by Ember Hollis
I meet Noah just as he leaves the bar with two bottles of beer topped by glasses, and I catch him around the waist to bring myself to a stop.
“It’s such a nice day,” I say in a rush. “Why don’t we sit outside and enjoy the beer with the picnic since the weather’s so good?”
“Okay,” he agrees without questioning, and we turn to leave just as a swarm of customers comes into the tavern to block the Horsemen and help me with my retreat.
* * *
Our trip at Themis ends on a high note even though Noah and I have to leave directly after the picnic. He’s called in unexpectedly for Were patrol, which has apparently started getting scheduled even during daylight hours. On my part, I can’t think of anything better than escaping Themis while Bane and Christian are on the prowl for me.
We ride up the funicular back to the castle again, then Noah walks me to my room just in case someone decides to ambush me. It’s little things like this that really convinces me of what a gentleman he is.
I brush a kiss against his lips when he drops me off. And though it doesn’t rouse me the way Christian’s or even Bane’s kiss had, the sight of Noah blushing and the twinkle in his eye as he bids me goodbye makes me really happy.
I’m reading my handbook while Sibyl catches up on her homework, when Amelie barges into our room to find me.
“Heaven!” she gasps. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
“What, why, what’s wrong?” I sit up on my bed. She’s covered in dirt with hay sticking out of her hair, and even with just a glance, I can tell she’s completely lost it.
“The unicorns,” she moans, wringing her hands. “Something attacked them! I went up to visit Triton and he was on the ground, half covered in Darkness. Chiros sent me to get you, and they’re sending patrols out to find the ones that ran away, but oh, Triton’s in pain, and I don’t know what to do! You have to come help him!”
“Okay, let’s go!” I say, leaping off my bed.
“I’ll come too,” Sybil adds, and the three of us rush out of the castle and over to the unicorn pasture.
Chapter 30: Heaven
The unicorn pasture and stables is a mess of activity. There are people everywhere, mostly Weres, who’ve been called in to track the missing unicorns down. The few that are left lie in the grass with Dark stains on them of varying degrees.
“What happened?” I ask Chiros when he gallops over to meet us. But he just shakes his shaggy head.
“An attack, but we still don’t know who did it.” He looks exhausted and troubled, with blood-shot eyes and a deep furrow between his brows. “All you need to think about now is helping those unicorns before they turn into nightmares,” he says, pointing me to where Triton is moaning on the ground.
“Maybe it’s Ever After High,” Sybil tells me. She picks up a cloth, and at Amelie’s direction, starts mopping Triton’s sweat off of him. Meanwhile, I take stock of his stain and try to assess how much I can remove without depleting my energy too much to help the other unicorns. “They’re our rival school, you know.”
“Messing with our unicorns isn’t something Ever After would do!”
Both of us look up to see Madam Wilkins standing over us. She looks like she’s dressed for a night out in a white pantsuit with long chains of gold around her neck, but she’s wearing galoshes and holding a wand up to the sky.
“Hurry up and get that unicorn on his feet, girl,” she says to me, without even glancing down. “The Dome needs Balance to stay up! Such bad timing, to have students in Themis during an attack,” she shakes her head and wanders away, still waving her wand at the sky.
“I better get to it,” I tell Sybil. She nods while I focus on reciting the spell, then catches me when I’m done and start to sway on my knees.
“I’m all right,” I say. Triton is breathing easier now the Darkness has retreated from him. It’s still got a hold on one of his front legs, but his chest and neck are clear. “Where’s the next one?”
We work frantically for several hours, while the others search for the missing unicorns and set up camp. I drain the Darkness from as many unicorns as I can, before I down Madam Kahili’s pills and take a nap. Each time I lay my head down, the nightmares become more vivid and more troubling, and I begin to sleep more lightly and wake sooner, hardly feeling like I’ve rested at all.
One dream in particular is truly terrifying.
I dream of a black-haired baby sitting in the back seat of a car at night, with his parents driving him. The little thing is asleep at first, but when he wakes and starts to scream, his parents start to argue. Both of them are fat, but the mother in the passenger’s seat is particularly obese, and in between every word, she stuffs a Snickers bar or two into her mouth.
Then, out of the blue, a bear lumbers onto the highway. It’s impossible to miss, and seems as if it’s intent on colliding with them. The car brakes screech even louder than the crying baby as the car smashes into the bear and spins uncontrollably down the road until it crashes through the barrier and rolls down into the forest below.
It flips down the slope, then skids into a tree in a shower of glass. When it come to a stop, the car is on its side, with the mother’s seat on the bottom and the father and the baby on top. I can see that none of the car doors will open, since the car is wedged between the ground and a thick, low-hanging tree branch. None of its occupants are conscious, except the baby who is still screaming its little heart out.
The father wakes first. He yells at his wife to get out of the car, to get the baby, but she’s unconscious and can’t move anyway. After about half an hour, the wife opens her eyes. She murmurs something to the Father and he rummages for a snack bar, but they’re all gone. There were few left, and he ate them all anyway, while they were waiting.
While he tells her that, the baby starts crying again, and his wife presses her hands over her ears. He reaches a hand out to comfort her, or to reach for the baby, I’m not sure which its meant to be. But before he gets close to either, the wife whirls around and snaps one of his fingers off, chewing it hard so the knuckles pop.
And that’s when I wake up screaming.
* * *
The camp around me is dark and still, aside from a couple of golden flickering light bobbing here and there, and the quiet murmur of distant voices.
When I wake screaming, Amelie stirs from her sleep and pushes another bottle of Madam Kahili’s pills towards me before falling back into a doze.
The tent flaps are pulled away just as I reach for the bottle, and a familiar face appears between them.
Knox!
For a moment, I feel as if I’m still dreaming. The tearful eyes of the baby seem to swim before me until they merge into Knox’s calculating green ones.
“Whisperer,” he says. “There’s another one for you.” He holds the tent flap back and I edge out, wary at being so close to him.
But all he does is lead the way to another Dark-stained unicorn. He watches while I recite the spell, then hands me a cup of water to down more pills. He himself drinks a cup of dark purple juice.
“What are you doing here,” I ask, when I’m done.
“Same as you, Whisperer,” he answers, his smile a sideways smirk. “Everyone needs the unicorns, and the Horsemen are no exception. Even now, Malek is out hunting the thing that attacked them, while Christian and Bane do what they can.”
He gestures to another unicorn, one with a shattered leg that I’d purified just a half hour earlier even though Amelie told me it would probably have to be put down.
Both of the other Horsemen are bent over it, and as I watch, wide-eyed, Christian puts a hand on its flank and another over its wound, then bends his head. Something ripples beneath the unicorn’s skin. Then, with a sound like breaking glass, its bones straighten and its skin begins to knit together.
Meanwhile, Bane who’s been holding the unicorn’s head with his palms over its eyes slowly lets out a long breath. When the two of them stand up, the
unicorn stands too. It’s weak, but I can tell it’ll live now.
I gasp softly, amazed at what I’m seeing, and all three Horsemen look towards me. Bane’s gaze is especially penetrating, as if he can see right down into the turmoil I’ve been battling all night.
“See something you like, little lamb?” Christian taunts me. He looks exhausted too, but not too exhausted to flirt, apparently. He’ll probably do it till they nail his coffin shut.
“I just… I thought… that you could only…” I stutter, not quite sure how to frame what I’m asking.
“We are given control over many things, poppet. Health and desire… peace and war… appetite and power, and even life and death,” Knox tells me. “But we aren’t inherently pledged to either Good or Evil. We make our own choices. At least, the ones that are ours to make.”
It’s as if he’s read my mind. I stare at him, disbelieving.
“So much to learn, little lamb,” Christian says, winking at me, before he walks on to the next unicorn with Bane.
Knox turns away too. I watch him go, wondering how he’s helping. Then I remember… he’s still holding on to my angelic abilities. If he would only give them back, I could get to the unicorns more quickly and take even more Darkness from them!
“Hey, Knox,” I say, reaching for his arm. “If you really want to help out here, you should give me back my powers—”
He jerks away from my hand, spilling some of his juice onto the ground. He glances down at the spilt droplets with an angry scowl, then turns to me. “Why should I, poppet? You seem to be doing fine without them.”
“But, I could do so much more with them,” I protest, reaching up to wipe the juice that’s splattered onto my hand on my shirt. Then I recall that I’m wearing the only outfit I have that’s not a uniform, and decide to just lick it.
“Stop!” Knox tries to catch my hand before I stick my finger in my mouth, but he misses it by a split second. I frown at him as I taste the bittersweet, metallic taste. There’s something oddly familiar about this juice. In fact, it reminds me a lot of something that isn’t juice.
I study Knox’s face as he stares at me, and then look to the cup. Before he can stop me, I grab it and inhale deeply. That smell! And the warmth of the glass on my fingers… it can only mean one thing!
“How dare you!” I yell. “Everyone is trying so hard to save them, and you’re drinking their blood! You monster!”
I move to tip the glass over, but before I can, Knox is snatching it away from me, and Christian’s got my arm in a tight grip.
“Put a lid on it, little lamb,” Christian says in a low, dangerous voice. “We all drink it. It’s the main reason we have unicorns here in the first place.”
“Liar!” I struggle, trying to break free, but the reverse hold I attempt falls flat with Christian. He’s probably had a thousand girls pull that trick with him.
“How else do you think I don’t murder everyone in sight,” Bane drawls, his eyes staring at me as if I’ve just proved I have the intelligence of a bug.
“No, I’m going to tell Chiros!” I launch myself at Christian, pushing him into Bane, then duck under Knox’s arms.
He swears and starts to give chase, but I’ve just caught sight of a weapon I can use.
“Sybil!” I shriek, spotting the lamia slithering nearby. I dart to her and yank the blue sunglasses off her nose just as she turns towards us, then duck out of the way.
Knox gets a full blast of her stony-eyed power and is immediately petrified. He falls down into the muddy grass with a heavy thump, together with Christian and Bane who’d hit the ground to avoid her gaze.
“Sorry, but thanks!” I tell her, shoving the glasses back onto her face from behind. Sybil’s expression when she turns to look at me is one of utter betrayal and hurt. I glimpse it turn to fear once she registers just who her gaze has hit, but I turn away and keep running into the forest in search of Chiros before she can say anything to me.
At least now the Horsemen aren’t chasing me anymore, I notice, as I pass into the cover of the trees. I just hope that little stunt didn’t cost me a friend.
Chapter 31: Christian
I spit mud out of my mouth and look up just in time to watch as Heaven darts into the forest. Her face when she looks back over her shoulder is frantic and white, but her dark doe-shaped eyes blaze through the mass of her tangled rose-gold hair like twin stars.
Despite how annoyed I am at her, I can’t help but chuckle. That girl’s got more spirit than a hundred girls put together, and angel or not, she’s a real handful.
“You think this is funny?” Bane hisses at me. “Knox is out of action, and our Whisperer’s gone off to gallivant in the woods with that creature still out there.”
He leaps to his feet and stares into the forest as if his gaze could burn it down. He probably could just kill all the trees, if it came to that, I decide. But he won’t. “Why, are you worried about her?”
I smirk when Bane glares at me. It’s fun to push his buttons sometimes. Bane’s the stiffest among us, and I can’t blame him, given what happens when he loses his cool.
“Don’t worry, she won’t get far. And Malek will bring her back anyway, you know how sensitive his angel radar is. Or,” I laugh once again, “Maybe I should say, his ‘Heaven’ radar.”
Bane turns away to scoff in disgust, which lets me know he’s heard all about what happened with Malek and Heaven. Perhaps he even believes it. I hide another smirk. I can scent a virgin a mile away, and one whiff of the little lamb lets me know all I need to. The little thing hasn’t lost her innocence yet.
“Do something,” Bane orders, ignoring my amusement and jerking his head toward Knox.
I sigh and bend down to dig our brother out of the mud. Knowing Knox, he’s going to really, really make the little lamb pay for this. Well, just as long as he doesn’t totally ruin her. It’s all right if he steals her right to Grace, but I want to be the first to deflower her. I’m Conquest after all, it’s practically my birthright.
“Righto,” I say, when he’s out. “Hold him up for me please?” Bane reaches a hand out to Knox’s shoulder, and I channel a stream of Life into his body, cutting short the little lamia’s petrification half-life until Knox turns back into flesh and blood. “Welcome back.”
“Where… is… she?” Knox grinds out. He jumps to his feet and starts off after her, almost before his feet are completely stoneless. The sight of Bane and him heading into the forest after her makes me want to laugh again.
There’s nothing Knox hates most than feeling powerless, and without even knowing, my smart little lamb made him feel out of control.
“First to find her has dibs,” I call after them. Bane’s shoulders tense when he hears, but neither of them look back at me.
Oh well.
It looks like the chase to find Heaven is on. I smirk and look for an empty tent I can use and spot one almost immediately.
I walk in and lie down on the pallet, then reach a hand down to my pocket to pull out a long, rose-gold strand and press it to my lips.
“Too bad I already have a head start, brothers.”
Chapter 32: Heaven
I thought I knew my way around the forest by now, but my exhaustion coupled with my nervousness somehow leads me to take the wrong turn.
Instead of heading to the clearing I heard Chiros mention to be a meeting point for himself and the Were patrols, I find myself walking by a cliff face, along twisted crags of rock and under tall, dark trees.
Not for the first time, I wish for a map of the academy grounds. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to rip mine out of the handbook. After a few more minutes of useless wandering, I decide to stay put and take a nap to clear my mind of the last unicorn’s Darkness in case it’ll help me find my way.
But as soon as I close my eyes, I find myself not in the familiar dreamless sleep that Madam Kahili’s pills encourage, nor in the turbulent roiling of a too-vivid nightmare.
Instead, I find
myself ensconced in the arms of a certain honey blond Horseman, lying on a rug in the grass under a tent in the exact same clearing I’d just left.
“Christian?” I yelp, feeling his body pressed close to mine. Already I’m surrounded by his scent, my body awakening to the bitter sweet fragrance of musk and bourbon. “How… why…”
“Hello, little lamb,” he says, with an infuriating smile that he probably thinks is unbelievably sexy. It sort of is, but that’s beside the point. “Welcome. Isn’t this a vast improvement over whatever hole you’ve crawled into out there in the big bad forest? You lost your way and gave up, didn’t you?” he laughs.
“No,” I lie right in his face, though by the look of it, I haven’t fooled him. “But how am I here anyway?”
“Just… a little trick of mine,” Christian replies smugly.
His hands dart up my shirt to stroke the underside of my bra. I bat them away and glare at him. “Explain!”
He leans forward and buries his face in my hair, inhaling deeply. “You left one of your hairs on me when we last met, little lamb. I just had to wait till you went to sleep, and once you were, I erected a dreamscape with just the two of us. It’s just one of my many talents. Would you like to know what the others are?”
I open my mouth to answer, but before I can, Christian closes his lips over mine. He moves them sensuously against my lips, sending delicious tingles of pleasure that course through my body and right down to my toes.
“Ahh,” I moan, unable to help myself.
“Exactly,” Christian murmurs in my ear. He darts his tongue out to lick the shell of my ear, then slips a hand into my bra to scoop out my breast.
I gasp as he fondles me. How is everything so real, I want to ask. But just as quickly as the thought enters my mind, it departs, leaving a delicious blankness in its wake. All I can focus on is Christian’s hands, his lips, and then his fingers, reaching down to my jeans.
