Chapter 9 #2
Scarlett and I reached for our blades, but Valik waved his hands, signaling for us to put them away. We paused, our hands on the hilts of our swords, and exchanged unsure glances.
“Your weapons will attract it,” Valik whispered, searching the forest’s tree line from the top of the hill. “Best we keep moving and hurry back to the castle.”
My heart sped up, and my muscles tensed as I went on high alert. As we walked, picking up our pace, I tapped into my Kinetic magic, focusing my vision in search of thermal energy signatures, but nothing appeared.
The roar bellowed again, closer this time. We hitched our steps, silently pushing forward.
A large red splotch, a living being, dashed in the corner of my right eye. I grabbed Scarlett’s arm to snag her attention, pointing to the trees where the beast hid.
Scarlett slapped Valik’s shoulder. When he turned, she passed on the same message by pointing to the forest where the heat signature appeared.
Within the forest and to my left, a massive creature snorted. For the love of the gods, I begged that this wasn’t the manticore coming back to finish us off.
Our mysterious guide cocked his head. “Ah, it’s simply a unicorn,” he murmured, tilting his head before shrugging. “No big deal.”
“A unicorn?” Scarlett gaped. “Those are actually real?”
Valik cocked an eyebrow. “Of course they’re real!” He began to walk forward again.
“And they”–Scarlett glanced back to the forest again, eyebrow raised–“sound like that?”
I’d never known that unicorns could roar, considering they were basically horses, but whatever. New world, new problems.
“They didn’t use to, but now that they’re Endarkened, they obviously do.” Valik flicked a hand casually to the side, shockingly unbothered by the fucking Endarkened unicorn lingering nearby.
“Are we suddenly not worried that any Endarkened creature, unicorn or not, will kill us?” Scarlett asked sarcastically, shaking her head.
Without turning around, Valik shrugged again. “I mean, it might. Who’s to say?”
I sighed, frustrated with his non-answers as my anxiety grew. The unicorn followed us along the tree line as we continued to cut through another field at the bottom of the hill.
It roared again.
“Any tips on how to take it down if it attacks?” Scarlett asked.
“You can’t kill a unicorn,” Valik responded, bored. “They’re sacred beings here. Even if they’re Endarkened, bad things will happen to the one who kills them.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Scarlett slapped her thighs. “It’s Endarkened! It’s not like—” Another roar cut her off. Through the lens of my magic, the red blotch I’d seen in the woods flashed again, charging toward us. “Shit.”
Forgoing Valik’s warnings, we pulled our swords free, falling into a defensive stance to ward it off.
“I told you no weapons! Put them away now!” Valik ordered, all carelessness gone from his voice.
It felt wrong to put my sword back when faced with a threat; it went against everything my instincts and training taught me.
“So how are we supposed to defend against it?” Scarlett demanded
“Just run. I’ll deal with it,” Valik responded, not taking his focus off the Endarkened unicorn that raced toward us.
I returned my vision to normal, unsure what to do. Stay and fight it off? Or try to evade it altogether?
The unicorn dashed toward us, and Valik wasn’t lying—it very much appeared to be Endarkened, just like the manticore had.
Black drool dripped from its snout, and large patches of fur peeled from its body, leaving grayish skin behind.
The mane was dried out and knotted, and blackening veins lined up and down its neck and legs.
The horn—which I imagined was once a pearly white, if the version of the legends we’d heard about unicorns back home were true—now rotted away, with black and gray matter oozing from the tip and rolling down past the base and its fur.
The unicorn’s ears lay flat back against its head, glaring at us with a sickened rage as it approached.
“I said, go!” Valik demanded.
I exchanged a quick, nervous glance with Scarlett before taking off at a sprint toward the Celestial Castle, hoping Valik knew what he was doing. I presumed he wouldn’t have lasted this long here if he didn’t.
The once sacred and beautiful creature ignored Valik as he planted himself and raised his hands to cast his magic at it. Instead, it blew past him in pursuit of me and Scarlett, racing toward us at an unnatural speed.
Well, fuck.
Only twenty yards separated us from the unicorn. Scarlett cast a look over her shoulder, her red hair nearly covering her eyes, before she stopped, holding out her hands. Her violet currents dashed up her neck as she maintained eye contact with the charging unicorn.
I skidded to a stop with Scarlett, then shook my head while Valik shouted his protests from several yards behind the unicorn. “No! Don’t kill it, Scarlett!”
Scarlett ignored him, ejecting a stream of her nuclear-based energy at the Endarkened creature from her palms, striking it in the chest. It stumbled, but quickly shook off the attack with a snort before closing the distance between us. It released another roar, this one shaking the ground.
Ten yards away.
Scarlett’s magic spilled from her fingers, and within seconds, purple volts enveloped the unicorn’s body completely.
I stood frozen, completely thrown for what to do. I couldn’t use my sword, and my thermal ability was basically useless in this fight, especially if Scarlett’s powerful electrocution did nothing to slow it down.
Five yards.
My heart thrashed wildly in my chest as the beast closed the final feet separating us.
It reared onto its hind legs, and just as it was about to stomp down onto Scarlett’s head, I dove for her, knocking her to the ground and out of its reach.
Thankfully, Scarlett had released her control on her magic just before I made contact with her, sparing me her electrocution.
Valik appeared in Scarlett’s place, holding his hands above his head as he faced the Endarkened unicorn. White light radiated from his palms, creating a force field of power that shot out and slammed into the creature, knocking it to the ground.
Valik looked at the pair of us crumpled on the ground. “I said to fucking run. Not stop and fight it off. To let me handle it.”
Before Scarlett could answer, the unicorn had regained its footing, shaking off the magical blow dealt by Valik. “You need to fucking run! Unicorns can kill you without even—”
Scarlett inhaled a sharp and ragged gasp, clutching her arm around her stomach, before she began to cough violently. I rolled away, looking at the unicorn and then back to Scarlett, not knowing what to do.
“They’re empaths and healers!” Valik yelled, struggling against the unicorn with his magic, which now pulsed blue sheets of power, instead of white, over the Endarkened unicorn’s body. “Now that they’re Endarkened, they do the opposite!”
That was all the explanation I got from Valik as the unicorn kept rearing up, roaring a gurgling and rasping sound while stomping its hooves into the bluish green grass, its blackened blood staining the earth.
I rose to my feet, then hovered over Scarlett, leaning down to pick her up to carry her away.
I didn’t have the ability to fight off the beast, and I trusted Valik when he said not to kill them.
But if they were like the Endarkened people back home, then they would absorb power, which would amplify their own.
If that were the case, then maybe it had just absorbed Scarlett’s, strengthening its own. And now it retaliated against her.
I was by no means an animal whisperer, but I understood them to an extent. Scarlett hacked harsher and harsher coughs, and my heart paused when her face began to turn a deep red. She coughed deeply from her chest again, hacking up a thick, black liquid from her mouth.
“Get her away!” Valik shouted, sweat beading on his temples.
His blue veil of magic still blanketed the unicorn.
It began to slow, snorting and whimpering as it shook its head from side to side, until finally, it settled.
Black moisture painted the skin around Scarlett’s mouth, her complexion turning pallid as she grew limp in my arms.
“I’m purifying it, but it’s a very temporary fix,” Valik explained, his arms shaking. “It’ll give us enough time to get back to the castle without being chased.”
The unicorn nestled its nose against Valik’s palm. He slid his hand upward, resting on the center of the unicorn’s forehead just below the horn. It dipped its head, huffing, but docile.
I stared in wonder. A fucking unicorn.
Scarlett coughed in my arms again, weak, falling into unconsciousness. I adjusted her higher, situating her against my chest. I looked down, breath catching at the black liquid seeping from her nose and closed eyes.
No. No. No. No.
I gently set her down on the ground, pushing her vibrant hair from her sweaty forehead with shaky hands.
I looked at Valik, helpless and in panic.
I waved my arm above my head to get his attention.
When he looked at me, my eyes widened as I emphatically shook my hands in Scarlett’s direction for him to do something.
“My magic is drained now…” Valik responded a few feet from Scarlett and me, eyes drooping.
The unicorn huffed, shaking its head before bowing it, then slowly approached us. Once it reached Scarlett’s side, it lowered onto its front legs until it barely touched her forehead with its nose.
My hands trembled as I glanced back and forth between the unicorn, Scarlett, and Valik.
Valik observed Scarlett, then settled his gaze on me. “It’s okay. But once she’s healed, we need to run.”
I nodded anxiously. Fine. I’d do anything as long as Scarlett was okay.
Up close, I could see decaying skin beneath the horse’s once-white hair, which was matted with dried gray blood.
A single clear tear seeped from the inner corner of its closed eye.
I watched, fascinated and hopeful, as the once majestic animal positioned its head inches above Scarlett’s until the tear fell free, landing on her forehead.
The moisture seeped into her skin, disappearing beneath the surface.
The unicorn lightly nudged her neck with its nose before rising to all fours once again.
Valik trudged over to us, his steps slow and stiff. I wondered how much magic he’d needed to use to purify the unicorn as he had. “Let’s go,” he said to me before placing a hand on the creature’s peeling shoulder. “Thank you, my friend. I’m so sorry I couldn’t do more.”
Scarlett’s complexion began to return to her normal, healthy color. Relief lifted my heart, allowing me to take my first real breath since spotting the creature. She slept, but her breathing began to even out, rather than the harsh and uneven pants of moments before.
“Run. We have about five to ten minutes before my magic wears off,” Valik muttered, taking up a sluggish jog at my side as I took off with Scarlett in my arms.
After roughly five minutes, the beautiful, white, and expansive Celestial Castle came into view on top of the hill it sat on. My lungs burned and my arms ached, but I kept pushing forward alongside Valik, who seemed ready to drop at any moment.
“Almost…” our eccentric friend panted, “there.”
Another roar sounded in the distance, and my heart twisted, knowing it was the unicorn reverting to its Endarkened state. I glanced behind us, trying not to trip in the process.
“It’s coming,” Valik gasped.
Another roar, this one closer than the last. Then, multiple roars echoed around us in the forest, making my stomach knot. I looked at Valik, panic in my eyes.
More beastly sounds reached us as we pushed forward. The castle wards were only thirty yards away, but with Scarlett in my arms and exhaustion draining me, it may as well have been a hundred.
A blur caught my attention from the right side of the forest. Another Endarkened unicorn charged toward Valik, so similar to the last. Fuck.
From my left, a stampede thundered closer to us. Valik and I slowed, spinning around as Endarkened beasts closed in, surrounding us. We were spent, and Scarlett remained unconscious in my arms. I chewed on my inner cheek, weighing what options remained. Not many.
As the unicorns circled us in, I set Scarlett down on the ground, gesturing for Valik to stand over her to offer some protection. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, turning to my instincts. A calm washed over me as my body began to vibrate with a newfound lightness.