Page 69 of Secret Pucking Unicorn

I walk through The Nest and out to the Boardwalk. Like always, the icy wind coming off the Atlantic Ocean takes my breath away. I wish I could snuggle against Declan and share his warmth like we did before. I tell myself the tears stinging my eyes are from the salt air, but I know they are from my broken heart. When we’re apart, all I want to do is be with him. I love him. But then when I see him, all the doubts creep in and I’m angry all over again.

I’m usually even-tempered, but in the past day my emotions have been all over the place. It’s like I’m crazy. I want things to go back to how they were. I want to go back to how I was. But not alone. I don’t want to be alone any longer. I want the future we whispered about with children and a home. With these feelings of doubt or mistrust, I don’t know if it’s possible. Part of me knows what Dec says about not talking about things because he thought I knew makes sense. We never talk about his wolf, I’ve never spoken with Kennie about her cougar, or Carter about his wolf. No one asks why my hair is black or my eyes are gray. It’s how you are—there’s no reason to discuss it.

But what mother says makes sense too. She would have seen things from an adult perspective I had no concept of as a child. I don’t remember Declan and Sophie picking on me, but I was always a target at my schools. It makes sense I was with them too. I don’t know. I’m confused. This headache isn’t helping either. Hopefully, a nap will help my head clear. I need to be able to think clearly and figure out what I’m going to do.

The hotel offers a welcoming warmth when I enter. Trevor is waiting at the elevator.

“Hey Randi. Sophie needs to change into dance clothes for our practice. I’m meeting her upstairs.”

I nod tiredly. Trevor puts his arm around me, and I lean against him as the elevator whooshes upward. We don’t speak, we don’t have to. When the doors open, I glimpse Nora entering the suite I’m sharing with Mother. I guess I won’t be able to sneak in to take my nap. Oh well. Trevor is coming with me while Sophie changes in her room. We are a few doors from mine when I hear raised voices coming from my suite. Mother and Nora are yelling at each other. Before I can rush ahead to see what’s going on, Trevor grabs my arm to stop me and puts a finger up to his lips. We creep silently to the door of the suite and discover it’s ajar. Nora dropped her monogrammed wallet to stop the door from latching. Why?

“You promised you were going to teach her about her powers, Doreen,” Nora is saying. “You didn’t. Why? She was terrified to discover she was a witch. How did she not know for all these years?”

I peek through the crack in the doorway. Nora is facing the door and mother’s back is to me. I know Nora sees me and I hear her voice in my head telling me to listen. A sense of peace and love washes over me as I slip to the side in order to hear without being seen. Trevor makes the okay sign with his fingers and when I nod, he takes off for Sophie’s room.

Mother’s laugh doesn’t hold humor. “It was simple. She didn’t have any. I put a suppression spell on her powers. It held all these years until she mated with your son. As for why, they are my powers. She got them from me, and I didn’t want to share.”

The elevator doors slide open, and I glance down the hall. Teagan is striding toward me, but stops for Trevor, who is on his way back. She listens to what he has to say and nods. Looking my way, she mouths some words and waves her hand. I feel like a barrier has slipped between me and the door. I take a step back in surprise.

Trevor and Teagan reach my side and she gives my arm a light squeeze. “I put a barrier spell up. We can hear what is said in the room, but they can’t see or hear what is going on out here,” she whispers.

“In case Sophie can’t keep her big mouth shut,” Trevor murmurs.

I nod.

“Her powers are her gift. It is not your place to deny her,” Nora says.

Mother tosses her head like a cantankerous mare I used to feed apples when I lived with the Mackenzies. “I’m her mother and I can do whatever I want with her and her powers.”

“Why are you doing this to her? You’re her mother, you love her, why are you hurting her?”

“I don’t love her. I never loved her. I had her because my mother’s will contained a trust providing additional funds for the support of a child. If I didn’t have a child, I couldn’t get the money, it would be donated to an animal charity. It was my money. I suffered through a pregnancy and childbirth and earned every penny. You were willing to take her on with your litter, so it worked out. I had my money and didn’t have to deal with the brat.”

Mother is spewing this venom in such a matter-of-fact way, like what she’s saying isn’t unnatural and vile.

“I would have left her with you until she turned twenty-one and the money ran out, but she had to come into her powers early and you were eager to teach her. She’s my daughter and if she was going to learn about the craft it’s my place to teach her. Not you. You have your own daughter. Miranda’s powers come from me and if I don’t want her to have them then she won’t. They are mine and I don’t want to share.”

Sophie calls from down the hall. “What’s going on?”

Thank goodness for Teagan’s spell.

“Your mothers are having a chat,” Trevor says in what is the understatement of the year.

Sophie shoulders her way past me to enter the suite and runs into the barrier Teagan placed. She staggers back in surprise.

“I want to hear what they have to say,” Teagan says with a shrug. With a snap of her fingers, a tub of popcorn appears in her hand, and she offers it to us. Trevor takes some. I shake my head when she offers it to me. I can’t.

She grimaces. “Sorry, bad read of the room. How about this?”

With a snap of her fingers the popcorn disappears, and a tumbler of whisky pops into existence. From the color and aroma, I know it’s from the Mackenzie distillery. It’s the good stuff. Teagan doesn’t skimp with her magic. I already have a pounding headache, it’s not like a hangover is going to make it feel any worse. I take it and sip, closing my eyes as the fire slides down my throat. The fog filling my head clears a tiny bit. Like a weak ray of sunshine made its way through thick clouds. I turn my focus back to the conversation between mother and Nora.

“I took her away from you and suppressed her powers to stop her from causing shifts left and right. I put her in whatever school would take her.” Mother stops pacing and faces Nora again. “When they kicked her out because we didn’t pay the rest of the tuition, we’d stick her in the next.”

That’s why I moved from school to school? Because they didn’t pay their bills? I didn’t have to go to boarding school. I could have gone to the public school wherever they lived or did online homeschooling. Oh, yeah, she didn’t want me around.

“If you want me to stop disrupting Miranda’s life and making your son miserable, it’s very simple,” Mother says. “Give me five million dollars and I’ll leave them be.”

“Five million,” Nora exclaims. “It was a million dollars before.”

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