Page 177 of Sigils & Spells

“I am Julian!” I tried to say, but just ended up nickering and rearing onto my hind legs. Minho took a quick step back.

“Easy! Hey, it’s okay.”

I snorted again, and as I did the door opened again.

I blanched. Alice stood in the doorway. She was done up in a way she hadn’t been before, and my heart did a little skip in my horse chest.

“Oh, Hey, you must be Minho.” She stepped through the doorway and let it swing shut behind her. “I’m Alice. Julian’s date tonight. Have you seen him?”

Minho frowned. “He’s not with you? I haven’t seen him and I assumed he’d gone to find you. Anyway, Yeah, I’m Minho.”

Alice crossed her arms over her chest as if to make herself appear smaller. “You did good out there, considering it was your first time. Julian mentioned it when I met him. He…”

She trailed off, probably thinking about the absurdness of when we’d met.

But, before she could start up again, the world seemed to fall in on itself. With a flash, I was lying flat on my back. Everything seemed to spin. The breath had been knocked from me, and after a long moment, I realized that I was human again. My breath came rushing back, and I sat up coughing.

The tack was tangled all around me, the bridle around my neck, and embarrassingly enough, the bit was still between my teeth. I spit it out, and looked up.

Slack jawed, Minho and Alice looked down at me. Minho still held the reign.

“Uh…” I looked between them, “‘sup.”

Minho recovered from his utter shock after several very loud heart beats and dropped the reins. Both our attention turned to Alice. Her expression was impossible to read beyond pure shock.

A sound released from her throat, somewhere between a laugh and a cough.

“Hoo… what?”

“Hey, Alice.” I managed. My voice felt weird in my chest, like my throat was hoarse (haha), and I cleared my throat. “I’m… uh… a magician.”

“Nice save,” Minho muttered. I shot him a glare, but it still seemed like Alice was glitching. I had enough time to untangle myself and stand before Alice managed to find her voice.

“You were a horse. You were a horse. You were the horse…” She pointed between me and Minho, “that he just rode. Oh my god.”

She took a half step back looking at me with wide brown eyes. “You’re one of those…”

I blinked. “Pardon?”

“One of those?” Minho frowned. “One of what? Do you know…”

Did she know about this world that I’d just stumbled into? Was everyone in this town a werewolf or witch or something even crazier?

“Yep… a magician.”

Both Alice and Minho shot me a glare. No going back now. She’d seen me, and she knew something.

“I don’t know what I know.” Alice was still standing as if we were going to jump her, looking between us as if expecting one or both of us to turn into a horse and charge her like we’d just heard a war cry inLord of the Rings.

I squinted at her. “You… you’ve seen something crazy before. Something crazy like me–allegedly–turning into a horse?”

She squinted back. “So… you were fucking my horse.”

I was so caught off guard I snorted at the same time that Minho said “What?”

I waved Minho off and kept my attention on Alice. We stood like that, in some kind of stalemate, watching each other. She’d seen something before. Something that made her aware of this world. There was no denying that she’d seen me turn back into a person. No turning back.

“Minho is a werewolf.”

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