Zoë half-turned her head, closing her eyes and feeling the softness of the unicorn’s nose against her face. Then, eyes still closed, she reached up to run her fingers across his neck. When she opened her eyes, he was gazing at her with his beautiful dark eyes. In the daylight she could see that they were the green of the deepest forest and they glowed with compassion and affection.
With an inarticulate cry, Zoë threw her arms around his neck. “I thought you weren’t real after all,” she said against his skin. Her words were muffled, but he understood her anyhow.
His ears twitched back and forth. “I’m sorry I frightened you. I didn’t want that.”
She pressed her face into his shoulder for a while, breathing in his scent, feeling his solidity. He was real, he was real, and she wasn’t alone. When she finally felt like she could stand on her own two feet again, she pulled away, but left her fingers lightly touching his neck. “But what took you so long to find me?”
He turned his head, nibbled on the sleeve of her coat. “Are you feeling better?”
“A little.” She frowned, remembering her original purpose. “Is Ainsel here? Did she come find you?”
His ears pricked sharply. “She did not. What has happened to her?”
Zoë clenched her fist. “I don’t know. We can’t find her. I have to call her mom.” She fumbled for her phone, then frowned at it. “Out of service area… why does it say that?”
The unicorn pawed the ground, then turned and paced away, out from under her hand. “Zoë… I couldn’t come out to you. They were using you as bait. But I couldn’t bear watching you cry. I should have been stronger, but… I’m not.” His ears flattened. “So I extended my sanctuary around you. It was the best I could do.”
Zoë caught her breath. “The wolves?”
“They suspected something was here.” He huffed out his breath. “And now they know, because I stole you away out from under their noses.”
Once again, she felt like sitting down abruptly. Instead of collapsing onto the ground, she stumbled over to a fallen tree and sat there instead, carefully, deliberately. Then she tried to gather her thoughts.
“All right,” she said after a moment. “My phone doesn’t work. But I really do need to let Ainsel’s moms know she’s not here. I can’t stand the thought of them being afraid—“ she couldn’t go on without the tears coming back again. Couldn’t stand the thought of them feeling like she just had. She looked at where the mist swirled between the trees instead, blinking rapidly. It wasn’t a thick mist, but it was otherworldly, and the forest touched by it seemed unreal.
The unicorn’s smooth voice roughened. “You can’t leave. They’ll take you right away, catch you, make you tell them about me.”
Zoë frowned. “You mean I’m stuck in here?”
He tossed his head. “As am I. You did want to find me.”
She shuddered. “I did. I do. I’m glad… I can’t even say how glad. But everything is wrong out there, and Ainsel and my parents are both—” She shook her head. “How long are we trapped?”
He gave her a sidelong look. “For as long as they wait beyond the sanctuary, I suppose. They don’t usually stay for long when they sniff around, but now… it may be some time.” He gave a bellows-like sigh.
Zoë pursed her lips. “I’ll think about it.” It was a puzzle, something to distract her mind from the more concrete ramifications of what the unicorn had told her. “Things are getting really weird out there, if I wasn’t imagining everything.”
“If the pri— your Ainsel is missing, I am not surprised. Meanwhile,” he added, delicately, as if he had something he wasn’t certain he ought to share. “I don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse, but you mentioned your parents…”
Zoë shot off her log. “Have you seen them?”
With a look, the unicorn walked deeper into the forest sanctuary. Zoë followed him for a moment, until she rounded a tree and found her mother stretched out on the forest carpet.
With a cry, Zoë knelt down. Her mother was dressed in slightly askew business clothes, with her thin hands folded over her chest. Zoë took one and held it, almost sobbing when it was warm. Her mother’s chest rose and fell gently, but even when Zoë shook her, she didn’t wake up.
“What’s happened to her?”
Though he stood right behind her, his voice was distant. “The wolves wanted to catch her, use her against you. I rescued her first. But my presence is a secret. So I’m keeping her asleep, so she won’t remember any of this.”
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Zoë’s fingers curled into her palms. Then, tiredly, she stroked her mother’s hair away from her face, and wiped away a makeup smudge. Her mother’s deep, even breathing didn’t change. She’d never been a heavy sleeper, and it sickened Zoë to see her like this.
The ground she was on seemed to have an extra cushion of pine needles and fallen leaves. It wasn’t damp, and it was sheltered by twin trees. If she woke up soon, she’d probably be fine.
Zoë stood up and went back to her fallen log, where she seated herself again. The unicorn trailed her and inquired apprehensively,. “Are you upset?”
She looked up at the unicorn. He truly was beautiful, more splendid than any painting, and part of that was because he was real. She held out her hand and he pushed his nose against it, but he seemed skittish and wary now.
“Do unicorns have names?” she asked.
“Yes,” he murmured. “My name is Lucien. You’ve never asked before.”
She tickled the whiskers under Lucien’s chin then pulled her hand away. “Well, Lucien. Yeah. I’m upset. Upset that they were hunting her, and upset that you’re using the same magic on her that you used on me.”
“I didn’t know what else to do and I had to do something. But if you want me to wake her…” He trailed off, as if not quite sure what he’d do.
That had been Zoë’s first thought: wake her up, right this instant. But she knew her mother. She knew her mother wouldn’t listen to Zoë’s explanation, would have no patience for the strangeness. She’d want to return to her life and if she couldn’t… if she was trapped, or at risk from Tyler and the wolves… she wouldn’t be a help. She’d make everything more complicated. Sure, give her a couple weeks to study the situation, get some estimates from pros, and come up with a plan and she’d be able to cope. Probably via makeovers. But right away? It was better to let her sleep. Zoë had enough to worry about without also keeping her mom calm.
She raised her eyes back to the unicorn. To Lucien. It was a beautiful name, just like him. “Have you seen my dad? Did they get him?”
“I haven’t seen him, I’m sorry. They haven’t mentioned anything that sounds like him.”
Zoë bit her thumbnail and wished she’d brought her backpack with her. But all she had was her coat and the contents of her pockets. A comb. A small notebook. A pack of gum. If she’d known she was going to be stuck in the forest she would have planned better.
Her chest tightened. She’d thought that in her mother’s voice. She looked back to where her mother was magically sleeping. You aren’t the most attentive mom but I’m going to look out for you. Especially if something’s happened to Dad.
She exhaled carefully, trying to stop herself from crying again. Her throat and eyes hurt enough. “All right. If I’m stuck in here, I’ve got to know what’s going on. Lucien, why are you here? Why are they here?”
The unicorn looked into the distance to one side. His bronze mane was a sharp contrast against his white coat. It looked silky but just on the verge of tangling. At least she was totally prepared for that. She could comb it for him later.
“I’ve been sent to watch something very precious to my people,” Lucien said eventually. Carefully. “I believe that they have been sent to destroy the same thing. I’m afraid they might have already done so.”
Zoë tried not to be frustrated with the vagueness of his response. He clearly had other obligations. But she was stuck here and she had to keep fishing for whatever he’d give her. “Where do you come from?”
This time he answered promptly. “Another world. The first world.”
Since she’d been expecting something like that, Zoë wasn’t entirely surprised. He certainly didn’t come from anywhere around here. “And the wolves come from the same world?”
“Once, they did. But they were exiled long ago to our shadow world.” The unicorn flicked his tail and looked off into the distance again. “They’ve their own nation there, and it has been a long time since they troubled us.”
Shadow world? But the mechanics of multiple worlds were less important right now than understanding the goals and nature of their enemy. “What were they exiled for?”
“Once the Night Masters ruled our world with a dark and diamond will. The wolves were their soldiers. When we overthrew the Night Masters and bound them to eternal sleep, we exiled the wolves.” Lucien shook his head. “I really have no idea why they’ve become involved now.”
Helplessly, Zoë suggested, “Revenge? If they were in power once, and aren’t now…?”
Lucien snorted. “After so long? And when they’ve been settled so long in their own land? But though there must be some reason, I haven’t been able to fathom it.”
“And you really can’t tell me any more about why you’re here now, and what they’ve been doing?”
Lucien looked at her for a long moment, his forest green eyes strange and wonderful. “It would be bad.”
“But it has something to do with Ainsel?”
His ears went back. “Why do you think that?”
“Because she’s gone. Because she’s gone and things have gotten really weird out there, and now they want me!”
“They won’t get you,” Lucien said sharply. “I won’t let that happen.”
Zoë sprang to her feet and paced in a little circle. “We can’t stay here forever, Lucien. I can’t eat leaves and moss.”
His sides heaved. “If my mission here has failed, I’ll have to go home and report. With some work I should be able to open a fray from here. I could take you with me.”
The world of unicorns… Zoë shook her head. “And my mother? And my father, wherever he is? And Ainsel, and her parents—? Oh, God, Ainsel’s moms. I have to call them. They must be losing their minds.”
“But you have nothing good to tell them,” Lucien said reasonably. “Won’t that only frighten them more?”
Zoë narrowed her eyes and then shook her head. “They’re not like my mom. They might be scared, but they’ll want to know anyhow. They won’t freak out. Even if I tell them about you.” She looked around the forest, trying to remember where she’d been when Lucien enfolded his sanctuary around her. “Can I just walk out? If I leave at the farthest point from where I entered, maybe they won’t notice.”
White showed around Lucien’s eyes. “And maybe they will. I want to protect you, not give you to them.”
“Then help me find a way to get out safely, Lucien! I just have to make a few phone calls. If we do this right, they won’t catch me and they won’t find you.”
Lucien pawed the ground, leaving cloven hoof scrapes in the carpet. He stomped with both hooves, rearing a little. Then he said, “I have an idea. A way to hide you. Come with me.” He hesitated. “You may get a little dirty.”