She released a sigh and let down her bow halfway. “No, but do you recall the promise you made?”
He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his brow. “That I wouldn’t come near another unicorn.”
“Or else I’d kill you,” she finished for him.
His eyes were unfocused when he opened them. “It seems today is a day for breaking several promises.”
She huffed a laugh. “Do you expect me to break mine?”
“I…I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know what?”
His gaze sharpened and slid to the unicorn. “I didn’t know what it took to remove a unicorn’s horn.”
Cora felt the blood leave her face. Before she’d witnessed Prince Teryn’s fight with the man he’d called Helios, she hadn’t known either. She’d assumed the horn had to be severed, not…cut from the unicorn while it was still alive. Did Valorre know?
Teryn met her eyes. “I’ll never do that,” he said, tone laced with conviction. “I’ll never take a unicorn’s horn.”
She considered his words, opened her senses to try and feel if he was lying. Not that she trusted her observations. “You lied when you said you worked for no one.”
“I didn’t lie.”
“I saw the writ your friend had.”
Teryn glanced at the dead man, then winced, as if he’d forgotten the carnage. He shook his head. “I don’t know what that was, but I can only guess it was a forgery. Why would we work for anyone? I’m the Crown Prince of Menah. Helios was the Prince of Norun. Prince Lex?—”
Teryn stiffened. His spear slid from his hand as he whirled around. The motion sent the falcon launching off his shoulder to land in a nearby branch. Cora drew her arrow, following Teryn’s every move as he crouched down beside a man Cora hadn’t realized was alive until now. “Lex!”
Cora hesitated, watching the two, before letting down her bow.
The man named Lex lay on his side, his arm pressed to his chest. Blood stained his silk shirt, marring the gold brocade of his frayed waistcoat. “What the bloody hell, what the bloody hell…” Lex repeated over and over. Finally, he met Teryn’s gaze. “What the bloody hell was that thing?”
“The Beast,” Cora said.
Teryn glanced over his shoulder at her. “You know what it was?”
She nodded. “It…works with the hunters. They feed the unicorns to it.”
“Why did it…” His voice trailed off as his eyes landed on the body of his dead companion. “Why did it attack Helios? It barely spared me a glance, but it went straight for him.”
“I don’t know.” With slow steps, she approached the body. A few feet away, she found a discarded dagger. Gingerly, she picked it up, noting its white spiral blade. All at once, she sensed a dense, murky energy that buzzed against her palms, burning the ink there. The feeling was so strong, her lungs began to contract. Dropping the blade, she launched a step back.
Hide that, Valorre said. Cora startled at his sudden appearance behind one of the trees outside the camp. There he remained, not daring to take a step within the clearing.Sheathe it. Cover the blade. The abomination is drawn to our horns.
Her heart slammed against her ribs. She glanced at the waning campfire.I could feed it to the flames, she said in her mind.
It will not burn.
She considered simply leaving it where it lay or burying it in the ground. But the idea that someone else could find it, wield it…
Worse, she imagined the Beast returning, unearthing it, devouring it. She wasn’t sure why the Beast was drawn to horns, why the hunters fed it starving unicorns. But there had to be a reason. Whatever it was, Cora needed to do whatever it took to keep the Beast from consuming another horn.
Without a second thought, she reached for the white-bladed dagger again and dropped it into her quiver. As soon as it struck the bottom, she felt its dark energy recede. Relief flooded through her. Now she just had to hope that her inability to sense the horn anymore meant the Beast couldn’t either.
She returned her attention to the two men—only to find Teryn removing his shirt. Momentarily shocked by the unexpected sight, she could do nothing but stare at the flex of his shoulder muscles as he drew his tunic over his head and immediately set to tearing it into strips. He tied the first one around the cut on his arm, then crouched by Lex and began to dress his friend’s wound.
We must go, Valorre said.
