Page 89 of My Wild Horse King

They’re saying she’s trying to do the same thing with me as she did with Leonid—trying to make Alexei jealous. By flirting with me. That makes me feel. . .strange. I’m not sure why. “They think—but you and I aren’t. . .”

She rolls her eyes. “I know. Believe me.”

“I mean, not that I wouldn’t want to, but—” I cough. “We certainly aren’t faking anything.”

When she looks up at me, it’s slow. Her eyes look skittish, like a green horse I’m approaching with a saddle. “No. We aren’t.”

“If they think they see something between us, well.” I shrug. “Whatever’s there is real.”

And this time, she smiles.

“We probably ought to get ready.” Her eyes are soft, though, and it makes me happy. This is how she should look. I hated seeing her with that hunted look on her face. Even worse than the look she wore when we first met was the expression of despair I saw when the only people she knows in this century are mocking her. The girl who just fiercely defended me when they laughed.

In her century, the mocking of the other nobles was pretty devastating. She probably cares about earning their good opinion far more than I do.

A desire to gather her up in my arms and fight anyone who harms her rolls over me, and not for the first time. It is a foreign desire for me, however. Until now, the only person I’ve routinely wanted to protect was myself.

Not that I can really protect anyone right now.

I’m as powerless as Leonid ever was—and that’s who’s coming for us, thanks to my idiocy.

“Hey,” a voice shouts from not too far away.

A dog shoots past us then, tail wagging, tongue lolling out.

“Peanuts,” the same voice shouts. It sounds like a teenager, maybe. “Peeeeanuts!” The kid comes into view then, running, someone slightly shorter running along next to him.

They’re chasing their dog, which likely means they live around here. They have reason to be here.

We do not.

“Are those people up ahead?” a girl asks.

“What are they doing here?” the boy says. “Maybe that’s who Peanuts took off after.”

Hardly. He shot past us like a socialite who spied a sample sale. I doubt they’ll be keen to hear our explanations. And now that I think about it, I don’t really have an explanation for why we’re wandering along this road, lugging a saddle and a bridle with us. I can’t really say, “We hiked out here so she could turn into a horse without anyone noticing.”

In that moment, I’m not sure whether it’s my own desires taking over or whether it’s really the most expedient move to keep us from having to make up yet another lie. But I do what I’ve been dying to do all day—maybe longer if I’m being honest.

I grab sweet, gorgeous, svelte Katerina by her shoulders, and I duck down and press my mouth against hers.

23

KATERINA

I’ve never been kissed.

With Alexei, we both knew we were faking. It wasn’t common to kiss back then anyway, and the last thing I was going to do was kiss someone who wanted to dump me. With Leonid, we were also faking, so the one time our mouths touched, it’s because I shoved my face against his to hide another misstep.

My only kiss, up until now, was a total lie. Everything in my life has been a lie.

Dating Alexei.

Fake-dating Leonid.

It was all nonsense.

But in the past few hours, I’ve realized that IlikeGustav.

---