“Thank you so much,” she said, then turned to Jeros. “Can you give me a leg up? He’s going to help us and said I could ride him.”
“Ye mean to ride him? Pegasus?”
“He said I could.”
Jeros shook his head in disbelief, then went to Lexi and lifted her onto the noble beast’s back. He stepped back and locked eyes with the mighty alpha. “Take care with her, aye? She is all I have, and I canna lose her.”
Pegasus blinked slowly, then lowered his head.
“Ask the mighty alpha to go slow enough so me and mine can keep up,” Jeros said to Lexi as he mounted the stallion and motioned for the mare to follow.
Lexi gave him a strange look, an almost loving, longing look that made him forget to breathe. “He will,” she said so quietly that he read the words on her lips more than heard them.
Then the mighty Pegasus took off at a steady, thunderous gallop, making further talk impossible.
* * *
She is all I have,and I canna lose her.Jeros’s desperation stayed with her, chanting the words over and over in her mind. Lexi held tightly to Pegasus’s mane, trying to concentrate on the task at hand, but all she could hear was Jeros’s deep voice echoing with such heartbreaking despondency that it squeezed the breath from her.
The storm kept pace with the alpha unicorn’s ground-eating gallop. Lightning flashed repeatedly, blinding her to the golden glow emitted by Pegasus’s horn that lit their way. Deafening thunder, echoing as loudly as the strike of the beast’s mighty hooves against the ground, followed. All Lexi could do was hold tight and trust the animal to find the yearlings before anything terrible happened to them.
Twisting as much as she safely could, she strained to see Jeros, to make sure he and the sweet mare weren’t left behind. The silvery glow of his mount and the mare’s shimmering color barely gleamed through the storm’s shadows. She had no idea where they were, but being outside the boundary of Sevenrest concerned her. Jeros could be in danger. The Fifth Kingdom would surely seize any opportunity to capture the Crown Prince himself and hold him for ransom.
Pegasus halted, and his horn went dark, its glow dissipating like mist. He grumbled with a soft whicker, tossed his head, and stomped his right hoof.
Why he didn’tthinkto her, she had no idea. Far be it from her to question the alpha unicorn. Lexi assumed that whatever they were searching for was up ahead to the right, and they needed to take care not to be discovered. She slid off the noble beast’s broad back and dropped to the ground. As Jeros joined them, she went to him with a finger pressed to her lips, willing him to be quiet.
He nodded he understood, dismounted, then gently but firmly drew her behind him as he took the lead in heading in the direction she showed. She rolled her eyes but didn’t fight him. Now was not the time to argue that she had just as much right to lead the way as he did. Besides, it was kind of nice that he was protective of her.
It seemed as though they moved through the murky darkness forever, struggling to avoid brambles, saplings, and branches that snapped like angry whips when pushed aside and then released. Lexi glanced behind them, reassured when Pegasus and the stallion, and the mare from Sevenrest were following with amazing stealth.
Soaked to the skin, she gathered her denim jacket closer, thankful for what little warmth it provided. It might be summer here in Jeros’s version of the Scottish Highlands, but it was chilly.
Then a faint glow up ahead shot a rush of adrenaline through her, and she forgot every discomfort. She strained to make out what it was, but couldn’t until they drew closer to the small clearing.
The three missing yearlings huddled inside an oddly glowing corral built with some type of thorny vines. To one side of them, a trio of large, gnarly figures huddled around a fire that sputtered and hissed, but was impervious to the rain.
Jeros pulled her down to crouch beside him at the edge of the thicket. “Sluagh na marbh,” he whispered, as if that should explain everything.
“What?”she mouthed with a shake of her head.
“Hosts for the unforgiven dead. Mercenaries hired by the Fifth Kingdom.” He spoke with his mouth pressed so close to her ear that the warmth of his breath made her shiver. “The spell they placed on the bramble vines around the younglings drains all magical creatures of their powers. Even Pegasus, especially Pegasus, cannot touch it, and neither can I.”
She eyed the glowing barrier, then looked back at whatever Jeros had called those creatures around the magical fire. They reminded her of trolls, or ogres from one of the fairy tale books she’d often read as a child. “Why would the Fifth Kingdom hire them to steal the unicorns?” she whispered.
“Either to lure us out or simply nettle my arse,” Jeros said just as quietly.
“Those trolls seem more interested in staying by the fire than paying attention to the unicorns, and I don’t see any mounts for them to ride. If we freed the babies from the corral, couldn’t we get back inside Sevenrest’s boundaries before they caught us?”
“They are not trolls. They aresluagh,and they already broke through the wards once, ye ken? There is naught to stop them from crossing Sevenrest’s boundaries.”
“Couldn’t we strengthen the wards with unicorn magic? I bet Pegasus would oblige us since we’re trying to help the yearlings.” Never in her life would she ever have imagined herself talking seriously about trolls, unicorn magic, or supercharged rocks to keep the bogeymen away, but here she was. “We can’t just let them have those babies. They’ll probably eat them or something.” She didn’t even want to think about what those horrendous human-like creatures might do.
“The yearlings canna break through the barrier. The fence will not only drain them of their magic but also drain them of their life’s blood since they are so young and have yet to sprout their horns. None of us can breach that barrier, and theSluaghknow that.”
Lexi wasn’t about to retreat without those unicorn yearlings. “Do you have a knife?” She knew he had a sword and a pistol. Surely, the man had a dagger tucked in his boot or belt.
He glared at her as if trying to read her mind. “Why?”
