Epilogue
∞∞∞
Exactly one year and one day later, Northern Wisconsin
“This is silly,” Ilona said as they made their way through the woods. The thin winter sunlight struck the snow and turned it into diamonds, and Turner, walking ahead, threw her a grin over his shoulder.
“You feeling sorry for all the work you put into the cake?”
“I’m not,” she retorted. “No matter which way this one goes, I win. Either you end up eating an oat and salami cake, or—”
“Ilona. Look there.”
Holding her breath, Ilona turned slowly and smoothly to look up to the top of the ridge. At first she wasn’t sure she saw anything, and then there was movement, two pale shapes sliding between the trees, making their way down to meet them.
“Oh,” she whispered in awe.
It was Maisey, and lingering behind her, still babyish with the fuzzy patches on his coat and his absurdly slim legs, was her son.
They weren’t tame animals like cats or dogs, but Ilona would always believe that they cared for the humans in their lives, the ones who loved them so fiercely.
It was either that or they could smell her oat and salami cake, and she was fine with either.
Maisey, as the matriarch of this very small herd, pushed officiously to the front, demanding pets from Ilona, then Turner, and then Ilona again.
Her son, whom the cryptid conservationist community had started calling Petey for some reason, lingered in the back, making small, hopeful bleating noises when Maisey struck her nose into the paper box that Ilona had so carefully tied that morning.
The moment the unicorn realized what was in it, the box was yanked straight out of Turner’s hands and thrown on the ground where she could strip aside the paper to reach the food inside.
“That’s for you to share,” Turner said with amusement as he moved back to give her space.
“Go on and try to convince her of that,” Ilona retorted, coming to lean against his side.
Together, they watched the two unicorns eat the treat she had put together for them.
It was a bit like a mini-casserole with layers of things she knew they would adore, and she had promised the Canadian researchers the recipe if it went over well.
She had a part-time job at the bakery in Clearwater, but she seemed to be spending more and more time devising interesting treats for the various cryptids her shifter friends were watching over.
“They both look so healthy,” she whispered. “I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since Petey was born.”
“I can,” Turner said dryly, draping his arm over her shoulders. “I sure didn’t hallucinate all that work we had to do to get these two established in the United States.”
It had taken them most of the year working out of the house in Clearwater to make this happen.
It took close surveys of land and foliage to find something that would both suit the unicorns’ needs and was isolated enough that random humans wouldn’t see them and start up a craze for unicorn hunting.
There was land to buy. There were experts to consult.
Even now, Turner was talking with the bear shifter who oversaw the herd in Scotland, looking to see if one of the males might be introduced to Maisey in the US to give her a genetically unrelated partner.
“How’s it going with McCulloch?” Ilona asked snuggling under Turner’s arm. “Think you’ll have this put to bed by February?”
“Actually I do think it’s going well. There’s some genetic testing she wants done, which will be difficult but doable.
After that, we can fly out and meet some males for Maisey.
Depending on how McCulloch feels, we might have to make do with artificial insemination, but there’s a chance, a pretty good one I’d say, that Maisey might get a boy to keep.
“That’s good,” Ilona mused. “Petey’s still so small, and I wonder if she’s lonely. I hope she finds a mate she can keep. Everyone should have one.”
“Funny you should mention that,” Turner said, and she started to ask what he meant when he suddenly dropped to one knee. It was a fast, fluid motion, so startling that Maisey and Petey looked up from their meal to see what the silly humans were doing.
“Turner?” Ilona’s voice was suddenly stuck in her throat. Her face was too hot and her heart was beating too fast as Turner reached into his coat pocket.
“This, all of this, it’s so good. It’s amazing,” he said earnestly.
“But it’s not easy, and I never thought that I’d have someone here with me for it.
But here you are. You’re here for me, you’re here for Maisey and Petey, you’re here for every early morning and every late night, and I want you to know beyond a shadow of a doubt what that means to me. ”
He presented her with a small velvet box, and when she opened it with shaking hands, she found a slender gold band set with a diamond in the center flanked by two winking rubies. It was perfect, and Turner took her hand in his, turning it over to kiss her palm.
“Be my wife,” he murmured. “Marry me, and, every day, I will tell you how beautiful you are, how strong, how there is no one like you in the world. Marry me, love me, and I will love you for the rest of our lives and beyond.”
He might have continued, but Maisey, concerned that she wasn’t the center of attention, leaned in and butted Ilona’s hand. The ring box might have gone flying, but Turner caught it with a laugh.
“Well, I guess if you don’t want it, there’s another lady who does—”
“Yes! Yes, I do. I do want it. I want you. I want you every day, and, oh Turner, I love you.”
She was actually crying when he stood and slid the ring onto her finger, and, when he took her in his arms, Maisey and Petey were crowding close as well.
It was Christmas Eve in Illinois when this had all started, now it was Christmas in the woods of northern Wisconsin.
Who knew where they might be next Christmas or the one after that, but Ilona knew beyond a shadow of a doubt whom she would be with and how well she would be loved.