“The Games. I get it,” she said. “But I have you now and I plan to take advantage.”
“Dinner’s not until six, so I say we ride down to the water and back.”
Cat grinned. “Aye.”
Ahearn led my Friesian gelding, Hershey, out of his stall, already tacked up and ready to go. “He got out again last night, my lady.”
“The original escape artist,” I said, smiling “We should have named him Houdini.”
“Aye, ’tis true,” Ahearn confirmed.
It didn’t matter what we used to confine my horse the sneaky wee bastard managed to get out of it. We’d done everything short of deadbolting his stall closed. We still had to be careful in case of fire. If, god forbid, something like that happened, we wanted him to be able to get out.
Hershey whinnied to me as I approached. “Och, my beautiful boy, you’ll always be my favorite, eh? But you need to stay in your stall.”
He nuzzled me and I kissed his muzzle before checking the girth, then leading him to the mounting block. Cat and I mounted up and turned our horses toward the water, riding in silence for several minutes.
“Do you feel weird?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “So strange, love. It feels like my body’s buzzing.”
“Oh my god, me too,” I breathed out. “I feel so unsettled.”
“Mum said this is normal the closer you get to yourár mökunar,” Catriona said. “She also felt a similar way close to her bonding with Da.”
“It’s so strange having a mum who was human before her bonding. Her experiences are so much more different than mine.”
“You know you can talk to mine about anything,” I said.
“Oh, I know. And I do.”
She chuckled. “We’re lucky with our mums. We can swap whenever we want.”
I grinned. “This is so very true.”
“Do you think our mates are close?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea, but this buzzing… it didn’t start until a few months ago, so I really hope I’m not going to feel like this forever.”
“Aye. It’s a bit annoying, eh?”
“Aye,” I said.
She grinned, tightening her reins. “Race ya.”
I let out a squeak as I dug my heels into Hershey, and we flew to catch up to Cat.
* * *
Once back at the barn, I decided I wanted to brush down Hershey for a few minutes of quiet before what would inevitably be the craziness of family dinner. Just like my mother, I’d been obsessed with horses most of my life, and this was my safe place whenever I needed calm. Cat had ridden her horse home, so it was just me and my equine best friend.
“You were so good today,” I crooned to Hershey. “You are the most perfect horse in all the world.”
He nickered, craning his neck to nuzzle me. I chuckled, running the brush over his neck, and dropped my head to his whither. “I wish you could live forever,” I whispered.
“I had a feeling I’d find you here,” my dad said, leaning over Hershey’s stall.
“Hi, Da. Are you hiding from the dinner preparations?”
