by Rob Cornell
This was what a unicorn was meant to look like.
“You get away from her,” Earl shouted.
The demand didn’t make sense to Jessie. If he worried about the unicorn going after somebody, he should have worried about himself.
He retreated back to the crate and grabbed the elven weapon, which he then brought to bear on the unicorn. “I said get back.”
The unicorn ignored him. She reared back on her hind legs, and as she came back down, Jessie realized this magnificent creature meant to crush her skull.
Chapter Fifty-Two
CRAIG LOCKMAN HAD USED A piece of his soul to revive the unicorn. This connection allowed him to see through her eyes. He watched as she raised her forelegs to stop down on Jessie.
While he had no actual corporeal form in the Inbetween, Lockman had learned early that many sensations of the physical world still plagued him, like the phantom pains from a lost limb. In this case, his stomach dropped as if he plummeted down a roller coaster’s first hill. His throat closed and a lump caught in his chest.
The unicorn had faced him with an impossible choice. The kind of choice he had faced too many times in life. A choice between those he loved and the Greater Good.
A terrible term drilled into him by the Agency.
Always look toward the greater good, they would say.
Consider the consequences of forgetting the greater good.
The greater good comes before all else.
All in the name of protecting the world from the supernatural. A goal he had believed in wholeheartedly, but one he had learned did not need to come at the sacrifice of the innocent. There had to be a balance. The greater good could not always trump the lives of individuals.
But, much as he hated it, sometimes it did.
Gabriel Dolan was the worst threat to humanity—and the supernatural for that matter. If he was allowed a second chance at Jessie’s soul, especially now that she possessed the power of the Return, he wouldn’t squander it. He would make sure to bring about as much chaos and fear as he could. That was the real reason he wanted to bring on the Dawn. Always had been.
Drive mortals to the brink of mass hysteria, then twist their fear to control them.
He could do it too. Of that, Lockman had no doubt.
So he was forced to make that horrible choice with a hope—no, a certainty—that Jessie could use her own wits to survive the unicorn’s single-minded need for revenge.
Come on, Jess. You can do it.
Chapter Fifty-Three
RIGHT BEFORE THE BITCH UNICORN ruined everything by smashing Dolan’s prize, Earl fired the elf gun. The beam struck her square in the face, or should have, but that damn horn of hers somehow absorbed it. The horn’s light blazed twice as bright as it took on the color of the beam.
Even so, the shot had some impact. Just enough to drive the unicorn back and off balance. Her front hooves came down a few feet shy of trampling the girl.
He fired again.
The result was the same. The horn drew the beam to it and flared with blue-green light. Yet again, it drove her back.
She thrashed her head back and forth in frustration.
“Go on,” Earl shouted. “Git.”
He shot her three more times in quick succession. Each blast of the beam went to her horn and drove her back until Earl had her a good six or seven yards from the girl.
But what now? If he couldn’t knock her out with the elf gun, how in hell was he going to get her horn to finish the ritual? He lifted the hacksaw and looked at it as if he might find the answer there.
That bitch’s horn dust coated most of the blade, making it look like sparkling quartz.
Well, shit.
His gaze went from the saw to the girl to the circle of blood and back to the saw.
The unicorn made a move forward.
Earl let loose a couple more shots. Didn’t matter where he aimed—legs, body, head—the blasts all went to her horn. Whatever magic she had in that horn had reached a level of power that just might have made her immortal.
It couldn’t last forever.
But Earl didn’t need to wait for her to finally weaken. He just needed to drive her far enough back and give himself room to set things right.
He unleashed a steady barrage of fire as he pushed forward, getting closer and closer to the girl.
The unicorn backed all the way to the far wall, nowhere else to go.
Earl kept firing to keep her pinned against the wall. Each time she tried to drive forward, the beam knocked her back. He briefly wondered if the elf gun ever ran out of juice. Best not to test its limits.
When he reached the girl, he went to grab at the chair arm, but she kicked at him again, got him in the shin.
Earl took good care of himself. He was in damn fine shape for his age. But he wasn’t young no more either. His bones didn’t take abuse as good as they used to. Her foot caught him just right, sending a jagged pain up his leg to his knee.
He staggered, almost hit the floor. Instead, he stumbled into the near wall and leaned against it to keep his feet. Dummy didn’t realize the unicorn wanted to kill her. And he had just given the uni a chance to break into a gallop toward her.
Earl shot from the hip, no time for careful aim.
The beam went wide and blasted a crack into the ceiling.
The unicorn lowered her head, her horn pointed toward the girl.
Earl dove like a tight end going for a quarterback sack. On his way down he kept firing. Most of the shots missed, but one hit her horn and stopped her charge.
His bones cried out in pain as he landed on the hard floor. The impact knocked the elf gun from his hand. It smacked the floor with a wet plop out of his reach. The hacksaw clashed against the floor as well. Some of the horn dust broke loose and scattered in a small, glittering cloud.
Earl growled through his clenched teeth.
He had landed before the girl with her head nearest to him. She struggled and kicked against her bindings, but she couldn’t get at him from that angle, and the chair kept her from any serious movement.
Earl planted a hand on the chair back, dug the toes of his boots into the floor, and shoved. Her thrashing antics actually helped, unknowingly throwing her weight in such a way that gave her some momentum toward the circle.
She slid in feet first.
She kept kicking and splashed blood all over the place, even dotted Earl’s face with it.
He was so focused on getting her into the circle, he lost track of the unicorn. Then he felt her looming above him.
He managed one more shove to the girl, getting her in to her shoulder, but her head still lay outside the circle. Blood flung about as she twisted and kicked. It coated one side of her from shoulder to ankle.
One of the unicorn’s hooves slammed down onto Earl’s back. Something cracked. As the unicorn put more of her weight down on her hoof, Earl’s body popped three more times like shots from a small pistol.
He screamed. Dark edges closed in on his vision. The pressure on his back squeezed his lungs, pushed out his breath, and made it impossible for him to draw another.
But he still had the saw with the horn dust on it. It was all he had. And the sloppy remains of a ritual that should have been an easy thing. The unicorn had been out, the girl bound, no one in the way of bringing on the Dawn.
No one.
But something had changed the game on him, had revived the unicorn, and had stirred up her magic real good.
Something had defeated him.
Or almost.
If he was lucky.
As the last shreds of consciousness fluttered away from Earl, he swung his arm with the hacksaw in hand and watched it slide out into the blood with a metallic clatter.
The instant the dusted saw hit the blood, a brilliant blue light flashed then spread outward into a dome that enclosed the entire circle.
I’ll be damned. It’s working.
He’d done it. Saved the day at the las
t minute.
The dome caught the girl at the pool’s edge, then began to coalesce around her. Once it surrounded her, it pulled in toward the dome’s center and dragged her along with it like a giant, glowing hand.
She threw her head back and screamed.
The chair disintegrated in the light, along with the ropes binding her. But they weren’t needed. The light drew tight to her body like a skintight suit—like those catsuits his mama used to wear that made all the men stare at her with dumb, caveman eyes—and pinned her on her back with her limbs spread-eagle.
“No,” she cried. “Not again. No.”
Right when Earl thought he’d conk out, the unicorn took her hoof off his back.
He gasped, able to breathe again, but not able to move. The bitch had snapped something and paralyzed him. He found it didn’t bother him. Gabriel was on his way, and when he arose he would use his power to fix Earl up good. They’d straighten out their differences. Then they would go on to lead the world to the Dawn.
The unicorn traipsed into the circle, splashing in the blood.
Idiot. It was too late. The process had started. She couldn’t stop it now.
Earl closed his eyes and rested in wait for his master’s arrival.
Chapter Fifty-Four
SHE COULDN’T MOVE, COULDN’t see beyond the searing blue light, couldn’t escape the electric pain enveloping her body.
Jessie had lost.
She could feel the first cold touch of Gabriel’s soul, as if he were testing the water in a bath. The touch came with a single word that would have sounded friendly in any other context. But now, not from him. From him it sounded like a curse.
Hello.
Jessie screamed and struggled to move. It did no good. This ritual had conjured tremendous power, like nothing Jessie had ever experienced. Even with those pieces of Wertz still in the room, the magic overwhelmed her.
She was vaguely aware of the unicorn standing in the circle, watching all this transpire. The light had apparently gripped her by the hooves to keep her from interfering.
A loud ringing filled Jessie’s ears as if she’d spent the night at a Korn concert. The bones in her jaw and through the face of her skull buzzed like a subwoofer dropping too much bass. Another vibration ran up and down her back, her spine like a plucked guitar string.
My body’s a regular fucking jam session.
The slick feel of Gabriel’s thoughts ran over her mind. She could hear him laugh from inside her own head. Part of her, deep down, welcomed the familiar sensation after such a long absence, like a junkie craving a hit when she knows better.
There’s my girl, his voice rang from the deep well within her where souls were kept.
It should have been soul, singular. And for any normal person, that’s all it ever was. But Jessie’s soul chamber, for lack of a better name, had been stretched wide, with plenty of room. After all, she had once held thousands of souls in there at once.
Gabriel moved in easily.
The blood in the circle around her turned a matching neon blue like the rest of the lights surrounding her (them). Then the blood pulled in from around the pool’s edges as if someone had pulled a drain in the circle’s center.
But it wasn’t draining. It was being drawn into Jessie.
She realized then that this ritual had more to do than simply force Gabriel’s soul into her. He was already in, yet an enormous amount of power remained.
Yes, Gabriel whispered. It’s not just me moving in. I brought a bunch of friends to keep us company.
As she drew the glowing blood in more and more, she began to feel those souls digging into her like maggots eating their way through a rotten chunk of meat. She even recognized some as those that had come from the artifact that had started this whole battle for real estate in Jessie’s body.
Others were nothing like her former residents. When they entered her, a black, mealy taste filled her mouth. Her stomach rolled with nausea.
Go ahead and puke on your back, she thought. You’ll choke and kill yourself.
Gabriel’s laugher echoed in her mind again. Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen. We like it here too much.
But that was just it. It didn’t matter how many souls took residence in her, her death meant instant eviction.
Self-sacrifice? Really? Don’t be such a martyr.
If it means spoiling you and your pals’ plans, I’m all for it.
Her body seized. Pressure dropped over her body as if the air had turned to rock, making her feel buried alive. Her heartbeat pumped faster and faster as her brain lost its supply of oxygen.
All at once, the pressure subsided.
Jessie almost choked on her breath as she greedily gulped air.
That was me, Gabriel said. A demonstration of my power over you. With the power of these souls I brought with me from the Inbetween, I can and will dominate you. Just as I can easily kill you, I can also keep you alive.
I am one step away from immortal.
Jessie saw a thin beam of hope. What’s keeping you from that last step, Mr. Egomaniacal?
One thing Jessie had learned from her previous adventure in sharing her body with his soul was that Gabriel had an evil laugh for every occasion. This included a laugh that he thought covered up any trepidation.
He used that laugh now.
She knew better than to mistake worry for fear. Gabriel didn’t know how to fear as far as she could tell. She knew him well enough, though. Only three minutes in her body and he had already let his ego slip him up.
By now Jessie’s body had sucked up all the blood, and with it every soul riding Gabriel’s coattails.
The dome of light expanded like a diaphragm filling with air. Then it imploded with a lightning crack that rang in the corners of the room. As quick as that crack sounded, the light disappeared, leaving Jessie on her back.
Shadows cast by the remaining candles flickered across the ceiling. With the butchery scent of the blood gone, the incense reclaimed its place as the dominant smell in the room.
Jessie tried to sit up, but she still couldn’t move.
She quickly realized why.
Her soul had become a mere passenger in her body. Gabriel had taken control. Now all she could do was watch him ruin the world.
No. She had fought him before, she would fight him again. She wouldn’t stop fighting until she won herself back, or died, taking Gabriel and his army of souls out with her.
Don’t bother, Gabriel said. You aren’t half the girl you used to be. And unlike before, all these other souls take orders from me.
Jessie tried to dive into herself, into that deep core where her soul had the most power. She had staged a battle from that spiritual place before. That’s where she would kick some soulful ass again.
She tried to go there.
But all the souls surrounded hers. Some slithered, some skittered, some stomped into position. Then they closed in. They wrapped around her, clutched her, or pressed down on her. So many of them.
Too many of them.
It became hard to tell where she began and they ended. Whispers, titters, and screams came from every direction, like an echo chamber in hell. The fight she had planned became impossible while she remained stuck in this quagmire of demons.
Jessie had not only lost control of her body.
She had lost control of her very soul.
Chapter Fifty-Five
ELKA HAD STOPPED FIGHTING THE light that kept her hooves stuck to the floor. No matter how hard she pulled, even with her inherent magic pulsing through her at full strength, she couldn’t break free.
This circle had become a lightning rod of magical energy. She figured it drew from whatever Dolan was bringing with him from the Inbetween. Anything beyond that, she couldn’t guess. Her people did not meddle with these kinds of powers. They were smarter than that.
Leave it to mortals to think they could handle such massive amounts of magic.
So she bided her time an
d watched the results of this mad ritual.
When the girl had drawn all the blood into her, Elka thought about the blood ocean from her dream. This wasn’t an ocean, but the sacrifice was still immense. She noticed the bone altar had also reacted to the ritual. More blue light shone from between the bones and out the eye sockets of the skulls. It looked like an elaborate Halloween prop lit from behind.
The blood reminded her of the dream.
All this light—this blue light—brought back the memory of watching through the glamour in the closet, and how the girl now at her feet had sent her father’s dead body to the very place they had escaped in order to survive.
She felt a scream in her throat, but she swallowed it. She didn’t want to be noticed while the ritual blazed around her. Best to stay quiet until its end. The silence in the wake of all these pyrotechnics would leave a quick opening for Elka to finish her.
Revenge while saving the world. Thank you, Craig Lockman, for such a beautiful opportunity.
The blinding show winked out as quickly as it had started.
It took a moment for Elka’s eyes to adjust to the meager candlelight and what little came through the open door.
Her hooves were free. She felt the strength of her magic return. The gnome stones barely registered. They created the equivalent of a blind spot, but not coming near to blacking out her power altogether.
The girl stared at the ceiling for a moment. Her chest rose and fell with quick breaths as if she had finished a stint of heavy physical labor.
Elka took the opportunity to strike.
She directed all of her energy into her horn and shaped the magic to her will. In this case, she pulled the stray molecules in the air from dust, smoke, and moisture, drew it all together to form a thick cloud. She tilted her head to one side and the debris whirled in a circle faster and faster until it became a small tornado between her and the girl.
The tornado gave off a reedy whirr and it smelled like hot sand.
Like the beach at the family cottage in the middle of August.
