The steeds below repeatedly tried annoying their competitors by snapping their teeth, peeling back their lips, or puffing smoke out of their nostrils. Teague’s stallion ignored them. Others? Not so much. Hence the neighing and body-slamming.
Asher huffed. “Gossake,” he snapped—his attempt at saying ‘for God’s sake,’ she’d learned. He stomped over to Harper. “Mommy, I wants one. Pwease.”
Harper’s expression gentled. “I’m sorry, baby, you can’t buy hellhorses. They’re not toys or pets.”
Pouting, he leaned against his father’s leg. Knox, in deep conversation with Tanner, briefly reached down to ruffle his son’s dark, silky hair.
A champagne flute in hand, Khloë turned to Harper. “You know, Teague’s demon will let Asher ride—”
“No,” said Harper.
Khloë’s brow furrowed. “Why not? The beast wouldn’t hurt Asher.”
The sphinx folded her arms. “The answer’s still no.”
“But the little guy would love it.”
“I am not sticking my son on the back of a hellhorse. They’re insane.”
“You were riding rodeo bulls when you were like, what, four? Maybe even younger.”
Piper felt her brows lift, though she probably shouldn’t be surprised. Imps did all kinds of risky shit. Harper was raised by them.
“But not hellhorses,” the sphinx pointed out. “That’s a whole other ball game.”
Letting out an annoyed sigh, Khloë shook her head. “They get such a bad rap, if you ask me. Everyone calls them wild and vicious. Pure lies.”
Just then, one steed on the track bit deep into the neck of another.
Levi looked at Khloë. “Not vicious, huh?”
She grimaced. “It’s just a little love bite.”
Devon snorted, nibbling on a carrot stick she’d swiped from the buffet of finger-foods. “Face it, they’re nuts. Ooh, seems like the race is about to start.”
Like Piper and Levi, some gathered near the glass wall. Others remained in their seats. Maddox, Hector, Lachlan, and Bram opted to observe from the private balcony. They opened the sliding glass door—letting in the scents of horses, dirt, and concession food—and then closed it behind them.
Moments later, a tense silence fell. The hellhorses stilled. Piper held her breath.
A horn blared.
The steeds bolted over the start line and raced across the track so fast their legs were a blur. They didn’t bother to remain in their own individual lanes. They ran as a herd, leaving clouds of dust in their wake.
Some put on impressive bursts of speed, jockeying for first place instantly. Others, like Teague’s stallion, moved fast but steadily and fell into the middle of the herd.
Piper loved the sound of their hooves thundering along the dirt track. She didn’t pay much attention to the commentary that came over the loudspeaker. Her only interest was Teague’s steed—who she’d been quick to put her money on.
Khloë repeatedly cheered on the stallion, bouncing on the spot in what seemed to be both excitement and restlessness.
“They’re almost at the first hurdle,” said Raini, her hands splayed on the sides of her face. “Here’s where the race is gonna get hard to watch.”
She was not wrong. The wall … shit, it had blades sticking out of its surface. Teague’s steed pushed off its hindlegs and jumped like a boss, all but soaring over the obstacle. One of its competitors didn’t leap high enough, scraping its belly on the blades and promptly falling into a ditch of red-hot spikes.
Devon flinched. “The amount of sadism involved in this sport is plain unnecessary.”
None of the other hellhorses stopped to check on the fallen steed. They forged on ahead and soon arrived at the next hurdle. Most cleared it smoothly. Piper winced as one steed landed wrong, causing its foreleg to crumple. It collapsed to the ground but managed to avoid the ditch of broken glass shards.
The remaining hellhorses rocketed across the oval track and through a pool of flaming water. Well, ouch. They galloped from one horrendous hurdle to another. Some steeds cleared them. Others didn’t and subsequently fell into pitiless ditches.
“Okay, we got fourteen hellhorses left,” said Keenan.
One abruptly swung its head and breathed fire on the steed beside it, who flinched away and knocked into another hellhorse … who subsequently bashed into another … who inadvertently shoved its neighbor into a fence. The latter steed lost its momentum and wasn’t able to gather itself in time to make the next jump. It fell right into a ditch of boiling water.
Piper hunched up her shoulders. “Oh, f—” Remembering Asher’s presence, she edited herself. “Fudge.”
Vicious as they were, the beasts bit and body-slammed their competitors as they ran. The biggest fan of such dirty tricks sped up enough to bite the ass of the competitor in front. That competitor whinnied in shock and pain, too distracted to time its jump right … and so the poor thing tumbled into a ditch of flames. Another tripped as it landed and went down hard, almost taking Teague’s stallion with it. But his steed skillfully skirted around the fallen beast, thank God.