Page 43 of The Tenth Muse

“I love you too.” But I’m not coming back.

I leave him with a nod.

I would leave the memories of everyone and everything but him behind if I could, but they chase me, even now, as I walk steadily away from them.

Centaursdon’tretire.

Centaurs don’t leave the community.

Centaurs don’t fall in love with other creatures.

Maybe I’m not a centaur, after all.

Maybe I’ve just never known how to follow the rules.

This time, no one will come after me to haul me back.

The path from Petalfall to the Queen’s city is all soft dirt on either side of wheel ruts.

I’ve walked it a dozen times, but each of those times, I’ve known I would have to return.Notthis time.

No one can make me go back.

There’s a sign telling me it’s fifty miles to the next village, nearly a hundred more to the Queen’s city. Its paint is chipped and fading … but I’m not going to either.

Cutting into the forest beyond that sign, I leave all semblance of civilization behind.

There is magic in these woods. Magic that doesn’t belong to the Queen. Magic far older than hers.

I come to the forest to find it and to findher.

The first time I had stumbled into her glade it was an accident. She braided flowers into my tail and grew apples for me to eat.

The second time, she had made me search for her, teasing and leading me further and further into the forest.

But centaurs have their rules and their traditions … and I had Gora.

The thought of their trees and charts and family lines still made me ill.

They decided I would belong to him before I had even been born.

My only solace was that it wouldn’t happen to anyone ever again.

Destroying every trace of their plans and goals had been exhausting.

Now, it’s time to rest.

two

. . .

A Long Lost Love

Fyrn

A beetle clicksand buzzes past me in a tumbling flight, and the musk wafting off its dark carapace tells me more than an average conversation would. Something large and heavy is headed this way.

The beetle isn’t scared. It’s merely antisocial.

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