Hecate didn’t wait for us to answer. Instead, she turned and walked back to the front door. The wood slats of the small deck leading to the front door creaked and groaned under her shuffling feet. She paused at the entrance and turned to us.
My gaze drifted back to the old cabin. The building groaned in response, as if sensing my doubt and daring me to cross the threshold.
“Well?” Hecate’s dry voice prodded me into motion.
I staggered forward and followed her into the dark cabin. A low burning fire with bright embers staved off the chill in the air and provided a soft glow to illuminate the sparse furniture in the one-room cabin. Whatever strained light managed to shine through the grime covered windows offered a little illumination, but the cabin was otherwise shrouded in shadows. A small bed, with rumpled thread-bare sheets sat in the corner of the room unmade.
Hecate hobbled over to a rocking chair by the fire and settled into the seat with a sigh. She waved at a loveseat across from her.
“Leave your weapons at the door,” Hecate said. “You have no need for them here.”
I bit back a scoff. I would be the judge of whether I needed my weapons or not. But I could also compromise. I placed my bow at the door and removed my quiver to rest beside it. I still had my dagger.
Ace had walked in behind me while Nala padded over to the kitchen area that had a cluttered counter, simple sink and no food. She whined and flopped down on the ground. I exchanged a look with Ace, and he shrugged. Without a word, I walked over to the couch and sat down.
Ace removed his bow and quiver and rested them on the side of the loveseat before sitting next to me.
Hecate watched me with laser focus and waited until we were both settled before she spoke. “Why don’t you start at the beginning. Tell me about these arrows and the hunters who wielded them.”
So, I did, and I had no reason to hold any information back. I had nothing to hide and if Hecate had any hope of healing Nala, she needed all the information. As I talked, Hecate shifted her attention to my familiar and clicked her tongue. Nala’s ears perked up. With a few more clicks of encouragement, she peeled herself from the rickety, wood-slated floor and padded over to Hecate. The old woman smiled and patted her lap.
“Oh, she doesn’t—” I started to explain Nala’s standoffish behaviour with strangers, but to my surprise, Nala dropped her head in the witch’s lap with a loud plop. Hecate’s thin lips twitched, and she ran her hands through Nala’s thick fur.
“You poor thing,” Hecate crooned. “A devoted familiar, a sweet soul.” Hecate’s shrewd gaze caught mine. “I will help you, hunter, but my assistance comes at a price.”
I swallowed. Everything I owned was either burned up in the fire or coated in ash. If anything valuable had managed to survive, it was likely confiscated by the king’s men or the rogue hunters. “I don’t have a lot.”
“I never ask for something you can’t pay.”
I nodded, but her words didn’t ease my concerns. Instead, worry and doubt clawed up my spine. “What do you want?”
“It’s a simple task, given your skill set.”
Crawling unease burrowed deep into the base of my skull, coiling like a nest of cold, living worms. My scalp prickled, every hair rising in warning as if the very air had turned against me. Shadows in the corners of the cabin seemed to pulse with each breath I took, and though Hecate hadn’t spoken yet, the silence between us tightened like a noose. I felt the price before I heard it.
“I want you to kill the unicorn.”
9
My brain misfired and an image invaded my mind of the ethereal white unicorn with a feather mane that sparkled with colours of the rainbow. “The unicorn?”
“You know of whom I speak,” Hecate said, still petting my familiar. Magic stirred in the air and Nala closed her eyes, apparently in complete bliss while my mind scrambled to remain intact. The witch’s gaze flicked to my quiver where the unicorn’s feathers used for fletching gently pulsed with their subtle magic. “Her name is Medoria, though I suppose not a lot of people know that name anymore.”
“The unicorn of the forbidden forest?” I repeated.
“Yes, yes. You heard me right the first time. I want you to kill her and bring me her horn.”
By hunting the very forest I usually protected, I’d become the villain I detested.
“The poison is working its way through her system,” Hecate said. “I can feel it shutting everything down. She rallies against it, drawing from her bond with you, but there’s not enough magic between you to save her. It will come in waves, punctuated by moments of healing, especially with you nearby, followed by rapid decline. The choice is yours, of course, but you need to decide sooner than later.” Hecate continued to run her hand along Nala’s neck and back. My familiar sighed and closed her eyes, resting more of her weight on Hecate’s lap.
“Is there another payment you’d accept?”
“No,” she said.
The bond between Nala and I still thrummed with love, but it had weakened, deteriorated, not in feeling but the sense of connection. I would do anything for Nala. She was more than just a wolf or a familiar. She was my connection to the forest and to everything good in this life. I would become the villain for her. I would do everything and anything within my power to see her whole. It was my fault she was injured. I had placed her in danger.
I swallowed and nodded.
