by Morgan Hawke
The king sheathed his sword. “Well done, doe.”
I stared at the king unable to move from where I stood. Well done? I’d killed her! It hadn’t been on purpose, I didn’t actually intend to impale her with my horn. She’d just run right into it before I could think to turn my head.
Master Corwin abruptly strode forward, his boot-heels echoing far too loudly in the large oval room. He knelt at Gabriella’s side and took her hand. “It’s time to go, Gabriella.”
Gabriella abruptly sat up, or rather a second Gabriella, one transparent and colorless, separated from the Gabriella that lay on the marble floor. She smiled at Death’s coachman and rose to her feet. Silently, she allowed Corwin to draw her away. She stopped briefly and turned to smile at Alberic. “I really did love you.”
Alberic nodded. “I know.”
Master Corwin led Gabriella into the shadows and they faded from sight.
If I hadn’t had four legs, I would have fallen where I stood.
I turned my head to look at my prince. “I didn’t mean to...”
Alberic lifted a hand, but looked away. “I know. I saw.”
My heart ached as though it was being crushed. I wanted to weep, but as a unicorn, I couldn’t.
“Can someone tell me what just happened here?” At the bronze doors was an older man, looking more than a little battered, wearing a royal Swanstone guard’s blue and white tunic over scale-mail armor. His eyes widened. “Wait, is that a unicorn?”
~ Twenty ~
Dawn rose on the smoke-stained spires of the once pristine palace of soaring towers. Light began to fill the huge, circular, and fire-blasted throne room. With the light came people from all over the palace, their bodies battered and their clothes torn; servants, valets, maids, kitchen staff, a few royal guards, the occasional noble... They pressed up against the walls, confused, frightened, more than few tearful, and all of them staring at the very center of the room — at us.
The unicorn king on my right patted my neck and smiled.
Behind us, Alberic knelt by Gabriella’s body. He pressed his palm down her face to close her eyes, then set her hands together on her breast. With a soft sigh, he rose, then walked over to stand by my left side, his wings still plainly visible.
Soft whispers broke out in the vicinity of the bronze doors, then the crowd parted, moving back to allow someone entrance...two someones.
The two princesses, pristine and perfect, stepped into the throne room, side by side, and hand in hand. The one on the left had green-gold eyes, fiery red curls that cascaded past her waist, and wore a gown of shimmering gold embroidered with red roses. The princess on the right had sky blue eyes, pale blond hair that flowed straight down to her knees, and wore a gown of shimmering silver embroidered with white snowflakes.
The unicorn king smiled warmly, dropped to one knee, and held out his arms.
The two princesses, Rosette and Blanchette—Snow White and Rose Red—bloomed into rosebud smiles then rushed forward into his embrace.
The king had successfully acquired his princesses, and his kingdom.
Calmly, and casually, Alberic and I walked around celebrating monarchs, through the cheering palace folk, toward the broken doors of bronze.
“Stop!” The voice was feminine, and loud.
Every whisper in the throne room stilled utterly.
I stopped, the hairs lifting on my back.
At my side, Alberic also came to a halt, his shimmering wings twitching at his back. He scowled at the bronze doors. “Damn....” Very softly he whispered. “I knew this would happen.” He smoothly performed an about-face, and smiled, but his golden brows lowered over his green eyes.
I turned my neck to look over Alberic’s shoulder.
Princess Rosette stood before the king and princess Blanchette, her red brows lowered, and a frown marring her lovely features. She spoke in a soft and sweet tone. “Where are you going with my unicorn?”
Alberic nodded regally to the princess. “As I have delivered on my promise, it is time for my companion and I to depart.”
Rosette tilted her head slightly and blinked. “Depart...?”
I turned my head to look at my prince. “Promise...?”
Alberic looked at me from the corner of his eye and spoke very softly. “I promised I’d find their unicorn.”
“Then they know that he’s...?” I looked toward the king.
Alberic snorted then whispered softly. “Of course they know. That’s why they set up this whole sham of a hunt. She never intended to marry anyone else.”
The unicorn king moved to Rosette’s side. “My dear, it is time for the fairy prince and the unicorn to return to their kingdom.”
Princess Rosette turned to present a pretty pout to the king. “But you brought the unicorn to me. It’s mine, isn’t it?”
The king shook his head slowly. “One does not capture a unicorn. One invites them to be one’s guest.”
The princess turned to stare at me. “I’m afraid that I must disagree.” She smiled, but this time it wasn’t sweet. “Blanchette?”
The platinum blonde princess smiled and raised her hands. Silvery mist rose around her, and the smell of midwinter frost became unusually strong.
There was a loud crackle all the way around me and my prince. From the floor all the way around, thorny branches made of solid ice lunged upward and entwined together over our heads to form a cage around us. With soft crystalline tinkles, roses of ice bloomed on the cage’s thorny branches at random places. Chilly mist wreathed the entire structure.
Suddenly, I understood perfectly how the princesses had evaded the monsters unscathed. However...
I stepped close to the cage’s bars and tapped one of them with my horn.
That branch of the cage and those closest to it hissed and began to evaporate into mist. A hole formed, and swiftly enlarged to a size even I could walk through.
Alberic and I stepped out of the cage.
The king sighed and strode for the swiftly evaporating cage. “I told you before, my dearest princess, magic cannot hold a unicorn because unicorns return all things to their natural state.”
The princess frowned. “Unless it is the unicorn that creates the state.”
The unicorn king stopped to turn and smile at her. “True. However, I made a promise to this unicorn, and the fey prince.” He turned to face me and winked. “To return to your form, doe, rise on your hind legs and picture your human body as a robe you wrap around yourself.” He abruptly turned to Alberic. “Once she is restored, I suggest you make use of those wings, little Prince of Air.” He took several steps back.
Alberic’s lips tightened into a firm line, but he nodded.
I blinked at the retreating king. “Just picture myself as human? Is it really that simple?”
The king smiled, but one side of his lips curved upward sharply. “Burdening oneself is never simple.”
Princess Rosette stepped forward to grasp the king’s arm and frowned up at him. “What promise did you make to them?”
I ignored them to rear up. Holding my balance on my hind legs was no easy task, but I was able to do it just long enough to picture my body as it used to be; hand, arms, a human torso, legs, feet, a human face...
Something squeezed around me until it became a crushing force around my legs, chest, ribcage, belly, and head. It squeezed the breath from me until I couldn’t make more than a pained moan. With it came a horrific weight that pushed me downward and knocked me from my feet.
Gasping for breath, I suddenly realized that rather than sprawling on the marble floor, I was being held in a warm, firm arms. I opened my eyes.
Alberic held me, resting on one knee, the warmth and scent of his body all around me, soaking into my skin, his green eyes wide.
My heart lurched in my chest, and my cheeks warmed.
Alberic released a breath and his lips relaxed into just the barest hint of a smile. “Welcome back.”
My voice came out in a ho
arse whisper, my throat stiff and dry. “Thank you.” I struggled to sit up, but my body felt stiff and unfamiliar. That’s when I noticed that I was utterly naked. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but I just couldn’t help it. Not to mention that it was absolutely mortifying to be stared at by the hundreds of people all the way around us. I crossed my arms over my breasts, not that it did much good. That’s when I noticed my hair. Instead of being the silky black waves I was used to, it was a silky white mane that draped across my shoulders, arms, and thighs.
To my surprise, Alberic looped his arm under my knees and stood holding me cradled against him, my long white hair draping over his arms.
The king’s smiled to the princess at his side. “I promised the unicorn a human form so that she might give her love to the Prince of Air.”
Princess Rosette blinked again. “Oh...!” She turned to me and smiled very sweetly. “Well, then, of course they may have leave to go. One would not wish to stand in the way of true love.”
True love? I opened my mouth to retort that that was not why I wanted my human body back.
However, before I could do so, Alberic opened his iridescent wings, a corona of light erupting around him, around us. His wings flapped once, and we rose from the floor like thistledown.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I grabbed onto Alberic’s coat.
The crowd around us sighed collectively in wide-eyed awe.
His wings flapped again and we rose higher. Another flap of his wings had us swooping toward the tall cracked windows lining the left wall. My prince abruptly shouted. “Make way!”
The window glass closest to us exploded outward.
Alberic carried me beyond the window frame and into the morning sky, the ground very, very far away.
* * * * * *
Alberic alighted at the edge of my campsite, his wings folding neatly against his back. The light around him faded away.
My dark chestnut gelding, unsaddled and tethered to the blooming dogwood tree by the tent, contentedly munched on the long grass growing under it. He looked over at us, then with a switch of his black tail, went back to grazing.
I was so happy to see my tent, my gear, my personal belongings...all the things that identified me as a human, not an animal.
Was I really only gone for half a day and a night?
Rather than set me down, Alberic kicked open the flap to the tent, and hunched over to carry me inside. We fell in a tangle of limbs onto my grass-filled mattress, on top of the blankets.
On my back, I blinked up at the roof of the tent.
Alberic lay heavily, on top of me gasping for breath, his loose hair slid in a gold curtain across his back and shoulders. His legs tangled with mine, his hip pressing intimately against me. His heart thumped almost directly against mine, a warm and disturbing presence. He sighed heavily. “That was...tiring.”
All too aware of our intimate positions, languid warmth and desire began to spread in slow waves though my body. I needed to get him off of me. I groaned, then shoved at him. “Are you all right?”
Alberic sighed, his breath warm against my neck. “Flying isn’t something I do all that often.”
I flopped back on the mattress, too tired to fight. “I didn’t know you had wings.”
Alberic pushed up with his arms, lifting his chest from mine and stared down, his leaf green, only inches away. “Of course not.” He looked away, his cheeks turning pink. “They’re embarrassing.” Casually, he began unbuttoning his frock coat.
I blinked. “But they’re so pretty!”
“Of course they are.” Alberic shifted to pull his sword belt off and tossed it, and the sheathed saber to the far side of the tent. “Fairy wings are always...pretty.” He sighed then worked the buttons of his waistcoat open. “They’re also a blatant reminder that I’m not completely human.”
I smiled sourly. “That makes two of us.”
He raised his head and a small smile lifted his lips. “So it does.” Crossing his arms over my breasts, he set his chin on his arm, clearly making himself comfortable on me. “I had no idea that there were unicorns in my kingdom.”
“Neither did I.” I tried to sit up, but I couldn’t get my arms under me properly to lift us both. I flopped back down on the mattress again, and realized that I kind of liked his weight pressing down on mine.
He stirred, and urgent heat began to press against me.
Deep in my belly, interest flared. I stiffened. Uh, oh... I sucked in a sharp breath and tried to roll out from under Alberic.
He just smiled. tra
I looked him in the eye and frowned. “Will you get off of me?”
His green eyes narrowed and his lips curved into a tight smile. “I have a better idea.” He dragged his firm and muscular body a little higher up my body. With his coat and waistcoat open, his silk shirt was all that separated his warm skin from my naked flesh.
Urgency flared white hot, and I gasped.
He lowered his head, lips parted and moist.
Time seemed to slow down while I watched in wide-eyed fascination.
His lips touched mine lightly, delicately, then his tongue swept past my parted lips.
Passion swept through me in a flood, as though straight from his mouth. Dazed, my tongue met his and stroked against him. He tasted of cool, misty moonlight and potent male.
He slanted his mouth to cover mine more fully and forayed more deeply, his tongue aggressive and hungry. With a shift of his hips, he settled between my thighs and pressed his trapped erection firmly against my unprotected cleft.
A throb of heat flared violently within my body. Dampness gathered and pooled in my lower regions. I moaned into his mouth.
His hand splayed warmly on the skin of my belly, then slid up.
I turned my head violently, breaking the kiss, and panted for breath. “I’m not so sure that this is a good idea.”
His mouth made a hot, wet, shivery trail on my throat. “I think it’s a very good idea.” His warm hand covered my breast.
My nipple rose under his palm, tingling deliciously.
He circled his palm, rasping it against my sensitive flesh, then squeezed gently.
I bit down on my bottom lip to hold back a moan, but my hips lifted to push against his.
His open mouth traveled lower, licking and sucking lightly down my collarbone to the swell of my captured breast. He explored with his lips and tongue until he seized a nipple. He licked, then bit down, and sucked hard.
I gasped and my back arched.
He slid an arm under my bowed spine, around my waist to hold me against his tantalizing mouth. At the same time, his other hand slid down to work the buttons of his pants free.
It took more effort than I cared to admit to drag myself out from under the potent brew of overpowering desire and need to grab his hand. “No, really, I think we need to stop, right now.”
He lifted his head to stare down at me, frustration and desire practically rolling off of him in waves. He spoke in a voice deep and husky with passion. “Why? You want this as much as I.” His mouth lowered to mine.
He had a point; I wasn’t exactly uninterested. Even so... I turned my head sharply. “Is this really the right time and place for this?”
His mouth skimmed my throat behind my ear, making me shiver. “I don’t particularly care.” He moved his fingers, opening yet another button on his pants.
I held onto his hand for dear life. “But...?”
“Julian....” He shifted his hips to slide his trapped erection directly against my exposed core.
I moaned. I just couldn’t help myself.
“I can smell how wet you are, how much you want me inside you.” His teeth closed on the lobe of my ear in a tender bite.
My body clenched hungrily, and a small whimper escaped. Gods above, I did want him.
~ Twenty-One ~
Alberic pushed up, kneeling between my spread thighs. With his half-closed gaze pinned to mine, Alberic pulled at his frock coat, tuggi
ng to get it off with near-frenzied haste. Not an easy task with the wings, even folded down. He practically ripped his waistcoat off, then yanked his shirt up over his head and tugged it free of his wings, exposing his pale, muscular body. He leaned over me to grip my wrists and pressed my hands against his chest, his gaze locked on mine.
Mesmerized, I slid my palms across his masculine nipples and felt them peak under my fingers. The scent of his skin, salty with sweat, and mouthwateringly rich, filled my nose.
The lids of his eyes lowered and he sighed. “Yes, that’s it.” He leaned closer to kiss me, a brief touch of the lips. He then slid further down, leaving small, light kisses in his wake. His hand stroked along the curve of my waist to the flare of my hip, then over to cup the firm fullness of my ass. “Your body has become as pale as cream, and smooth as silk.” He moved lower still, his gaze falling on the juncture of my thighs. “Hm... You’ve gone white there too.”
I winced in mortification. “You don’t need to go into detail!”
He grinned. “I happen to like the details.” He lowered his head to press his lips against my feminine curls.
I shuddered under his touch.
His palms pressed my legs apart and upward, then his hot, wet tongue swept against me to dance mercilessly on my damp and tender flesh. He licked and sucked every fold and crevice, then delved deeply into me.
I gasped and writhed, the waves of pleasure bringing forth uncontrollable shudders. The pulsing rise toward a swift climax made my body buck up into his mouth.
He lifted his head, releasing me, and licked his lips. “You taste like honey and fresh butter.”
My cheeks heated with embarrassment, and all too physical frustration. “I didn’t need to know that!”
With a sly smile, he slid back up my body and took my mouth, his tongue sweeping against mine.
I could taste the salty sweetness of myself on his tongue.
He broke the kiss to lick his lips again. “There, now you know even better.”
“Gee, thanks.” Even so, I licked my lips.
He smiled. “My pleasure.” He leaned down to kiss me again, his lips gentle this time, his tongue gliding against mine slowly and delicately. He drew my tongue into his mouth and began to suck it lightly.
