Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children, #6)

by Seanan McGuire

Loving horses didn’t make her strange, and strange was something to be feared and avoided above all else in the vicious political landscape of the playground, where the slightest sign of aberration or strangeness was enough to bring about instant ostracization.

Having thumbs is sort of like having a magical sword no one can take away from you. It’s destiny!”

Chicory snorted. It was a surprisingly equine sound. “Unicorns aren’t anything special. They’d drown on a sunny day if we didn’t bring them inside. And sometimes they get their horns stuck in trees and can’t get loose, and we have to pull them free. Unicorn herding isn’t all hay and horseshoes, and if you think it is, you’re going to be real disappointed.”

She was a child, far from home, surrounded by members of a species that wasn’t hers. It would have been understandable for her to fall into despair. The fact that she hadn’t was barely shy of a miracle, and one more piece of proof that humans could do anything when they put their minds to it.