I was lucky, if you could call it that. Lucky that I hadn’t been injured seriously. The only injury I was likely to have sustained was, at most, a turned ankle. Lucky that the unicorns had come to answer my cries for help—even if I hadn’t realized that I’d been calling them. I’d continued calling for help aloud for a while, but eventually, exhausted, I’d drifted off.
It had to be after midnight at this point.
Poor Williamson. I rubbed my tired eyes and leaned my head back against the unicorn, sighing, looking up toward the sky. I really had meant to keep my promise to him. But someone—and I suspected one monstrous imp in particular—had intervened in those well-laid plans that I had made with the best of intentions and purest of will.
And Williamson was nothing—nothing—compared with my mother. I was sure that Fae was safe with her, but knowing that I was missing, just out in the wilds somewhere, and hadn’t returned home? It had to be driving her mad, especially knowing that I wasn’t just missing. I was missing while Rumpelstiltskin was at large. While Rumpelstiltskin was not only at large, but acting in the kingdom with malicious intent.
I sighed again and looked down at my captive ankle. And here was the evidence of that malicious intent right before my very eyes, with the moonlight shining down upon it.
“Eliana!”
My head turned toward the cry. All right, that was not the sounds of the forest and it definitely wasn’t a dream. I’d know that voice anywhere, no matter how much distance I had ever tried and failed to put between us. That voice was Jay.
“Your Highness! Are you near?”
“Are you out there?”
And that was Williamson and Avery. Bless those unrelenting guards’ hearts.
“I’m here!” I shouted.
The unicorn at my back started at the cry and scrambled to its feet. Not Zacarina. Nor was it Epiphany. A steady number of unicorns had been rotating in and out throughout the night as it seemed like they’d decided, through a conversation I was not privy to, that they would take turns keeping me warm and then taking to the skies for… well, whatever it was unicorns did when they flew around. Who was I to keep them from that?
It was interesting, the way that they communicated, though. It seemed different from human speech. For humans to have privacy, we had to sequester ourselves behind closed doors and make sure that there was no one within hearing distance in order to have that privacy. Unicorns, it seemed, could communicate mind to mind with only those of their choosing, or they could broadcast a wider net—say, to cry for help the way that the unicorns trapped in the river had done.
I eased onto the side of my hip and winced, hissing through my teeth. It had gone numb from the weight being on it throughout the night, but I stood anyway. It hurt as feeling assaulted the previously numb limb and blood began flowing throughout my extremities again.
“Eliana?”
I turned to the left. His voice was more distant than it had been the last time, but I was sure that was where it was coming from. “Jay?” I called back, voice hopeful.
I didn’t think my voice was loud enough for Jay to hear me. It was as though the forest was a carpet-coated room. It seemed to swallow up the sound of my voice like spilled water soaking into cloth.
But despite that, as though disturbed by my voice, the unicorns all suddenly jolted to their feet, joining the one that I’d been leaning against in standing. I eyed them all carefully and spoke aloud, taking no chances that any of them would not be able to hear me if I didn’t project my mind speech in exactly the right way.
“Are all of you… all right?” I asked cautiously.
That was it. That was all I said. “Are all of you all right?” But as though I’d mortally offended them, every single, solitary unicorn took flight toward the trees, raining leaves down upon me and lighting a path toward the sky and the moon that hung in it without ever looking back at me.
And leaving me alone, trapped and with no clue as to what I had done wrong.
I sank back down to my knees, overwhelmed. The unicorns had left me. My guards were close, but couldn’t hear my cries for help. And Jay was with them. Jay. Whom I had pushed away. Maybe I was destined to be alone. Maybe I deserved to be trapped in this forest. I’d just sink into the ground and over time I’d dissolve into the earth. At least, I’d make myself useful that way. I would make myself into fertilizer and give something back to someone.
Aaaaand that was probably enough self-pity for the night. Yup, I’d filled my quota up, all right.
I shivered and rubbed my arms, trying to create some friction. Without the unicorns surrounding me, it was awfully cold out here.
There had to be a way out of this. I just wasn’t seeing it yet.
I stood back up. Okay, the first and easiest option was that help was near. I’d heard the voices, and even if they did seem to be getting further away rather than closer, they were out there. That was the plan. And if I couldn’t make enough noise to guide them to me, well, I would cross that bridge when I got to it and make a new plan after that.
So I started shouting. And shouting and shouting and shouting. Sometimes I thought that I heard their voices shouting in reply. Sometimes I thought that only silence answered me. But I kept on yelling. I kept on trying.
But I wasn’t inhuman. My voice was hoarse from the stressful night and the more I used it, the more I shouted, the softer it seemed to get.
Just when I thought my voice was gone—it was no more than a whisper by now—just when I was about to give up hope, I saw what I thought was the most glorious sight that I’d ever seen in my entire life:
It was Zacarina, gliding through the air between the trees.
And on her back, with his face as white as a sheet, gripping fistfuls of her mane between his hands… was Jay.
My heart leaped.
In their wake was the rest of the unicorn flock. Most did not have riders on their backs, but I spotted two men on the backs of one of them: Williamson and Avery. There had to be a larger search party out there, but this was all I needed. The men who guarded me so fiercely and the unicorns that I connected with on such a deep level.
I closed my eyes and offered a prayer up to the heavens, thanking whatever gods were listening. I didn’t know if I deserved to be rescued. But regardless of that, I was thankful that they’d decided to do it.
I wanted to go home. Home to my mother and father. Home to my daughter.
And if I hadn’t already made up my mind about where I stood on the Jay situation, this would have been the most telling detail of all: I ached to be in his arms. I wanted to be home, and I wanted his arms around me. That was where I wanted to be.
“Eliana,” Jay called.
Zacarina landed gracefully and Jay scrambled off of her back and over to me. Williamson and Avery followed suit, but they kept their distance while Jay checked me over with anxious hands, searching for any injury.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“A little banged up, but no worse for wear,” I said, smiling tremulously. There was a suspicious little lump of emotion clogging my throat. “Jay, are you—”
Jay interrupted my question when he caught sight of the trap around my ankle. “Damn. No wonder you were late.” He crouched to get a better look at it, then looked up at me. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
“I mean, I’m not comfortable, but… you’re here now,” I said, dazed with relief. Overjoyed that he was here—it was like a dream. Who needed knights in shining armor or battle-ready princes when there was Jay coming to the rescue? Jay, who would never let me down. “I’m great.” That was the gods’-honest truth, too.
He blinked, then shook his head as if he was trying to shake water out of his ear because he couldn’t believe, based on the last time we’d spoken, that he’d actually heard me correctly. So I guessed that was why he chose not to respond to it.
“We’re gonna get you out of this, Lia. I just… thank the gods that you’re all right.”
He walked aw
ay for a moment to confer with Avery and Williamson. The elder guard slipped a satchel over his shoulder and they all headed my way. Jay hovered awkwardly in the background, watching as the guards got to work. It was tough to tear my eyes away from him, but I tore them, nonetheless, and focused my attention on the guards who planned to free me.
“I never thought I’d be so glad to see you,” I told the guards.
“The feeling is mutual, Your Highness,” Avery responded.
Williamson was tightlipped as he bent to my ankle and opened the satchel to reveal the tools that were inside and set to work. The tools made little clinking sounds as he set at them.
Clink. Clink.
“Williamson?”
A pause. Then, his work resumed, but he kept a stubborn silence, not saying anything. Clink. Clink.
“I am sorry, Williamson. I really wanted to be on time, I promise you.”
He sighed. “I know you did, Your Highness. And I promise you that I forgive you. But I’m not sure that the queen will forgive me and Avery.”
“I’ll speak with her,” I swore.
“Don’t concern yourself with that. There are more important things to worry about. For starters—” He grunted and turned the tool in his hand decisively, then grinned up at me. The feeling magically rushed back into my ankle as the metal fell away from it. It felt like a tiny miracle.
I breathed deeply and massaged the stiff joint. “Thank you,” I said.
Then, I turned my attention to Jay. I took two tentative steps toward him. “How did you find me?” I asked.
He hesitantly walked the same distance toward me. “We didn’t, really. It was the unicorns. They found us. We’d thought to follow them, but then Zacarina knelt in front of me.” His lips quirked up in a smile. “It seemed a pretty clear message that I had better climb on to her back if I knew what was good for me.”
The unicorns had found them. It all made sense now. The unicorns hadn’t really left me at all. They’d heard the cries of the search party, just the same as I had. I hadn’t disturbed them when I’d risen to my feet; I’d alerted them to my distress. Just as Jay and I had worked to free them, they’d gone to find him so that he could do the same thing for me. They didn’t abandon me; just the opposite. They were just as responsible for my rescue as Jay, Avery, and Williamson were.
I turned back to the divine equines, who watched us with their inscrutable golden gazes. I could have spoken aloud to thank them, but it felt more proper to do it their way. So I concentrated and cast a wide net out with my mind so that all of the unicorns in the small area surrounding us would be able to hear me. “Thank you,” I mind-spoke. “I could never have gotten out of this without your help.”
Holding my gaze, Zacarina slowly sank down onto her forequarters, landing in what was an unmistakable bow. Behind her, the rest of the unicorns slowly followed suit, until the floor was blanketed with a sea of folded-over unicorns.
“It was our pleasure,” Zacarina spoke for the rest of the herd. “You may not have the form of a unicorn—but you have the spirit of one. That makes you kin. We never abandon our kin. We will always be there when you need us.”
There was a silence from behind me, where Avery, Williamson, and Jay stood. A sense of quiet awe filled the air around us.
I was glad that the rest of the search party hadn’t arrived yet. If word got out about this, I would truly never shake that nickname that I so abhorred of the “unicorn princess.” It wasn’t that I hated being associated with the unicorns, either. No, I was honored and touched to be thought of being the unicorn’s kin. It was the insinuation and assumption that I was somehow in a position of power over them that I loathed. I was not their princess. I was not their queen. The gods had chosen them and they had chosen me. In a way, that meant Zacarina was right. They were my brethren as much as I was theirs.
I walked toward her as she and the rest of her herd rose to their feet. I put my hand on her long face and eased my head against hers. “Thank you,” I said, this time aloud, for the benefit of Jay and the guards. “Kin or not. You didn’t have to help me. It means the world that you did.”
“I told you I would always return the favor when I could,” she said. “Just because we have left your shelter does not change that. It does not end here for us. It never does.”
I stepped back and nodded, stepping away from her and giving her the space to turn. The unicorns turned and walked away into the night, leaving me with only the humans to explain to.
I swallowed a lump in my throat, looking at Jay. He looked so handsome, standing there, silhouetted in the moonlight coming in through the trees. So handsome… and so undeniably awkward. As we stared at each other, his eyes flicked around as he tried to look at anything but me. His hands went into his pockets and he rocked back on his heels, trying to ease some of the tension.
“Have you seen Fae?” I asked, thinking of my daughter spending her first night without me with a pang. “Is she all right?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I poked my head in on her and your mom before I joined the search party. She’s fine. They bottle-fed her at dinner, so she’s eaten. I’m sure she’s missing you, but she’s okay.”
“And my mother?” I asked, almost dreading the answer.
He shook his head, laughing a bit in spite of himself. “Yeah… your mother is probably who you should be worried about. At least, that’s who I would be worried about if I were you. She’s going mad up there. I thought she was going to come into the woods and search herself, but the guards insisted that she stay in the palace, especially with you missing.”
He swallowed visibly, no longer looking amused. “They were afraid it was a plot, you see. And if you had been kidnapped, they didn’t want to give your captor a chance to also get their hands on the queen.”
The expression on his face… I could see the ghost of the fear that must have been eating him alive for all of the hours that I had been missing. Guilt assaulted me. “I’ve made a mess of things, haven’t I? And all because I needed to be alone so that I could think about…”
I trailed off and Jay looked up at me, his expression arrested. “Think about what?”
I shook my head. We could have this reunion now, sure. But I was filthy and exhausted. I wanted it to be a real and productive conversation, not delirious words spoken in the forest. I wanted it to be coherent. Because it mattered; this conversation was important. And I didn’t want to mess it up, not again.
“Later,” I told him. I slipped my hand into his, and, hand in hand, we walked toward Williamson and Avery. “Promise me we’ll talk later. For now, I need a bath—and I need to see my mother and daughter.”
We made it back to the castle as the sun was rising, casting hues of orange and pink over the castle. It looked like a painting that my mother would have commissioned. I had been right when I’d awoken to shouts of my name and guessed that it was after midnight; it was well after midnight. In fact, it was the early hours of the morning, so early that the sun had not yet awoken.
The search party had caught up with us shortly after we began our trek through the forest to get back to the castle. We made quite the picture. All of us were bedraggled, sleep-deprived, and exhausted. But none more so than me.
After the initial adrenaline of being rescued had faded, I’d slumped with exhaustion onto the back of one of the party’s horses. We pulled up in front of the castle entrance and I eased off. Jay took the reins.
“I’ll take him to the staviary. I’ll come find you in the afternoon so you can get some rest. We can talk then.” He nodded behind me to where the castle gate was. “You’ve got other concerns right now.”
As I turned, a small train slammed into me, and I let out an oomph, my arms automatically coming around the figure with its arms around me. “Mother.”
“Don’t you ever do that again.” Her words were muffled from speaking into my shoulder. “I thought Rumpelstiltskin had finally come to collect on our bargain. I thought I had lost you.�
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Oh, the guilt. I closed my eyes, battling the waves of it washing over me. Before, whenever my mother had seemed to overreact to me going missing for a few hours, I’d only been frustrated, angry, or annoyed. This was different. Now, I had been in actual danger. And now, I understood the reasons behind her fears. She wasn’t paranoid that something random would happen to me. There was legitimately someone out to get me. Out to get her. Rumpelstiltskin wanted revenge. And I hoped beyond anything that he wouldn’t get to have it. But I’d been a fruit on the vine, ripe for the picking tonight. No protection. No way to defend myself. I shuddered, thinking of how close he’d come to getting his hands on me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I really didn’t think anything would happen.”
She pulled back, expression stern. “And that was foolish. I could understand before, but you know the dangers now. And you don’t just have yourself to think of anymore. You have a child. You can’t afford to go running off willy-nilly. I assigned you guards for a reason. I do things for a reason.”
She sighed and ran an aggrieved hand through her mussed hair. Dark circles ringed her eyes; I doubted if she’d slept any more than I had tonight, probably less. I’d had the comfort of the unicorns, at the very least. She’d only had the fear of the unknown over what was happening to me.
“I know. I’m sorry.” I quirked a smile at her. “If it’s any consolation, the night definitely provided me with the clarity that I was looking for.”
“I bet.” She laughed, but it was a watery sounding laugh. She massaged her eyes. “We can talk about this more later. I’d imagine you’re exhausted and to be quite frank, so am I. Let’s get some sleep.”
I nodded. “And Fae?”
“She’s fine. Still asleep; she was in and out all night; even she seemed to sense that you weren’t where you should be last night. You know what they say; let sleeping babes lie. Come by and get her after you’ve gotten some sleep.”
“I will.”
I slept forty winks. And then, maybe forty more.
Throne of Sacrifice Page 7
