60
SHARA
I lied. I said I was going to put something else on other than a robe when I first went upstairs. Instead, I was wrapped back up in the heavy silk robe—with Rik’s big body wrapped around it. We sat on the sectional which had seemed ginormous. Until fifteen people tried to sit on it at the same time.
Daire chortled, turning the television up. “Human media is fucking wild.”
A newswoman stood on the beach with a crowd of people around her. “After the station was flooded with pictures and videos, we came down to the shore ourselves to see the evidence. According to witnesses, a woman rode up the beach from somewhere down past the Holiday Inn Resort on a black horse?—”
“Warhorse!” Someone shouted behind her.
“A stallion!” Another person yelled. “It was fucking huge!”
“You should see the size of his fucking sword,” Ezra muttered.
“I kept my biggest sword sheathed.” Guillaume huffed out a laugh. “You’re welcome.”
“With a flock of over a hundred crows,” the newswoman said. “No production company is currently licensed to film on the beach, but investigation continues into where this fantastic show might have originated.”
“Idiots can’t even count,” Nevarre grumbled. “Nightwing Starlight brought over a thousand of her kin, and then more locals joined her.”
Itztli scowled. “What about the massive black dog running alongside? Surely they didn’t miss that.”
The newswoman turned to a petite redhead who’d gotten a lot of sun. “Tell us what you saw, Regina.”
Regina’s eyes were huge with excitement, even though it’d been hours since I rode up the beach. Maybe she was simply excited to be on the news. “She had incredible long black hair and a gorgeous body. The horse didn’t even have a saddle or bridle. It was like watching the beach scene in The Black Stallion, when the kid goes galloping along the shore.”
“Did you see where she went?”
“That’s the craziest part. A thunderstorm blew up from nowhere, and lightning struck the sword she was carrying.”
“Wait, really? She had a sword? Was she injured?”
“A huge sword.”
Guillaume snickered again.
“Blue lightning hit the sword in her hand. The image is seared into my eyeballs forever because it was so incredible. But it didn’t hurt her or the horse.”
“Did she say anything?”
“She screamed something but the winds were howling, the lightning and thunder were booming. I think she said Isador, but I don’t know what that means.”
“Like a name?”
Regina nodded. “Then she just galloped out into the water.”
“Along the shore?”
“No. Straight out over the waves. I’m too short, and I couldn’t see over the crowd. I don’t know if the horse went under or what.”
The newswoman looked back to the screen. “We have a compilation of witness videos to play for the viewers at home.”
They cut back to the station for a moment and then played a string of bad, jumpy videos. People screamed and yelled as Guillaume galloped by. They’d had to blur out the more suggestive shots of my boobs for television. Thank the goddess.
I leaned over and wrapped my arm around his shoulders. “You do look fucking fantastic, G.”
He grinned. “I was prancing for all I was worth, my queen.”