Run
Suzanna raked furiously through the snow, bare figures burning, ice and wet filling her coat sleeves.
“Where is it? Where is it!” she snapped, panic and icy air turning her words ragged as she heaved for breath, digging more widely through the drift. Brego shrieked behind her, stamping the ground, the tree limb he was tied to groaning. She glanced back.
He snorted, white clouds billowing, and pawed the ice that he refused to tread without the lost shoe, black mane tossing.
She never should have chosen Brego. She should have picked a more tempered mount, even if they were slower. She was lucky she didn’t break her neck when he threw her.
“Not as if I had a choice,” she whispered, returning to her miserable digging, shoving one snowy sleeve against her dripping nose. “Can’t be choosy when your fleeing for your life.” A terrified giggle shook her, instantly turning to shivers, another chunk of ragged curls falling into her face.
Brego squealed again and Suzanna dug faster, more frantic, rambling in a shaky sing-song voice to calm the stallion. “Don’t worry. I’ll find it. We’ll be on our way in no time, just be patient, you gigantic jerk.”
Frozen metal stabbed her hand and a single sob burst from her as she pulled the studded horse shoe free. She scrabbled back to the horse, Brego dancing away from the snow that flung from her coat and skirts.
“Shush now,” she soothed, miraculously managing to get a hand on his leg, lifting the huge foot and cocking it rest on her knee, brushing the hoof clean. Well, clean-ish. She lined up the shoe, ignoring the drip of blood trailing her pinky.
“Fix it,” she whispered, running a thumb along the edge. Her fingers glowed, then faded.
It didn’t work.
“Fix it,” she said again, the glow returning for barely a breath. Brego snorted, mocking, and the inside of Suzanna’s ears thrummed with embarrassment.
Brego shoved against her, his foot slipping from her knee as she tumbled, the frozen road jarring her backside. She flew upward, stamping the ground herself, terror finally turning to wet anger that leaked down her face in streaks of hot and cold.
Coherent thoughts faded, leaving her with just emotions that cyclone in her stomach, beat at her lungs, clawed at her throat. Her mind tumbled with panic, pain, betrayal, other things she couldn’t name but felt like hot nails and ice shards.
She stilled, the last sensible shred of her mind pushing her quiet. That wasn’t her own heart thrumming in her ears. It was hooves on ice!
She grabbed Brego by the bridal, yanking his head down to her level, focused rage barely overcoming her terror. He balked and she yanked again, slapping him across the nose.
“You listen,” she hissed into his nostril. “I know you hate me because I’m weak. Because I’m too scared to make you stop. But tonight, tonight I will not tolerate it.” She stared into his glassy black eye, unblinking, her tears and snot flowing freely. “Because tonight, there is something I am more scared of than you!”
She threw his head to the side, lifting his foot again.
“Fix it,” she breathed, the blue glow finally sparking under her shaky thumb, the shoe reattaching.
She snagged the reigns, shoved her foot in the stirrup and hopped on one leg as Brego danced a circle around her. She heaved upward, barely clearing his back before pointing him down the road opposite the growing thunder behind them.
She kicked him hard, clinging to the saddle with frozen fingers as they bolted blindly into the night.
