Chapter 7
A UNICORN IN DISGUISE IS STILL A UNICORN
NELSON
What was Morgan doing here?
This was absolutely the worst place in the world for him to be.
At this very minute, the worst beings in the supernatural world were gathering here.
Most would jump at the chance to have a unicorn under their control, because his kind was so damn rare.
Their tears and horns were rumored to have magical properties, and the assholes like the ones at this market would probably sacrifice a foot to get their hands on them.
The mere idea of someone carving Morgan into pieces for a profit nauseated me. My mouth watered as I tried to get control of myself. I never lost control of my emotions like this. Never.
The unicorn in question slouched in his chair as if trying to become one with it. His disguise, as shitty as it was, made more sense now. The dark wig, the contact lenses, the heavy makeup, the ridiculous costume…
But a unicorn was always going to be a unicorn.
Those opalescent bubbles that had burst out of him when he laughed?
Those gave him away. That little curl of hair poking out from under his wig with the iridescent sheen to it?
That gave him away. And now that I was actually studying him, a rainbow ring was showing around the edges of his contact lenses too.
Signs of his true nature were everywhere.
Fuck. It was a miracle that he hadn’t been scooped up as soon as he walked into the hotel.
“Unicorn?” His voice cracked. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I’ve never met a unicorn.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I’d obviously been hanging out with Jeremy and Ash too much lately. Not that I’d been around them by choice. But their attitudes had clearly rubbed off on me if I wanted to roll my eyes.
“Of course you aren’t going to believe me,” I muttered.
I pulled out my phone and pulled up Ogden’s number. Thankfully, he answered on the second ring.
“Hey, Ogden, this is Nelson—”
“Ha!” Morgan pointed at me. “I knew Eric was an alias.”
“I think I found him,” I said into the phone, ignoring Morgan’s outburst.
“Let me talk to him,” Ogden demanded.
“Here.” I passed my phone to Morgan.
He took it with a shaky hand and pressed it to his ear. Damn it. I should have put it on speaker so I could hear what Ogden was saying. But it was probably better like this. It was a small token of trust, right?
“Hello?” Morgan said apprehensively.
I couldn’t hear what Ogden said, but Morgan’s eyes widened. His gaze darted to me.
“It’s really you? And you’re free?” Morgan whispered. A soft, hopeful look passed over his face. He swallowed hard, and tears gathered in his eyes. Fuck, even his tears had an iridescent sheen. “I was so worried about you. But how…?”
Ogden said something. As Morgan listened, he sniffled and wiped his eyes. Then he smiled. His smile was almost as radiant as the rainbows in his laughter.
“Yeah,” he said, sounding choked up. “I found a way to get out… Please don’t ask how I did it...”
Morgan nodded in response to something Odgen said.
“Yeah. My uncle always said the same thing. Magic finds a way.” Morgan drew his sleeve across his dripping nose.
I scrambled out of my chair. Morgan cringed.
Oops.
I offered what was hopefully a reassuring smile—although I knew next to nothing about reassuring people, so I might not have been successful—then I went on a hunt for a box of tissues.
I finally found one in the bathroom and brought it to him.
I yanked out a couple of tissues and shoved them into his hand before setting the box beside him.
I waited for him to use them. He stared at me.
I was looming over him, wasn’t I? I retreated to my chair. He stared at the tissues for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure what to do with them… or perhaps wondering if they were a trick of some kind. Then he shrugged and blew his nose. Some of the makeup rubbed off on the tissue.
The unicorn—his identity was fully confirmed now—spoke with Ogden a few more minutes. When the conversation ended, Morgan set the phone carefully on the table beside him and stared at me.
“Your name is Nelson,” he said. He grinned at me.
I nodded. “And you’re Morgan. And you’re a unicorn.”
The longer our gazes held, the wider his smile grew. Shit. His smile was stunning. Literally. At least I felt stunned just having it turned toward me. His tears had vanished as if they’d never existed. Despite all that hideous makeup, his smile was magical.
“This is awesome. You can be my sidekick.”
Uh, what now? I frowned.
“Okay.” He clapped his hands. “So, we should probably go over the plan, or we’ll be tripping over one another’s tails.”
“I don’t have a tail.” I shook my head. “And the only thing we need to plan is how we’re getting you out of here.”
He folded his arms across his chest. The smile disappeared. Damn. I missed it immediately. “No. I’ve been looking for an artifact. I need to find it. I’ve been going to magical markets like this for months now looking for it.”
“What makes you think it’ll show up here?”
“It was stolen when my uncle was murdered by the same jerks who kidnapped me.”
His words felt like a bucket of ice had been dumped down my back.
“That’s even more reason to get you away from here. It’s too dangerous.”
If they killed his uncle, they could easily kill him. Suddenly I realized that, despite the oracle’s vision of Morgan being injured, I’d been counting on Morgan’s captors keeping him alive. That’s what the people who caged him, Ogden, and the others had done.
But if they’d murdered his uncle, would they kill him too?
Sweat broke out across my forehead.
“That’s why I’m in disguise.” Morgan patted his wig. “Don’t worry. No one will guess. I’ve been doing this for a few months now, and it’s been fine.”
It really wasn’t fine. Did Venus know Morgan was a unicorn when she’d enlisted his help today? And who the hell was this Rudy Tada guy that Venus thought a retired shadow jumper and an inexperienced unicorn were the right people to guard him?
I had half a mind to report her to her superiors. Except if she hadn’t told me about this event, I never would have found Morgan—Morgan, who shouldn’t be anywhere near this damn place. Venus didn’t seem like the type to throw a unicorn to the wolves, but I couldn’t think of any other explanation.
I obviously needed more information, like how Morgan even crossed paths with Venus.
“Who were you talking to?” I held up the earbud I’d taken from him earlier.
“V, of course.”
“V… as in?”
“Oh, right, I guess you wouldn’t know that. It’s my cousin Violet.”
His cousin. Violet. So not Venus. “Is she a unicorn too?”
Morgan snorted. “Of course not.”
“Of course not,” I muttered. At least that was something. Morgan must be the child of a supe and a human, with Violet being the product of the human side of the family. “Are there other unicorns in your family I should know about?”
“Why?” Morgan’s face turned guarded.
His gaze dropped to his clenched hands. He twisted his fingers together and looked up at me with big, luminous eyes.
Framed by his long, thick eyelashes, they almost looked iridescent and so, so pretty.
His contact lenses did nothing to dull his natural magic.
I cleared my throat. I had the strangest wish to see him without the contact lenses, the makeup, the wig, or the bizarre clothing.
“They might be at risk too,” I said.
Morgan shook his head. “It’s just me.”
There was something he wasn’t telling me. I wanted to push to find out about this artifact he was so keen to acquire, but before I could ask anything more, my phone vibrated. Morgan passed it to me, and I saw a text from Gage. It was so unlike the demon to text that I did a double take.
Gage: Update me. Now.
“I need to call my team,” I said.
“Please. Don’t tell them about me.”
Fuck. The way he looked at me. It made me want to promise him things I shouldn’t.
“Ogden already knows,” I pointed out. “He’ll have told Gage.”
“I don’t know who Gage is. Can he be trusted?”
“I trust him with my life.”
Morgan held my gaze for a long minute before nodding. “Fine. But no one else.”
I nodded. Gage understood how precarious the situation with Morgan was. He wouldn’t jeopardize him.
“I would never put you at risk,” I promised. He didn’t notice I hadn’t said no one else would be told. But I trusted my team.
One thing was certain. My mission parameters had changed. The job Venus had called me about was no longer my priority. If I didn’t find Rudy Tada, oh well. Shit happened.
Morgan came first. I just needed to convince him to leave. Immediately.