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The hunters were too preoccupied with their prey to hear my silent approach. Taking cover behind a thick oak tree, I drew back the bowstring, the familiar tension bringing me a sense of calm. With a steady exhale, I let go of the arrow. It soared through the air and struck the first hunter with deadly accuracy.

Panic erupted as the man fell to the ground beside the thrashing net. Without hesitation, I emerged from my cover. I didn’t give them a warning. They didn’t deserve a chance to surrender. Instead, I swiftly took out the two remaining hunters with well-aimed shots.

Stepping into the clearing, I scanned for more hunters. Seeing none, I approached the creature trapped under the weighted net. It had stopped struggling and lay still as if waiting for me.

Nala followed, a quiet presence behind me.

I grabbed a corner of the net and pulled it off.

The creature sprung to its feet, a flurry of white fur and feathers, and I stumbled backward.

She was breathtaking.

Shaking off the rest of the netting from her shimmering fur, a unicorn stood before me. The moonlight danced along her sleek body and the magic in the air whirled around us. I had never seen a unicorn before. I hadn’t known they existed. Weren’t they just mythical creatures from storybooks?

The unicorn’s power curled around me. Both familiar and foreign, it tugged at my heart and called the magic pulsing in my veins. I stared in awe as the unicorn rose onto her hind legs and pawed at the air, a piercing whinny fracturing the silence while her mane flowed down her back.

Her mane...

Instead of horsehair, her mane and tail were made of long white feathers that glowed under the moonlight. With movement, they shimmered with the metallic colors of the rainbow. The same feathers I used in my arrows’ fletching.

“It’s you,” I whispered. A unicorn had left its feathers for me to find and use.

She landed gracefully on all fours, basking under the moonlight. She looked at me with her large black eyes over her shoulder before sprinting into the forest in the opposite direction of the trail, kicking up dirt and patches of moss in her wake.

I let out a long breath while my heart still tried to punch through my breastbone. I looked down at my familiar.

Nala sat by my feet, her tail thumping on the thick moss beneath her.

“Did you know?” I asked.

She panted, her long tongue lolling out.

Someone whistled behind me.

I spun around to find Ace standing at the edge of the clearing, his eyes wide. "I don’t know what’s more terrifying, seeing a unicorn with fangs or watching you tracking and taking down three hunters without making a sound."

Fangs? I hadn’t noticed. I’d been too mesmerized by the feathers.

“Now I know why you’re the monster they warn everyone about.”

26

Moonlight bathed my skin as I walked through the forest behind Ace. He’d pulled his cloak up to pluck spurs from the hem and I tried not to appreciate the unobstructed view of his leather-clad ass. I needed something else to fixate on to distract my mind from seeing a unicorn and unfortunately for me, that meant checking out Ace’s objectively nice physique.

After retrieving my arrows, we left the hunters where they’d fallen and returned to the path. We didn’t speak about the unicorn or the rogue hunters, nor did we discuss any possible theories as to what they were up to.

Maybe because neither of us had a clue what was going on.

Neither of us mentioned the unicorn to my brother when we met up with him, silently agreeing to keep that information to ourselves. Paul’s only response to seeing us emerge from the forest was to ask if we were done playing around. I’d managed a nod.

Paul had chosen not to follow me or Ace into the forbidden forest. Maybe he trusted me to protect myself, or maybe he wanted to conserve his energy, but a part of me wished he’d followed to see me in my glory, to witness how badass I was, and to be there if I needed him. There was a time we always had each other’s backs, a time when we had no secrets.

“Exactly how did you arrange for us to see the bodies?” I asked Paul who still walked ahead. “And why does it involve us sneaking into the city?”

Paul grunted and crouched behind a dense patch of salal bushes. He waved for us to join him.

I knelt down, the moisture of the moss soaking into my black pants. I should’ve opted for leather like Ace.

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