“I got what you asked for on the mainland,” Silas said. “For Poppy’s heartburn and Eloise’s tick bite.”
I couldn’t help it. I threw my head back and laughed. My life was so out of this world bizarre that I had to find humor in these moments. Otherwise, I might check myself into treatment with Dr. Simmons. All this magicand wonder, and Silas had made sure to hold onto the Pepto through it all.
“Will you come with me?” Silas extended a hand.
I slid my fingers through his. We walked hand in hand down a path someone had cut through the middle of a breezy wildflower prairie. On either side of us, grasses loomed tall and willowy, peppered with airy cosmos and cut and come again zinnias, and teddy bear sunflowers sprouting in whimsical patches.
Ahead of us, something scampered across a path.
I blinked, stilled, then waited for it to come back.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Silas. “But I just thought I saw a unicorn.”
“You did,” he said. “A baby one.”
“A baby unicorn,” I whispered. “Are you trying to kill me?”
Silas’s head whipped around to face me in alarm.
“A baby unicorn?” I looked up at him, matching his gaze. “Say it’s not so. My heart cannot handle it.”
Silas gave me a crooked smile as I spoke, then he knelt, made a soft click with his tongue, like he was summoning a shy kitten. A few seconds later, a bolt of white energy shot from the grasses and skidded to a stop.
Slowly, with intense caution, a tiny unicorn barely as tall as my knee crept shyly toward Silas. He waited patiently, not moving for however long it took the littleone to approach. The creature sniffed, turning a tiny horn in my direction, sizing me up.
I waited too, trying to mimic Silas’s stillness. I failed, but as I knelt next to him, the unicorn continued its forward progression toward us. Eventually, it reached Silas and gave an approving sniff of his hand first. The creature found obvious familiarity in Silas’s scent and gave a happy lick of greeting to his palm.
Then the baby turned to me, moving more cautiously. Until finally, she plopped into my lap. I choked out a strangled laugh that was also a cry of surprise.
Instead of hair like a horse, the unicorn had fluff. A spun-sugar ball of fluff and fur with a tiny horn that sparkled like sun crystals. Just sitting in my lap.
“I’m deceased,” I informed Silas.
Apparently, that phrase hadn’t worked its way to The Isle’s pop culture because Silas studied me curiously, as if checking for a pulse. Apparently he decided that I wasn’t, in fact, dead, and his lips curled into a real smile. He raised a hand, tucked hair behind my ear in a gentle way.
“Welcome to my life’s work,” he said. “It’s the Preserve of Wonders.”
“The Preserve of Wonders?” I asked. “Where are we?”
“We’re on the island, in the middle of my land. My family before me started this place—walled it off so completely that nobody knows it’s here. It’s warded as strong as I couldmanage.”
“Does Ranger X know about it?”
A guilty glint entered Silas’s eye. “No.”
“What about Atlas?”
Silas looked down. “I’m not sure. It’s hard to say exactly what he knows and what he doesn’t. He knows a lot, but he doesn’t see fit to inform me of it all.”
“I see.”
“We care for extraordinary animals here.” Silas ran a hand down the back of the fluffy unicorn. “I’ve seen too many species get killed off in my lifetime, and while it’s too late for them, it’s not too late for these guys.”
“You’re talking about the Fae Queens.”
“Among other things,” he said. “We offer a safe haven for animals and creatures and species that need help. For a while, certain breeds of mermaids were in danger of going extinct, so we’ve got a lagoon to house them. We’ve got a few unicorns. One breed of dragon. Phoenixes, a sphynx, you name it—we’ve got it. The ones we could save.”
My heart ached for this man. Even if Silas couldn’t see it, I could. He’d spent years living with the weight of what his people—the Hunters—had done to the beloved Fae Queens. The burden had been so intense that he’d bent over backwards, trying to save those creatures who couldn’t save themselves.
