Florian didn’t stop to question, he hauled ass after the limping Madeline toward the source of the scream, eyes scanning every possible angle to assess threats.

  While they found no direct threats, they did come upon Talia with her hands clapped over her mouth and her eyes wide next to the open stall of the Wylderwynd Pure. Talia stood alone, tears welling in her eyes. Madeline rushed to hug her then grabbed her shoulders with firm hands.

  “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Madeline asked, words steady but transmitting concern.

  “I’m fine,” Talia whispered, pointing to the stall. “Look.”

  Florian dashed into the stall before Madeline could react and saw Lane, eyes damn near goggling out of his head.

  There was no horse inside the stall.

  Thad, Manny and Jay had evidently heard the scream as well as they came running shortly thereafter. Manny and Jay burst through the stall door while Thad spoke to the girls.

  “Where’s the Pure?” Florian demanded of Lane.

  “There was a Pure in here?” Jay exclaimed in wonder. “Are you serious?”

  “I have no idea where it went,” Lane said, ignoring Jay’s wonderment. “Talia and I came to see it, then we went inside and…I must not have closed the stall door all the way? Or missed the latch? Fuck!”

  “A Wylderwynd Pure?” Manny echoed Jay’s wonderment.

  “A white one. It was glorious, bro,” Florian said to the Storm Sorcerers, then turning to Lane. “Okay. Well, we’ll just have to find it then, won’t we? How did it even get out? The front gate is still closed…paddock maybe? But that’s sort of far for a horse to wander.”

  “Pure’s are supposed to be smart as hell,” Jay said. “Not inconceivable it remembered the way. Judging by the cleanliness of this stall, it spend some time there earlier?”

  “Yup. First one we did. Okay,” Florian said, clapping his hands together, surprising himself with how easy command came. “Here’s what we’ll do. Madeline? Talia? Thad? Come here for a second,” he called outside and moments later the three of them appeared in the stall as well, Talia subconsciously taking a stand next to Lane.

  Florian addressed them. “Our side of the barn is almost done. What about you guys?”

  “Couple left,” Manny responded.

  “Yeah, maybe one or two on our side,” Lane added.

  “Good,” Florian said. “Madeline twisted her ankle-,” Madeline glared at him. “But she’s fine,” he added hastily, “nothing to worry about. It does provide a good excuse for a few of us to get out of here right now and search. We can say that we had to take her to the nurse and all agree that she needed a little help walking.”

  “What if Earl checks with the nurse?” Madeline spat.

  “Well, you’ll actually have to go after we find the Pure.”

  Madeline glared, ready to decline any offer of assistance, even a performative one, but one look at the nerves etched into Talia’s demeanor - from the way she shuffled her feet to the way she played with locks of her hair - changed her mind. She nodded.

  “Lane and Talia should go if they’re up to it and obviously Madeline needs to go. Probably makes sense if I go being Madeline’s partner, leaving you three,” Florian said to Manny, Jay and Thad. “You guys okay staying and finishing the last couple of stalls and distracting Earl if it comes to it?”

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  Manny’s expression darkened while Jay’s turned into a face of careful neutrality. Neither of them wanted to stay and shovel shit while the rest left to find and possibly save a lost Wylderwynd Pure.

  Shit or a majestic animal.

  Difficult choice.

  Thad just looked relieved to be among the group asked to stay.

  “I suppose I owe you guys one for starting this whole thing,” Manny said after careful thought. “But I want to see the Pure when you bring it back.”

  “Me too,” Jay agreed. “I’ve never seen a Pure before.”

  “And next time, one of you stays back and mucks the extra stalls while we go have fun chasing a freaking Pure.”

  “Next time?” Thad grumbled. “You’re all insane. I’m not getting another detention for as long as I live.”

  “You guys got it,” Florian agreed, gently patting Thad on the back. “Next time, you’ll chase the escaped wild animal and we’ll muck out the stalls. Thanks, fellas.”

  The four of them exited the stall with all haste heading toward the paddock. Hoping against hope they’d find the Pure around the bend and trotting happily square in the paddock, they raced toward no such luck. The paddock held enough space for numerous horses to graze and stretch but with every other horse in its stall, the only thing they found was the evening cold and dewy grass.

  And a clanking gate, blowing open with the wind.

  “Fuck,” Lane swore, looking oddly at Talia. “Guys, I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I’m sure I left the gate unlatched.”

  “No matter now, what’s done is done,” Madeline said. “Let’s find this horse.”

  “At least we know where the Pure went,” Florian agreed. “Madeline, can you run?”

  She tested her ankle, standing on it and lifting her other foot. “I think so,” she said after rocking back and forth on the injured ankle, pausing then doing it again for good measure.

  Without another word, the four of them took off at a jog through the gates and outside the paddock onto the Academy lawns proper. The Pure couldn’t possibly be a difficult target to seek out, large, majestic, perfectly groomed but its colouring - snowy white - contrasted vividly against the night sky hanging over the Academy.

  The sheer size of the castle grounds represented their largest obstacle in finding the lost animal, and before long the group stopped in the middle of the sprawling castle lawn.

  “This isn’t going to work,” Madeline said.

  “What? Why?” Talia quickly replied. “It’s going to work, Mads, it has to! We’ve gotta find the Pure!”

  “Madeline is right,” Florian agreed with Madeline.

  “Why?” Lane echoed Talia’s sentiment.

  “We’ll find him, I promise,” Madeline put her hand on Talia’s forearm, rubbing softly.

  “The place is far too big,” Florian said, switching back into command mode. “We need to split up. Ideally on our own but-,”

  “No,” Talia interrupted. “We can split up but not on our own.”

  Madeline locked eyes with Florian and passed him a look.

  “Okay, let’s go in teams of two. He can’t have gone far. You two want to go together?” Florian asked Madeline and Talia, strangely hoping that they’d say no. Despite their troubles and the frost with which their time together started, Florian found himself wanting to spend more time with the Grinnrock chick.

  “Who handled the horse when you went to check him out?” Madeline whispered to Talia, carefully out of earshot of the boys.

  “Lane did,” Talia whispered back.

  “Do you think you could handle him if we found him?” Madeline asked, voice still hushed.

  Talia searched Madeline’s eyes for an extended second, both Florian and Lane watching their exchange with interest. “Probably. Maybe.”

  “Should we?” Madeline asked.

  “I think so,” Talia finished.

  “I’ll go with you,” Madeline told Florian. “Talia will go with Lane.”

  Florian nodded. “Okay, sounds good. Let’s get to it. You guys go that way.”

  Lane and Talia hared off toward the left side of the castle grounds, across the manicured lawns toward the towering spires that could be seen from kilometers away. Florian and Madeline took the right side, toward the man-made lake and the community training grounds. Rows of flowers, all shapes and sizes Florian didn’t recognize strung together next to the walking path, strong ones in red, dainty ones in yellow, fun ones in blue, even truculent ones in differing shades of purple.

  “Have you ever seen flowers like this before?” Florian asked Madeline as they walked, heads turning about for any sign of the gleaming white Pure.

  “No,” Madeline said. “These purple ones are very pretty,” she added almost as an afterthought.

  The quiet night was beautiful in a way, perhaps a touch too cold for comfort, but beyond that the stars sparkled overhead rendering the need for an additional light source moot. On the Quinn Estates, on nights like this, Florian would take a large blanket to his favourite hilltop and lay down to gaze upward. Maybe with a snack. Sometimes with a girl he met in town. The enormity of the sky always sent his thoughts spiraling and him feeling very small indeed.

  “Have you?” Madeline asked, maybe the first time she started a conversation all night.

  “Have I what?” Florian asked, momentarily confused. “Oh, the flowers? Well, not like this, no. My parents had more than their fair share of flowerbeds, but nothing like this.”

  Madeline grunted, stepping hard on her injured ankle but shaking it off quickly.

  He thought she might be readying herself to say something else, but she closed her mouth and seemed to chastise herself instead. Before she could try again, they saw a flicker of white in the distance, the Pure’s tail whipping as it walked assuredly onward.

  They also saw a hooded figure attempting to lead the horse roughly toward the exit.