She neared the end of the stable, and she saw that one of the stalls was empty. Huh. Looking back, she counted the stalls. There were exactly twelve, six on each side. Where was the last horse? She jogged over and stuck her head into the enclosure. It wasn’t as empty as she first thought; rather, the humongous black horse was inside, backed up toward the rear, whinnying unhappily.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. The horse’s ears were flattened back and hooves pawed at the ground. “Are you hurt?”
The horse let out an angry neigh, making her jump in surprise. “Well, I never!” She grumbled. “I’m not doing anything to you, Mr. Horse!” Okay, she was crazy, right, talking to a horse?
All of a sudden, the horse charged forward, its muscled body hitting the metal bars with a loud clang. She screamed and leapt back. “Stay away!” She put her hands up in front of her defensively, but that only seemed to make the horse angrier. It reared up and then kicked at the metal gates.
“What the fuck is going on here?”
As her heart beat a tattoo in her chest, she turned her head to the sound of the voice. A very large silhouette engulfed the doorway of the stables. “Who the hell are you?” he shouted.
The horse once again neighed angrily and reared back. This time, the gate flew open, and the animal went charging at her.
“No!” she screamed, raising her arms higher. A strange electricity filled the air, crawling over her skin and making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Her vision turned to darkness—or was it that the room turned dark? A ringing sound deafened her, and she slumped on the concrete floor, covering her face with her arms.
It seemed like forever before her hearing returned. She could hear the sounds of soft, nervous hooves stamping and heavy thuds hitting the floor. When she put her arms down and looked up, she saw the man in the doorway, kneeling down next to the black horse, which was now lying on the ground. Horror filled her veins when she saw the animal’s glassy, dead eyes staring at her.
“No, no, no.” The man cradled the horse’s head, rocking it back and forth. “Georgie, no … no!” He let out a pained growl, then turned to Sabrina. “What did you do?” The man snarled at her, his face twisted into an expression of hate.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Slowly, he got to his feet. Even if she was standing up, he would have towered over her. His shoulders were massive, and his arms were like tree trunks as he extended them. “I said, what did you do to her?”
“Logan!” They both turned to the sound of the voice. “Logan, what’s going on? Sabrina?” Silke’s face was drawn into a mask of worry as she helped her up.
“She killed Georgie!” Logan accused. “Look!”
The redhead let out a gasp when her gaze landed on the horse lying on the floor. “Oh, no. Poor Georgie,” she choked. “She was pregnant, right?”
Logan let out a snarl and stalked Sabrina. “What are you? A witch or something?”
“What—no!” She pressed herself against the stall behind her. “I’m not!”
“I saw what you did. Your eyes—”
“Logan, stop!” Silke called from where she knelt by the poor horse. “She’s not a witch. And there’s no way she could have killed Georgie.”
He slammed his meaty hand against the metal bars behind her, making them clank loudly. “You’re a witch. Don’t deny it! Your eyes turned black.” he spat. “You raised your hands and everything went dark, then she was dead. What the hell else could it have been?”
“Please, I swear!” Tears pooled in her eyes. “I didn’t do anything. The horse—she was aggressive, and all I did was ask her what’s wrong.” Her chest felt like it was imploding, contracting so hard she couldn’t breathe. “I didn’t kill her.”
“Sabrina? What’s going on?”
She sagged against the bars in relief at the sound of Cross’s voice. He was standing by the doors, but then his eyes went wide when he saw Logan. In an instant, he appeared behind the other man and grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Get away from her,” Cross snarled, as he pulled back Logan then slammed him against the bars. His hand snaked out to Sabrina, tugging her behind him so he was between her and the furious giant.
“Warlock,” Logan sneered as he righted himself. “I knew you had something to do with this.” His voice dripped with vitriol. “Why Ransom let you stay, I don’t know. Your kind ain’t welcome here!”
“He’s a Lycan,” Silke reminded him. “One of your kind.”
Cross turned to Sabrina. “Did he hurt you? Are you all right? What happened?”
“Oh, Cross.” The last of her strength seemed to crumble, and she collapsed against him, gripping his shirt with her fingers. “I … I don’t know …” She hiccupped as tears spilled down her cheeks. “I was standing here one minute, then the horse came at me, and I raised my hand, and then there was this darkness.”
He stiffened. “Darkness?”
She nodded. “Everything went dark and … and then it all went back to normal and the horse … that poor animal.” More tears poured down her cheeks. “He said I killed it. But I didn’t.”
“I saw everything,” Logan accused. “Georgie was pregnant, that’s why she was so aggressive. And horses can sense evil magic.” He pointed a finger at Sabrina. “Were you planning on using her for a ritual or potion or something?”
“Put that fucking finger away if you
