by Dawn Brower
The inside of the cottage seemed familiar. As if she’d been there before, but she was having trouble placing it. There was a cauldron in the middle of the room and a fireplace on the far right. A rocking chair with an old quilt draped over it sat near the hearth.
“We’ve been here before,” Daire said.
“We have?” She wasn’t so sure, yet it seemed right.
“You don’t remember?” he asked.
Elodie searched her memories until it started to unravel in her mind. Yes. They both had been there. On the day she’d been cursed, they had visited this cabin to call on Paige. Why was the white witch’s home inside of Malediction? What did it mean? “Do you think she’s here too?”
He shrugged. “No. This represents something.”
It was a perfect construct of Paige’s cottage. But Daire was probably right and it meant something. She’d gone to the witch for advice, and Paige had given her a few prophecies. Some of those had come to fruition, but would the rest? Elodie couldn’t be certain.
Something started to glow beside the rocking chair. She turned toward it and frowned. A flash of white and silver light filled the room, and then Paige was in that chair, rocking back and forth. No, it wasn’t really Paige, but a ghost or apparition that resembled her. Her image flickered slightly as if bouncing in and out of reality. She looked at Elodie and waved her finger. “You’re doing it all wrong.”
“What?”
“You need the amulet.” Paige’s apparition stared through her. Her eyes were empty—hell, her whole body was basically nothing. “It is life, and it is you. Without it, you are nothing. Find it, and you’ll return home. Otherwise, this is where you’ll die.”
After that, she faded away, leaving Elodie with more questions and even less answers. She assumed the amulet was her lost item. What about it was life? It had a simple ruby embedded in the locket and her parents’ pictures inside. What did that have to do with her life specifically? There was one way she would find out—she had to locate that locket.
10
Umercorn
The clouds in the sky went dark and a storm unleashed its fury. It hit the roof of the cottage in a staccato pattern that almost lulled Daire into a trance-like state. He still couldn’t get over how much the little house resembled Paige’s place in Zelnon. It seemed so real—well, it had to be, or the rain would be drenching them. Elodie stared out a nearby window as the rain kept pouring. They would have to find a way off the tiny island and back to the main land at some point.
Paige’s words had been clear. That amulet of Elodie’s was important. If they didn’t find it, they would ultimately die. They’d been on borrowed time since they arrived in Malediction. Daire had always known that—they all had—but speaking about it had been taboo.
“Do you think you can stop it?” Daire asked her. Elodie’s affinity for water gave her a certain level of control over it. That didn’t mean she’d be able to stop a seemingly natural storm.
“No,” she replied dryly. “It’s coming down for a reason and that cause wants us to stay put. I’m afraid when we discover what it is, we won’t like it much.”
She was probably right. Elodie, more often than not, predicted what would happen. He wondered if she realized how many times she’d been correct since they’d found themselves in Malediction. If Cale had bothered to listen to her instead of trying to save her—maybe he’d never have become a dragon. It was hard to say one way or the other. They couldn’t go back and change any of it, so there was no reason to play the what-if game.
“This isn’t freaking you out?” He gestured toward the interior of the cabin. “It’s even raining like it did when we visited Paige. That has to mean something.”
“It does,” she agreed. “I don’t know what it is yet. Everything is so unclear.”
He shook his head and started to pace the small confines of the cabin. First, he’d had to jump off a cliff into the sea, and then he had to get his mind warped by the white witch. If it had been the white witch… There was the possibility that Malediction was messing with their heads. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened since their arrival. He wished he could figure it all out. Somehow, he didn’t think he’d be able to. Elodie had to be the one to find the amulet and lead them home. “I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough what is going on.”
She turned to meet his gaze. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” She returned to staring out the window. “Do you think Donia and Cale can find us out here?”
Daire had no idea. He wasn’t even sure if Donia would be able to find Cale, let alone them. Elodie had more faith in her than he did. Cale still wasn’t right or acting like himself. They’d have to shake loose from that damn bird before he was truly free. Donia seemed to understand what was going on with Cale, and hopefully she’d be able to fix him. Elodie needed all the allies she could get if they were going to find the amulet and return home. “Do you think we still need to find my family crest?”
“Probably,” she replied absentmindedly. “We can’t leave a part of ourselves behind. If we do, Malediction might be able to call us back.”
“Ah,” he replied. “That makes a strange kind of sense. The problem is where to find it.” He didn’t want Malediction to keep a hold on him. Returning to the cursed world once they made it back to Zelnon wasn’t high on his list of activities he’d like to do.
“We’re not going to locate either item before Malediction wants us to.”
“But wouldn’t it always want to keep them hidden?” The curse world wanted to keep inhabitants in, not let them find a way to leave.
She faced him and slowly headed toward him. A slow smile filled her face with each step. Elodie stopped in front of him and ran a finger across his jaw. “But that would be against the rules.”
Every muscle in his body clenched at her touch. He liked it when she initiated contact, but something about it didn’t feel right. Elodie never acted brazen, and he couldn’t recall one instance where she actually flirted with him. On top of that weird behavior she suddenly seemed omniscient… “I didn’t realize you were well versed in the rules.” He had no idea what was going on inside her head. “What do you know that I don’t?”
“A lot,” she said simply.
He frowned at her words. She lifted her other hand and trailed her fingers though his locks, twining them between them before she tugged gently. Something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t figure out what. Elodie had never been this aggressive, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that she wouldn’t act so seductive. He wanted to believe she desired and could grow to love him. He wished for that with a desperation he could never fully express. If she chose him… He swallowed hard and pushed down his heart’s desire. “Princess…” He could barely get the word out. Her hands on his chest, in his hair, touching him in general made all his brain cells cease to work. He had to make her stop—even though he didn’t really want her to.
“You like this?”
“It doesn’t matter what I like,” he replied. “I want you to explain the rules to me.”
“Aren’t rules meant for breaking?” She licked her lips. “Wouldn’t you like to demolish a few with me?”
If she was in her right mind, he’d say hell yes. There was no doubt in his mind that she wasn’t herself. Something had control over her, and he had to find a way to snap her back to reality. At least the reality they all understood it to be in Malediction.
“Princess,” he began again. “Go back to what we were talking about. What rules does Malediction have to follow?”
“It can’t break the rules.” She trailed her lips across his jawline. “But we can, and I promise it’ll be fun when we do.”
Daire groaned and stepped back. He pulled her hands into his and kept them in front of them both. “You need to focus. Whatever has its hold on you is making you act oddly. Fight it.”
She turned her head and studied him, then a rich throaty laugh escaped. Elodie chewed on her bottom lip and the
n said, “You’re much more intelligent than we’ve given you credit for. Perhaps you are worthy.”
What the hell… “Who are you?” More importantly how had it gotten ahold of Elodie as it had? This was bad. Elodie had to be still weak from her time in the Shadowlands. That had to be why she remained vulnerable to possession.
“I am one of a kind. There’s nothing else like me.”
“Why don’t you come inside and let Elodie go.” He prayed it listened to reason. “We can all chat together like reasonable individuals.”
“You want your princess and don’t care about me.”
She wasn’t wrong. He could care less about the being who’d taken control of Elodie’s mind. The one-of-a-kind beastie could go rot in whatever hell Malediction sent its residents to. Elodie was all that mattered to him, and he didn’t give a damn about anyone else. Heck, he cared about her more than himself most of the time. He’d rather she lived and he died if a choice had to be made. Luckily, it hadn’t come to that—yet.
“Would you like me to lie and say I care about you too?” he asked.
“It would be nice to hear,” she replied. “But no, I don’t like falsehoods.”
“What are you?”
“I’m an umercorn,” she replied.
He had no idea what an umercorn was, and quite frankly, he didn’t really want to find out. If he could convince it to let go of Elodie, then maybe they had a fighting chance of escaping it. Since the creature was a one of the kind, he didn’t have a clue how to defeat it. Daire didn’t even know what it looked like since it had taken over Elodie’s mind and not shown itself. Perhaps that should be his first step.
“What does an umercorn look like?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she said coyly. “Care to let go of my hands now.”
That was the last thing he should do. “No.” He crinkled his eyebrows together. “They are not yours either way. They belong to Elodie. Now if you’d like to show me yours...”
He wanted Elodie free of her control. Daire didn’t really care what an umercorn looked like. It couldn’t be pretty, or it wouldn’t be afraid to show itself. Then again—if it was a scary beastie, it wouldn’t be afraid either. So his logic didn’t actually make much sense. Nothing in the cursed world ever did. He didn’t know why he tried to decipher anything about it.
“My, you do want to see my true form.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Perhaps I will show you. I like you.”
Well, wasn’t that great. The mighty umercorn liked him. He could check that off his list of things he’d like to achieve in his lifetime. Something he never knew he really wanted. “Good. So you’re going to let Elodie go?”
“I might,” she replied. “What guarantees do I have that you won’t hurt me.”
“None,” he drawled. “You’ll have to trust me.”
She narrowed her gaze and stared at him. “I’m starting to not like you very much.”
Bully for her… He didn’t much like her at the moment either. Silly umercorn… It shouldn’t play if it didn’t want to get burned. “Are you actually female?” He kept referring to it as such because it was talking through Elodie, but he knew nothing true about it. Whatever an umercorn was—it could be male or female, maybe even both. Weirder things have happened.
“I apologize,” he said mainly because he didn’t know what it wanted from him. “Elodie is my first priority.”
“I see,” the umercorn replied. He still wasn’t used to Elodie speaking for it. “What if I said I could get you one of the items you seek?”
It had spoken about the rules of Malediction. It could be useful in other ways. If it did know where one of their items could be found, that would bring them one step closer to home. Could he take that risk? What would Elodie want him to do?
“Then I’d ask you to prove it—when you showed your true form to me.”
“I think I can do that.” She smiled. “Elodie will be returning shortly. Meet me outside at the edge of the island where the water dips into the land.”
With those final words, she was gone. Elodie blinked several times and then glanced down at her hands and back up at him. “Why are you holding me like this?”
He grinned. “You were possessed by an umercorn.”
“What the blazes is an umercorn?” She pushed her eyebrows together, and her voice held an edge of bewilderment to it.
“We are about to find out,” he explained. “Follow me.”
The rain had stopped while he’d been conversing with the umercorn and he’d not noticed it. That didn’t really surprise him. His entire focus had been on Elodie and making the umercorn leave her mind. At least the possession hadn’t done any permanent damage. Elodie seemed to be fine and had no residual problems. She was going to have to work on building up her shields. They couldn’t afford something similar happening again. She might not recover a second time so easily.
“Where are we going?” Elodie asked.
“Not far,” he reassured her.
They rounded a corner and found a tiny beach on the island. The size wasn’t a surprise considering how small the island was. In the water was a boulder that peeked out of the sea as waves splashed against it. Elodie stared out at the sea and the creature nearby. Her mouth hung open and Daire found himself equally surprised. Neither one was able to speak as they studied her.
A woman with rainbow hair that flowed over her back in luscious curls lounged on the boulder. She had a silver horn on her forehead about three inches in length that came to a sharp point at its end. Her tail shimmered in the sunlight—a mixture of silver and white sparkled underneath the rays. She swished her tail in the water, lapping it up as the waves rolled over her.
Her features were delicate and ethereal. Her cheekbones were sharp, and she had lips a perfect shade of pink. She had no clothes to speak of, but wore a purple wrap of some sort around her upper half—in fact, it only covered her bosom. She was such a weird combination of features, yet she was completely stunning. Her name suddenly made sense, and he understood why she was a one of a kind creature. The umercorn was a combination of a mermaid and unicorn.
11
Blood and Thunder
“Hello,” the creature greeted them. “It took you long enough to come find me.”
Elodie stared at her with a critical eye. She had no idea what it was, but Daire seemed to. She glanced over at him and lifted a brow waiting for an explanation. Her brain was a little fuzzy. Daire claimed she’d been possessed by a umercorn—was this that creature? The battle for strength and power over her own mind was a constant struggle. She was in a better place, but she had a long way to go until she reached her full abilities. The last thing she recalled was staring out of the window at the rain. Then she’d blinked and was standing in front of Daire. That alone told her something profound had happened. She wasn’t sure exactly what, so she needed him, and perhaps this being, to fill in the blanks.
He sighed and gestured toward the water. “It’s the umercorn.”
That was his explanation? This was what he wanted her to go and see after they left the cottage? She needed a little more than that to go on. She turned toward the creature and examined it. Yes, she could see why he called it that, yet she couldn’t fully comprehend what, exactly, she was seeing. It had the features of a mermaid—similar to the creatures she had first come across in the fountain. Those fiends had wanted to enslave her. What would this one want? It did have some marked differences. The coloring wasn’t quite the same, though it did have some silver and white tones to it. The rainbow hair was glaringly unusual. The horn looked rather deadly, but it too was dissimilar to the first mermaids. Ah—umercorn, suddenly she understood. Though how a mermaid and unicorn created this creature she wasn’t certain, and she didn’t quite want to figure it out either. “Do you have a name?” Elodie asked the umercorn.
“I do,” she replied. “But you have not yet earned the right of its use.”
Elodie mentally rolled her eyes.
The creatures of Malediction liked to be contrary. In some ways, it reminded her of Lulu, but she didn’t like that comparison. This one seemed to lack Lulu’s restlessness. The umercorn didn’t hide its calculating personality and stark intelligence. She wasn’t afraid to show them she wanted something and had no qualms demanding it.
“We don’t need her name,” Daire interrupted. “She claims to have something of more value to us.”
“Oh?” Elodie lifted a brow. “What?”
“One of our missing items.”
That changed things. They needed to find those items to return to Zelnon. If the umercorn had one of them… “Which one?”
“All in good time,” the umercorn answered cryptically. She swished her tail in the water playfully and then winked at Daire. Then, she raised her hand and ran her fingers through her long tresses as if she were trying to tempt him. “First we must discuss payment.”
Everything had a cost. It was a matter of counting that cost and deciding if in the end it still remained worth the price. Most of the time it was a matter of balance, and so far the loss column kept adding up higher than the win. Elodie didn’t want to lose anything else of value—such as a life. Things could be replaced, but people… She shuddered at the idea of leaving even one of them behind. Cale and Daire would return with her. Donia… She had made a vow to the dragon hunter queen, and she would live up to that.
This umercorn didn’t seem as innocent as she wanted them to believe—the creatures of Malediction always had an ulterior motive. She’d best remember that and proceed with caution. Elodie had to hope the umercorn’s price wasn’t too high and she could live with whatever it cost. She would not let Daire or anyone else pay it for her.
“What do you want from us?”
“Nothing much,” the umercorn replied nonchalantly. “At least not something you would miss.”
Somehow, she didn’t find it too reassuring. Elodie had trust issues before coming to Malediction. There were not many people she could rely on and count on one hand. Now that she was in the cursed land, she had developed even bigger trust problems, and with good reason. She’d encountered nothing but betrayal and deceit from every being in the land. Athair had probably misled her too. She didn’t believe for one moment that the umercorn wouldn’t find a way of enacting its own brand of duplicity. Sadly, she couldn’t afford to play it safe. The creature had an idea where one of the missing items were, and they had to find them to leave. Stupid umercorn had Elodie and Daire exactly where she wanted them.