Page 55 of Chasing Tail
Chapter 29
All three druid princes knew about the secret passages in the castle, but even Taron and I knew it was a bad idea to jump out of one and surprise them. They weren’t paranoid like their father was, but guards were still outside their door since they were princes. I hadn’t seen them, but apparently, they were all over the palace.
I knew enough to know the guards weren’t going to answer to Callum until he was king, and if they thought he was working against his father, he’d be arrested. We didn’t need that.
I knew of a much more pleasant way to wake them up that wouldn’t make them want to fight anyone. So I slipped into their beds one by one, snuggled into them, and kissed them until they were awake. The druid princes might be utterly different from mermaids, but sex worked on land or in the ocean.
We didn’t have much time, so as soon as they woke up and started to kiss me back, I got their attention to tell them the plan had changed. They immediately got dressed. They had to be seen going out of the front door for this to work. The rest of us would still be sneaking through the walls.
I thought we would be walking to the wolves, but we met up at a funny smelling building with land monsters in it. Taron’s sharp teeth came out, and I pointed my knife at them. They kept tossing their evil heads and stomping their feet. Beck put his hand on my arm and lowered my blade.
“Why did you bring us to land monsters?”
“Those are horses, and you’re scaring them. We need them to get to the wolves before the potion wears off, and they wake up and hurt that wolf,” Tristan said.
“It’s like when you grab Taron or a dolphin’s fin to get somewhere faster,” Adamo said.
“We aren’t dumb enough to try to hitch a ride on a monster in the ocean.”
“Horses are perfectly lovely and not monsters. So put the blade and teeth away, and we’ll show you.”
“It looks like a monster, and I don’t like how they are staring at me.”
Forrest reached into a bag on the wall and placed something in my hand. He gave some to Taron too. I looked down, and it was cubes of sugar like I put in the tea they served I liked so much. I doubted anyone was making tea out here, so I had no idea why sugar was just hanging around. I was suspicious.
Forrest stepped in front of me and pulled me into a hug.
“These are our horses, Kishi. They aren’t monsters. We trained them ourselves, and they’ve never once hurt us. We want you to be friends with our horses because we use them often for travel. So if you stop threatening them with knives and feed them sugar, they’ll be your best friend.”
“That thing is going to bite my arm off if I get close to it.”
Forrest chuckled and kissed my forehead.
“Horses eat vegetables and hay. We give them beer too. Horses don’t eat people. They’ll kick the shit out of you if you piss them off, but they don’t bite. Do you trust us?”
I growled, then sighed. I trusted all of them, and they all said we needed these land monsters to beat the druid king and rescue Cassandra. There were things on land I still didn’t understand. We killed monsters in the ocean instead of trying to tame them. I didn’t trust those horses, but no one had lied to me about anything yet.
I stepped out of Forrest’s arms and cocked my head at Taron. If we were going to feed monsters sugar, we were going to do it together. I stretched my arm out as far as it would go. There was half a wall between that beast and me, but I wasn’t stupid. I was keeping my distance, especially when the thing snorted at me.
Every instinct in me was screaming to have my dagger out, but I put it away. Since when was I worried about scaring monsters? The thing didn’t bite me. Its nose was actually warm and soft as it nuzzled my palm. It didn’t bite me at all. Its lips tickled my palm as it ate the sugar. When it finished, it was looking for more.
“Your monster is funny,” I told Forrest.
“I like it,” Taron said.
Tristan came out of the building. He had disappeared for a minute.
“The horses are saddled up.”
“Some animals are companions on land,” Salem said. “We use horses for travel and farming. Some dogs are spoiled little fat potatoes that people buy because they are cute. Some of them protect farms, and some help with hunting. Some of them are dangerous, but plenty of them aren’t.”
“Kishi, you ride with Callum. Taron will ride with me,” Beck said.
I wasn’t afraid of the horses anymore, but Taron and I both needed help to get on top of one. I didn’t feel entirely safe sitting up there until Callum climbed behind me and wrapped his brawny arm around my waist. He wouldn’t let me fall, and he knew this horse.
I shrieked when Callum kicked his horse, and it took off running. My hair was billowing behind me as we raced through the streets, and Callum had his powerful arms around me. It differed from hitching a ride with a shark or a dolphin, but it was exhilarating.
I threw back my head and laughed. I could hear Taron behind me doing the same. Then, finally, something in the forest answered us, and the horses started to slow down. Strange beasts with glowing yellow eyes started spilling into the woods, then they all turned into naked men and women. Their change seemed to be much less painless than mine.
