Page 10 of I Was Always Yours (RCA: Royal Crown Academy)

As I look down at myself, I take in the filth that’s caked all over my clothes and exposed skin. I’m bloody, muddy, and wet, and I can only imagine what a sight I must make.

That’s confirmed when I walk into the foyer just as my mum comes down the stairs. She gasps when she sees me and rushes to grab my arms.

“Sixtine!Mais qu’est ce qui s’est passé? Are you alright?” She asks, her tone concerned.

“I’m fine,” I assure her, when something moves outside the living room window and catches my eye. I keep staring, hoping I’ll see whatever it was again.

After a few seconds, a head peeks back through and stays there long enough that I can make out Phoenix’s face shining in the light.

We stare at each other for a couple of seconds before he tips his chin at me and disappears stealthily into the night.

I can’t fight the happy smile that makes its way onto my lips. I don’t know why he did that or what it means, but it grows the flame that’s already burning for him inside me.

I turn back towards my mum with the same smile, still breathless when I say,

“Best day ever.”

Chapter 3

Phoenix, age 10

March

“Where are you going?”

Six jumps at the sound of my voice and slaps her hand over her heart, startled. The hoof pick she was holding in her hand clatters to the ground besides her feet.

She bends to pick it up and throws it in her grooming box, briefly looking back at me as she does so.

“You scared me,” She says, “You shouldn’t be allowed to move that quietly outside of hide and seek.”

“I like catching you off guard.”

She blushes at that and turns back towards her pony, Marlow, tightening the main saddle strap until it’s snug around her belly.

“We’re just going on a ride in the forest.” She says, answering my question.

“Who’s we?”

“Me and Astor.”

My teeth grind together as I internally chastise myself for not being a proficient rider. Picking judo over horse riding when I was seven never seemed like the wrong choice until this very moment.

I walk up to Marlow and stroke her neck, letting the comfortable silence stretch.

“You should come with us.”

I look down at Six out of the corner of my eye. I grew an extra inch over the past few months so now I’m much taller than her.

I can’t say I’m not enjoying this new vantage point.

“Maybe one day,” I say, because I’m really not sold on the whole horseback riding thing. It feels like things could go left pretty quickly and it’d be completely out of my hands.

I don’t love not having control in situations like that.

She nods, acknowledging my response, then goes to Marlow’s left side and puts one foot in the stirrup before she pauses.

“You want me to help with counterweight so you can get on?” I ask her.

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