Chapter 17 #2
He spread his arms out as if to say, “Tada!” for a magic trick he’d just performed.
He might as well have; it did look like magic to me.
How was one man able to take shapes of such incredibly different sizes?
It didn’t seem possible. I clapped softly for him as I let the full weight of my relief wash over me.
With the collar off him, there was nothing stopping us from vanishing into the forest without a trace, was there? Had we done it, escaped?
Flack picked up the now-broken collar with a curl of distaste around his pretty mouth.
He reached into the broken control unit and tore tiny internal components free, only to hurl them with a whip of his arm deep into the forest in one direction.
The collar was hurled the other way, scattering the pieces so they would be extremely hard to recover.
“With that sorted,” he said, “ready for a fun ride?”
I wasn’t quite sure what “fun ride” meant in his book, but the twinkle in his eyes only promised good things.
I’d learned to recognize that look by now: naughty with a hint of mischief.
He shifted back like he was quicksilver, shedding his human form so easily it felt like I’d barely blinked.
A fox the size of a pony, he was as tall at the shoulder as I was, and covered in that thick, lush white fur.
His tail was tipped with black, and his ears and eyes were rimmed with the same dramatic shade.
It was breathtaking to stand face to face with a beast this large and dangerous.
He was distinctly fox-like in shape, but looked as deadly and dangerous as a wolf, or some other big predator.
His ears wiggled, his tail wagged, and that made all the difference.
When he moved, it was so sleek, but then he dipped into a playful bow, tongue lolling, and wriggled before he rolled onto one shoulder and threw all four massive paws up in the air.
I giggled, my hand slapping across my mouth as the sound escaped, because damn it, that was cute.
It was also bizarre behavior for a beast this size; it just didn’t look right.
When he bounced back up, playful as a puppy, he padded toward me with a tail wagging so wildly I could feel the wind it generated.
Perhaps he was simply showing me I had nothing to fear, but I had a feeling he was also acting out a little just because he enjoyed being his big, predatory self.
When he went to his belly in front of me and jerked his pointy snout toward his back, I finally got the “ready for a ride” statement from earlier. He wanted me to climb onto his back…
It was also the first time I truly looked at his hindquarters and realized he was still covered in black panels of armor.
His hind paws were also encased, protected by what had previously been his boots.
Somehow, they’d stretched, shifted, changed; exactly in the same way his body had.
Whoever had created that armor, they’d known exactly what they were doing to make it work for Flack’s needs.
This essentially meant I was eye to eye with a fox wearing pants, and that kept me giggling as I moved to his side to do as he wanted and climb onto his back.
I’d gone horseback riding a few times before, though I’d never really taken lessons.
Riding a massive fox was nothing like that, and I struggled to find something to even compare it to.
For starters, he was just shaped very differently, and the fur that covered him was extremely thick and shaggy.
The fur was so thick that, when astride his back, it took a moment for his warmth to seep through into my skin.
When he moved, it was also with much faster, more fluid motions, agile in a way a horse’s body simply never could be.
I had to cling to handfuls of fur to stay on his back, lying low against him to keep my balance.
His pace, when he broke into a trot, was very steady and even, so his back barely swayed as he ran.
Those massive paws and long legs ate up the ground like it was nothing, dirt and trees blurring when he picked up speed.
It was, despite the even pace, not entirely comfortable.
His back was straight and too smooth, so I constantly felt like I might slide down the side and fall off.
It was exhilarating anyway. The best ride of my life.
To go that fast, and know that each long step took me further away from the pirates, it gave me a sense of freedom and joy that brought tears to my eyes.
Running through those woods atop his back, it was special; it made me feel like we were flying.
He’d done it, he’d fulfilled a promise I’d scarcely been able to believe when we first met.
I’d never take freedom for granted again.
It didn’t even matter that I had no clue where he was taking us, or what we’d do now that the danger was over.
Then, through the trees in the distance, I could see a change: more light, and the gentle, undulating slope of the mountain rising beyond.
A building appeared as we got closer, and Flack began to slow his ground-eating pace.
It sprawled in a U-shape, surrounded by tall walls and several outbuildings.
A building much like a massive estate, a mansion meant for parties and extravagance.
This had to be the place where the diamond was kept.
All at once, something akin to betrayal began to unfurl in my belly.
A first hint of unease, a horrible feeling of impending doom.
He’d taken us to the one place I thought we didn’t need to go.
Did he want to steal the diamond anyway?
And if he did, what else had he been hiding?
Had I chosen to trust the wrong man after all?