-haired woman before they fell in love and accidentally made a baby that was both human and Orc and therefore destined to be an outcast from both societies was that he already had an Orc wife. Umog. And Umog was a jealous bitch.

So, when this strange human woman asked for an audience with the Chief and presented his daughter to him, Umog was standing next to him, holding their orc son. Rhux’s brother, Urog.

Needless to say, the Chief was embarrassed. And his wife was pissed. Orc women are not known for their sweet, forgiving nature.

The Chief managed to get Rhux’s mother out of the village before Umog tore her human head off and ate it. There, at the edge of the village, Rhux’s mother explained why she had to come. She was dying. She wouldn’t even make it home. She had no family, no one else. Please… she begged. Take care of my daughter. Our daughter.

The Chief swore he would protect their daughter for as long as he lived.

Then he picked up his tiny, half-human daughter, who was crying and begging her mother not to go, not to leave her, and with broken hearts, they both watched the woman walk away.

The Chief returned to the village to find the Orcs mutinying against him. Umog demanded he kill his mistake. He had disgraced them. That was the only way to make it right.

The Chief refused. He looked at his half-human daughter and, in her face, saw his true love. No, he would not kill her.

Umog flew into a rage. Umog’s brother, Dumog, was the strongest fighter in the village. Even stronger than the Chief some said. He would kill the Chief for disgracing Umog and her son and become chief himself until Urog was of age to take over.

The Chief and Dumog battled. It was epic. It raged back and forth. Somewhere during the fight, Chief V lost an eye, some fingers, and part of a foot.

But he killed his wife’s brother, Dumog. Then he told Umog that if she harmed one hair on his daughter’s head, he would kill her and their son.

That was the end of it. For Chief V anyway.

Rhux was moved in with an old orc woman who cared for her, while her father checked in on her from time to time, bringing her toys and presents, but living with his wife and son and otherwise acting more or less like she didn’t exist.

Rhux left the village when she was old enough to care for herself and never returned.

Now the Chief was dying, and he’d asked his son to bring his daughter home so he could see her one last time. Urog agreed, but, as he’d told Rhux after capturing us, as soon as their father died, all protections for Rhux were over. He was going to kill Rhux and end his mother’s embarrassment once and for all.

#

“Holy shit,” I said when she was done. We had walked for hours. “So as soon as your dad is dead, your brother will kill you?”

“Yep.” Rhux pulled on her ropes for about the millionth time, checking them to see if they’d magically come loose. They had not.

“Wow.” I was still in awe of her story. “So your mom had you, raised you, but was dying, so she took you to the orcs.” It all seemed so weird.

“She didn’t know what else to do,” Rhux said. “She didn’t have any family and knew no humans would care for me. She thought I’d be safe with the Orcs. I don’t think my father spent much time telling her about how delightful Orc's personalities are.”

“Yeah, I guess not. They were obviously busy doing other things.”

Rhux elbowed me hard. “Shut up.”

I rubbed the sore spot where she’d hit me. “And how’d you get the name Rhux? Isn’t that an Orc name? How’d your mom know an orc name if your dad was gone and he didn’t even know she was pregnant?”

Rhux looked away. “She didn’t know any Orc names.”

I had to think about that. “So, who named you Rhux?”

“My father, dumbass.”

“Oh…” I thought some more. “So, did you not have a name until you met him?”

“Of course, I had a name!” She was losing patience with me. “Now shut up, Jack. Okay?”

I had touched a nerve. Maybe her mother had given her a human name, and she just didn’t want to tell me.

“Okay. Sorry. Just curious.” We walked in silence for a bit. Rhux’s story had taken my mind off of things, but my legs, knees, and feet were killing me now. And I was starving. “How much further?” I asked.

The Orc Thrul turned and sneered at me.

“Don’t whine,” Rhux said. “Orcs only respect strength. They’ll kill you if you whine.”

I think it would be faster to make a list of things they weren’t going to kill me for. But I kept my whining to myself.

“So what’s gonna happen when we get wherever we’re going?” I asked, trying to sound curious and not at all like I was whining.

“Listen to me, Jack,” Rhux said. “Whatever happens, it won’t be fun. They’ll separate us. But stay tough and be ready for when I come for you.”

“I’ll be patiently waiting for you to save me,” I said with a smile. “And please do it before something eats me.”

Rhux grinned and brushed her shoulder against mine.