The crowd deafened me, and then, all at once the gate opened. I couldn’t help it, I burst out of the chute with a furocity I didn’t think was possible. Bucking and twisting, I couldn’t think about anything but getting him off of me. I felt his legs press into my sides, holding him on me, so I bucked harder, rearing and running. Adrenaline turned my veins to gasoline. I’d never been so fast. Never felt so strong.

  The weight of the saddle, the pressure of the flank strap, and the jarring impact of my hooves hitting the ground. It was overwhelming.

  "Get off, get off, get off!" I kicked out with my hind legs and twisted my body in every direction.

  And then, just as quickly as it had started, it was over. I found myself calming just a bit and my bucking just turned into a run, around the big ring and over the dirt that I hadn’t even had time to look at. the pick up men, two other cowboys rode up on either side of me, one grabbing my reins, the other pulling Minho off my back. With the weight removed, the need to buck and kick calmed. I slowed to a trot alongside the other horse. I wondered briefly if I could talk to horses while I was a horse, but I was too tired to try to say “hey,” even if I could speak horse.

  My heart felt like it was going to explode in my chest. There was so much to see and hear and feel. I closed my eyes and let the man guide me out of the stadium.

  Back in the stable, I couldn’t help but keep pulling on at the bridle where the pickup men held me in place. I had more control now, but again it felt like this horse instinct inside me wanted to get away again. I took a deep breath that came out as a snort.

  “Good boy”, the first man said, handing off his own horse to the second man, and patting my side with one leather gloved hand.

  “Hey, Jimmy!” a voice I recognized drew our attention, and I whipped my head and turned.

  A sweaty Minho jogged through the door. He exchanged brief congratulations with the other two men and did brief bro hugs before Minho motioned at me. “What’s his name? I don’t recognize him.”

  The pickup man glanced at me and shrugged. “Not sure. Never seen him before, must be new.”

  “Alright. My roommate was supposed to pick out my horse for me and meet me by the pen, but he never showed up. I was wondering if you’d seen him. You remember Julian Sanchez? Tall and gangly, with curly hair.”

  The pickup men shook their heads. “Sorry, Minho.”

  “Hey, man,” one of the men said, “We need to get set up for the next show, can you stow him? The stable-hand can take care of him if you can get him to the stables.

  Minho agreed, and my reins were handed off. The men left and we were alone. If I could have talked it would have been a great time to say something. I wanted to do something to communicate that it was me!

  I huffed at him, and nudged his shoulder with my huge snout. Minho turned and grinned.

  “Hey boy.” He patted my neck like I was a large dog.

  “I am Julian!” I tried to say, but just ended up nickering and rearing onto my hind legs. Minho took a quick step back.

  “Easy! Hey, it’s okay.”

  I snorted again, and as I did the door opened again.

  I blanched. Alice stood in the doorway. She was done up in a way she hadn’t been before, and my heart did a little skip in my horse chest.

  “Oh, Hey, you must be Minho.” She stepped through the doorway and let it swing shut behind her. “I’m Alice. Julian’s date tonight. Have you seen him?”

  Minho frowned. “He’s not with you? I haven’t seen him and I assumed he’d gone to find you. Anyway, Yeah, I’m Minho.”

  Alice crossed her arms over her chest as if to make herself appear smaller. “You did good out there, considering it was your first time. Julian mentioned it when I met him. He…”

  She trailed off, probably thinking about the absurdness of when we’d met.

  But, before she could start up again, the world seemed to fall in on itself. With a flash, I was lying flat on my back. Everything seemed to spin. The breath had been knocked from me, and after a long moment, I realized that I was human again. My breath came rushing back, and I sat up coughing.

  The tack was tangled all around me, the bridle around my neck, and embarrassingly enough, the bit was still between my teeth. I spit it out, and looked up.

  Slack jawed, Minho and Alice looked down at me. Minho still held the reign.

  “Uh…” I looked between them, “‘sup.”

  Minho recovered from his utter shock after several very loud heart beats and dropped the reins. Both our attention turned to Alice. Her expression was impossible to read beyond pure shock.

  A sound released from her throat, somewhere between a laugh and a cough.

  “Hoo… what?”

  “Hey, Alice.” I managed. My voice felt weird in my chest, like my throat was hoarse (haha), and I cleared my throat. “I’m… uh… a magician.”

  “Nice save,” Minho muttered. I shot him a glare, but it still seemed like Alice was glitching. I had enough time to untangle myself and stand before Alice managed to find her voice.

  “You were a horse. You were a horse. You were the horse…” She pointed between me and Minho, “that he just rode. Oh my god.”

  She took a half step back looking at me with wide brown eyes. “You’re one of those…”

  I blinked. “Pardon?”

  “One of those?” Minho frowned. “One of what? Do you know…”

  Did she know about this world that I’d just stumbled into? Was everyone in this town a werewolf or witch or something even crazier?

  “Yep… a magician.”

  Both Alice and Minho shot me a glare. No going back now. She’d seen me, and she knew something.

  “I don’t know what I know.” Alice was still standing as if we were going to jump her, looking between us as if expecting one or both of us to turn into a horse and charge her like we’d just heard a war cry in Lord of the Rings.

  I squinted at her. “You… you’ve seen something crazy before. Something crazy like me–allegedly–turning into a horse?”

  She squinted back. “So… you were fucking my horse.”

  I was so caught off guard I snorted at the same time that Minho said “What?”

  I waved Minho off and kept my attention on Alice. We stood like that, in some kind of stalemate, watching each other. She’d seen something before. Something that made her aware of this world. There was no denying that she’d seen me turn back into a person. No turning back.

  “Minho is a werewolf.”

  She blanched and Minho smacked my arm, “Dude!”

  “Shush,” I ignored him, “Alice, I’m new to this whole magic thing, but I… turn into a horse now, which is a new development and it’s because a fairy queen or duchess or whatever gave me an apple but I only ate some of it so I’m not a fairy slave, which I would be if I’d eaten all of it and now I’m cursed or something and I kept waking up naked in places and I thought I was a werewolf but Minho’s werewolf dad said I’m not so it turns out I just shouldn’t sleep naked because the horse magic is different than werewolf magic. Also I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that naked thing, but that’s how I ended up on Blaze’s farm. And we’re going to fairyland in the next few days so that we can try to fix me somehow… so yeah.”

  My heart was beating against the inside of my chest like a caged bird, and I knew I’d said too much. Once the words started it was impossible to shut off. The expression on Alice’s face remained unchanged.

  “Ok. Cool.” she nodded blankly, as if absorbing. “I have so many questions.”

  “Well they have to wait.” Minho said, grabbing my arm. On the other side of the door I could hear the Pickup man’s voice again. The next show must be over and they’d be bringing the next horse through here.

  “We should get before they start wondering why Julian’s in the tack.” Minho bundled up the arm full of leather and hung it lazily on an empty hook on the wall. He herded Alice and me from the room, back out into the parking lot.

  “What was it that you saw?” My voice felt quiet in the thick summer air, which seemed to stick to my skin. The sounds of loud drunk men and country music and the smell of horse ass was so familiar, and made me feel so comfortably small. Like being at a club, where the sound and the people and the smells surround you entirely, and no one sticks out more than anyone else. It’s like melting away without being alone.

  Despite everything, my shoulders eased a little.

  Alice rubbed her arms like she was cold, or covered in goosebumps and looked away, past the parking lot lights where nothing but blank darkness watched back.

  “I’ve never said it out loud before,” she said softly, “but… I went on a date with a vampire?”

  Minho and I exchanged looks. When Alice didn’t immediately elaborate I rolled my hands in a “please go on” way.

  Alice sighed. “I went on a date with this guy, and after we were… making out and he was kissing my neck, but then… he bit me. Like hard. And at first thought he was just a little freaky, but then it hurt so bad. I could feel his fangs deep in my skin.”

  Alice gripped one side of her neck, not looking up from the pavement. “I was convinced I was going to learn about vampires and die all in the same night, but then he pulled back and covered his mouth as if to hide the blood. He said ‘oh my god, I’m so sorry,’ and left me there on the park bench. I passed out and the police found me a couple hours later. I told them I was mugged.”

  I stared at her, wide eyed, trying to imagine what that must have been like.

  “After that I had a hard time being in the city at night. So I transferred schools and moved in with my uncle.”

  “Anyway!” Alice shook her arms out and rolled her neck like a dog shedding water, and I understood that meant she wanted to change the subject. “So when are you going?”

  “Going?”

  “To fairyland.”

  “Tomorrow.” Minho checked his phone, which had started buzzing. “Early morning I think. I’ll have to verify with Ruby.”

  He answered his phone and Alice shot me a confused look.

  “Ruby?” she asked in a stage whisper.

  “His girlfriend. She’s a witch.” I clarified, and then whispered to Minho, “What is it?”

  He put up his finger. “Yeah we were just talking about it. He had… an incident? We’ll tell you about it when we see you. Yeah. I love you too. We’ll be safe. See you in the morning. Bye, baby.”

  I started mouthing “Minho and Ruby sitting in a tree” as he hung up. Minho flipped me off. “That was Ruby. We need to go by and tell her about ‘the incident’. And she said she had some more stuff she wanted to tell us.”

  I rubbed the back of my head and looked at Alice. She was watching the concrete between her feet. “I’m sorry our date… didn’t happen, Alice. But if I survive the fairy world… I’ll call you.”

  “Please.” Alice scoffed, “Obviously I’m coming with you.”

  “Uh… to fairyland?”

  “Julian, I found you naked in a stall with my horse and then I walked in on you turning from a horse into a person. I can’t just go home and do homework now, I’m involved.” when I just looked at her, she gave me a playful punch on the shoulder, “Consider it an extension of our date. I don’t have class tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, but we could, like… die.”

  “Or get enslaved to fairies.” Minho added.

  “Better than doing my calculus homework.” Alice pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “I came here with my uncle, so I’ll just let him know I won’t be home tonight.”

  I exchanged glances with Minho, “You won’t?”

  “Going home with you.” she sent the text and grinned, “we’ve gotta be up bright and early, right?”

  We picked up hamburgers on the way back to the apartment and I explained what had happened to me while we drove.

  Minho shut the door with a solid thump. He did a big dramatic hands on the hips sigh. “I am exhausted.”

  “I’m sure you did a great job.” I clapped him on the shoulder as Alice shut her door, “I’ll try to actually watch next time, instead of participating.”

  He snorted. “We’re going to have to tell Ruby about what happened.”

  “Yeahhh,” I nodded, grimacing. “And she’s never going to let us live it down.”

  We climbed the steps to our third floor apartment, and despite everything else that had happened tonight, and what would happen tomorrow, I found myself thinking about how clean my room was. Had I put away my clothes or were they still in a pile? Had the trash been taken out? It had been a bit since I’d had a girl in the apartment. Normally, when I spent the night with someone, I spent it with them, instead of bringing them here.

  I unlocked our apartment door and swung it open for Minho and Alice to go in, suddenly aware of the dishes I’d left on the coffee table.

  “I’m going to hit the sack,” Minho yawned as the door swung closed, and hung his cowboy hat on the hook by the door. “Night, you crazy kids. Be safe. Use protection.”

  I smacked him, my face flushing, but Alice just snorted. Minho blew me a mocking kiss and disappeared into his room.

  Alice stretched. “So is that one your room?”

  She pointed to the open door. I opened my mouth, and closed it again, not sure how to respond, but she was already walking towards it.

  “I’m just going to take my jeans off to sleep if that's ok,” she said and stopped just outside my bedroom door, waiting for me before going in. I tried to picture what state I'd left it in, but when I couldn't remember I let her in anyway.

  “Do we have the same kind of phone?” she asked, already pulling off her shoes before I had the door closed. “Because I'll probably need to charge it, and I can set an alarm. What time were you planning on leaving?”

  Alice continued to undress as she spoke. She stuffed her socks into her shoes and then pulled off her ripped jeans, revealing incredibly toned legs, with a tattoo of a boar’s head on her upper thigh. I tried not to stare at her legs or the tattoo, and really tried not to stare when she did that thing where she took her bra off without taking her shirt off. She was entirely unfazed, and just kept talking.

  “If we don’t have the same phone it’s probably fine. I can't imagine cell reception will work in Elfhame anyway so I won’t need my phone. Just make sure you set the alarm if you know when we need to be up.”

  She looked at me finally after bundling all her clothes and setting them at my rolling desk chair.

  “Well?” she prompted.

  “Uh, yes.” I managed, keeping my eyes solidly on her eyebrows. “Phone. I have an alarm. I think we have to be there at like 7?”

  “God, that’s early.” Alice checked the time on her phone and then set it onto the stack of her clothes. “Alrighty then.”

  Without hesitation, Alice hopped into my bed, scooting over, closer to the wall. I had enough pillows to soften the heads of an army, so she looked small and a little lost amongst them.

  “Well?”

  I must have looked really stupid just standing. I cleared my throat. “What… what are you doing?”

  “Going to bed? We have to be up early.” She slapped her hand on the bed beside her aggressively. “Come on, don't be shy.”

  ELFHAME

  Ruby’s shed door was a gape when Minho led us around the back of the house. It was early enough that the sun hadn’t properly risen yet, leaving a gray morning with the first hints of dawn. Amber light cast a warm glow over the gravel paths both from the house and from the shed.

  Despite it being open, Minho knocked on the door frame. “Ruby.”

  He stood back and watched the door a little dead eyed. It was earlier than any of us were used to rising and Minho had woken up gray and grumpy. The whole reason we were going today was the new moon, when magic creatures were the furthest from their powers. It supposedly would make Elfhame easier to get into, but it also made Minho struggle with werewolf PMS. If he was the most connected to his wolf on the full moon, that meant he was the least connected on the new moon. He said he could still change if he wanted to, but it would take more energy than usual, drawing from his own reserves instead of whatever it was he shared with the wolf. Minho normally flaunted his cowboy aesthetic every day, but today he was in sweat pants and a shirt, his hair pulled back in a lazy pony tail.

  Even so, he still had on his cowboy hat.

  I had expected to struggle falling asleep sharing a bed with someone I barely knew, but somehow I was out the moment my head hit my pillows and slept like a rock until Alice’s alarm woke us.

  Ruby answered the door and ushered us in. She kissed Minho on the cheek. “Oh, honey, you don’t look so good.”

  “I don’t feel so good.” he grumbled and collapsed on the couch. Ruby turned to me, the first syllable catching in her throat when she saw Alice. Her eyes widened.

  “Oh! Hi. Uh…” she looked at me a little lost.

  “Ruby, this is Alice.” I said motioning awkwardly between them. “Alice, this is Ruby. She’s a witch.”

  Alice’s face lit up. “You’re a witch?”

  Ruby still looked shocked, but gave Alice a bemused smile anyway. “Um, yes, I am. Who… who are you? Are you sure you want to come?”

  “It was my stable that Julian woke up naked in, and I watched him turn from a horse to a person after Minho rode him—”

  “Wait!” Ruby put her hands up, stopping Alice mid sentence. “Sorry, did you say… Minho… rode Julian?”

  Minho and I groaned in unison. I quickly explained what had happened the night before.

  The girls were both stifling laughs, and though they’d known each other for approximately five seconds, they seemed to be laughing together.

  “To clarify,” Ruby said, fighting a smile. “This was when Julian was a horse, right?”

  “When Minho rode him?” Alice snorted, “yes.”

  They collapsed into laughter.

  “You know what this means, Minho.” I said melodramatically. My roommate groaned, too tired for antics.

 

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