The horse tossed its head and growled again. Then it turned its nose toward a side street in an unmistakable gesture. It wanted to go that way instead of walking down the main thoroughfare.

Maybe it preferred to kill its victims in alleys like any murderer would. Madeleine shook her head. “If you want to kill me, you can do it where people might see you. And I’ll scream. They can hear me now.”

The horse growled again.

Madeleine lifted her chin. “You should go back to the ocean, or wherever you came from. I guess you know now that I didn’t mean you any harm? Although…”

She hesitated. Well. Even if the horse was about to kill her, she ought to do the right thing.

“I am sorry about what happened,” she repeated softly. “I tried to set it right, but I couldn’t. If you are a ghost, then I hope you find peace now and go to…horse heaven. Or wherever you’d go.”

The horse snorted. The sound was bizarrely familiar.

“Look.” She ran a hand over her mussed hair. “You’re not supposed to go anywhere. Animals aren’t supposed to have souls. But here you are, and I can’t think what else you can be, so that must mean you’ve got one, and—and—” She laughed suddenly, painfully. “And Hæra was right.”

The horse tilted its head to the side, appearing inquisitive now.

“This wasn’t anything I was ever taught. Maybe other things are wrong too? Maybe everything’s wrong.” Madeleine wrapped her arms around herself as the wind cut through her again. “You started it all, you know. Everything that’s happened.”

She looked into the horse’s yellow eyes, which pierced her in return, like a pin pressing a butterfly into a glass case.

“You already ate me up,” she said thickly. “There’s only bones left. Spiritually speaking.”

The horse looked down at her. As she might have expected, it was silent.

Madeleine whispered, “Of course, you can’t say anyth⁠—”

The horse moved again. Not to bite her. Instead, it walked past her, toward the main thoroughfare of Thornhill Village, out in the open.

Then, as Madeleine gaped at it, it turned its head and jerked its head toward the street. Clearly saying: Well? Come along, then.

This really had to be a dream. The horse, the village, this entire trip—all of it.

In that case, there was no reason for Madeleine not to go to the horse, which waited for her. And together, they walked down the pavement on the left side of the street.