Snowfire Read Free Page B

who’d forced Cade to squeeze into ancient burial caves in the pali, the sea cliffs, in search of treasure. Of course, it was illegal and scary—there were skeletons in there—but Manny had beaten Cade when he resisted.
    Once Jonah found out what Manny was up to, he had taken Cade in. Cade had been Jonah’s foster—or hanai’d , in Hawaiian—son ever since.
    Now that Manny was in jail, Cade was thinking about returning to live with his mother in their ram-shackle house in Crimson Vale.
    I’m just settling in, Darby thought. I don’t want Cade and the horses going away!
    â€œWell, the truck’s running, anyway,” he said, “so Honi’s going home.”
    â€œCool!” Darby said, and she couldn’t help giving a little bounce in the saddle. “Now Hoku can come home to her corral!”
    Cade laughed, so Darby knew he understood, and she didn’t have to rush to explain that while she thought Dee’s white pony was sweet, Honi’s illness had been the reason Hoku had been exiled from her own corral to the pastures below.
    As Sun House, the main ranch house, came into view, Darby felt a cozy sense of home. She and Jonah lived downstairs, and her friend Megan shared the upstairs apartment with her mom, the ranch manager who’d asked Darby to call her Aunty Cathy.
    One uphill trail would take Darby back to the house, to her room, to studying, but they were riding past the broodmare pasture, and Darby couldn’t help looking for her horse.
    The filly was easy to pick out. She gleamed red-gold in the late-afternoon sunlight and she didn’t look like a Quarter Horse. She was a mustang from the high desert of Nevada.
    Hoku lifted her head and looked across the grass,past the other horses, straight at Darby.
    â€œI’ve got to—”
    â€œI can pony Baxter the rest of the way back,” Cade offered before she finished.
    â€œWould you? Thanks. And thanks for not reminding me about studying.”
    â€œBooks’ll wait. She might not,” Cade said.
    Darby loosely knotted her reins and handed Cade the free end of Baxter’s neck rope before she dismounted.
    She burst into a jog, headed toward Hoku. The young mustang’s ears lifted. Arching her neck, she set off, trotting to meet the girl she trusted.
    â€œHoku.” Darby sang the name, and her heart soared along with her voice. The filly had been just a little standoffish lately, and Darby didn’t know if Hoku resented being displaced from her corral or if she’d decided her natural place was among horses, not humans. But now it didn’t matter. Hoku stopped right in front of Darby. The filly dusted her lips over Darby’s ponytail, doing it so lightly, it gave her goose bumps. Darby tried not to shiver as the horse flared her nostrils and bumped her nose against Darby’s shoulder.
    Jonah would say Hoku was exerting her dominance, but he couldn’t see the gentleness in Hoku’s eyes.
    â€œThere’s my girl.” Darby stroked Hoku’s neck, but her touch must have been too light, because Hoku’s skin shivered and she tossed her head. Darby partedthe flaxen forelock covering the mustang’s eyes and said, “I’ve missed you.”
    Hoku’s heart would probably always long to run free, but right this minute, the filly seemed content to be half-tame.
    â€œGuess what?” she asked. “Soon you’ll be back in your own corral. Home, sweet home.”
    Hoku looked satisfied by that revelation, and even though Darby wasn’t sure the filly understood, she wondered if her horse’s memories of the open range were fading. She felt guilty for robbing the mustang of her wildness.
    â€œIsn’t that just like a human?” she asked Hoku. People spotted something wild and beautiful—like a mustang—whose untamed nature thrilled them, and then set about subduing the spirit that had made it so