The first horse has a brilliant white coat and holds a man wearing a blood-red cloak, a bow in his hand, and a crown upon his head. The red horse has a rider cloaked in shadows holding a flaming white sword. I watch in awe as the flames lick at his fingertips. The black beast’s rider is a towering man holding golden scales as red flames wrap around his body, and the pale green horse has a man in a dark cloak with a scythe as his weapon of choice.
It’s a fight to take in a shaky breath from my frozen lungs as the riders look directly at me. I feel their gazes burrowing into mine, searching out my soul, and finding it unworthy. I’m cracked open, my barriers shredded, and not one piece of me can hide from their inspection. The horses rear back on their powerful legs and charge forward. They are a beautiful ballet as they move in sync with each other, the figures leaning forward as if to attack while the horses push harder and faster. It finally clicks, they are coming straight for me. Their hooves dig into the Earth, kicking up dirt as the ground shakes with their weight. I try to move, but once again, my body is locked in place. All I can do is close my eyes and pray I’m not about to get trampled. The sound of my heartbeat pounding in my chest takes over my senses, and right when I feel the horse’s hot forceful breath reach me, everything goes black.
“Hey! You okay in there?” Moni asks while patting my forehead. My eyes fly open, and I find a one-foot sized Moni hovering above me with a perplexed look on her face and Lynx laughing at my side.
‘Man, you went down like a brick. You’re lucky Mr. Cushion was around to soften your fall, Tiger.’
I scowl at him and take in my surroundings. It looks like the same glade from before but the colors are more vibrant. There’s pinks and purples in the trees and the scent of lilacs and a hint of peppermint hit my nose.Huh?
Looking over at the grass, I seem slightly higher up from the ground and that’s when I feel a slight squeeze around my shoulders. I’m in a daze when I glance down and notice strong arms clad in green, curled around me, cradling my body from the harsh ground. Lynx’s words finally make sense, and I grasp that I’m lying on someone’s lap.Fuck!
“Damn! I didn’t know I was that good to get hotties falling out of the sky and into my arms,” a smooth, rich voice purrs to my left, reminding me of honey.
I quickly climb off his lap and shuffle my clothes back into place. Unsettled, I watch as my ‘cushion,’ as Lynx so helpfully named him, stands up and brushes the grass off his pants and ass. The first thing I notice is his height. He’d be considered tall, maybe a few inches taller than me, and he’s sporting an auburn faux mohawk, which I’m sure is a style that adds to his height. A baggy green camouflage hoodie contrasts nicely with his hair, and dark wash jeans form around his toned legs, and my guess is he’s sporting a toned body from how he had felt underneath me. He’s not bulky like a bodybuilder, but more like a swimmer or runner. The Olympics ones, not the high school variety. I vaguely take in his angular jaw with a day’s worth of scruff and meet his eyes. Emerald green smiles back at me, and I can’t help but return a shy one back. Something about this Adonis-looking model’s smile is infectious.
Damn!
Running his fingers through his hair, messing it up more, he holds out his arms to me in offering. “Well! Here I am. What are your other two wishes?” he teases, his eyes sparkling with delight.
‘Oh, this guy is smooth! Where’s my notebook? I need to write this down, it’s good.’Lynx comments.
Heat floods my cheeks, and all of a sudden, I feel giddy, like I’m back in high school, but before I can think of a witty comeback, Moni steps in.
“I’m sorry about that, Rez. I didn’t think to warn you,” she gives me a sheepish look. “It’s only a few seconds to pass through, but sometimes people have negative effects from the ward. Normally it just makes you hyper-aware of your body for a few minutes, like feeling all of your skin pores opening up. I’ve never seen anyone pass out before though, so that’s new.” She shrugs and gives me a massive grin like I just won a contest for being the most fucked up supe ever.
‘Yep,’ Lynx says nodding his little head. ‘My balls were all tingling. Like someone was talking about me. Isn’t that the saying? Or is it that your balls shrink when someone does it? I can’t remember.’
I can’t with him right now. Doubt courses through me as I bite my lip, thinking about what I saw while passing through. It wasn’t anything like Moni was describing. I mean, does she know she was frozen there with me? There’s no way. And how had my body conjured up four demonic males on even scarier horses?
Before I can voice my questions, three Fae men, judging by their ears, run up to us and start commenting on how I tumbled out of the ward. Talk about embarrassing. Each is sweet enough to ask if I’m okay and then promptly laughs at my mumbled answer of “fine.” Dicks.It turns out they were tossing a football when they saw the whole debacle. Being friends with the cushion I landed on, they came to see what was up. “Want to join us for a game, Zeke?” The bulkier of the bunch asks.
‘Remember that time when you tried playing football with the guys? You ended up tackling Davey Kushner. You kneed him so hard in his junk that he had to go to the ER. Ever since then everyone called him crushed nuts,’Lynx says. I’ve tried to forget that, but it’s still plaguing me to this day, apparently.
‘Shut up!’ I hiss, giving Lynx the evil eye.
‘What’s better than stretchy butt pants?’Lynx asks looking up at me.
‘Really Lynx? You have to ask that?’I roll my eyes.
‘What? You know that’s the only reason anyone watches the sport,’he says, hopping up and down like a rabid bunny. I have to try to block out Lynx again as I bring my attention back to the guys’ conversation. Like the fact that guy said my cushion’s name. Hmmm. So, the Adonis-looking model is Zeke. Yum.
“Nah, El, I’ve found something better to do,” Zeke says and smiles my way. El just shrugs, and the group runs off.
This guy is trouble, and I know it. Hell, I’m sure everyone knows it, but I can’t help loving the light and flirty attitude he’s filled with. It’s contagious.
“Come on then! I need coffee before we check out our room,” Moni says while making a figure-eight pattern in her four-foot form in front of me, before tossing her last gallon cup away in a nearby trash can.
“Our room?” I ask, giving her an inquisitive look.
“Yep, didn’t Levi tell you? We’re roomies! Now, onward in search of coffee. Gosh, I’m so excited,” she replies, picking up Lynx and zipping down the path to the school. Fan-fucking-tastic. We spent all this time together, and not once did she mention she was my roommate. That would have been nice to know, so I wouldn’t worry about who I was rooming with. I like Moni, she has an energetic personality.
I finally take a closer look around the glade and notice little animals grazing within the tree line. Colorful birds with long flowing tails hop from tree limb to limb while a couple of knee height deer-like creatures chew on luminescent white grass in the treeline. Fascinated, I follow the path with my eyes that Moni took with Lynx and I notice the school towering upwards through the woods’ pink, lavender, and fall foliage.
“So, first-timer, huh?” Zeke asks, motioning back toward the ward.
“Yeah, what gave you that idea?” I duck my head to hide my blush. Reaching up, I push the hair out of my face.
“As I said before, I normally don’t have girls falling for me, literally; especially as hot as you,” he says, giving me a warm smile. “You came flying out of the ward like a bullet. I’ve never heard of someone tumbling out before, but to make you feel better, the gate is sentient, so I’m sure you won’t be the only one that will happen to.” It did make me feel better to know the gate could be a moody bastard too, but I couldn’t help thinking he might be wrong. In the back of my mind there was still that small inkling of doubt that my experience was an ill effect of passing through the ward. “I was just glad to catch ya. Besides, I haven’t seen you around before. So you have to be new and don’t worry about rooming with Moni. She’s probably the best roomie you could ask for. I’ve known her since we were kids. A little advice though, if you haven’t noticed—get mats to line your floor,” he adds, offering me his arm. “Shall we? I would love to accompany you and show you the sights.”
