We rode until we came to a gurgling brook. A waterfall seeped through moss and stones, trickling into a larger pool at the bottom. Amy dismounted, saying, “Now we can talk.”
“I wonder if there’s a reason we had to traipse into the woods to learn magic,” Courtney said as she halted her horse beside me. “Traveling all this way for the aesthetic seems wildly impractical.” She remained in her saddle, probably because she couldn’t be bothered tonot sitfor the two seconds it would take to climb off.
I peered over the edge of my horse. It was a long way down. My stomach flipped. I’d just have to live here now, on top of this horse, forever.
“Aren’t you going to dismount?” Courtney asked, tilting her head toward where Amy squatted, preparing some kind of medieval charcuterie board next to a fallen log. “Amy went all out to make this a special day for us, and now you’re not going to enjoy the nice picnic he prepared?”
I fiddled with my reins. “I don’t want to get off until you do.” I caught what I said and knotted my jaw, feeling my ears heat.
“Such a gentleman.”
“I’m scared of horses, okay?” I said, with about as much aggression as one might use to say,I’m going to force you to drink bleach.
A delighted smile spread across her face. “A Chosen One who’s scared of horses,” she crowed.
“It’s not so bad once I get going. I can close my eyes and pretend it’s fun.”
“I don’t wanna hear about your sex life.”
I would do anything to get her to stop thinking about me and sex in the same brain wave because it made me think about her thinking about it. “Could you maybe help me down?”
A smug smile crawled across her face. “If I leave you there, you’ll be stuck forever, and I’ll win by default.”
“All Chosen Ones need help from their sidekicks every once in a while.”
“I’ll manage.”
“No.” I huffed. “I meanI’mthe Chosen One, and if you leave me, you’ll be failing to do your sidekick duties.”
“You saiddoodies.”
“Real mature, Courtney.”
Releasing a long sigh, she watched Amy putter with his picnic basket. “My butt fell asleep,” she admitted. “I’ll probably fall if I try to dismount, so couldn’t help you even if I wanted to.”
“Well, well, well.” How the tables had turned.
A pale green moth the size of a kite dive-bombed Amy, and he spun around, swatting at thin air as it fluttered off.
My horse grew skittish from all the excitement. I gripped my reins hard. Remaining on the horse was suddenly scarier than getting off it. Before I quite knew what was happening, I’d swung a leg over my saddle.
What do you think you’re doing?my mind screamed at me. But my body dismounted, even though my heart pounded in my throat. My feet hit the dirt, and I rested a hand on my horse until my footing steadied.
Still shaking, I shoved my horse out of the way and walked to Courtney’s side. Her eyes went round as she looked down at me. She still wore the makeup from our world she’d had on the morning of my birthday, but it was dark and smudged, making her look like some kind of feral forest creature—an unimpressive one who devoured pizza rolls and Starbucks. “What are you—”
“Don’t make this a thing,” I said, lifting my hands. “Get off the horse.”
She did, a little quicker than I’d anticipated, slinging her leg over the saddle and half falling over the side. She slid between me and the horse. Her boots hit the spongy forest floor, her legswobbled, and she fell against me, winding her fingers in my shirt. I barely caught her. The horse snorted in protest. Or maybe that was me.
My jaw ached. I willed myself to unclench my teeth, but warning bells blared through my head with the trumpeting intensity of a wailing Death Star alarm.
The no-touching rule had been shat on.
My breaths shallowed with each passing second.
Her vest had laces crisscrossing up the front. I started to visually trace the paths of the strings through the eyelets, then stopped, realizing my brain was calculating how best I might go about loosening those strings if she let me. My hands, fixed to Courtney’s waist, grew clammy. I trained my eyes on a spot above her head.
Unknotting my jaw, I rasped, “You have terrible blood pressure if you still can’t stand.”
