“The tree?” Everan asked.
“You'll see.” Mahar turned and started walking briskly into the forest.
Everan motioned for our knights to join us and we followed the Bargest together. Mahar was even more adept at navigating the forest than the Sidhe. His body moved with the grace and silence of a predator, shifting around trees, bending beneath low-hanging branches, and gliding over stones as if he walked that path every day. I was not nearly so quiet and Everan glanced at me a few times with an indulgent grin.
I couldn't hear any of Mahar's tribe members around us but every once in awhile, he'd stop and yip or bark as if in response to something. I assumed we were surrounded, but I wasn't worried. They were Danutians and we were there to help the forest. I had a feeling that the Bargests were a sort of honor guard. Or maybe they'd simply come to see what the hell was going on with their forest.
Raeventar grew denser and darker as we walked. Moss spotted trees and boulders alike, adding softness and color. Flowers paled in the shade but ferns flourished. Debris littered the forest floor and spiced the air with the fecund aroma of decomposition. And then I saw it.
It stepped through a shaft of sunlight that speared the tree canopy and a flash of white caught my eye. I made the smallest sound, barely a gasp, but Mahar heard me. He looked unerringly toward the creature and stopped walking to settle into a wary crouch. The rest of us followed his lead, sinking behind trees and bushes.
The animal approached confidently, its hooves stepping lightly and its nostrils flaring as it scented the forest. It stopped directly before us and lifted its head proudly. Its long, white tail swished and one dark eye settled on me as if in recognition. I stood up in a daze and stepped past Mahar, who gawked up at me as I passed. I held out my hand, feeling a bit like an idiot but not caring one whit. No one shouted at me to stop nor did the animal show any sign of fear or aggression. It merely lowered its velvety muzzle into my hand and snuffled my palm. I made an amazed and delighted sound as I looked up from that soft gray nose to the ivory horn atop its head. The spiraling length gleamed as if it had been freshly polished. Then the unicorn turned its head and met my stare. Fire flashed within the dark orb of its eye.
I gasped and I swear it smiled at me. Then it turned and pranced away.
“What was that creature?” Mahar whispered in horror.
I turned around in surprise to see Mahar and the knights staring after the unicorn in stunned fascination while my husband stared at me in irritation.
“It's a unicorn,” I said. “Was that the first time you've seen one?”
“Yes,” Everan said crisply as he stepped forward. “Because unicorns don't exist, Amara.”
I frowned. “What are you talking about? That was a unicorn. A big white horse with a horn on its forehead; you can't mistake it for anything else. And I'm certain it wasn't an illusion. I know illusions and that animal was real.”
“I know it's real but it didn't exist before today. This is what happens when you play with fire, Shalani!”
“Wait. What? Are you saying that because I got the Heart of Fire to shift into a unicorn, it somehow created the first unicorn?”
“Yes!”
“No,” I scoffed.
“You stood before a heart of elemental power and you gave it suggestions,” Ever tried to explain while the others watched us, their wide-eyed stares ping-ponging between us. “No one but the Gods are allowed in the presence of the Hearts and now we know why. You created life like a goddess, Amara. You took control of the heart and summoned a new being from it.”
“Sweet summer sap,” I whispered.
Everan grimaced. “Well, it's not the end of the realm. Hopefully. The poor beast will be lonely but...” he trailed off, staring somewhere over my shoulder.
I looked over my shoulder and blinked. There was my new friend the unicorn and he had made another new friend—who he had promptly mounted. Yep, a pair of unicorns were having unicorn sex no more than thirty feet away from us. And boy were they enjoying themselves. It was probably that whole magical creation thing—life wanting to create more life, or reaffirm its existence, or something like.
I cleared my throat and turned back to face my husband with flushed cheeks. “Well, at least he won't be lonely.”
Everan made an amused huff as he shook his head. “You never do things halfway, do you, my love? Not even when you do them by mistake.”
I grinned at him but my next words were drowned out by a triumphant and orgasmic neighing.
Chapter Seventeen
We gave the happy couple a wide berth and soon came to the tree. One moment, we were walking through thick undergrowth and even thicker shadows, and the next, we were stepping out into an open meadow. Wildflowers spotted the green expanse like a pointillism painting and a flock of Pixies lifted from the multicolored petals to take to the air, their opalescent wings sparkling in the sunlight like thrown glitter. They gave startled cries and swirled away in a ribboning mass.
The lush grass released a rich fragrance when it bent beneath our feet but the further we went into the meadow, the more sporadic it grew until only bare dirt remained. The fresh aroma was replaced by a whiff of death. And not the normal scent of decay found in a forest but rather the stinging stink of a battlefield.
The ancient, monolithic tree in the center of the meadow must have once been magnificent; the width of its trunk and the length of its branches gave testament to this. But that magnificence was gone now. The shriveled branches—as thick as my waist—drooped limply to the ground and were completely bare of leaves. I would have described it as skeletal but its bark looked more like the skin of a prune and I mean that in both texture and color. I stepped forward and my boot crunched on something—a dead leaf. The ring of grass around the tree was littered with them as if it were Autumn, except Danu existed in eternal Summer.
“Kolltean said you could heal it,” Mahar said, almost in accusation, definitely in challenge.
“But where is it? Where is the heart?” I asked. “Is the tree—”
