slid with its monstrous momentum to collide into the side of a building, cracking its side, and bringing chunks of marble and stone showering down the cobblestones.
Finally coming to a stop, it let out one last butchered bellow, then went deathly still.
Chapter Twenty-Three
In the deafening silence that ensued, fairy people tentatively emerged from their hiding places. But I could see nothing but Robin. The still-in-one-intact-piece Robin.
With the perpetual sun highlighting his messy, sandy hair, he stood up from examining the bull’s expiring body. Giving me a tired, triumphant smile, he approached me and Amabel.
Still reverberating with shock, I stared down at him. “You have a death wish, don’t you?”
He shrugged as he exhaled forcibly. “I knew I could do it, once you told me how. That was a clever conclusion you came to. I wouldn’t have thought to aim there, if you hadn’t compared it to a clam, of all things.”
His praise penetrated my fugue, made me beam down at him stupidly. “You would have thought of it eventually.”
“We didn’t have ‘eventually’—we had mere moments before it managed to crush us.”
My shock finally splintered into spluttering fury. “Crush you! You just stood there in its path!”
“I would have jumped aside if your theory proved wrong.”
“You wouldn’t have had time!”
“But I didn’t need time, since you were right. Now it won’t destroy anything ever again.”
“Aargh…!” I threw my hands up, knowing I’d get nowhere debating his suicidal tendencies with him.
He reached over, slipping his hand through mine over Amabel’s neck, making my heart shudder. “I’m fine, because you came after me. I still can’t believe you did.”
I couldn’t answer, my throat closed, and my heart too full.
He started striding, leading Amabel away. He wouldn’t get back on her, saying she could do without his weight with her injury.
We were halfway back to the palace when he suddenly said, “Where did you learn to ride like this? I know they don’t teach ladies how to ride for hunts and pursuit at court.”
Before now, I would have given him some evasive reply. But now he knew who I was, I wanted to share as many truths about myself with him as possible.
“When Amabel was given to me, in spite of my mother’s disapproval, she would only let me close to her, even if she was miserable staying in the stall. So I would sneak out to ride her, the way she wanted to. When I got older, I began to race her against other horses, namely my brother’s. We always won.” I stroked her neck, feeling that familiar pang of love, and of renewed worry for her. “I now believe it was she who taught me how to ride.”
He grinned up at me, and it was the best sight I’d ever seen. “So, you do break the rules sometimes! I thought you said physical work was for men, especially peasants.”
Embarrassment at my previous oblivious declarations crept up, making me mumble, “This is a sport.”
“Not one polite society would train their daughters in, let alone princesses.”
“I suppose the rules can be wrong sometimes.” I eyed his ears, appreciating their shape, something I’d never thought I’d feel.
But everything I now felt towards him was foreign, and confusing, and so intense, I felt it would burn through my very essence. I didn’t know what to make of it, just that I wanted him to keep looking at me like that. Like he was happy he was with me.
“Is that your way of saying you no longer think I’m a menace to the law, and that I had a point?”
“Oh, you’re no doubt a menace.” I avoided his teasing eyes, adding inwardly, to far more than the law. “But I feel if more people had your intentions, and your willingness to help, life would be much better for everyone.” A buzz crept up my face as his gaze drained of mirth only to warm with other emotions I couldn’t name. If it were possible, I would be flushing pink right now. “I don’t know how to thank you, for doing this for me.”
“Fairuza, I couldn’t have done this without you. I’m the one who should be thanking you for coming after me, otherwise I would have failed you. And if you were right about the king’s intentions, and I think you were, I would have failed everyone else, too.”
“Then let’s just agree to be thankful for each other.”
His vivid eyes shimmered with more indecipherable things as they captured mine. “We do make a perfect team. The strategist