House of Night 09 - Destined

fat?” Stevie Rae asked quietly.
    “Bumpkin, I thought you weren’t going to talk,” Aphrodite said.
    “I think he just got his foot in the door,” I said. No way was Lenobia gonna let a tired horse be hauled away to goddess only knew where.
    “Unload your mare. You and I will discuss your accommodations after she’s comfortable,” Lenobia said.
    I noticed that Travis had already been undoing the series of levers and chains that held the horse trailer’s door shut, so we only had to wait a few seconds for the ramp to open.
    “Come on, big girl. Baaack,” Travis said in a voice that had gone from polite and at times slightly amused, to warm and gentle and sweet.
    Then his horse backed out of the trailer and gasps of shock and awe came from all around us. I took my eyes from the horse long enough to see that Stevie Rae and I weren’t the only gawkers. Darius, Stark, Rephaim, and most of the fledglings had somehow meandered their way over to us.
    “That can’t be a horse,” Stevie Rae said, and even though we were several yards away from the animal, she actually took a step back.
    “Holy shit. It’s a dinosaur,” Aphrodite said.
    “I’m pretty sure it’s a horse,” I said, studying her. “But it’s a really, really big one.”
    “Oh, a Percheron! She’s exquisite!” Lenobia said.
    Everyone stared as petite Lenobia walked up to the huge mare with no hesitation whatsoever. Totally dwarfed by the hulking equine, the Horse Mistress lifted her hand, just slightly. The mare watched her for an instant and then dropped her nose, blowing against Lenobia’s palm. Lenobia, grinning like a girl, caressed the mare’s gigantic muzzle and crooned to her, “Oh, you are indeed a bonnie, bonnie girl.” She looked from the horse to the cowboy. The ice in her voice had totally thawed and I thought she was practically gushing. “I have not seen a Percheron since my voyage from France when I was a girl, and that’s more years ago than I care to admit. There was a matched pair of the big beauties on the ship with me. I’ve remembered them fondly and since have been intrigued by draft horses. She’s a lovely dappled gray. I imagine she’ll continue to lighten as she gets older. I can tell that she’s just turned five a month…” Lenobia paused, cocked her head, and stared into the horse’s eye before continuing. “No, she turned five two months ago. She’s belonged to you for her entire life, hasn’t she?”
    I saw Travis blink in surprise. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. He cleared his throat. “Well, yes, ma’am.” He paused and reached up to pat Bonnie’s ginormically thick neck like he needed to anchor himself to something to get his sense back. I knew why he was suddenly so messed up. Everyone who had ever watched Lenobia around horses knew why. When she communed with horses Lenobia changed from really pretty to utterly, totally gorgeous, and she was doing some serious communing with the big mare, so she’d turned the full wattage of her horse adoration onto the cowboy. It wasn’t that he was the intended recipient of her super attractiveness, he was just getting the fallout. But it was some serious fallout.
    Travis cleared his throat again, moved his hat around, and then said, “Her momma died right after Bonnie was born—freak lightning strike in the middle of a pasture. I bottle-raised her.”
    Lenobia turned her gray eyes on the cowboy. She looked surprised, like she’d forgotten he was there. Her horsey adoration blinked off like she’d thrown a switch. “You did a good job. She’s big, easily over eighteen hands. Well muscled. In excellent condition.” Even though what she said was complimentary, her tone sounded more annoyed than nice. It was only when she glanced up and smiled at the mare that her voice and expression shifted back to adoration and true pleasure. “You are a clever girl, aren’t you?” Lenobia said to Bonnie, who was standing without fidgeting, ears flicking all around, gawking at all of us about as much as we were gawking at her. “ And you’re confident enough to be well behaved, even in a curious, new environment.” Lenobia looked from the mare to the cowboy and her expression froze over to cool cordiality. She gave one short, decisive nod. “Well then, that is that. You and Bonnie may follow me. I’ll show you where you’ll be stabling—the both of you.”
    Lenobia turned and began striding back across the arena. When she