“Horses?” I looked up at him. “You’ve got all this magic, and you still ride horses?”
Silas blinked at me. Definitely amusement in those onyx eyes now.
“That’s, like, the equivalent of using candles after Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb,” I said. “It’s unnecessary.”
“And yet, the candle business in America is booming.”
I blinked at him. “How do you have any knowledge of the Yankee Candle sales’ reports?”
The man winked at me. Downright winked, a movement that sent my stomach flipping over.
“I know everything.” Silas spoke the words to my ear, soft and gravelly, and definitely a bit entertained as he said, “The sooner you learnthatlesson, the better.”
We strode to the horses, beautiful creatures—a white and a black one. He waited while I finished my coffee and looked for a place to set the cup. Before I found a suitable location, it vanished from my hand.
My lips parted as I glanced up at Silas. His lip was curved up in amusement.
“I take it that was you,” I said dryly. “Which horse is mine?”
Silas nodded toward the white one. “Need a boost?”
“You’re just looking for an excuse to touch my butt, aren’t you?”
Silas gave the softest of snorts. “Trust me, if I wanted to touch your ass, you’d know.”
I chewed on that, not sure how I should take it. It felt a little bitnotlike a compliment.
“A boost would be nice,” I said finally, through gritted teeth.
Silas gently put his hands on me, giving my rear end a wide berth. He hoisted me, and I couldn’t help but feel like the care and caution with which he held me, balanced me, so gentle and so firm all at once, was more intimate thananything else.
Then his touch was gone, and he was mounting the black horse. “Did that pass HR standards?”
It was my turn to snort.
“I would’ve normally taken you via a more magic route.” The teasing notes disappeared from Silas’s voice. He gave his heels a little kick, urged the horse into motion. “But we can’t risk turning up in an area where the curse has spread without my knowledge. So, we’re taking the old-fashioned way.”
My horse followed his lead, taking off with easy, loping strides. Though I was a New Yorker through and through, my mother had seen fit to put me in horse riding lessons as a child when we summered on Martha’s Vineyard. It had been the thing that all the rich people were doing at the time.
I hadn’t ridden a horse in years, but fortunately, it came back to me quickly, and we were able to settle into a nice rhythm together. We lapsed into a companionable silence as the horses trotted through gorgeous countryside. It seemed that this island had a wide array of wildlife and natural beauty of all different types. From beaches to forests to prairies to clusters of dwellings that resembled little towns.
“Are there any cities on The Isle?” I asked. I had yet to see any of the towns that Millie had assured me existed.
Silas glanced over his shoulder. “Probably not to the level of a New Yorker’s standards.” He paused. “Iwouldn’t call them cities. We have areas of denser populations, but that’s mostly due to safety. Our island is split in half—there’s the East Isle and the West Isle, split down the middle by a river.”
“You live on the East Isle?”
“Yes, but very close to the river. It’s the one that runs near the cottage.” Silas nodded ahead. “We’ll be crossing it shortly via the Upper Bridge. Lily Locke and Ranger X are among the few who live on the other side of the island, but they’re very well-equipped to take care of themselves.”
“Where do you live, specifically?”
“Around here,” Silas said. “Sometimes.”
“That’s completely unspecific.” I paused. “What are you?”
“WhatamI?”
“Nobody seems to have a lot of information about you, and Millie seemed to think that calling you amanwas somehow not grandiose enough.”
