by Zoe Chant
“Until?” Her dear face was full of light.
“Until I thought I might lose you. To the bleak, to the darkness of the terrible circumstances we were trapped in. And then everything seemed so simple. I love you. I loved you the first moment I saw you, because how could I do anything else? This isn’t duty; it’s destiny. We are two parts of a bigger whole. Our purpose is bigger than either of us, and I didn’t have to fear that anymore, because...because of you. Because you’re amazing, and you make me amazing.”
“Yes,” Rez said joyously. “That’s how I feel. You make me amazing. Not just the power that you enable, but you make me...whole. I feel hope again.”
Heather’s smile was sunlight and music. “My sweet fae knight,” she said, leaning her forehead to his. “My fairy tale.”
Rez cupped her sweet face in his hands. “You are my happy ever after,” he vowed as he drew her lips to his.
Vesta, finally realizing that no one was paying the slightest attention to her, went to destroy Heather’s current knitting project.
As they kissed, Rez knew that no matter how unraveled things got, he had found the woman who could put it all back together.
Chapter 32
“The sign says ‘No Trespassing,’” Rez pointed out with concern.
“It doesn’t mean us,” Heather assured him as she pushed past the broken fence panel.
“It says ‘Violators will be Prosecuted,’” he added, though he followed her obediently. It was more challenging for him, as the spacing had not been generous for Heather and he was considerably larger. “That sounds very bad.”
“I used to play here all the time,” Heather assured him. “Nobody cares, I promise. C’mon, we have to hurry if we’re going to catch the last bus.”
Dinner had run longer than she had expected. Between the still-fresh news of Heather’s abrupt move to Michigan under a hazy pretense that Rez had gotten a job there, a very nervous Mr. Wright under the scrutiny of three daughters, Fiona’s heathen doctor, and a very foreign unicorn knight, it had been an interesting meal.
By the end of it, Mama had tearfully allowed that Heather was growing up and could manage her own life, just as she could, and Mr. Wright, Fiona’s doctor, and Rez had all been accepted whole-heartedly into the family.
Dessert had been buttermilk pie, and Mama hadn’t permitted anyone to leave the table until it was entirely gone.
Afterwards, Heather looked at her watch. “I want to show Rez around the neighborhood a little,” she said brightly, and everyone was too busy quizzing Mr. Wright about his pet chinchilla to object to their early departure.
“This used to be a pencil factory,” Heather explained. “It’s been abandoned since I was a kid.”
Kudzu vines had grown basically up to the old building, and twined up all the walls in a dense green curtain. But inside, it was still echoingly empty. Graffiti covered every wall. Broken glass glittered in a few corners, and someone had dragged in a giant old couch that hadn’t been there when Heather was younger. It looked tiny in the corner of the big space.
Rez eyed the stained, sagging couch with disgust. “Why are we here?” he asked dubiously.
“This is the only place I can think of where no one would see you,” Heather explained with a grin.
“Your apartment is private,” Rez said, confused.
“You don’t fit in my apartment,” Heather said pointedly.
Rez laughed as understanding washed over him. “You wish to see my unicorn again.”
“Pleeeeaaaaaase,” Heather begged shamelessly. “I have always wanted my very own unicorn, and now I’ve got one, and I never get a chance to see it.”
Rez took her face in his hands and kissed her. “It does seem a shame,” he agreed. He shifted so seamlessly that Heather couldn’t pinpoint the moment that his hands were no longer on her face.
A solid, soft nose was suddenly pressing one cheek, the whisper of his mane tickling her in a breeze running through the abandoned warehouse. He nickered near her ear, butted her, and then stepped back so that she could really see him.
Heather didn’t know all that much about horses, but she knew a magnificent animal when she saw one, and Rez definitely qualified.
He was tall, and rippling with muscle. Pure white feathers fell over golden hooves, and his mane and tail were both long and silky. From his head jutted a golden spiral horn. His whole body seemed to glow in the dim building, and when he danced in place, Heather felt like he was filling the room with sparkling blue light.
She stroked his head and scratched at the base of his velvet ears, touching the horn with reverence. For a moment, all the tangled strands of magic seemed to brighten.
After a moment, Rez pulled away from her touch and turned his side to her.
Heather’s eyes widened. “Ride you?” she guessed hopefully.
Rez snorted and nodded his head up and down.
Heather eyed his daunting side. “I’m going to need a boost,” she said frankly. Before she could glance around to find something to climb up on, Rez had sunk easily to his knees.
It was still an awkward scramble to mount him, and Heather found that he was broad enough that straddling him stretched her thighs. She wound her hands into his mane and gave a gasp of alarm as he rose to his feet again.
Then he was stepping out with a gait so smooth that Heather felt completely safe even though she was breathtakingly high in the air.
They trotted in an exhilarating figure-eight through the warehouse, and Rez bounced on all fours and whirled carefully while Heather clung to him and squeezed him with her thighs. He was perfectly responsive to her every twitch, slowing when she grew nervous, speeding up when she started to relax and enjoy the power between her legs. They flat-out galloped for a short distance, before the limitations of the warehouse made him pull up and slow to a stop.
Heather slipped her leg over, started to reconsider sliding down from this height, and somehow Rez shifted back into his human form as she was falling and caught her in his strong arms.
“That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done,” she said joyously.
Now that he was in human form, the warehouse was quite dark, and she was glad of his arms around her even before he added a kiss that left her knees weak.
“We should go, before we miss the bus,” she said regretfully, wishing that they had time and a better place for other things. But she wasn’t quite desperate enough to want to walk home, or pay for a taxi, or test the springs in the questionable couch.
The perfect gentleman, Rez gave her forehead one final kiss in promise and offered his arm. “To the bus,” he said.
“I hear Michigan has some untouched forests,” Heather said thoughtfully. “I would give my left foot to gallop through some of them with you.”
“I will do it with joy,” Rez said. “No need to pay in feet.”
They crawled back out through the broken fence panel and hurried down the suburban sidewalks for the bus stop, just arriving as it pulled into the stop.
Rez watched out the window with all the relish of his very first trip, and Heather watched him with equal delight.
She was getting ready to start the adventure of her life, with a man she would go anywhere with.
Then she grinned, because she’d found her unicorn, her impossible perfect mate.
And she couldn’t imagine being happier.
Epilogue
Robin held the portal carefully, concentrating on keeping the opening wide and stable as the two knights heaved boxes and suitcases through.
“Whoops, careful!”
One of the hastily-stacked boxes toppled, spilling yarn back towards the open portal.
Heather, a curvy, dark-skinned woman, scrambled for the skeins, gathering them into her arms with her free hand. The carrier in her other hand whined in protest and began barking, catching Fabio’s attention.
Not to be left out, the afghan hound bounded off his pillow and made a beeline for the action, si
lky tail wagging furiously. Robin, hovering just above the dog danger zone, adjusted the edges of the portal.
“Fabio, back!” Daniella called desperately. “I should have put him out, sorry!”
Heather, arms heaping with rolls of yarn and trying to keep the carrier out of Fabio’s reach, only laughed. “It’s okay! They’ll have to meet eventually.”
“This is the last of the boxes in the bedroom,” Trey said, carrying a stack of failing cardboard boxes marked ‘BOOKS.’
“The bookcase still remains,” Rez called a reminder from beyond the shimmering door.
“You okay, Tinkerbell?” Gwen asked quietly beside Robin.
Robin shot her a look of disgust. “I notice you only call me that when I am too otherwise occupied to kick you in the ass.” The portal shivered and they turned their attention back to smoothing the edges as Ansel came through with an armful of boxes from the kitchen sprouting spatulas and serving spoons.
“You boys need help?” Gwen hollered after Trey as he went back through to get bookcases with Rez.
“We have it well in hand,” Rez replied as a crash belied their confidence.
“I want my deposit back!” Heather called. “Be careful!”
“I assure you, nothing has been damaged!” Trey called.
“Much!” Rez amended.
“Well,” Heather said pragmatically, “it’s probably a good thing my landlord isn’t as much of a jerk as he used to be.”
She had reported that her landlord didn’t seem to have any memory of either his possession by the bleak, or Rez’s healing, but that she was cautiously optimistic that he seemed like a better person, more sober and less surly. The damage in the laundry room had been chalked up to ‘vandals.’
Rez and Trey came through the portal with the heavy bookcase slung between them. Heather went back for a floor lamp, and finally said, “That’s it, that’s everything,” as she stepped back through.
Robin gestured, felt the sluggish power of the world respond, and the portal flickered and closed. They settled down to the coffee table as Rez and Trey hiked up the stairs with the bookcase, not as exhausted as they had feared. It had been a long, slow crawl back to power after the holiday battle, and they were grateful for every scrap of energy. Even their size seemed to be creeping back; it was challenging to keep pace with the clothing.
“We haven’t really met,” Gwen said to Heather. “I’m Gwen, I’m supposedly Henrik’s key.”
Heather and Rez both shook her hand and introduced themselves
“This is Ansel,” she introduced. “He just owns this house.”
“That’s all,” Ansel said wryly, shaking their hands as well. “I also own the second hand shop where there is a now apparently a weak spot to another world that has lowered my property values considerably.”
“We’re grateful for your hospitality,” Rez said sincerely, bowing over his hand.
“Let me show you to your room,” Ansel offered, and they all moved to start taking boxes upstairs.
“You could have made the portal directly in their room and saved them having to haul everything up the stairs,” Gwen pointed out. Her voice was light and teasing, but her sidelong glance at Robin was worried.
“And miss this chance to watch Trey take those stairs two at a time carrying heavy things?” Daniella said from her side, grinning. “Robin, don’t listen to her. Come on, Heather, we’ll help you carry your lighter boxes up.”
Heather looked shyly around. “It’s a beautiful house, are you sure I’m...we’re...not imposing?”
Ansel was quick to say, “Quite sure. Gwen and I have been rattling around like loose marbles, and it was worse before she got here. It will be nice to have company.”
“There’s an empty garage that’s great for sparring,” Gwen said. “Since Ansel doesn’t want us wrecking up his second hand shop practicing.” She stooped to offer Robin her shoulder, but they shrugged her off and flew with their own power up the stairs as the group tramped together up to the second floor to see the rooms for Heather and Rez. Fabio was close at their heels.
“I’m just down there,” Ansel pointed down the hall. “Gwen is at the other end. This used to be the master suite, so you’ve got your own bathroom.”
“It is quite luxurious,” Rez said gratefully.
“I love it,” Heather said. “Thank you so much.”
Fabio had followed them and all of his attention was on the cat carrier that Heather was holding. “This is Vesta,” she said, putting it down on the bed and opening the door.
A tiny, delicate, gray dog sprang from the carrier and immediately there was a flurry of big dog meeting small, sniffing and whining and wagging tails. Fabio fell to his elbows in an invitation to play and Vesta launched herself from the bed to race around him.
“I think they’ll get along fine,” Heather said with a measure of relief.
“I’m beginning to feel left out,” Gwen teased. “Here I am, no dog, no knight. You know, I really did think that I was going to find my trapped fae hero next. I’ve even been practicing my kiss in the mirror.”
Robin landed on a dresser next to a box marked ‘cosmetics and stuff,’ and tried not to feel guilty. Their attempts to dowse had been less successful than using the Internet and they had found no glimmers to lead them to either Rez, Henrik, or Tadra—or the missing keys. It had been a long, frustrating half a year, and Robin had all but given up hope in finding any of the warriors they would need for the coming fight.
Trey and Rez were lifting the bookcase into place at Heather’s instructions: “A little more to the left so it’s centered in the space, yes, there!”
She hung Rez’s unicorn ornament in the window, where it would catch the light and be out of dog’s reach.
Vesta was continuing to parkour off every surface in the room to Fabio’s excitement, occasionally stopping to bark at the bigger dog and roll over. She vanished under the bed and emerged from the other side to run headlong into a box of clothing.
Everyone laughed at their antics, and chattered about the weather (hotter than Heather had expected), and the house, and the nearby restaurants and stores, and Gwen and Heather shared their tales about trying to explain to their families why they had upended their lives and moved across the country.
“I couldn’t exactly tell my mother it was because of a guy I haven’t even met yet,” Gwen said. “I mean, she has enough trouble with Internet dating, she’s going to have way more trouble with ‘destined for a fae griffin-shifting knight from another world trapped in glass that by the way we haven’t found yet.’”
None of them talked about the coming darkness or the weakening of the veil, or the futility of finding two fragile glass ornaments in the wide world before they could be damaged.
Trey and Rez were overjoyed to see each other again in person. Robin caught Heather and Daniella exchanging amused and delighted glances as the two knights embraced and pounded each other on the back and spoke quietly and earnestly with each other.
Ansel, clearly embarrassed by the exchange and feeling out of place, offered loudly to make dinner and disappeared.
“I’ll help him,” Gwen added after a moment. She rolled off the bed gracefully and trotted out behind him.
“You are completely disgusting,” Heather told Vesta, when the tiny canine jumped up to where she and Daniella were sitting. Fabio had gotten ahold of her with his tongue several times, and the smaller dog was well-coated with slobber.
“Let me show you to the practice garage,” Trey offered to Rez. “Has your time in glass dulled your reflexes?”
“Let us determine that,” Rez said, grinning. “Perhaps it is your time in this soft world that has weakened yours.”
“It will be an unfair fight, when you so clearly started out less sharp than I,” Trey jested.
“Are you all banter, or is there mettle behind your words?”
“Come test me, shieldmate.”
They strode out, arms around each oth
er fondly.
“I am so happy you’re here,” Daniella said sincerely to Heather. “And I know that Trey is, too.”
“I’m excited to be here,” Heather said, but her voice was sober. “I mean, I know that ‘your world is going to be overtaken by evil’ doesn’t make the easiest circumstances for friendship, but...I’m glad to be here. It’s nice to...not be the crazy lady in the room, you know?”
“Yeah,” Daniella agreed. “It’s a lot to take in, and I’m so glad to have someone who knows. I mean, Gwen and Ansel know, but they don’t know, you know?”
“Yes,” Heather said with relief. “I know.” They smiled at each other almost as foolishly as the knights had.
Robin suspected the two women had forgotten they were there, and was trying to figure out how to get out of the room in the most discreet fashion, but Heather suddenly stood up and went to one of the boxes by the closet marked ‘Sewing.’
“I brought you a few things,” she said, rifling through the box, and Robin realized with surprise that she meant them when she turned back.
She held up a tiny knitted hat. “I have a sewing machine, so if you need anything altered...I wasn’t sure how clothing worked with your wings, so I didn’t make anything before I came. And I really did think it would be cold in Michigan.”
Robin took the tiny hat and put it on their head. They didn’t want to explain that they felt no cold, and didn’t need clothing except for modesty reasons, grateful for Heather’s thoughtfulness. “Thank you,” they said sincerely. They turned, and let Heather get an eyeful of the wings behind them.
“They go right through?” Heather said in astonishment.
“They don’t really exist,” the fable explained. “I am a creature made entirely of magic, and your eyes fill in all the gaps that your brain can’t explain.”
“Wait,” said Daniella. “You never told me that.”