by Megan Atwood
Peter hesitated. This was a strange person’s car, and he was smoking. Kai said, “Come on, Petey. We have to get going. Petey here is wild, Ander. We’re going to have a good time today.” “Whatever,” the kid said, flipping the cigarette out of the car window. Peter frowned but got in. This suddenly didn’t seem so fun.
Something occurred to Peter. “Um, shouldn’t you be in school?” he asked Ander.
Ander looked at Kai. “Petey doesn’t sound that crazy, Kai.”
Kai turned around and looked at Peter, a frown on his face. It looked so much like the frown of the Kai from Tiar who was disappointed in Peter talking to the dragon. For a minute, Peter felt woozy. He swallowed.
He needed to make this right. “Just a joke, man,” he said, in a voice he hardly recognized.
Ander snickered.
The rest of the short ride was pretty quiet, but Peter felt relieved when they got to the orchard. Luckily, no one was around. The Garrisons must have been in town getting things for the solstice celebration coming up. When Peter and Kai got out of the car, a cold wind whipped through Peter’s hair. Suddenly, things seemed a little ominous.
Ander shot off without a word, and Kai watched the car retreat. “My brother’s so cool,” he said, almost to himself.
Peter disagreed. But he knew that probably wasn’t a smart thing to say.
Instead, he said, “Um, can I show you something? Do you want to follow me?”
Kai clapped his arm around Peter’s shoulders. “Sure, Petey! This place was your idea. You got an interesting world to show me or something?” He grinned at Peter, and finally, Peter’s stomach settled down a little. Though he wished Kai would just come out and say the word, “Tiar.” It made Peter nervous that he wouldn’t just say the name of the world. Which made Peter not want to say it either. Maybe there was a reason Kai wasn’t talking about it?
“Okay, let’s go,” Peter said, trudging through the snow. He had to stop himself from running.
Soon they were at the barn. Peter heard the horses snorting in their stalls.
This would surely allow Kai and Peter to talk about Tiar. And more: maybe he and Kai could find a way back together. Maybe see if the Garrisons would let them ride horses on their own soon. They could go look for the cottage together.
At the sight of the barn, Kai stopped and frowned. “You’re showing me horses?” he said to Peter, his eyebrows furrowed.
Suddenly, Peter felt silly. He stammered, “Uh . . . I—I thought you . . . maybe . . .” But then Kai roared with laughter.
“You’re too easy to tease, man. This is awesome! Horses just like Elf Mirror. Only real!” He grinned.
Peter’s heart soared. Finally, they could talk about getting back to Tiar, and make a plan to save Genevieve and the world.
CHAPTER 15
Wild Horses
Sweet! I can’t wait to ride one!” Kai said as he walked to the barn. “I mean, I’ve never ridden one before, but it can’t be that hard, right?” He winked at Peter.
But now Peter was confused. Was Kai kidding? That nervous feeling in his stomach was back. He felt like he was on a roller coaster. One second he thought Kai and he were on the same page, and the next it felt like they weren’t even reading the same book.
He frowned, looking down at the ground. He needed to just come out and say it.
He swallowed and listened to their feet crunching in the snow. They reached the barn doors before Peter could say the words. But he finally did. “Well, in the Elf Mirror world—Tiar—you were pretty good,” he said.
Kai looked on the doors for a latch. He said, “Oh, well, that’s just a game. Is that the name of the world in Elf Mirror? I didn’t know. Man, you’re totally into it. We should play it sometime.”
Peter’s heart beat hard in his chest. “Don’t you . . . remember when we . . .” He felt like he was going to cry. “Have you been to the cottage in the forest?” he asked, his voice higher than he wanted it to be.
Kai paused and looked at him. “Dude, this is the first time I’ve been here. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Then his eyes lit up. “Aha!”
He undid the latch on the barn doors, and before Peter could get his bearings, he had slid them open. “Wow. They didn’t even lock this. The people who live here are idiots.”
Peter shook his head to snap out of it. “No . . . ,” he started, but Kai was walking along the horses’ stalls, running his hands along the wood and rapping on it occasionally. Each time he did that, the horses snorted and startled, and Kai laughed.
He stopped at a stall that held a large, beautiful brown horse with a dark muzzle and a white diamond on her forehead.
“This one!” he said, and began to open the stall door.
Peter took a deep breath and tried to push the hurt aside. Finally, everything came into focus and he realized three things: there was no “real” world that they had gone to; he had hit his head and just had a vivid dream; and Kai was no hero.
And he was stealing a horse.
Peter watched helplessly as Kai used the stall door to get on the horse, which was shifting nervously in the stall. Kai was going to ride her bareback. And he’d never ridden before. Peter sprang into action.
“Kai!” he yelled, just as Kai swung his leg up. “Kai, wait! Don’t do that. You need someone to help you.” Peter started sweating under his winter cap. The smell of hay and horse suddenly seemed overwhelming to him. “Let’s just go ask the Garrisons if they can help us.”
As he said that, Kai thwumped onto the horse’s back, and the horse whinnied. Peter cringed. He needed to find a way to get through to Kai. He felt a little bit like he was talking to the dragon again.
Kai laughed. “Oh, come on, Petey, what can this hurt? How hard can this be?”
Peter didn’t even know where to start.
Kai wrapped his hands in the horse’s mane. “Okay, in movies I know you kick the horse to get it started, right?”
Peter watched as Kai, seemingly almost in slow motion, raised his legs and then lowered them back down, kicking the horse. Peter yelled, “NOOOO!”
But it was too late. The horse shot out of the barn, with Kai barely hanging on. When the horse got to the fence, she jumped and sent Kai flying.
In that short time, the horse and Kai had gotten far enough for Peter to have to run to where Kai had fallen.
As he ran, he watched the horse take off down the path to the forest. And then disappear into the trees.
Peter finally caught up to Kai, who had started to sit up in the snow. At first he thought Kai was crying, but then he realized he was laughing.
Peter slid to his knees next to him. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking for any bumps or limbs at weird angles.
But Kai just laughed. “That was AWESOME,” he said. “I can’t wait to tell my brother about this!” He bounded back up, brushing snow off his coat. Peter looked up at him for a second in disbelief. Finally, he stood up.
“You . . . you stole a horse. And now it’s gone,” Peter said, his voice cracking a little.
Kai said, “Petey, this was a great idea! What should we do next?”
Peter shook his head. “We have to find that horse. I know the people who live here. . . .”
“Don’t they have farmhands or whatever here?” Kai asked, looking around the orchard. “They’ll just blame it on one of them or something.” He frowned. “There isn’t that much out here, huh? I guess this was the only thing to do.” He took out his phone and started texting. “No worries. My brother is in trouble and part of his punishment is having to take me where I want to go. I’ll have him come pick us up.”
Peter looked helplessly out to the forest. How would they ever get that horse back? And he didn’t want someone else to get in trouble for what they had done.
He would be in so much trouble if he told someone what had happened. His stomach felt like it had been punched.
Kai finished texting and then saw the look on Peter’s face
. “Hey, dude, it’s okay. Horses find their way back. They’re like dogs. I read about this,” he said.
Peter saw Ander’s car pull up by the entrance to the orchard. Everything was happening too fast. Peter couldn’t think.
Kai grinned. “He must not have gone very far.” He put his arm around Peter again and pulled him toward the car. “What a great adventure, huh? Seriously, dude, that horse will come back. They always do. But we should get out of here before someone finds out, right? And let’s make sure not to tell anyone. It’ll be our secret.”
The voice inside Peter definitely disagreed. But Peter tamped it down and pretended that it would be okay.
CHAPTER 16
Listen
Everything was not okay.
When Peter got into the car with Ander and Kai, everything felt awful. After riding for just a few minutes, he asked to be let out.
Ander said, “What’s with this kid?”
And Kai shrugged. “Guess he doesn’t know how to have fun.”
Peter shut the door without looking at either of them and walked the mile or so home. He felt numb. Heavy. And like nothing in the world would ever be right again.
When he got home, his dad David was sitting in the living room, his cell phone pressed to his ear. When he saw Peter, he said, “Oh, thank God. He’s here.” Olive was sitting next to him, her face stricken. When Peter walked in, she jumped off the couch and ran over to him. She threw her arms around his neck.
“We thought you were hurt or kidnapped or something!” she yelled into his neck.
He felt other arms around him—dad arms. He felt like crying. Did he even deserve this sort of homecoming after what he’d done? He disentangled himself and looked at the floor.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, barely able to talk at all.
“Peter. What happened? Did you . . . cut school?” David asked, his voice rising in surprise. Cutting school was so very unlike Peter.
Peter nodded and kept looking at the floor. Olive backed up a little. “Why, Peter?”
He shrugged. The tears were going to come any minute now. “Can I go to my room?” he asked, his voice low and choked.
David was quiet for a moment. “Yes. You need to go to your room. And when John gets home, we’ll decide your punishment. But for now, no video games. And no phone, since you can’t seem to take care of it.” He pointed to the couch. “Luckily, Olive found your backpack.”
Peter bit his lip and turned around. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, his dad said words that broke Peter’s heart. “I’m so disappointed in you, Peter.”
The tears fell and Peter ran up the stairs.
He knew the feeling.
He didn’t come down for dinner, and he barely slept. So when Olive came to his room in the morning, he was hungry and tired. But mostly he still felt awful and like nothing in the world was right.
Olive hovered near the door. “Can I come in?” she asked. She never asked. Something about her asking made him sadder. He shrugged.
She came in and sat on his bed while he looked for his shoes. He still couldn’t look Olive in the eye.
“Peter.”
He turned around slowly, frowning.
“What’s going on?” He saw tears in her eyes. “Why . . . ?” she started, and then took a deep breath. To Peter’s surprise, it seemed like she couldn’t find words. This never happened to Olive.
She pushed her glasses up her nose, sniffed, and then said, “Peter, why won’t you talk to me anymore?”
Peter really looked at her for the first time since she’d entered his room. His eyes, too, sprang tears. He wanted to say something. But all his feelings were just a big ball of confusion. And how could he tell her what he’d done the night before? To their new best friend?
He looked down and then up again. “I don’t know” was all he said. His voice cracked.
Olive’s shoulders sagged and she nodded. She got up and walked to the door. Then she turned around and said, “You know, you’re always my best friend, no matter what. Best friends always.” Then she left.
For the second time in twenty-four hours, Peter cried.
Because of Peter’s antics, his dads had decided they would drive Olive and Peter to school, even though the weather was pretty nice. By the time they were all loaded in the car, Peter had gotten control of himself. To his relief, Olive and his dads talked the whole time. But once they were at school, Peter’s stomach clenched.
He was going to see Kai. He had no idea what to say to him.
But instead of finding Kai when he walked down the hall, he saw Lizzie by her locker. She looked like she had been crying. Sarah appeared near her and handed her something. By the time Peter got there, he could see it was a Kleenex.
Peter got to his locker and stood there awkwardly. “Um, are you okay?” he asked, afraid of the answer. He had a sinking feeling he knew why Lizzie was crying.
Lizzie turned to him, her eyes red and puffy. She shook her head. “I’m just worried, that’s all. It’s so cold. And someone let my horse, Star, out of the barn. We can’t figure out who. I’m just so worried she’s hurt!”
Olive arrived next and put her arms around Lizzie’s neck. “I saw your texts last night. I’m so sorry.”
Sarah’s face darkened. “I’d love to get my hands on the jerk who did this. You’d have to be a terrible, terrible person to do something like this.”
Lizzie burst into tears again, and Peter felt like he was going to pass out. This was all his fault. The horse hadn’t come back—of course she hadn’t. He had known that yesterday, somewhere deep inside, but he hadn’t listened to himself. He’d done the opposite of what he’d learned in Tiar.
Whether or not that world was real, he’d learned some things. And he’d ignored them all, thinking the important part was his friendship with Kai.
As if Peter had conjured him up with a magic spell, Kai walked down the hallway. He stopped next to Peter.
Peter swallowed. Kai looked at Lizzie and said, “What’s happening? You making girls cry, Petey?”
Olive scrunched her face, making her glasses ride up her nose. Peter could practically hear her thought: “He calls you Petey?”
Sarah glared at him. “No. Some jerk let out her favorite horse, and we’re afraid it’s lost or hurt.”
Kai snorted. “She’s crying about that? What a baby. Or are you so sad because that horse was your boyfriend?” He guffawed at his own joke and put his arm around Peter. “Come on, Petey. We’ve got things to do.”
But suddenly Peter saw everything clearly. Even in Tiar, Kai hadn’t been very nice. Peter had known that, too—he’d just ignored it and had seen what he wanted to see. Kai had wanted to kill the dragon because he wanted an adventure. Because he wanted to be seen as a hero. But really, he was the exact opposite. Peter had known it all along.
Peter felt the voice inside him welling up and getting louder. He looked at one of his best friends crying, and his sister—best friend always—looking at him like she didn’t even know him.
This wasn’t who he was. He needed to listen to that voice inside him, just like Mariel had said. It knew what to do.
And then Peter knew what to do.
He stepped away from Kai. “NO!” he said loudly. He felt the anger rise in him, and suddenly the words wouldn’t be bottled up. “You do not talk to people like that. You do not talk to my friend like that! Go away!” Peter was shaking, and he realized he’d yelled all this in the hallway. Several kids had stopped and were staring. Normally, this would be mortifying to Peter. But today he didn’t care. This had to be said.
Kai stared at him in disbelief. “Why are you freaking out? It was just a joke. We’re friends, dude.”
Peter stood tall. He walked up close to Kai and said, “You are not my friend. And you need to leave my actual friends alone.” Then he backed up and stood in front of Lizzie. He felt Olive and Sarah flank him. So now there were three people in front of Lizzie, all mad as hornets
.
Peter felt right at home.
Kai said, “Whatever. It’s not like you’re an angel, PETEY. Why don’t you tell your friend here what you did? I’m out of here.” And he walked away in a huff.
For the first time in a long while, Peter felt his stomach unclench. He finally felt like he was doing the right thing, being who he was on the inside. He had listened to the voice in his heart and had spoken it out loud. And it felt good.
The girls crowded around him and hugged him, Olive squeezing the tightest. Peter hugged back, but he still wasn’t totally happy.
There was something he had to do to truly make everything right. He’d just have to wait until he got a minute alone.
CHAPTER 17
Saving the Day
When Peter got home from school, he yelled something at his dads and Olive about needing some time alone, and he shut his door. He’d barely been able to think of anything else during school, and now that he was home, he hurried up with his plan. He grabbed his backpack and filled it with a bottle of water, his phone, a snack, and a first aid kit.
Then he did something he’d never done before: he snuck out his window.
It wasn’t hard. There was a giant old oak right by his window, and when they’d first moved in, his dads had even joked about him sneaking out.
Sometimes parents were right about things.
Peter sprinted down the road, breathing hard and readjusting his backpack every few steps. This was a pretty impulsive thing to do. And he was sure he’d be in trouble for sneaking out, of course. But now that he’d really listened to his inside voice, he couldn’t get it to stop talking.
And it said, “Find Lizzie’s horse.”
He had caused this mess, and he would fix it. He just hoped he could do it before it got dark out. And he wanted to do it before he told everyone what he’d done. Maybe that would make it easier to admit to.
The orchard felt farther away than ever, and he was pretty sure he would never get there. When he finally did, he was sweaty and out of breath, and also incredibly cold. Some of his confidence had waned, but he was still determined.