Page 29 of My Trojan Horse Majesty

I can hardly tell her that her own mother’s among them. I hate doing it, but I change the subject. “The bigger issue iswhythey want me dead.” I tilt my head. “I have a lot of magic, you see. Transforming into a horse is the least of it, I assure you, but it’s currently been suppressed somehow, by someone. I don’t know who, and I don’t know how.” I step closer, her face just inches from mine. “But I do know that you’re involved somehow.”

“Me?” She blinks, and her eyes distract me. . .again. She’s so surprisingly beautiful.

I have to focus, though. Now that I can talk, we can finally try to discover how exactly we’re linked and consequently, how we can undo it. “There’s some kind of magic tying you to me. On the day we arrived here, I tried to run away from you.”

“Yes.” She backs up a step and narrows her eyes. “I remember.”

“You thought I passed out from the tranquilizers you tried to administer, but I assure you, that wasn’t the reason.”

“No?” She arches one eyebrow. “Why, then?”

“If you draw farther from me than this house to that road.” I point. “Then I fall unconscious.”

“That makes no sense. I wasn’t anywhere near you until I saw you that morning a few days ago. There’s no connection between us, I swear.”

“When you’ve been a part of my world a bit longer, you won’t struggle with things that make no sense quite as much. Most things make no sense until you uncover the truth of them.”

She shakes a little, like a dog divesting itself of water. “Okay, but I really do have an errand to run. I have to go talk to my boyfriend.”

“The loser who’s in jail?” I can’t help my scowl.

“He’s not—well, he is, but it’s complicated.”

“So he’s no longer in jail?” I raise both eyebrows. “How did you come up with the bail, when you refused to sell me?”

“You understood all that?” She exhales, pointing one finger at my face. “I knew it.”

“Yes, if you’d trusted your judgment a bit more, we might have gotten here faster.”

“Why?” She cocks one hip. “Would you have written something in the dirt? Tried to change me into a horse too?” She laughs then. “This is such a weird day.”

“What do you need to do at the jail?”

Her entire face shutters.

“Please tell me that you’re dumping your boyfriend.”

“Dumping him?” She frowns.

“Is that not the correct word here? Breaking up with him?”

Her scowl deepens. “Why would you assume that?”

“You are staying at his house,” I say. “Which isn’t promising, but while you were here, he encouraged you to illegally sell a horse to someone using false papers. That exposes you to criminal prosecution, does it not?”

“Well, it was my idea.” Her lips compress.

“And he’s done things bad enough that men have come here, threatening you. You either must pay his debts or be punished in his place.”

“Did you get shot?” Her eyes brighten. “I swear, you got shot, right?”

“I had a residual protection spell that prevented it from harming me, but yes, the man shot me.”

She backs up a step, shaking her head and making a strange sound, almost like a horse whuffling. “I knew that, too. I swear, I have felt so crazy, but?—”

“I know you think that stealing me was insane on your part, but I’m sure you felt the connection between us. That’s why you felt compelled to act as you did, and it’s also why you trusted me even when you knew nothing about me.”

“Maybe.” She looks like she wants to argue with me, but it’s hard to argue when she saw me turn from a horse into a man.

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