Page 19 of My Queendom for a Horse

“It’s not my fault I’m naked.” Aleksandr sounds annoyed.

“No, it’s not,” I say. “But I’m having trouble believing you’re real.”

“How could I not be real?” He blinks.

“I could have passed out. I could be dreaming.”

Large hands reach out and grasp my forearms. A shiver races up my spine, and my entire body comes alive in a way it never has before. “I—what are you doing?”

His breath washes over my face and it’s warm and smells earthy. “I’m real. Very, very real. And I’m grateful to you for breaking the curse. More grateful than you could possibly know.”

“Okay.” I can’t really argue with him, not like this. He feels real, and he sounds real, and he looks real. “But I need you as a horse.”

“But I’m not a horse. I’m a man.”

“But I spent a fortune on a horse, and you can’t just—what do you want to do now? Just leave for Russia?”

“Home.” He nods.

“You won’t have much of a home left,” I say, “if you haven’t been there since 1917. That’s more than a hundred years.” Can any of this actually be happening?

He looks concerned at the thought that his home may be gone. His shoulders slump a bit. I notice that he’s not covered in goosebumps, in spite of being naked in the cold.

“Here.” I slide out of the barn coat and hold it toward him. “Put this on, at least.”

“I’m not cold.” He crosses his arms, and I look down again involuntarily. He’s not lying.

“Fine, but take it anyway.”

This time, his expression looks smug. “Alright.” He slides his arms into the coat, and thankfully it’s long. Probably not quite long enough, but I’ll take what I can get. It gives me somewhere to look that’s safe.

“You need me to be a horse again, but I need to go home.” His lips flatten into a hard line.

If this is for real, if he’s not a horse, how can I keep him? Oh, no. I just spent my life savings buying a horse who isn’t a horse. I bought a man. Obviously I can’t own a man.

I’m doomed.

I slide to the ground and sit cross-legged, my eyes staring at a clump of weeds.

“You need money, or you’ll lose the farm.”

My nostrils flare. “I can borrow money from my ex.”

“But you still have to pay him back.”

I nod.

“You need to borrow money because you spent yours buying me.”

I turn my head to face him slowly. The sun is shining behind his head, but I can just make out his expression. He’s seriously smart for someone who was a horse until two minutes ago. “I can’t believe you’re a man. I’m ruined.”

“I’m not exactly a man,” he says. “I’m a shifter with a horse form.”

“You’re saying that you’ve always—”

“Been able to shift into that same horse form?” He nods again.

“Do it now,” I say. Because I won’t believe it until I watch it with my own eyeballs.

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