by Zoe Chant
The rancid smoke that had come out of Sunrise and Petrichor was still writhing across the ground. It separated into two long, coiling shapes. Scales and horns solidified. Red eyes opened, burning with hatred. Back in their own true forms, the two demons reared back to strike at their previous hosts.
Wystan surged forward, hand outstretched to throw a shield—but there was no need. In perfect unison, Sunrise and Petrichor leapt past each other, synchronized as ballet dancers. Their horns stabbed down.
Wystan dropped his hand as the light faded from the demons’ eyes for good. “Well. I suspect they both found that tremendously cathartic.”
“Yep,” Candice agreed, as the two unicorns went back to nuzzling at each other and Flash. “Now, what the heck do we do about her?”
Demon-Moth was backing away, rolling its eyes frantically as Rory, Callum, and Fenrir closed on it. The possessed unicorn seemed to be searching for a way to flee. Fenrir breathed out a burst of fire, cutting off its escape route.
“Don’t hurt her!” Wystan called to his friends. “She’s possessed too.”
“You really think we can find someone who loves her?” Candice muttered as the possessed unicorn hissed like a poisonous snake. “After all she’s done?”
Wystan grimaced. “Well, we can’t just kill her in cold blood. Have you got your tranquillizer rifle?”
“It’s back at my Jeep.” Candice looked doubtfully at the angry demon. “I don’t think she’s gonna wait nicely while I go and fetch it.”
“Eh, we can handle one emo pony, bro,” Joe said, overhearing. He flashed a cocky grin as though he was personally holding off the demon single-handed rather than standing back at a safe distance. “There’s only one of her, after all. What’s she going to do?”
Demon-Moth’s horn lit up with a sickly, eerie light.
“Joe,” Blaise groaned. “Why did you have to say that?”
Callum shied, spinning around on his back hooves, wings half-spreading. His ears swiveled in all directions. He let out a fierce, urgent call, somewhere between a neigh and a hawk’s shriek.
“Back!” Wystan shouted, grabbing Candice and thrusting her behind him. “Everyone, to me! Quickly!”
The squad obeyed without question, falling back from the demon and clustering around Wystan. Candice pressed herself against him, Rory’s golden feathers hemming her in on her other side. Wystan’s shield dropped around them all in a shimmer of light.
She’d expected the demon to take the opportunity to flee, but instead it held its ground. Its lips wrinkled back in a freakily human grin. The glow from its horn brightened.
“What’s it doing?” she asked Wystan. “What’s did Callum sense?”
Wystan had his arms outstretched to either side, fingers spread wide to keep his shield over the whole squad. He jerked his head, gesturing with his chin. “Them.”
Pale shapes appeared between the trees. Two, four, a dozen, more—what looked like the whole unicorn herd closed in on them, eyes blank. They moved like zombies, lurching and staggering, all grace ripped away. Mindless as moths drawn to light, they began battering at Wystan’s shield.
“It’s Moth’s power.” Wystan’s expression was grim, his jaw tight with pain as he fought to resist the mass onslaught. “The demon’s controlling the whole herd with her magic.”
“Wys, I’m sorry, but we’ve got to kill her.” Blaise readied her axe in both hands, holding it like a baseball bat. “We haven’t got a choice. Drop the shield.”
“With the My Little Pony remake of the Walking Dead going on?” Joe yelped. “Bronicorn stops doing his thing, we’re all shish-kebabs!”
*Drop it just long enough to let me out,* Rory’s voice spoke in Candice’s head, making her jump. The griffin crouched down, powerful haunches gathering. *I’ll deal with her.*
“Rory, no!” Edith grabbed her mate’s wing, holding him back. “You can’t, not alone! Look behind her!”
Candice squinted through the sparkling shield. Her heart lurched as she saw what Edith had spotted. The ground in the clearing was humping and cracking again. More horned heads thrust out of the dirt.
“Oh no,” Candice breathed, as the newly-hatched demons squirmed free. “They’ll go after the unicorns!”
*Pack must protect,* Fenrir growled. *Pull down the prey together. Only hope.*
Rory’s beak clenched. *All together, then. On three. One. Two—*
A deafening thunderclap drowned his words. Incandescent light lanced down into the clearing.
“Yes!” Blaise punched the air as the lightning bolt hit the heart of the demons’ nest dead on. She threw her head back, aiming her words at the sky. “I could kiss you!”
Thunder rumbled in answer. The Thunderbird’s vast silhouette swept over their heads, half-hidden by the forest canopy. Candice caught a glimpse of a white, blank eye, alien and impenetrable, staring down at them through the leaves. Then it was gone, the huge creature soaring silently away once more.
The hatching demons had disappeared, blasted apart instantly by the Thunderbird’s wrath. The entire clearing was burning, bone-dry trees going up in flames like lit matches.
The demon possessing Moth screeched in terror, backlit by fire. Its muscles twitched and trembled as though it was desperate to flee, yet its hooves stayed glued to the ground. It tossed its head, plunging and writhing, seeming to be fighting with itself. Its eyes met Candice’s.
The red glow flickered, revealing grey. Just for an instant, Moth looked back at her.
*Take care of them,* the lead mare whispered in her mind.
The demon fought, but Moth’s will was stronger. Candice’s last sight of Moth was the mare standing perfectly still as the flames engulfed her.
The other unicorns’ eyes cleared, all at once. They shook their heads as though waking up from a dream—and shrieked in fear as they saw the forest fire sweeping toward them.
“No, don’t run!” Wystan shouted. His shield flickered and faded. “In here!”
Sunrise arched her neck, calling out to the panicked unicorns in clear, firm command. Instinctively, the herd obeyed their new lead mare. They gathered around her, white bodies packing tight.
Wystan drew in a deep breath. His hand sought hers, gripping tight. She squeezed his fingers in return in silent assent and reassurance.
Wystan squared his shoulders. His shield reappeared, much larger this time, protecting the entire herd. Candice could feel him shaking with the effort. She wrapped her arms around him, bracing him with her mind as much as her body.
His love wrapped around her in return. She opened her heart to him, as he opened to her, holding nothing back.
The firestorm swept around them, powerless in the face of their united strength. She couldn’t have said how long it lasted. It could have been five minutes. It could have been eternity. She just held onto her mate, supporting him. Heartbeat to heartbeat, moment to moment.
One breath at a time.
Chapter 37
“Fifty-seven deer,” Bethany repeated, her voice going high with disbelief. “Fifty-seven deer?”
Candice leaned her elbows on the rail fence, gazing at the field of unicorns. “More or less.”
Most of the herd were sleeping, exhausted after the long, hard trek down from the mountain. Princess and the other rescued horses grazed peacefully alongside the slumbering unicorns, not at all disconcerted by their strange new paddock-mates. Which was more than Candice could say for the humans. Even now, half a dozen ranch-hands and volunteers were hanging around the edges of the field, gawping at the latest animal refugees to arrive at the emergency shelter.
If only they knew what they were really looking at, Candice thought in amusement. Then they’d really be staring.
“Only you would rescue an entire herd of deer from a forest fire.” The vet shook her head, her expression caught somewhere between admiration and utter despair. “An entire herd of albino deer, at that. How on earth did that happen?”
Candic
e shrugged. “Guess they’ve just been an isolated for a long time. Mutated genes in a small population, you know.”
“Maybe,” Bethany said, sounding doubtful. “Though from my examinations, they’re all in perfect health, without any signs of inbreeding. And ridiculously tame. Even so, I can’t imagine how you persuaded them all to follow your Jeep all the way back to this ranch.”
Candice gestured at Sunrise, who was nuzzling Flash. “Oh, it wasn’t hard. I just had to get the lead mare on my side.”
Bethany narrowed her eyes at her. “You mean the alpha doe.”
“Do I?” Candice said innocently.
Bethany continued to glare at her for a long moment. “I get the feeling there’s a lot of this story that you’re not telling me.”
“Sorry.” Candice grinned at her friend. “There’s a lot of stuff I had to promise to keep secret. Keep watching the herd. Maybe you’ll figure some of it out.”
Leaving Bethany staring at the field of unicorns with a perplexed frown, she headed back toward the barns. She wondered if Bethany would see through the unicorns’ concealing illusion. She’d had to promise to Sunrise that she wouldn’t outright tell anyone the truth about the herd, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t drop a few hints.
I really hope she does work it out. Fifty-seven displaced, homeless unicorns were a big responsibility. She needed all the help she could get.
Not that she didn’t already have a lot of help. Her heart lifted as she spotted A-squad’s battered yellow truck parked outside the main ranch house, along with a couple of other Thunder Mountain Hotshot crew transports. The firefighters had returned at last. She could still see smoke rising from the distant peak of the unicorn mountain, but the crew must have managed to contain the worst of the blaze.
She hastened her steps, more than her own anticipation thrilling down the mate bond. Sure enough, Wystan jumped down from his squad’s vehicle, his face lighting up as he saw her. She could sense the exhaustion weighing down his limbs, but he still caught her up in his arms, her feet coming clear off the ground as he kissed her.
“Blough.” Candice made a face, even as she enthusiastically kissed him back. “You’re filthy.”
The soot ingrained into his skin cracked as he smiled ruefully. His hair was more grey than white, flecked with ash. “It’s quite a mess up there. The old barrier did its job a little too well. If the unicorns had let the occasional little forest fire sweep through to clean out the worst of the dead undergrowth every few years, the whole place wouldn’t have gone up the way it did.”
“And maybe the demons would never have emerged. I got the impression they aren’t big fans of fire.” Candice slid back down his body to the ground. “Is it all under control now?”
“Yes. There are still a few other crews up there, tackling the last few hotspots, but there’s no danger of the fire spreading any further.” His smile faded. “But we couldn’t do anything to save the unicorn homeland. There isn’t anything left for the herd to return to, I’m afraid.”
From what she’d seen of the fire in her rearview mirror as she’d led the unicorn herd away, she’d suspected that would be the case. She kissed him again. “I’m just glad you’re safe.”
“Of course he was,” Rory said, appearing around the side of the truck. He slapped Wystan on the back, grinning broadly. “With this man on the team, the whole squad doesn’t have anything to fear. His shield trick came in handy more than once while we were mopping up.”
“Well, I don’t care how essential he is, I’m not going to let you work him into the ground.” Candice wound a possessive arm around her mate’s waist. “Come on, Wystan. I have something for you.”
A loud wolf-whistle came from inside the truck. “Go, bronicorn!”
“A shower,” Candice clarified.
“A shower?” Blaise stuck her head out the side window, fixing her with entreating, puppy-dog eyes. “Candice, I love you. Ditch Wystan. Run away with me instead. Have my gloriously clean, soapy babies.”
Candice laughed, already steering Wystan away. “Sorry. Gonna stick with this one. He’s a genuine unicorn, after all.”
“What am I going to do with fifty-seven unicorns?” she said to Wystan, much later.
They were back in the hayloft. Moonlight shone soft through the half-open hatch. Small white moths fluttered through the beams, drawn by the warm glow of Wystan’s flashlight. In the barn below them, horses dreamed, bedded down into stalls for the night. The occasional stamp of a hoof or soft, contented snort drifted up.
Wystan’s bare chest moved under her cheek as he chuckled. “Fifty-eight unicorns,” he corrected her.
She trailed kisses down his throat. “Oh, I know exactly what to do with you.”
His fingertips traced patterns over her shoulder, raising a delicious shiver across her naked skin. “You certainly do.”
She hooked a leg over his hip, snuggling closer to him—and winced as something hard and stiff jabbed her thigh.
“One of these days, we’re gonna have sex in an actual bed,” she said, fishing out the stray stalk of straw and flicking it away.
Wystan chuckled again. “The end of fire season can’t come too soon, as far as I’m concerned.”
She propped herself up on one elbow, gazing down at him. “But you love it really, don’t you?”
“Firefighting?” He let out his breath, staring up at the moths dancing in the beam from their flashlight. “Yes. I do. But it’s not exactly a nine-til-five sort of job. If you wanted me to find something else—“
She pressed a finger to his mouth, silencing him. “I don’t. Your crew needs you, and you need them. We’ll work something out.”
His lips curved. He kissed her fingertip. “One day at a time?”
“Exactly.” She drew her hand down his chest, still hardly able to believe that all this perfect male was hers. “One day at a time.”
One of the moths dove down, battering its soft grey wings against the front of the flashlight. Wystan flicked his fingers. His shield sparkled into life, protecting the moth from hurting itself.
She watched as his shield gently chivvied the insect away from the light. “You’re getting good at that.”
“Mmm. I think it’s more that I’ve finally worked out how to stop doing it.” Wystan’s expression turned thoughtful as he guided the moth out the hatch again with brief nudges of his power. “I think…I think I was always doing it, before. I thought that my unicorn just wasn’t sensitive to sexual energy, but now I think I must have been shielding myself without knowing I was doing it, all the time. I always used to get so tired around crowds…” He looked back at her, eyes softening. “Until you came along. And I stopped shielding myself. You remember the first time the Nightmare attacked us? The fire?”
“I didn’t get burned,” Candice said, realizing what he meant. “Even when I ran into the trailer with sparks flying all around, my clothes didn’t get so much as singed. Yours did, though. You reckon you were subconsciously shielding me instead of protecting yourself?”
“Exactly.” He touched her chest, above her heart. “Whenever we were apart, I felt like part of me was still back with you. And it was.”
“Huh.” She lay back down again, on top of him, though she kept her chin propped up on one fist so she could still see his face. “I found out how Moth knew you weren’t a healer, by the way. Sunrise told me. She couldn’t believe we hadn’t already worked it out. Your dad’s got blue eyes, hasn’t he?”
His eyebrows rose. “He does indeed. How did you guess?”
“Because so does Sunrise.” She traced the line of his cheekbone. “Remember how Moth going on about bloodlines? Unicorn powers are genetic. They’re linked to eye color. All healers have blue eyes. But yours are green.”
“Like my mother’s. She’s a wyvern shifter.” Wystan’s face broke into a wondering, startled smile. “Moth did say that wild talents cropped up when different bloodlines mix. And I’m certainly a little more mixed
than most. So there aren’t any green-eyed unicorns in the herd?”
“Not for generations.” She made a face. “Seriously, Wystan, what am I going to do with fifty-seven unicorns? Sunrise is going to make a kick-ass lead mare, but she doesn’t know anything about the wider world. She’s depending on me to find a new home for them all.”
“I…might have an idea about that.” He hesitated, eying her. “There’s a lot of unused land around our hotshot base back in Montana. Superintendent Buck basically owns most of Thunder Mountain. We keep the forest maintained, but other than that it’s been left to go wild. It’s quiet, out of the way, unspoiled…”
“And perfect,” she finished for him. She caught her breath, delight rising. “Wystan, that’s perfect! Do you think I could get a job nearby? I could be close to you and still help out the herd!”
“I haven’t told you all of it, yet.” She could sense his nervousness down the mate bond, as though he wasn’t quite sure how she was going to react. “There’s a ranch.”
She stared down at him. “A…ranch?”
“A small horse ranch, on Buck’s land, right at the foot of the mountain. We sometimes hike past it when we’re training. It’s old. Fallen into disrepair. I don’t think Buck’s even been down there for years.” Wystan frowned a little. “He went a little quiet when I asked him about it, which isn’t like him. But to cut a long story short, he’s willing to let us have it. You could start up your own animal refuge. If you wanted.”
Her mouth had gone dry. “But…I don’t have any money.”
“Er.” He looked slightly embarrassed. “That’s not an issue. My family owns a fair chunk of England. And my mother actually runs her own charity, for orphaned shifter kids. I’m sure she’d be delighted to help you get started with the business side of things.” He trailed off, anxiously scrutinizing her face. “If you want to.”
She flung her arms around his neck, kissing every part of him she could reach. “Yes! Oh, yes!”