Page 40 of My Queendom for a Horse

“I’m not sure it has. I still can’t use my magic.” He shrugs. “I really don’t know what they know. That may be the most concerning part of all this.”

“If they know you’re free, what will they do?”

“What do you think?” His eyes meet mine and hold my gaze calmly, steadily. “They’ll try to trap me again, or if they can’t, they’ll kill me.”

“That’s bad.”

He grins maniacally. “Not at all. They’ll be much easier to destroy if they come to me first.”

“There will be no destroying of any kind while you’re living with me.” His words and tone—the manic glee with which he said they’d be easier to destroy—make me very nervous.

I always distrust men.

Conversely, I always instinctively trust horses.

This guy came to me as a horse, so I loved and trusted him. But now that I’m seeing him as a man, I’m wondering if that was all a big mistake.

“Some people deserve to be destroyed.”

I arch an eyebrow as if acting imperious will counteract the shiver that just ran up my spine.

“You can’t do any destroying right now,” I remind him. “You can’t even turn yourself into a horse without my help.”

My door swings open, my dad blinking furiously. “Turn yourself into what?”

I can’t believe my dad just barged into my room. I’m not a kid—we may not agree on my ‘hiring’ of Aleks—but I deserve my privacy. “Will you be taking my door off the hinges next?” I ask.

“We have a big problem,” Dad says, his eyes alarmingly wide.

“What?” I ask.

“Obsidian Devil is gone.”

8

Of all the stupid things to have to do, we spend the next hour pretending to look for a horse who’s standing right next to me. It takes a lot of maneuvering, but we’re finally able to send my dad and John and all the stable hands to the far end of the farm.

Once we’re alone, I say, “It’s time to change you back, big guy.”

“Not yet,” he says. “I haven’t had time yet to try using my magic.”

“You’ve had hours,” I say.

“But to truly test it, I need a strong connection to the earth.”

“As in, you need to touch the dirt?” I can’t help being skeptical.

He crouches down on the ground, his hands sinking deep into the rich loamy soil of the Liepa land. His eyes close almost involuntarily, and he shudders.

In spite of myself, I lean forward, holding my breath and rocking up on my toes. What exactly can he do with earth powers? Can he. . .make things grow? Could he make a mountain or a hill spring up out of the ground? Can he cause earthquakes?

Because if he busts up my land, or worse, wrecks my barn? I am going to be very, very displeased.

After a very anxious moment passes, and then another drags by as well, my excitement and my nervousness both fizzle.

“Listen,” I say. “It’s not that I’m not sympathetic to your plight.” I know he can literally change into a horse, but part of me is beginning to wonder if he may be confused or making the other stuff up. I mean, earth powers? “But you need to appear as a horse, mister, and soon, or my dad’s going to call Sean and—”

After ignoring me for more than five minutes, he straightens. “Fine.”

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