I felt it crunch. When I lifted my shovel a leg twitched, but the thing was clearly dead.
The adrenaline that had propelled me across the pasture in record time left as abruptly as it had arrived. I had just enough time to dig my shovel into the ground and then lean on it for support.
“I’ve reassessed the situation. Mom needs to hire a pesticide company run by awizard!” I wheezed and flicked my ponytail over my sweaty shoulder—so much for looking professional. “Or maybe we should just burn the whole tree line down. Talk aboutcreepy!”
I shivered, but froze when I heard the muffled thump of a hoof stamping on the grassy ground. Slowly, I raised my eyes, and my stomach iced over when I finally noticed the fae horse had moved.
It was facing me head on, its eyes eerily shining as it tossed its head and showed the red of its nostrils. It pawed at the ground, and I swear the grass under its hooves turned brown and died.
Ah. It’s mad.
Slowly, carefully I picked up my shovel. I’d have to abandon the can of wasp spray—it was closer to the fae horse than I was. Holding my breath, I took a shuffling step to the side.
The fae horse charged, streaking past me like a shadow. It neighed, but the noise broke off into a piercing shriek that could have broken glass.
I heard the tell-tale click of spider legs, and I spun around just in time to see the horse-like creature savagely attack a giant spider that had been creeping up behind me.
But this wasn’t a plate-sized spider—oh no. It was much more horrifying, given it was roughly as big as a Saint Bernard.
A few of the smaller spiders scuttled around it. Probably the giant spider had laid its eggs in the tree line and I’d come outside just in time to find them after they hatched.
The spider stretched its fangs, trying to bite the attacking fae horse, but the equine reared up and slammed its front legs down on the spider’s hardened exterior, forcing it to the ground.
The fae horse shrieked, revealing a mouth full of teeth that were much more jagged and sharp than any horse’s, and clamped onto one of the spider’s back legs. It whipped the massive spider back and forth—lifting it off the ground even though the monster had to weigh more than fifty pounds—then slammed it on the ground, crushing its own offspring.
It did this twice, and once all the smaller spiders had been killed and the mother was half dead, the fae horse stomped the spider’s front end into the ground.
As I watched in shock, Bagel marched up to me and began inspecting my pockets, looking for the carrots I usually gave him and the horses once they were turned out for the day.
The spider’s bloated abdomen deflated as it died, and its legs spasmed a couple of times.
The fae horse pawed at the dead spider, sniffed it, then made that weird, hoarse barking noise again.
“I guess this solves where all those other spiders came from,” I said with numb lips.
I should call the neighbors once I get this cleaned up. They had trouble with the fae Night Court last fall. Maybe the Night Court is starting something again.
The fae horse finally left the dead spider and slowly came back to me, stopping a few feet away and swishing its tail as it watched Bagel twine around me.
I looked from the crumpled spider carcass to the fiendish looking horse, my brain still trying to catch up with everything that had happened.
This “horse” saved me from that spider. I didn’t even hear it behind me—it must have been stalking me.
Cautiously, I pulled out half of a carrot from my front pocket. I fed a piece to Bagel, then slowly took a step closer to the fae horse and held out the remaining carrot chunk.
As a fae, I have some natural magic—magic that works even without the use of an artifact or magical item. It’s the only thing I really like about my fae blood, because my natural magic happens to give me a good rapport with animals.
I was heavily banking on my natural magic—I could feel it stretching out to the frightening fae horse, but I didn’t know for sure if it would work or not.
“Hello,” I said as I might greet a person. “I’m Leila. Thanks for helping me.”
The fae horse was still for a long moment that seemed to last forever, then it crossed the space between us and picked the carrot off my palm with a muzzle that felt similar to a horse’s, but was somehow rougher.
“You’re a good boy—or a good girl? Doesn’t matter.” I smiled as the fae horse slowly swiveled its ears, listening to the sound of my voice.
“How’d you get out here?” I kept my voice soothing and quiet. “Did someone dump you off?”
It had happened before. There were some seriously irresponsible people out in the world. All of our barn cats had been tossed out of cars out by the road before we took them in. Fae were pretty selfish and slippery supernaturals, so I could totally see them losing interest in their plaything and deciding to dump it off in the country.
