Page 63 of The Mirror and the Curse

Kai nodded. “Flurry accepts few humans. I believe the grand total is two as of today.”

“Really? You mean, you and me?”

“Yes, she considers me human.”

Eddi shrugged. “So do I.” Pausing, she gave him an inquiring frown. “Am I wrong?”

He flashed her an enigmatic glance. “No, but to a fterotó, anything from an elf to a hag is more-or-less human. Magic makes no difference, just as a fterotó is a horse even though it has wings.”

“What about a unicorn?”

He scrunched his eyes and made a comical grimace. “Iffy territory there. Unicorns are nearly as much like goats or deer as like horses. You might as well ask if a centaur can be counted as a horse.”

Eddi laughed but then sobered, her brow wrinkling. “Olis is obviously more human than horse . . .”

“And Xiretta is more human than monster.”

“She’s not a monster at all,” Eddi objected.

“Neither are her parents. But her brothers are.”

“Being a monster is about our choices, isn’t it?” Eddi observed as they turned back to the apple tree. “Not about appearance.”

“Or heredity,” Kai added.

Only after they had exchanged apples and perched on a nearby boulder did conversation resume. “Can you tell me what happened during your practice race?” he asked quietly.

She described White’s commanding lead, the sudden onset of his terror, his effort to land safely, and how he begged her to remove his saddle band. “Then, when I unbuckled the saddle band, I experienced the terror for myself.”

Kai frowned. “Ah, that’s what I forgot. I’ll collect the saddle band after I take you back. Geoff Bryant will need to analyze it.”

“Do you believe today’s weirdness was connected to that other attack? The sleeping curse?”

He nodded, frowning. “I do.”

Distracted, Eddi turned her apple between her fingers and took a small bite. Juice and flavor nearly exploded on her tongue as she chewed. Then her eyes popped wide. She felt as if a secret door had been flung open in her mind, allowing one carefully repressed truth to tumble out like clutter from a messy closet. This truth nearly knocked her over, it was so huge, so obvious, so terrifying, and so . . . life changing.

She was in love with Kai. Not just a silly passing crush. This was the real thing.

“Eddi, are you all right?”

Kai’s husky voice made her heart turn over. She didn’t dare meet his eyes. Her hand holding the apple shook. “Yes,” she managed to say. “Things are catching up with me, I think.”

Kai tossed his apple core to Flurry, then hopped down and brushed off the seat of his flight suit. “We need to get you home.”

“Yeah.” She slid off the rock. “I . . . I think I’ll take this home to eat later.” She lifted the apple with one bite missing. “Could you put it in my pack?”

“Sure.” Kai sounded wary. “We’ll have to ride double again, you know.”

Eddi closed her eyes for a moment, both alarmed and elated at the prospect.

Kai had Flurry ready in record time, and again he helped Eddi with the parachute pack, almost painfully careful not to touch her. “Better tell White what’s going on,” he suggested gruffly.

Eddi nodded and approached her expectant horse. White seemed eager to please, to make up for his desertion. When Kai stepped up beside Eddi, she took a step back, one hand on White’s gray nose. “He will follow. He knows I don’t blame him for any of this.”

She felt Kai’s gaze on her face, but she knew she would melt down if she looked into his eyes just then. “Ready to mount up?” he asked quietly.

Flurry stood perfectly still as Kai boosted Eddi up. He then leaped up in front of her again and buckled them together. It was delicious torture. She wanted to wrap her arms around him but had to settle for reaching around him again. However, since there was no point in trying to maintain distance, she pretty much melted into his back.

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