“She’s a fighter,” Lord Linus said. “As long as no one ticks her off and hurts an animal in front of her, she’ll be fine.”
King Solis clasped his hands together and draped his arms over the chest-high wooden fence erected for safety.
It is strange he has such concern for the Night Court monarch.
King Solis’s gaze skated past me and lingered on Fax and Bagel. “I assume Queen Leila was not planning to ride either of these fine mounts?”
I let Lord Linus answer—I had no desire to speak to the Day King.
“No.” Lord Linus rubbed Bagel’s head—the donkey leaned into it with glee. “She said we had to bring them as ‘emotional support’ for the night mares.”
King Solis wrinkled his forehead in confusion. “Emotional support?”
“That’s what she said.”
“Must be a human thing.”
“Yeah.”
I watched on the screen as one of the derby officials raised a massive white flag, then swung it down.
“It’s started,” I said.
The horses were off like a shot, tearing down the streets in a dangerous crush, except Leila and the night mares.
They stayed far behind, grouped in a tiny pack, obediently standing at the starting line for no apparent reason.
I nearly frowned as the drone assigned to Leila zoomed in on her.
What is she planning?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Leila
Iwatched as the rest of the contestants disappeared down the broad, paved road. If the previous races were any indication, they’d all stay on this road as it traveled south, until it turned and went east.
From there it varied hugely as the riders branched off into what they thought were the best streets—or the secret places where they could cheat, like the Lord Umer whom King Solis had mentioned.
But I planned to turn off immediately.
Even though we were completely hemmed in on the east by lakes, there wasoneway out. One way that nobody took because they either didn’t know the area, or because it’d be too terrifying for any horse to travel.
But I know the night mares, and I believe in them. Let’s just hope they believe in me, too.
Once the last rider and mount passed about three blocks in front of us, I gathered up the reins. “Okay, my beauties. Let’s show everyone just how amazing you are. Group up!”
I cheekily waved to the drone as the night mares rearranged themselves into two rows of three. Eclipse was on my right and Solstice on my left with Blue Moon and me in the center. Behind us, Comet, Twilight, and Nebula guarded our backs.
I nudged Blue Moon into a trot, which the rest of the night mares copied, and immediately turned off the road, following a side street that circled back behind the stores, restaurants, and cafés that lined the lakeside and opened into a long but thin parking lot.
The night mares clattered across the parking lot, and I fought to keep my breathing steady even though my palms were fast getting sweaty.
We reached the lakeside, which—although it had a boardwalk—didn’t have a beach, just a steep dropoff since the lake was about ten feet lower than the street.
But bridging over the gap and arching down to the water was a sturdy boardwalk the city had put in about a decade ago thanks to the funds the Curia Cloisters had dropped into a gigantic city beautification project—AKA one of the supernaturals’ efforts to buy goodwill among the people when humans were still unsure if supernaturals were safe or not.
The lake—the horribly named Fairy Lake—actually only started a few blocks north, and at this portion the lake was pretty narrow. So narrow, in fact, the boardwalk cut straight across the water and bridged the lake to connect to a bike path that sliced between Fairy Lake and the other lake that pressed against downtown Magiford. Following the bike trail would drop me off in the downtown area—just a few blocks up from the finish line—and it would cut a significant amount of distance off the ride while providing a safe area and good footing for my night mares to gallop down.
