We Remember || ONC2022

Chapter Ten

"You're going to manifest a magickal bridle?" I said. "That's your plan?"

"Yes." Alder stood there with a straight face, dripping wet, naked and wrapped in a down duvet. Since he refused to learn to ride his scooter, swimming here in his black horse form was the fastest way for him to travel, but it also meant that he arrived sans clothing.

It was only a little difficult to take him seriously dressed, or not dressed, like that. Not to mention, I couldn't help the blush that his nakedness brought on. Since we'd started kissing, I kept thinking about what came next and watching him stroll naked from the sea didn't exactly quell those thoughts.

"Okay..." I said. "We can try."

My head was still spinning from the telling of our tale to Orin and Lemon, not to mention the emotional exhaustion I carried from the last few days. I'd told Lemon that her friend was dead and then sat there helplessly as she cried in Orin's arms. It was midnight now as Alder's plan required that he shift into a horse and he couldn't exactly do that during daylight hours. But I was bone tired. I slept through the whole of the afternoon, and I could have stayed in bed until morning.

I wasn't sure I was up for removing an enchantment I'd worn my entire life. Would I still be me when the magick lifted? Pim remembered the baby who came through the portal from Faerie, and she didn't think removing Cress's glamour would change my physical aspect, at least not enough that I couldn't continue to pass as human.

But the spell was the last gift that my mother, Cress, had given me. I'd never known the enchantment was there, but I wondered if I'd feel it when it departed. The physical sensation of a mother's kiss might not linger, but the love that it imparted did. I imagined Cress's magick a gossamer kiss on my brow. Could you return a kiss? Should you?

But Alder was nervous enough about transforming in front of me and I didn't have the heart to tell him to give me more time. Maybe I wasn't being fair to myself. This was too big a decision to be basing it on someone else's feelings. But I didn't want him to think that I was rejecting my own Otherworldliness, or his. I set the two lanterns I'd carried from the house in the damp sand and leaned in to press a kiss against Alder's lips. He tasted of the sea.

I touched the hagstone around his neck and said, "Does this have to come off before you shift?"

He shook his head. "It's magickal." I breathed out a sigh of relief, unexpectedly glad that he could keep this small token of our connection with him as long as he wanted to.

"Okay, then. I'm ready," I said. "If you are."

Alder smiled shyly and then cast off his blanket into the sand. He bent his knee, his head dropping into a bow. As he started to rise again he was suddenly no longer a man. He was the black horse from my dreams. His silky main was wavy and so long it nearly touched the ground, his forelock falling forward into his eyes. He stood tall, majestic, and he seemed almost proud. Like he was showing off. For me.

"Wow," I said. I grinned at him, bringing my palm to his cheek. It filled my hand. He breathed out through his nose, warm against my face, and pawed the ground. "You're gorgeous."

We were about the same height and he lowered his head to lean into my chest. The burn there still hurt, but he was gentle enough that I hardly felt it. I rested my chin between his ears and wrapped my arms around his jaw in a hug.

"This is lovely, Alder," I said, "but I can't help but notice that you're not wearing a bridle." As in my dreams, the black horse was entirely without tack. He huffed out a breath, gently butting his head against my shoulder, but then stepped back. He bent one knee, the other hoof extended toward me, and went down into a bow again.