Page 86 of Centaur Bolt

“For all you know, Sparkle does it all the time,” I said.

His brows lowered. “I suppose that could be true. But she has never gotten lost.”

I smiled at him. “I promise I won’t get lost.”

“Please don’t.” He looked quite distressed. “That would beangoissant.” When I stared at him, he elaborated. “Horrible.”

Well, I didn’t know about horrible, but it would be inconvenient to get lost in the past. I gazed across the lake and saw a glimmer of silver amid the trees.

Handing Jacques the phone, I paced a few feet away from him, and closed my eyes. This time, the center of me almost pulsed, vibrant in my mind. Was that because of the crystal? I pictured the boulders, an ordinary dark gray beneath the morning sun. And then, I reached for the sensation of being trapped.

White noise…

Snap.

And a swirling vortex of golden light.

This time, I landed on my hands and knees. Hard. Ouch. For a panicked moment, I thought I might have shifted to Dire—but the hands I stared down at were human. I blinked, and saw Cara. She was standing up to her knees in the water. Her long equine ears were pricked, and she tossed her head.

Far from feeling drained, I felt invigorated instead. As though my skin was too small for my body.

Still vibrating with energy, I pushed myself to my feet, and looked beyond the boulders and the Unicorn to the far side of the lake. To the meadow and the bench beneath the trees—I could barely see Jacques’s lean form standing beside it. And for just an instant, I envisioned it as it most likely had been, before the forest was cut down. How the trees must have grown thick and lush to the shore, the land wild and untamed.

Snap.

The golden light enveloped me for a frightening amount of time, and I couldn’t breathe. I landed with a thump on my poor butt. When the light cleared, I remained in the same spot by the boulders. But there was no sign of Cara.

And when I looked across the lake, all I saw were trees. No meadow. And no castle.

27

Riley

I raised a hand that was covered in fur. My fingers ended in vicious claws, and I had huge, roped muscles all the way to my shoulders.

Panicked, I swayed to my feet. Staggered, almost went down again—and the crotch of my leggings twisted against something that did not belong there. Three somethings, to be exact, that were rather cranky about being pinched. The seams were stretched across thighs bulging with muscle.

Dammit, I wasn’t going to be continually at the mercy of this fuzzy inner phantom. I needed to Jump back before I lost my way, and I couldn’t let Cara see me looking like this.

My mind came up with a compromise. I visualized, reached—

Snap.

The light, this time, had real heat to it. At least, I thought it did—I felt it on the back of my head, because I’d face-planted into the leaves. Spitting dirt, I rolled over. Normal sunlight, filtered through branches, shone down upon me. The arbor stood silent beneath the morning sun. Could be any morning, but I thought I got thewhenright.

Had to work, now, on the beast end of things. I wasn’t fully Dire this time, but my arms were covered in muscle and fur, and my tee shirt threatened to split at the seams.

The pain had me curling into a ball. I envisioned myself as I should be and pushed back.

Every bit of me trembled. Then I remembered the crystal dust. I managed to pull it out of my pocket. My Dire fingers were not well suited to the task, but I forced them back to my normal ones, and got the napkin unfolded.

I took a mouthful, and swallowed.

The tingling power surged through me, and suddenly anything was possible. It did nothing for the pain, though. I hissed through clenched teeth as everything rearranged. The pain in my groin had me rolling around and clutching myself. I’d never laugh at a dude getting hit in the crotch again.

Then, as quickly as it had struck, it was gone. I was myself, lying in the grass, dressed in clothing stretched out of shape in rather interesting ways.

The ground trembled, and a Unicorn surged into the clearing.

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