by Trevor Darby
“Dang it, Raven!”
“No time for talk. Time for action. Hold him tight!” she shouted back at me over her shoulder.
The Troll saw her coming and smashed at the ground again, his car-sized fists barely missing her as she dodged to the right. I was praying under my breath and concentrating with all my might when I heard a rustling sound in the distance. A second later, there was a soft twang as something glinted through the air, making a direct line for Klugg’s chest as he struggled to his feet.
What the heck?
“Go, go, go! Grab it, then run!” Taz was yelling from a thicket of trees twenty yards away, Maps at his side. Raven dashed wildly in the direction Taz was pointing as I tried to piece together what had happened.
I was still reeling with confusion when Raven came running toward me, arm thrust high in victory. In her hand was a long, thin arrow with her amulet hanging from the lethal-looking tip.
“We got it! Taz did it!”
I wheeled around to Taz, who stood with his bow hanging loosely at his side, a grin spreading over his face.
Holy cow...He’d just shot the chain of the amulet right out of the Troll’s shirt.
I could barely even calculate how impossible the odds of making such a shot were as Raven sped over and grabbed my hand.
“We’ve got to get out of here, fast!”
I nodded and yanked both arms down with all my might pulling the loose vines tight again and causing the troll to stumble back to his knees with a roar. Then, we sprinted over to the thicket of trees.
“Let’s get the heck out of here, you guys!” I said, reaching to pat Taz on the shoulder as we reunited with him and Maps and began to run. “Dude, I can’t believe it. You’re like freaking Robin Hood.”
“We did it,” Taz corrected, his cheeks flushing with pride as he jogged easily beside me. “You held the troll in place, Raven made the chain visible, and I never would’ve been able to make that shot without the magical earring that Maps gave me,” he said, touching his ear with reverence.
“You're modest. You did so awesome,” Raven said, grinning as she held up the amulet’s damaged chain, “but you did mess up the chain a bit. I’m going to have to charge you for that,” she added with a wink.
We all erupted with laughter. More because of the fading fear and release of tension than because it had been all that funny. The troll’s bellows grew more and more distant as we ran until we could run no more.
The sun had fully risen above the horizon by the time we stopped to rest under a large umbrella tree. I plopped on the ground and dug through my bag until I found some chocolate bars and jerky. I tossed two of the bars of chocolate to a weary-looking Raven, handed sticks of beef jerky to Taz and Maps, and grabbed a single candy bar for myself.
“Man, Chace, I can’t believe it. You are way stronger now,” Raven mused in between bites. “That was some really high-level magic you displayed back there.”
“It just feels like it comes easier now,” I said, shrugging, but secretly thrilled with her praise.
“You guys were awesome out there,” Maps said, grinning and taking a bite of her jerky. “Both of you. I can’t wait to see what you can do now that you have your amulet back!”
Raven smiled, “It helps focus my power a lot. I’m super happy to have it back. Thanks, guys. All of you.”
Raven’s throat worked as she crumpled up her wrapper and met my gaze.
“Thanks for not giving up on me.”
I swallowed past a lump of emotion and nodded. “You would’ve done the same for me. I’m just glad to have you back.”
I didn’t realize we were both just staring at each other in silence until Taz cleared his throat.
“So, uh, what’s the plan now?”
I plugged the last bite of candy into my mouth and tried to ignore the heat in my cheeks, “Now we just have to get that unicorn tear to repay Seth.”
“Did you just say Seth?” Raven demanded, her expression going dark as she studied me intently.
“Yeah...you know him?”
She let out a snort. "Seth's a trickster and a cheat. My dad told me about him before he...when I was younger. Said never to do business with him because if there is an angle to be found, he will find it." She narrowed her eyes at me and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, Chace, tell me you didn't..."
I held up both hands helplessly. “I didn’t really have a choice. I needed a surefire way to get us all back to the Human Realm without risking any one of you, so I went to Twee Twyla. She introduced me to Seth, and he sold me a potion called Thriple. It will multiply my magic for a short burst...long enough to get us back. All of us, this time. No man, or woman, left behind. For payment, I just need to get him the tear of a unicorn and bring it back to him before October 1st.”
Please don’t ask what happens if I fail.
“Okay. And if you fail? What did that slimy jerk ask for?”
I gulped, “My, um...my heart,” I whispered miserably.
She jerked back like she’d been slapped. “Chace. Tell me you’re kidding?”
I was silent.
Raven let out a low hiss.
"Why the heck would you promise that?” she asked, rising and standing over me, shaking her hand angrily as Taz and Maps sat and watched us, both of them wincing on my behalf. “Are you some kind of idiot?”
Harsh, but it was a fair question. In hindsight, it didn't seem like the brightest move. But it had been necessary. A fact which I quickly pointed out.
“I lost you last time without it, and now there are more of us. I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t end up leaving anyone behind this time. Anyway, if we get the unicorn tear, it won't be an issue. So let’s just focus on that,” I said, toeing the ground with my sneaker. “We got you back. That was the goal. I couldn’t have lived with myself any other way.”
“I’m supposed to be your Protector, Chace. So what about me? What about what I can live with, Chace?” she snarled. She opened her mouth to say more and then stopped short, throwing the remaining half of her second chocolate bar at me and storming away.
Silence reigned as I watched her walk until she was out of sight, and Maps cleared her throat
“Well, looks like you really screwed that one up, huh?”
Indeed, Maps. Indeed.
Chapter 16
“Wow, good job, Maps!” Taz said as we exited the woods into a massive clearing where hoofprints abounded, pressing into the soft earth.
It'd been less than half a day since we got away from the Troll. Yet, it seemed like we’d already managed to find the unicorn grazing spot that Twee Twyla had told us about before our journey had even begun. Hope skittered through me as I snuck a glance at Raven.
I hated her being mad at me. She was still quiet and clearly upset, but her posture was slightly less stiff than it had been before, which gave me hope that she was thawing. So long as we got the unicorn tear to Seth in time, my heart would remain intact. Then again, she could hardly be mad at me if we failed because, well, I'd be dead. And being angry at a dead kid was definitely bad form.
I pushed away thoughts of my own demise and turned to Maps, patting her on the shoulder. “Yeah, you really came through on the whole orienteering thing again. Great job.”
"Thanks, it was pretty easy. It's not called the Great Green Meadow for nothing. This thing takes up like a third of the Realm."
“Now you're modest. The rest of us couldn’t have found it,” Taz said.
Maps pressed a finger to her lips as her eyes lit up. “Oh my gosh, look,” she whispered.
We all swung our heads to follow her line of sight and there, not twenty yards away, stood a unicorn foal, munching serenely on the long, green grass.
“I can’t believe they’re real,” Maps murmured, moving slowly closer to the snowy-white creature. It seemed to sense our presence and straightened, cocking its head as it looked up at us.
We all froze, but it seemed to acknowledge our presence and
then ignore it, craning its graceful neck to nibble at a spray of nearby violets.
Maps waved us forward. We all moved closer until we were just a few feet away from the grazing animal. It truly was a thing to behold. I knelt beside it.
It lifted its head and studied me, showing no signs of fear. Something about its face seemed knowing and wise, reminding me more of a human with a horn than a horse.
"So, what’s the plan?” I asked, looking at the others.
We'd talked about it some on the way, but none of us had come up with a bullet-proof way to get a unicorn to cry. I'd considered trying to use magic but still hadn't managed to think of how.
“Let’s think about what would make us cry,” Taz reasoned. “Like, I know it makes me wanna cry when I bang my funny bone. Do you think unicorns have anything like that?” He rubbed at his elbow and then frowned, “I don’t think it would really hurt the little guy.” He reached to pat the unicorn on the muzzle, but it pulled away, looking strangely annoyed.
Raven sent him a half-smile and shook her head, “I don’t even think they have elbows, so it seems really unlikely, Taz.”
“And even though it’s not really injuring them, something like that does kind of hurt, which is a big no-no,” I added. “Anyone have any other ideas?”
Raven bent to look the unicorn in the face and patted its head softly.
After a pause, Maps’ face lit up. “Actually, what if Taz was on to something with trying to focus on things that would make us cry? I saw a patch of weird-looking wild onions a little ways back on our walk here that we could try using....”
"That's... actually not a bad idea," Raven said, "They won't cry from physical pain, but onions target your tear ducts directly. If we mash them up and use magic to enhance the smell. It could work!”
“We should split up then. Maps and I can go get the onions,” I said. I hated separating from Raven so soon after I'd gotten her back. Still, it made sense to have one magic-user in each group just for protection purposes.
“Nope,” she said flatly. “I'm your Protector, and I don't plan on leaving your side until we’re safely back in the human realm, placing the unicorn tear in Seth’s hands. I told you he can't be trusted to play fair. Plus, we should see if we can get it to cry using our magic,” Raven said, standing up from where she was looking at the tiny unicorn. “Let those two go, they can look out for themselves. It’s broad daylight. Plus, Taz has his bow if things get nasty, and Maps seems very capable. You guys aren’t going far, right?”
"Just a quarter-mile back. We'll be fast," Maps assured us.
“Yeah, super fast. We can go alone,” Taz agreed almost too readily. I was about to press a little more but then realized Taz was hoping to get some one on one time with Maps. It was midday, after all, and who was I to get in the way of young love?
I nodded slowly, pushing aside my reservations. Raven was already irritated with me, and I wasn't about to press my luck. Besides, she was right. The two of us using our magic might very well be able to tackle this job and get us on our way to the Human Realm, lickety-split.
“Okay.”
“See you in a little while,” Maps said, leading Taz back down the path we’d just followed to get to the meadow.
I turned toward a still-reserved looking Raven.
“Any ideas?”
"Not yet," she admitted with a shrug. "I've been thinking, but everything I come up with sounds stupid. Like...I was thinking we could try a really bright light, maybe?”
I nodded. “I like that. I’ve walked out of the dark into the sun and always immediately tear up. Let’s try it,” I said quickly.
Raven took a deep breath and patted the unicorn on the head apologetically before putting her hands out towards it. She turned around as a piercing light split through the air and persisted for a few seconds before fading to nothing. I dropped to the ground and held my head, cursing myself for not looking away fast enough as I fought off a headache.
If it had been my tears we were looking for, her plan would’ve been a major success.
“Did it work?” I gasped, blinking furiously as I tried to clear my vision.
“No,” Raven said, frowning at me. “The little thing just closed its eyes calmly and waited it out. Like it heard and understood what I was saying and acted accordingly. We’ll have to come up with something else.”
We sat in silence, struggling to gather my thoughts for a few minutes. "What if we get the unicorn to yawn?" I said, finally. "They seem so human, I bet it'll be able to catch our yawn."
“I doubt that would work,” she said slowly but then shrugged. "We need to get back ASAP, so I'm willing to try anything. Let's do it."
My eyes finally cleared as I walked over to pat the unicorn on the head. It was a miracle that the unicorn was still here at all after the light. The clever look in its eye wasn’t an illusion. They really did understand what was going on around them. Part of me wondered if they understood it better than we did.
I gave the unicorn’s head one last stroke and let out as big a yawn as I could manage, which Raven responded to with her own. I stared at the unicorn expectantly for a moment and was rewarded with a soft puff of air as its mouth opened and stretched.
Raven and I watched expectantly, but its eyes didn’t even get damp.
After another ten minutes of fake yawning followed by real yawning and waiting for tears other than my own, I finally turned back toward Raven. I was stunned to see her leaning against a rock. She held her head in her hands, and her slim shoulders were shaking. At first, I thought she was laughing, but then I heard it. The sound of her muffled sobs through her splayed fingers.
“Raven?” I called softly, my gut churning as I walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
She lifted her tear-stained face and stared at me like I’d lost my mind.
“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?! I feel like this is all some kind of sick joke. I’ve never let anyone in since I lost my Dad... until I met you. I can’t afford to lose you here, especially not when it’s all my fault that we’re in this mess,” she said, speaking slowly and doing her best to stifle tears. “What kind of Protector lets their Hunter die protecting them? If I weren't so weak, this never would've happened." She punched the ground, emphasizing the sentence.
I felt like I was going throw up because if this was anyone's fault, it was mine. And now I was making Raven cry on top of it. "It's not your fault, Raven. If I'd been strong enough, you wouldn't be stuck here in the first place. Besides that, we still have a lot of time to fix this, the deadline isn’t for another day or two,” I said, walking over to put my hand on her shoulder.
“That’s what you think,” she said, pulling away from my hand and meeting eyes with me. “Do you know for sure that your magic is really slowing things in the Human Realm? Do you really think Seth would let you off this easily? You told me yourself that he tried to trick you by messing with the dates on the contract. Which means Seth definitely values your heart more than the tear. And when he wants something, he'll go to any length to get it. He has something up his sleeve. And don't give me that crap about it not being my fault, if I were as strong as you or my teacher, I'd have teleported myself right out. I am a burden, and I always have been. To you, to my mother...even to my father,” she said, tears streaming uncontrollably now. “If I can’t think of how to fix this, I’m going to lose someone else I love. Chace...I don’t think my heart could bear it. If he takes yours, he takes mine too.
“Raven—,” I started, cutting off when I heard the sound of hooves against the earth from behind me as the tiny unicorn foal trotted toward us. It gently nuzzled the top of Raven’s head, causing her to look up. A pained neigh broke from its velvety mouth. And as Raven looked up to meet its gaze, a drop of silvery liquid rolled from the corner of one coal-black eye, down its face, and onto Raven’s cheek.
A unicorn tear.
She lifted a trembling finger to the unicorn's face, and th
en she pulled it away as another sob broke free of her chest.
We both stared at the pearly drop on her fingertip. It acted more like mercury inside a thermometer than it did a tear.
The pain melted from her face only to be replaced by pure joy as she leaped to her feet and threw her free arm around me. “We did it, Chace!”
“No.” I pulled back and stared down at her. “You did it, Raven. And our new friend.”
We both turned and pet the magical creature, comforting it with soft coos of praise.
“Get the vial,” Raven said as she rubbed the animal’s fur.
I nodded and reached into my backpack for the vial Seth had given me. “Raven, I..." I wanted to keep talking about what she'd said, but her expression told me to leave it for now. The issue at hand had been resolved, and we still had work to do. There would be time for talking later.
I pulled the final two chocolate bars out of my pack and tossed one to Raven before offering a piece of the other to our new furry friend. The unicorn stared at it and then sniffed in disgust and turned away. Raven laughed, taking a bite of her own bar, and suddenly everything was right in the world again.
All that was left was to get everyone back to the Human Realm with the Thriple and give the unicorn tear to Seth.
“We got them!”
Raven and I turned to find Maps and Taz in the distance, waving wild onions in the air when they saw us. They moved into a quick run when I lifted the vial over my head in response.
“Awesome! How’d you guys pull it off?” Taz asked excitedly, dropping his onions to the ground and grabbing the vial.
I looked to Raven before answering. “Raven figured it out, we used our magic to pull it off,” I lied. After all we'd been through, the Myth Squad was already a pretty tight-knit group, but what had been said was between Raven and me and no one else.
