It Must be Magic by Sandra Sookoo

Author:Sandra Sookoo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fairy tales, fairy tales retold, Cinderella, Snow White, wolf shifter, magic, fantasy romance, prince, historical romance
Publisher: New Independence Books
Published: 2019-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Averell’s mind spun from many things as the sway of riding a horse lulled her into a drowsy mood.

The death of her father brought heavy clouds of sadness. The sudden and startling appearance of her mother the queen—not to mention recently finding out her mother still lived—brought queasiness and fear. And the knowledge of the task she’d been ordered to undertake unless she too was killed brought dark hopelessness that gripped her chest with bands so tight she could hardly breathe. Yet each time she glanced over at Quinn who rode beside her, all of those things seemed more manageable as long as he was with her.

“Doing all right?” he asked, the sound of his voice at odds with the hush of the night.

“As well as can be expected under the circumstances,” she replied and kept her gaze focused on her horse’s ears. She lapsed back into her musings.

After the kiss she’d shared with him that had further cemented the bond they enjoyed, Quinn had sprung into action. He’d cautioned her to remain with her father’s body, to prepare it the best she could for burial and to take whatever possessions she wished to keep, and then he’d vanished into the forest.

While he was gone a centaur had come upon her, injured and limping from having a back hoof caught in a hunter’s trap. Unable to stand seeing another living being suffer, she’d helped free him and wrapped a torn strip from her skirts about his injury to quell the bleeding. In gratitude, the centaur promised he would help her in return if she needed him in the future. She had only to call upon his name— Tumius—and he would come no matter where she was.

Quinn returned an hour later with two gray dappled horses which had black legs and black manes and tails. He’d also brought a few members of what appeared to be his original hunting party. If he questioned the discarded hunter’s trap lying upon the ground, he said nothing.

How could he have brought those men and the horses, when they should have all gone back to their own kingdom?

Too tired and confused to question him, she let the men—who remained silent except to murmur their condolences—dig a stout grave and then commit her father’s body into the ground. While she would have preferred the burial to have been closer to their home, she couldn’t shake the feeling the enchanted tree would no longer feature into her life. Would she ever see her home again? Mayhap it didn’t matter in light of what she’d been pressed to do. The dagger that had been used to kill her father, she’d taken. Perhaps it would prove handy in the future, especially if it still retained its poison. As soon as they’d covered the grave with the freshly dug earth, the men had left the area as quickly as they’d come.

“Do I even want to know how you managed this?” she asked of Quinn as she’d gestured to the final resting spot of her father.

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