by Wendy Knight
"I'll find her, Scout."
Scout's head jerked up, and she looked around the room excitedly, even though she knew very well that her sister's voice had been in her head. Breathing hard, she closed her eyes again, trying to concentrate. "Find who, Lil? Where are you?"
But again, her sister didn't answer. Her brow creased. "What are you doing, Lil?" she murmured.
"Scout?" Trey ducked through the door and she looked up, still frowning. "I've been looking all over for you. We lost you and Ashra in the forest."
In the forest. Where Ashra had left her.
This is good-bye.
Scout blinked hard, fighting tears. "Sorry," she whispered, because that was all her tight throat would allow.
"Where'd you go?" he asked, easing into the room.
She watched him through blurry eyes, the way he seemed to search the shadows, his shoulders tense, and his hands fisted. He could sense the horn, even if he didn't know what it was he was sensing. "Were you talking to Ariston?"
She jerked her head back, shaking it. "No."
Trey settled carefully on the cot next to her. "The lady doth protest too much, me thinks," he said softly. The pain in his eyes nearly rivaled Ariston's, the last time she'd seen him.
Again, she shook her head. "No. I was trying to talk to Lil Bit, but she isn't answering."
Trey nodded, but he held his face so carefully blank she couldn't read whether he believed her or not. Ironic he didn't believe her now, when she told the truth. "They're mounting up. You've been gone all day."
Scout's eyebrows shot up. "I have? It's time?"
"Yes." He stood and offered his hand to pull her up, but the way his eyes, still hurting, searched her face told her everything she needed to know.
"Trey, please—"
Trey shook his head. "Don't. Whatever you were doing, it doesn't matter. There's not time for that now. We've gotta move."
It was time. "I need to say good-bye to my parents. I have to find Lil Bit. What if I don't come back, Trey? What if I don't get to tell her good-bye?" Suddenly panicked, Scout spun in a circle in the small room, like everyone she was missing would suddenly pop out of the shadows.
"Your parents are outside. You'll come back from this, Scout. You'll see them again. Ashra won't let you fall."
Scout choked, doubling over like she'd been punched. Her hand clawed at her throat like it could possibly hold back the sob, but she failed. "Ashra isn't coming."
Trey froze. "What do you mean?" He turned slowly, eyes widening. "What have you done?"
"She couldn't choose between me and Havik," Scout sobbed. "I asked her to make an impossible choice, and she refused to make it."
Trey backed away from her. "There are a lot of rumors out there, Scout." Trey pointed toward the valley. "Iros refuses to believe them. I refused to believe them. But now you just happen to lose your unicorn and Lil Bit both? What are you doing even they won't support you in, Scout?"
Scout put her fist to her mouth, trying to muffle the sobs. "Please Trey, we won't come back from this. Please don't go into this battle angry at me."
Trey shook his head. "You're so certain we won't survive, Scout. Why is that?"
She had no answer. Slowly, he stepped back to her and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "I love you, Scout."
Before she could answer, he was gone.
Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the dirt floor, curling in on herself, and she sobbed. She cried for Ariston and for Ashra. She cried for Iros and Aella, for everyone she'd turned against her. She cried for Lil Bit, and she cried for Trey. For everything this stupid war had taken from her.
She cried for herself.
"Scout? Scout, honey, are you afraid? Are you hurt?" She barely registered her mom's voice before she felt her soft touch, checking her forehead, brushing away her tears. Scout swallowed hard and uncurled, letting her dad lift her to her feet.
"I'm okay. A little afraid. I can't find Lil Bit. Have you seen her?" She scrubbed at her eyes, making sure she rid herself of all the tears because when she saw them for the final time, she wanted it to be clearly.
"She promised she wouldn't ride into this battle. I haven't seen her since." Scout didn't miss the worried look her parents shared over her head.
Scout forced a brave face. "If Lil said she won't, then she won't. You have nothing to worry about."
"We have you to worry about," her dad said, resting his chin on the top of her head. She stayed there, wrapped in her parents' arms, until the horn sounded.
"I have to go," she whispered. The tears that slid down her cheeks then were for them. She'd cried for everyone else, but at that moment she cried for them.
"You come back to us, Scout. Do you understand me? You come back."
24
"Ashra said you would need a unicorn." The Iwarro waiting outside her door was a stranger to Scout, but she had kind eyes. "I am Ione."
Scout shoved her helmet onto her head with too much force, nearly impaling herself. Ashra really wasn't coming. And yet, she'd made sure Scout still had someone to fight alongside. "Thank you, Ione. I will do my best to protect you." She half expected a sharp retort about not feeding her personally to the demons, but Ione merely lowered her head.
"Thank you. I will try as well."
Ione was bigger than Ashra, and Scout had to try twice to get on. Once she was settled, Ione wasted no time lifting them into the sky and seconds later, dropping them out of it, at Iros's side. Scout hadn't been ready to face him yet. Or at all, actually.
"Where's Ashra?" Iros looked from the new unicorn to Scout and back again. Scout felt like he could see straight through her, to her soul and beyond, to the horn tucked inside her armor.
"I drove her away," Scout said quietly.
"What?" Iros's accent was thicker again because he was angry. It made him hard to understand.
"I drove her away."
"She would never leave us on the eve of a battle such as this!" Iros exclaimed, slinging his arms wide at the gathered forces.
Scout's voice cracked, and she dropped her head in shame. "Never push a loyal friend to the point they no longer care." I'm sorry, Ashra.
I'm sorry, Iros.
"Iros. We must go. Ariston's hour draws near." Aella stopped next to them, eyes widening slightly when she realized Scout rode another unicorn. But she said nothing.
Iros shook his head. "We can't go without Ashra. We ride together. That's how we will win this day."
Scout choked back a sob. "Ashra isn't coming, Iros. And if we don't go, we will lose the day anyway."
Torz and Trey arrived silently at Scout's side. She looked hopefully to him, but Trey refused to look at her. He kept his eyes fixed on Iros and the sky above them.
Havik also noticed Ashra's absence, and Scout felt his question in her head. She could barely answer him, as they lifted into the sky. "I failed her, Havik. I have failed you all."
There was no time for response. Iros raised his scepter into the air. "Ariston says he will kill us all, and then the world will pay for his suffering. I say Ariston is a fool and no one can conquer the heart of Paradesos!" he bellowed, and a thousand voices screamed with him. Havik split the sky, and as one, the unicorns shot toward it.
"Spread out!" Trey yelled as Torz raced back and forth in front of the line. "We want them to see our army!"
Riding this unicorn felt wrong. There was no bond. There was no mind reading and no sarcasm. There were no words at all.
The ride was far too long and far too short, and they landed at the edge of the canyon too soon. Already waiting were dozens and dozens of sorcerers, standing silently, fire licking from their fingers. Scout's limbs shook as she slid off the unicorn's back and landed on the hard ground, nearly going to her knees. The horn felt hot against her clothes, like it was burning her.
I'm not a traitor.
But to this army, this army she had trained and healed and fought with side by side, they would see her as a traitor. Th
ey would never forgive her. Not about this.
And she wouldn't blame them.
"Ariston! You see my forces? Go back to your castle and wait for the day we've taken everything you have!" Iros yelled.
Gasping, Scout jerked her head up. Ariston rose from the canyon's depths and stood in the air several hundred feet from Iros. "I've been waiting for that day for six hundred years, brother. I grow tired of waiting."
And then from below, thousands upon thousands of soul stealers rose around him, until the sky was black with their forces and the air shattered by their hungry screams.
"No, Ariston." Scout didn't even realize she'd spoken aloud until several of the people around her, still mounted, looked over.
Scout dropped her head again and stared at the ground.
"Give me my soul, Iros, and you will live to see another day. Your army will live to see another day. There is no need for war." Ariston was pleading. The proud and arrogant Ariston pled with his brother.
But Iros shook his head. "You think me stupid, brother? To give you your soul only to watch as you tear through our home and kill everything you once loved?"
"Not everything." Ariston's eyes searched Iros's army, but Scout was too small and too far away for him to see. Still, it felt like his eyes landed on her, and she could almost feel his desperation.
Again, Iros raised his scepter, and the unicorns around Scout tensed, ready to fly, even if it meant they would never return home. "Riders! For Paradeso—"
Scout ripped the horn out of her armor and took off. Running as fast as she could, her breath coming in ragged pants, she sprinted across the no-man's-land between armies.
"Scout! What are you—" Iros stopped abruptly, and Scout didn't have to look at him to know he'd seen the horn. "Scout, no!"
He was joined by Aella, by Trey's brothers, by the army behind her. They were all screaming, but no one moved. The shock had frozen them all.
Scout ran harder.
"Stop her!" Iros bellowed, pain and anger warring for position in his voice. "Stop her! She'll kill us all!"
From behind, the army gave chase. She heard the thunderous hooves, the harsh breathing. She'd gotten a head start, but she was only human. She couldn't outrun a regular horse; never mind a unicorn.
But she had to try. Or they would all die.
It was Havik she felt draw near first, his hooves cracking the ground beneath her as he ran her down. "Give me the horn, Scout!" Iros bellowed. He grabbed her by the hair, jerking her off her feet as Havik reared onto his back legs. Gone were her friends. Gone was her gentle hero.
"Iros, please—please, just listen—" she begged, but there was no mercy in his eyes. "You'll all be killed—"
Havik snapped at her. Havik, the majestic giant she loved so much, now trying to kill her himself. She sobbed, fighting to reach her toes to the ground as her hair ripped in chunks from her head.
"Scout!" Trey yelled, and she opened eyes she hadn't realized were closed, to see him running hard past her, toward the edge of the cliff. In her heart, a battle waged. Trey would take the horn and give it to Iros. He hated Ariston, and he didn't trust her.
Whatever you're fighting, Scout, I'm on your side. When you need me, I'll be there.
He didn't trust her, but she trusted him.
She threw the horn as hard as she could, and the entire battlefield skidded to a stop watching it fly end over end through the night sky. Trey caught it without slowing, and ran harder for Ariston.
"Trey!" Iros yelled, pain winning this time, his voice nearly broken. He dropped Scout as Havik shot into the air, and they pounded across the packed earth for Trey. Iros unsheathed his scepter, holding it ready.
"Trey!" Scout screamed, "Look out!" She started running toward him, but Trey, somehow, met her eyes, and in that look, she understood.
He was her decoy.
Torz roared up to Trey, and Trey dove sideways, landing hard on his unicorn's back. They shot into the sky, silken wings beating furiously, trying to outmaneuver Havik.
And the rest of the army.
There was no time for the sobs that wracked her body. Scout sprinted toward the canyon's rim again. She could see Ariston now. He watched her in horror, his eyes full of pain because he had caused this, and he loved her. The last thing I want is for you to be hurt, Scout.
But she could end this. She could end it all. When Trey threw the horn, Scout didn't hesitate. She caught it, for once not letting her clumsiness ruin her, and she ducked her head, running with everything she had. She was torn between their worlds—the unicorn army behind her, a sea of blackness and fury, and the Taraxippus army in front of her, waves of grey and death.
Scout ran in the middle.
"Scout! Stop her! Whatever means necessary!" Iros's cry broke her heart, but she couldn't stop.
She could hear them. She could hear the thunder of their hooves, coming up behind her. She was near the canyon's rim, but Ariston was on the other side, unmoving, because if he came to her, the war would start. The Taraxippus would see it as his command to attack, and they were all too eager to fight this battle.
Ariston was forced to trust her.
Scout ran, praying he'd send his Soul Stealers to catch her, or to at least catch the horn. "Help me, Ariston. I can't fly."
She reached the edge, and she jumped.
Her arms pinwheeled, the horn cutting through the air, her feet kicking desperately to find something to land on. But there was nothing. She tumbled toward the ground, end over end, the horn clutched in her hand.
"Scout!" Ariston screamed, and he started to move. The soul stealers around him, eager for the human souls, swept through the night sky to swarm the unicorns. Hundreds of them to every single rider. It was a war the unicorns would not win.
But Ariston wasn't fast enough. She heard Trey yelling, too, and knew they were fighting to get to her, but there wasn't enough time for either of them.
"I'm sorry, Lil Bit. I tried to do the right thing. I tried to be the person you thought I was. Tell Ashra—tell her I understand. And I love her."
Scout prayed that Lil Bit had heard her, and she opened her eyes.
Ashra roared up from the canyon floor, faster than Scout had ever seen her move, and shot through the air, her wings a blur of black and fire. She swooped under Scout, caught her and flipped around before Scout had even figured out what was happening.
Their bond lit up the night sky. Iros saw it. Havik saw it, and she could feel his pain at Ashra's betrayal. Trey and Torz were behind them, unable to keep up with Ashra, but protecting them from unicorn and soul stealer alike.
"You gotta do something up there, Scout. I can't run and fight demons at the same time."
Swearing, Scout jerked her scepter out of its holster and swung it like a bat at the soul stealers surrounding them.
"How about some magic, human girl? You're not doing any damage."
Scout's mind was frozen. She couldn't think, could only move on instinct, and her instincts were failing her. But somehow she followed Ashra's lead, and fire shot from her scepter, joining with Ashra's, and sliced through the demons in front of them, clearing the way to Ariston, where he stood on the valley floor.
Scout leaped from Ashra's back before Ashra's hooves touched down, and ran to his side. She'd expected Ashra to leave her, to go back to the battle, but she stayed, fighting to keep Taraxippus and unicorns alike away from them. Torz and Trey fought next to her, giving Scout as much time as they could.
"Here. Your soul, Ariston." She held the horn out with shaking fingers. "I trust you."
Ariston's black eyes were infinitely sad. "I know, Scout. It has been my one happiness in this life." Reverently, he took the horn. It exploded, sending razor-sharp shards flying. Scout gasped as one bounced off her armor, leaving a deep gash through the metal. Ariston's soul swirled through the air and stretched before Ariston pulled it back. It melded into him, and suddenly, his eyes were no longer black. They were brown, deep, deep brown, and f
ull of pain. "I never meant to hurt you, Scout."
Scout's eyes widened, horror coiling in her stomach. No. He couldn't— "What do you mean, Ariston?"
Above them, the screams of the dying nearly drowned out their words. While Scout stared in terrified desperation at Ariston, blood rained down on them. Havik was surrounded, being torn to shreds. Iros was barely keeping his head up, the scepter hanging loosely at his side. Aella was unconscious on her struggling unicorn. So many of her recruits were fighting hopelessly, falling under the onslaught. The unicorns were losing, and losing quickly. They were no match for the sheer force of the demon army.
Scout reached out to grab Ariston's arm, but he had turned away. "Ashra!" he yelled.
Scout's unicorn froze, turning on him with flames in her eyes. "Do not tempt me, Ariston."
"You owe me a debt, unicorn. It is time to make payment."
Scout blinked, turning from Ashra to Ariston and back again. She had no idea what Ariston meant.
But Ashra did. Raising her beautiful head, her horn lit with fire. "For my losts."
The flames shot from her horn, slicing through the air, bright and powerful with every ounce of pain Ashra had been tormented with for the last hundreds and hundreds of years. All the anger, all the betrayal. The heat knocked Scout back, and she tumbled into the rocks on her hands and feet, like a crab.
The wave of fire slammed into Ariston's chest, devouring him. Ariston didn't scream. He didn't make a sound as he fell first to his knees, his hand over the gaping, burning wound in his chest. Scout shrieked, scrambling to get over to him. She caught him as he fell face-first toward the packed earth. "Ariston," she sobbed.
"I—started this war—because of love." He choked. Blood ran from the corners of his lips, his eyes searching Scout's. "I thought—her love was—" He choked and coughed, and Scout smoothed his hair back, trying to comfort him and not knowing how. Finally, his eyes slid closed. "I started—started this war—because of love," he said again. "And I finish it—because of love."
