“I’ll follow,” he said. “Just — keep her safe.”
Then we were moving, and the unicorn’s gait was so smooth that I barely felt the motion. It wove through the trees with impossible grace, avoiding obstacles I couldn’t see, navigating by senses I couldn’t begin to comprehend.
Behind us, I heard the SUV’s engine start up as Ben began to follow. But the unicorn was faster, and within minutes, we’d pulled ahead, moving deeper into old-growth forest where the trees grew so thick that starlight couldn’t penetrate.
I stretched my senses outward, checking for threats. The tactical teams were still near the facility, dealing with the dimensional breach and the shadow creatures that had manifested there. Rebecca Morse’s signature had moved several miles south — she was creating the diversion she’d promised, drawing attention away from our escape route.
And the phoenix —
The phoenix was dying faster now. The dimensional breach had accelerated the corruption, and I could feel its consciousness starting to fragment. Maybe twelve hours left.
Maybe less.
The unicorn must have sensed my distress, because it slowed and turned its head to look back at me. In the darkness, its horn glowed faintly silver, and I felt a pulse of reassurance through our connection.
Safe. Protected. Rest.
But I couldn’t rest. Not while the phoenix was dying, not while DAPI was hunting us. Not while —
The unicorn stopped in a clearing I didn’t recognize. Trees formed a perfect circle here, their branches woven together overhead to create a living dome of fresh green leaves. In the center of the clearing, a spring bubbled up from the ground, its water catching starlight and throwing it back in silver ripples.
“Where are we?” I asked.
The unicorn knelt again, and I slid from its back. The moment my feet touched the ground, I felt it — this place was saturated with dimensional energy. Clean energy, not corrupted, the kind that made my abilities sing instead of scream.
The SUV appeared at the edge of the clearing, Ben driving carefully over the rough terrain. He parked and climbed out, then looked in all directions so he could take in the circle of trees and the glowing spring.
“This is a sacred site,” he said in a murmur as he approached me. “Sidney, this is like the portal clearing. Dimensionally significant.”
The unicorn moved to the spring and lowered its head to drink. When it raised its muzzle, water dripped from its lips and seemed to evaporate into silver mist.
“It brought us here for a reason,” I said.
Ben pulled out his EMF reader and checked the displays. “The dimensional energy readings are off the charts, but it all seems stable. This place has been here for a very long time.”
I knelt beside the spring and cupped water in my hands. It was cold enough to make my fingers ache a little, and when I drank, I tasted something I couldn’t name — mineral and magic, ancient and alive.
The exhaustion that had been dragging at me began to ease immediately. No, it wasn’t gone or anywhere close to healed, but it was manageable.
“The water’s helping,” I said. “Ben, try it.”
He knelt beside me and drank, and I watched his expression shift from skepticism to wonder.
“It’s amplifying my electromagnetic sensitivity,” he said. “I can feel the dimensional barriers from here. See how thin they are, how close the other world is.”
The unicorn moved to stand between us and the clearing’s entrance, its body positioned like a guard. Through our connection, I was able to read its purpose.
It was protecting us, creating a space where we could rest and recover, could prepare for what came next. The shadow creatures manifesting at the facility wouldn’t come here — this place was too saturated with clean dimensional energy. And DAPI’s tactical teams wouldn’t find us because the electromagnetic interference from the spring would mask our signatures.
For a few hours at least, we were safe.
I sat heavily on a fallen log, and Ben moved immediately to examine me in the spring’s faint light.
“Your pupils are still uneven,” he said. “And you’re still bleeding.” He gently wiped blood from under my nose with his sleeve. “How do you feel?”
“Like I got hit by a semi and then run over a few more times for good measure.” I leaned against him, too tired to sit upright. “But I’m alive. We’re alive. That’s more than I expected an hour ago.”
His arm came around my shoulders, and our electromagnetic fields synchronized again. With the spring’s clean energy amplifying the effect, the resonance between us was stronger than ever.
