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I woke up with the worst headache of my life. Well, theworstneckache. That was the first thing I felt; dull pain radiating up from my neck to the base of my skull. I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the light. It was bright—much too bright for my bedroom. When my eyes eventually adjusted, I looked down at my lap, still dressed in my silk pajamas. Did I fall asleep sitting up in my living room or something?
I groaned from the pain as I straightened in my seat; the white walls of my living room blinding.
Wait. I blinked, and the room came into clearer view. This wasn’t my living room. My heart rate spiked as adrenaline poured into my bloodstream. I jerked, the chair rattling, but my hands were stuck.
I looked down at the rope tying my hands, feet, and chest to the chair. I whimpered, too afraid to scream.
“You’re awake,” a voice said behind me. It was deep, much like Ansel’s, and had the same Orcish burr. A tall, older orc appeared in front of me, stepping directly in front of the chair. He slowly assessed me from head to toe. Whatever he saw in me must have displeased him, because when he finally met my eyes, he frowned.
“How are you alive?”I whispered as I stared at him. I had never seen this orc before, but I didn’t need to. I knew exactly who he was. He was rounder than Ansel, his potbelly hanging over his belt, but he had the same piercing gray eyes as his nephew, and on his hairy forearm was the faded Walsh family crest tattooed against his skin, confirming my suspicion. This was Gregor, and apparently, he was alive and well.
“It was just a ploy,” he said flatly, “to draw my nephew out from hiding. My business was really suffering from him killing off my dealers, but for some reason, he has yet to show his face.”
I swear I could hear the chair creaking as I trembled, but somehow, I kept my features schooled. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing my fear. “So you had me kidnapped to what? Torture me for information?” I scoffed. “Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, but Ansel kept me in the dark the entire time I was with him. He didn’t even bother telling me where he was going.”
“I’m not here to torture you.” My body immediately relaxed at his words. But then I remembered the second part of Gregor’s business—sex trafficking. My stomach roiled with nausea.
“So, you’re the faerie my nephew has been running around with?” The wrinkles around his eyes deepened as he studied me. “Hmm. I’m surprised. You’re not his type,” he said. “I mean, I’m sure you’re a nice woman, but Ansel is the heir to the Walsh mafia family, and he can do so much better than someone like you.”
“Then what am I doing here? I already told you I don’t know anything.”
“I know,” he said, smoothing the end of his long braid, his black hair peppered with streaks of gray. “But you’re going to help me draw Ansel out from whatever rock he’s hiding under.”
“What?” I croaked. “I don’t know where he is. I haven’t seen him for months; he’s probably halfway across the world by now.”
Gregor took a step closer, so my bare feet were almost touching the front of his boots. He stared down at my chest again. His finger brushed against my collarbone, catching the pendant. He held it up, admiring it in the light. “You may not know where he is, but he knows whereyouare.”
Gregor let the necklace fall against my skin, taking a step back.
“Why did you do it? Why did you kill your own family?” I asked in a quiet voice, my lower lip wobbling. A flash of anger cracked his somber features, but he quickly composed himself.
“I never meant to kill my sister. I loved her,” he said in a low voice. “It was just an accident. She shouldn’t have stepped in the way. She knows how violent orc men can get—” he immediately cut himself off, looking somewhere in the distance. Gregor took a few seconds before he spoke again. He met my gaze, his gray eyes looking darker than before. “Not that I owe you an explanation, but orcs have different beliefs. Even different from the coddled city orcs. The rest of the world views us as barbaric and violent. But we have to be to protect our tradition and our values. I never liked my sister’s husband, Arran. He was the weakest orc out of the village, and I knew he would never be strong enough to protect her. My suspicions were confirmed when he moved his family away from the clan, from their home, and moved them to a country where no one spoke Orcish or valued our traditions.”
“He did it to protect Ansel. He didn’t want his son accidentally killed by some bloodthirsty clan leader,” I insisted, my voice harsh. The ropes dug into my skin as I jerked forward.
Gregor’s eyes burned. “Arran should have been strong enough to protect his son. Instead, he fled the country like some coward.”
I narrowed my eyes, my heart pounding in my chest. I was poking the bull, but I couldn’t stop myself. “Then why did you join them in America? If Arran was so terrible, why did you start working for him?”
He scowled at me. “I was unfairly kicked out of my clan and Grace was the only family I had left. Even though it killed me to work for her pathetic husband, I had no choice.” He sighed. “Arran may have been weak, but he was savvy when it came to business. When I got here, I was quite surprised by how well he had done for himself. His family was living like royalty.” He shook his head. “But with all those smarts, Arran was still too cowardly to take his business to the next step and introduce a new revenue stream.”
“Oh, you mean he didn’t want to start poisoning the streets with drugs and start trafficking innocent women?” I interrupted. Gregor’s arm twitched like he wanted to slap me, but he kept his arm down by his side.
“Your people never cared about us. Why should we care about you?” he gritted out.
“But it doesn’t just affect us.” The ropes dug deeper into my skin. I knew I shouldn’t, but the words just spilled out. “It affects orcs, goblins, and demons. The whole city has been suffering because of you.”
Gregor shrugged, like the drug epidemic was a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. “Like I said, the world is a violent place. It’s either dominate or be destroyed. If only Arran had been smart enough to listen to me and not test me, maybe he wouldn’t have been destroyed.” He sighed. “But it's not worth crying over things that can't be undone, right?”
I didn’t respond. My entire body turned cold as I glared at him.
Gregor’s phone chimed, and he reached into his pocket, reading a message on the screen. He looked at me again, a vicious smile appearing on his lips. “Time for a family reunion.”
What? There’s no way—
He unhooked a knife from his belt and opened the blade. My veins turned to ice as soon as I saw it. My mouth turned dry, my throat bobbing, but I couldn’t swallow.
Gregor stepped to my side and positioned the blade directly against my neck. “Now, be a good faerie. If you behave, no harm will come to you.”
