He could feel his hair standing on end, and he forced himself to continue his slow amble forward even as he tried to see what was going on.
And – there.
The magical aura was unmistakable, a soft purple shimmer in the distance. Small, person-sized. Definitely not the menacing presence he was feeling from the direction of the lighthouse earlier, but enough to put him on high alert. At last, perhaps he would finally get some answers as to what was causing the tremors.
It was almost physically painful, not being able to rush ahead and find a place to observe the mysterious figure. Each slow step seemed to drag endlessly, the crowds thickening around him, and he was just starting to think that he would never get close enough to see the person when they turned to face him, and –
His heart dropped into his stomach.
No. No, it can’t be.
Celeste stared at him, a gingerbread man held up to her half-open mouth. He could see the magic clinging to her, a soft, purple aura enveloping her entire being. She stared at him, her eyebrows scrunching up into a confused expression, as if she had seen something from a long time ago that she almost recognized, but couldn’t quite place.
Hardwicke’s instincts did battle with each other – to duck away and keep himself hidden from someone who may be a threat; to look at his mate and try to express all of his love for her with his eyes. In the end, he watched her from the corner of his eye; she was still staring at him, gingerbread man uneaten, looking as baffled as Hardwicke himself felt.
Can she tell? How on earth can she tell?
She is our mate,the pegasus said, though it sounded a little uneasy beneath its usual haughty tone.She would know us anywhere.
A queasy feeling settled into the pit of his stomach as he passed her. Was she connected with the tremors somehow? Did this have something to do with why she had abandoned him so abruptly all those years ago?
His heart told him that she couldn’t be behind the tremors. She was his mate, and they knew each other inside and out. It was impossible.
But his head told him to tread carefully. He had been an agent for long enough to know that matters of the heart had no place in this kind of situation. He had to evaluate the situation logically, rationally.
He almost didn’t notice as the children from earlier came up and unhitched him from the other horses, leading him and the others to a field a small distance away from the main crowd where, he assumed, the animals would wait while the humans celebrated.
“Great job, Prancer!” Kayleigh gushed, removing his halter with a friendly smile. “Here’s those carrots I promised you.”
Hardwicke waited impatiently for her to leave, almost twitching with energy. He needed to get out of here. He needed to think.It can’t be,he told himself again, confusion sending his head spinning.She’s my mate. I can’t believe she’d be involved in anything sinister.
But he couldn’t deny it: hehadsensed magic coming from Celeste.
He needed to find out how – and why – Celeste was involved in this.
And he needed to get to that lighthouse.
Chapter 7
When Celeste had woken up this morning, she hadn’t expected that she would end up stalking a horse.
Then again, nothing about today had really gone as she’d expected. The past few days had brought more excitement and confusion and – well,otherfeelings – than the previous two decades put together.
But there’s definitely something weird going on with that horse,she thought as she sidled along a fence, eyes darting back and forth, trying her best to look like this was a completely normal and reasonable thing to be doing.I wasn’t imagining it. I’m not going crazy. But it’s almost as if – as if –
It was as if she hadknownthe horse. Which, okay, was maybe just abitcrazy. She didn’t spend nearly enough time here on the island to get to know any of the resident animals, and, even if she did, it wouldn’t be enough to cause that weird feeling she’d felt in her stomach when she locked eyes with it.
Which was another thing! What kind of horse would hold a staring competition with a random passerby? And if she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought that at one point, the horse looked almost… embarrassed? Which was impossible.
It was just a horse! Get over it! You’ve got way more important things to be worrying about.
And yet, here she was, sneaking about the backstreets of Portsmith like a cut-price version of one of the detectives she was supposedly always writing novels about. If anyone spotted her snooping about, she would be in for one hell of an interrogation – even a reputation for eccentricity could only get her so far before people started getting suspicious. And, she had to admit, her behavior right now was definitely not something to inspire confidence in the hearts of the locals.
She flattened herself against a wall and peered cautiously around the corner, nibbling absently on her gingerbread.
The horses were being led into a field, tucked away behind some houses. It was a pretty secluded area, with the only other people she could see being the kids who were leading the horses. Presumably everyone else was off enjoying the festivities at the end of the parade.
Part of her wished that she was doing the same thing, eating good food and having fun – or even just doing what she wassupposedto be doing, which was investigating the tremors and keeping an eye on Pierce. But she hadn’t exactly been able to come up with any kind of reasonable excuse to follow him back to his accommodation and interrupt his work, as much as she had desperately wanted to.
