Page 3 of My Trojan Horse Majesty

“But I didn’t.”

Tim hugs me. “I’m so sorry. Sometimes life takes us places we didn’t expect. Maybe this will turn out to be a good thing.”

Tim spends the rest of the night trying to cheer me up. It doesn’t work, but I appreciate his efforts. He’s actually singing “Walking on Sunshine” when there’s a loud bang on his door.

I straighten immediately, my heart racing. “Who could be here now?” I glance at my watch. “It’s after eleven p.m.”

Tim shrugs. “Wait here.” He pulls a shirt on and walks to the front door of his farmhouse.

I’m not great at doing as I’m told, so of course I sneakily follow him. When he opens the door, I can barely see them from around Tim’s broad shoulders. I wish I couldn’t see them at all.

Two police officers are standing in the doorway—a woman, and a very large man with grey hair. The man holds out a piece of paper. “We have a warrant for the arrest of a mister Timothy Heaston.” He tosses his head. “I presume that’s you?”

“What’s this for?” Tim asks.

“You’re being charged with embezzlement, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duties. You have the right to remain silent.” The man brandishes the paper again.

“Anything you say or do may be used against you in a court of law,” the woman says. “You also have the right to an attorney.”

“Although, I should warn you that your assets have already been frozen, so you’ll probably be stuck using the court-appointed one.” The man’s smiling.

When I found out earlier that I didn’t get into vet school, I really didn’t think things in my life could get any worse, but boy was I wrong.

And the next day, things worsen yet again. “Based on the evidence I’ve seen,” the judge says, “I think you’re a flight risk. I’m setting bail at a hundred thousand dollars.”

“A flight risk?” I stand up. “He’s a prominent member of the community. You’ve frozen all his money. There’s no way he could buy so much as a bus ticket, much less come up with that bail.”

“You’re correct, miss.” The judge smiles. “Unless he has some friends or family that trust him enough to risk their own hundred grand on him returning for trial, he’s going to be stuck in here until it starts. That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

Before they drag him out of the courtroom, at least the officers let me hug him goodbye.

“I have faith in you,” he says as he releases me.

“What?”

He leans closer and whispers in my ear. “I know that you’ll do whatever it takes to come up with that money. My partners are screwing me, and right now, you’re the only one I trust.” His eyes are intense, staring right into mine. “Get me out, Peach Pit, and the first thing I’ll do once my money’s unfrozen is go buy you a massive diamond engagement ring. We can put all the ugliness of this day behind us.”

And then he’s walking out the door, marching along ahead of armed guards, like he’s some kind of psycho killer. It’s been a really, really horrible day, but he’s not wrong about one thing. I may not have gotten into vet school, but I’m not going to screw this up.

I will get that bail money, and I will get him out of here.

Chapter2

Leonid

The only horse we ever owned when I was a child was a plow horse.

A riding horse, well-trained and healthy, cost close to a hundred times as much as the half-starved plow horses my father purchased whenever we stayed somewhere long enough to need one. Our plow horses probably weren’t very well fed, and they certainly weren’t well trained. As a result, if our horses didn’t bite or kick me, I was having a good day.

I wasn’t a big fan of horses.

So later, in spite of having the theoretical ability to shift into a horse, I never did it more than a handful of times. I’ve always thought it was the most vulnerable form to take, and turning into a horse was certainly the least useful of all our magic. Why would we want to shift into apreyanimal that we domesticated thousands of years ago?

Only, when something beckons to me from beyond the blackness I’ve been stuck in and I open my eyes, I’m in my horse form. My very muddy, very wet, massively large horse form. It takes me two tries, but I finally manage to roll to my feet—er, hooves—and then I sense what it was that woke me. I sense it, but I can’t figure out what it is. Something very strange is pulling on me, and when I spin around, trotting toward the tugging feeling, I’m able to spot it.

It’s a person.

She climbs out of an older silver truck and begins walking toward the house. I shake my head to hopefully get rid of some of the mud, and I focus on shifting back into my human form. I’m certainly not going to get her attention as a horse in a cage.

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