by Chant, Zoe
Hector shook his head, but to be honest, he didn’t truly believe Cecelia was faking it. Tassos hadn’t been lying when he’d said erasing memories wasn’t an exact science – or else, he’d just ignored Hector’s request and done what he had always intended to do.
“Believe me, I’ll tell you if she starts talking,” Callan said. He cocked his head. “But don’t you have anything else you’d rather talk about?”
Hector swallowed. He might have had a chance to get Callan up to speed with everything that had happened on his mission, but talking about Myrtle – that, they hadn’t had the chance to do. Callan had been the first to know that Hector had found her, and had helped him get his head on straight during those first few minutes when Hector hadn’t known left from right. But beyond that, they’d had no chance to talk at all.
And now, he found he couldn’t stop the goofy grin that spread across his face at the thought of Myrtle.
“So… I take it your mate thinks you’re at least a little less of an arsehole now?” Callan asked, a small smirk crossing his lips.
“Let’s hope so,” Hector said. “It’s not like I have a lot left I could do to try to make a good impression on her.”
Callan laughed gently. “Well, I’m glad, Hec. Seriously. When you called me and told me you’d found your mate, you know I was… well, you know. I had a hard time believing it for a minute. It was just hard to picture you settling down, and now look at you.”
Hector couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his face.
Yep. Look at me. Look at us.
The last thing he’d been expecting when he went out to Good Fortune on the trail of some bikie smugglers was to find his mate. And if anyone had told him he’d come back with not only his mate, but also a baby alicorn he now thought of as his own… well, chances were he would have laughed them out of town.
But it happened. And I couldn’t be happier.
It was true.
His life might have completely changed, but Hector couldn’t imagine being happier about it.
Ruby fluttered down from the ceiling fan, landing on the table once more. Sick of sulking apparently, she’d obviously decided she might have a better chance of getting what she wanted by making friends.
“Do you think there’s any more eggs out there?” Hector asked Callan.
Callan glanced at him. “It’s possible. We managed to find out that the bikies found Ruby’s egg in a cave system they were using to stash drugs and weapons. They must have some shifter connection to know what they had and where to find a buyer, but that’s not exactly unusual. We had a team go out to check through the caves, but so far, nothing.”
Hector nodded. He couldn’t really say he was surprised – and, to be honest, he was also relieved. He didn’t like the idea of there being more orphaned alicorns like Ruby out there, still waiting to hatch, and vulnerable to people like Cecelia and Hargreaves Inc., who’d use them for their own purposes.
“So. Seems like you’ve taken on a pretty hefty responsibility, Hec.” Callan looked at him, and Hector knew he didn’t just mean raising one of the last remaining alicorns in the world. “Sure you’re up to it?”
Hector swallowed, looking at Ruby as she sniffed at Callan’s fingers when he held them out to her.
“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
All three of them turned at the sound of the front door opening. Myrtle bustled through, looking a little frazzled, but otherwise just as beautiful as the first moment he’d met her. She was wearing cleaner clothes now and her hair was a little neater, but nothing about the way she’d looked the first time Hector had laid eyes on her had detracted from her beauty at all.
Of course not, his griffin suddenly spoke up, lifting its head within him. She is our mate. She is the most beautiful thing we have ever seen, and always will be. We see her with our soul. That is the beauty we see.
Hector couldn’t help but think the beauty he could see with his eyes wasn’t too bad either. Her wild hair, her stormy blue-gray eyes, her determined chin and strong jaw all made her irresistible to him. Not to mention the luscious curves of her hips, her strong thighs, broad shoulders and soft, rounded breasts…
Okay, okay, enough, or we’re going to have a problem on our hands, Hector told himself quickly, swallowing heavily and dragging his eyes away from Myrtle’s gorgeous figure. Save it for later.
His griffin rumbled within him, as if asking what the problem was, and Hector only just reminded himself that he’d made a promise that if he got his griffin back, he’d never tell it to shut up again.
It was sometimes a close call, though.
“All right. I think that’s everything,” Myrtle said, as she joined them by Callan’s dining table. “I thought we hadn’t remembered the tent, but it was just buried under a few other things.”
Hector couldn’t help but smile – he’d told her he’d made sure they’d packed everything they needed for their trip, but Myrtle’s stubborn streak meant she had to go check for herself one last time.
She turned to Callan. “Thanks again for doing this. You’re really helping us out. As much as I’d love to take Ruby with us, a moth hunting trip is a little awkward with a baby alicorn.”
“Really, it’s no problem,” Callan said, laughing. “You and Hector have given me all the info I need. I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.”
Myrtle nodded, still looking a little tense. “No, I know you will. Ruby’s a very well-behaved girl. And I know she won’t make a liar out of me, will she?”
“Meee-eh!”
Hector hoped the indignance in Ruby’s voice was simply at the idea that she could be anything other than perfectly behaved.
They said their goodbyes and headed out to the car, Ruby even going so far as to land on Callan’s shoulder as he stood in the doorway waving to them, as if to prove just how well she could get along with others.
Still, Hector watched as Myrtle glanced over her shoulder as they pulled out of Callan’s drive, her face pensive.
“She will be all right, won’t she?” she asked, as Hector turned the car out onto the dirt road that would – eventually – take them back to Good Fortune.
Myrtle might have been just asking about whether Ruby would miss them too much while they were away, but Hector could sense the deeper meaning to her words. His griffin hadn’t been wrong when it had said that they could see Myrtle with their soul – he might not have had telepathy, or telekinesis, or any other fancy powers like alicorns did, but this, he could do.
He could see the beauty that lived in Myrtle’s soul, as well as the beauty of her face and body. He could see her strength, her intelligence, her willpower. He could see the way she never gave up, and the way she had protected Ruby with every ounce of strength in her body.
“Of course she will,” he said.
Epilogue
The golden ball of the sun was just dipping below the horizon when Myrtle emerged from their tent, stretching her back before pulling her hair back into its usual bun.
It was still hot, but the air was showing promise of its nighttime crispness, and Myrtle for one couldn’t wait to be out in it.
“Are you coming, Hector?”
She leaned over, pulling aside the flap of the tent. Hector crawled out a moment later, still tucking his shirt into his pants.
“Where the hell do you get all this energy from?” he asked as he stood up, stifling a yawn. “I’m a shifter, and you’ve managed to wear even me out. This doesn’t seem fair.”
Myrtle laughed. “It’s your own fault – you’re always determined to outdo yourself.”
“Oh, all right,” Hector mock-grumbled. “I’ll stop the minute you stop enjoying yourself. How about that?”
Myrtle laughed again, before wrapping her arms around him and standing on tip-toes to press a kiss to his lips.
“Be prepared to be tired for a while longer yet.”
She felt Hector’s smile against her lips before he dee
pened the kiss, his hands resting on her hips, fingers playing with the hem of her shirt.
“Stop that,” she mumbled, pulling back. “Or we won’t get any work done, and all the grant money I have left will go completely to waste.”
Hector grimaced briefly, shaking his head. “Oh, all right. But I think your grant providers are placing some pretty onerous conditions on their money.”
Myrtle laughed. “Much as I agree with you, them’s the rules I’m afraid. I actually have to do some work.” Myrtle checked her water bottles, before slipping her pocket flashlight into her belt. “Anyway, you work in environmental science long enough and you realize you better take your cash when and while you can.”
“Fair enough.” Hector shot her a smile. “Speaking of, have you heard back yet?”
Myrtle shook her head. With Hector’s encouragement, she’d applied for a fixed-term job with the University of Sydney – she knew a few people there already from conferences she’d attended, as well as research she’d contributed to. But she’d only sent off the application yesterday; Hector apparently had some unrealistic expectations about how fast they’d jump to employ her.
“I’m not concerned about it right now. If it works out, it works out.”
Hector finished putting supplies into his backpack, before hoisting it onto his back. “And you’re sure it’s what you want? You know I would have followed you anywhere, Myrtle.”
Myrtle nodded firmly. “I know you would, Hector – and I appreciate it. But right now, there’s nowhere I’d rather be but here. And I plan on staying here, at least for a while.”
It was true. In some ways, she missed her huge, loud, overbearing family. But right now, she felt at home – here in the middle of nowhere.
“It’s beautiful,” she said, gazing out across the plains, lit by the last of the sun. The silhouettes of the mulga and brigalow trees were pitch black against the brilliant red of the sky, the sandy plains at their feet almost purple. She knew that soon they’d be lit only by the pale light of the moon and the diamond trail of the stars snaking across the midnight blue of the night sky.
“I’m glad you think so,” Hector said quietly. “A lot of people wouldn’t like it out here – it’s too harsh, too rough. The scrub isn’t for everyone. But I’ve always loved it.”
They stood together in silence, watching the sun as it finally disappeared.
“Well, we should get going,” Myrtle said. “There was that cave we found yesterday I want to get a good look at. Now that the sun’s gone the moths will be coming out, if they haven’t already started on their migration.”
Hector nodded. “I suppose that’s what I really should be sorry about,” he said as they began walking. “That getting caught up with me has meant you might have missed your window to witness the migration.”
Myrtle bit her lip. “I won’t say I’m not worried,” she said after a moment, picking her way between the sections of scrub. “But if I’ve missed it, I’ve missed it. We can head south after this and meet them when they arrive for their dormancy period. At least I’ll still be able to count their numbers then, though it would have been better to have a comparison. But the people I’m liaising with in Canberra will already have some data. It’s not a complete loss.”
“You’re always so optimistic,” Hector said. He flashed her a grin. “Just one of the many things to love about you. I’ve always been such a sourpuss. Let’s hope you rub off on me.”
Myrtle laughed. “I think I’ve been doing plenty of that recently.”
Hector paused a moment, and then joined in on her laughter. Somewhere ahead of them, they heard a manic rustle in the scrub, just as Myrtle saw something dart out in front of them before it bounded away on two legs.
“Was that a kangaroo?”
Hector shook his head. “About a meter and a half too short for that. He’ll just be a wallaby.”
Myrtle smiled. “Friend of yours, is he?”
Hector laughed, low and rich. “You never know.”
Myrtle had to admit she was still finding the whole idea of shifters difficult to get used to. Back when they’d still been on the Gold Coast she’d found herself staring at an ibis as it sifted through the leftovers sitting on a restaurant table, and wondered if it was in fact a patron who’d simply forgotten to change into the appropriate form before sitting down to their meal.
She’d even asked Hector about it, but he’d just shaken his head and muttered something about bin chickens knowing no shame, before shooing the bird away.
It hadn’t really answered her question, but she supposed in some ways she was better off not knowing. She didn’t want to have to go through a series of mental gymnastics every time she met an animal. For now, she had decided, she was going to assume that a cat was just a cat, a bird was just a bird, and a platypus was just a platypus until someone told her otherwise.
“Almost there,” Myrtle said. She glanced up at the sky. The last of the sunlight was slipping away, and the moths would soon emerge. “Most likely we’ll only catch the late bloomers – the ones who’ve left their migrating to the last possible moment – but it doesn’t matter.” She smiled. “I suppose I was a bit of a late bloomer myself.”
She felt Hector’s warm hand on her shoulder a moment before he pressed a kiss against the top of her head. “Not really. You knew what you wanted to do and you pursued it. You didn’t waste your time trying to be something you weren’t. You were smart, Myrtle, and you knew it. There’s nothing late blooming about you. You’ve always been exactly who you were supposed to be.” He paused before continuing. “And more than that, you’re brave and compassionate. Do you think it’s a coincidence that you could sense that Ruby’s egg was alive when I couldn’t? Or that she chose to hatch just when she did? She knew if she came out then she’d be in good hands. She knew she could trust you – and she was right.”
Myrtle felt her cheeks color at Hector’s words, and she swallowed heavily. It was still hard for her to take compliments – but she thought she was finally getting used to it.
“Thank you,” she said sincerely. “That means a lot, coming from you. You always seem so sure of yourself.”
Hector laughed. “Let me show you my high school photographs some time. The haircut I had… well, let’s just say it was ‘really something’ and leave it at that.”
Myrtle couldn’t quite believe Hector had ever looked anything other than devastatingly handsome, but she didn’t argue.
“We’re here,” she said, as they reached a rugged outcropping of rock. “It was right around here, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. Just… here.” Hector steered her a little to the left, then pointed out the nearly-hidden entrance to the cave. “Just where you said.”
“That’s it. We shouldn’t have long to wait.”
She hoped not, anyway. The cave’s ceiling had been too low for her to get more than a few feet in, but it had been exactly the kind of place she’d expect the nocturnal valeleaf moth to spend its daytime hours.
Maybe they won’t appear, she thought. Maybe they’re all gone, or maybe they were never here to begin with.
The drought had drastically reduced the moths’ numbers. Maybe they wouldn’t find any in this cave. Maybe every year there’d be fewer and fewer, until there were none left anywhere in the world at all.
Myrtle swallowed, feeling her eyes growing moist. She knew she ought to focus, and that the idea of the valeleaf moth becoming extinct was a sad enough one on its own, but thoughts like this always led her back to one place: Ruby, and how rare alicorns had become.
It didn’t seem fair that she’d be forced to live her life in secrecy, all because people were greedy fucks who had pushed alicorns to the brink of extinction once they started refusing to let people use their powers for their own purposes.
Ruby might have burned herself out protecting Hector, but Myrtle still wasn’t confident that she’d grow up feeling safe and secure. They could only do their best to look after he
r, to take care of her and show her that they loved her for who she was, not because of what she could do – and that they’d never, ever let anyone harm her.
“I hope Ruby doesn’t miss us too much,” she said. “Do you think she’s all right?”
“Pretty sure she’s got Callan wrapped around her little finger by now,” Hector replied. “It doesn’t matter if she hasn’t got her mind-whammy powers anymore. She won’t need them. Callan’s always been a notorious softy.”
Myrtle laughed. “Great. She’s not going to want to come home.”
“Probably not.”
They were silent for a moment in the still night air.
“Do you think her powers are really gone for good?” Myrtle eventually asked.
“I dunno,” Hector said. “Maybe – but maybe not. I’d like to think she’ll one day be able to use them again. I feel like I could learn to look on the bright side a bit more with someone like you around. I’ve been pretty lucky, after all.”
Myrtle smiled softly, leaning into his side. “So have I.”
They stood together in the soft purple haze of the night, not speaking, just enjoying the feeling of each other’s breathing. Myrtle would have been tempted to close her eyes – if not for the fact that in the very next moment, she thought she detected movement by the mouth of the cave.
“Hector, look.”
She scarcely dared to believe her eyes. For a moment, she thought she had to be seeing a trick of the light, but no: a moment later, a moth, black against the velvet blue of the sky, emerged from the mouth of the cave, fluttering into the sky.
She held her breath, waiting for the next one. For a moment, Myrtle was scared that there weren’t going to be any more.
But then, another moth, and then another, and then another emerged, until a steady stream of them were flying freely into the night air, soft wings beating, carrying them into the sky.
“Oh Hector, there must be thousands of them in there,” Myrtle said, pulling out her phone to record their flight. “Not as many as there should be, but it’s a lot more than I’d hoped for.”