Chapter 23 Rowe
Rowe
We have two fewer weeks to get everything done. Saving the farm already seemed impossible. Well, more possible with Pane in charge. But now that Luke’s stolen time from us, I’m worried we won’t be able to save the place at all.
Even though, after Luke had left the house, Pane assured me we’d be fine.
Will we?
I wander aimlessly across the meadow, unable to sit, unable to eat, unable to think.
The earth brightens under my feet, lighting up my footprints and illuminating my entire body.
When I was young, I loved coming out here, dropping to the ground, and making angels of light like you would snow angels.
Pro tip: Light angels are much cooler.
But now all I do is pass my hand over the grass, admire how it glows, and then feel a pang of sadness that the magic ends before it touches the house. The river of power dries up at the scrubby bushes that surround the home. After that, the land is barren.
Still wandering, I move past the meadow and head to the road. Before I can stop myself, I’m in the trees, dodging branches and keeping to the tree line until what I’m searching for pops into view.
There, sitting all alone in a pasture, is a small barn.
There are new signs nailed to it, handwritten in sloppy paint as if the person who penned them couldn’t be bothered.
Well, I’m bothered by their words. More than bothered. A ripple of anger surges down my spine as I scan them.
Mad Unicorn.
Beware.
No Trespassing.
Enter at Your Own Risk.
I ignore them all and step right up to the barn door. Late-summer humidity clings to my skin, making my palms slick. I wipe them on my jeans, grab hold of the handle, and tug. The door quietly groans open.
Inside, it’s warm, and the smell of hay fills the air. Moonlight floods in through the open door, throwing light on the concrete that stretches out before me. But that’s not the only illumination in the stable. In the very back, a night-light shines from a socket in the wall.
“Stella,” I whisper. “You awake?”
The last stall begins to glow, and a smile breaks across my face. “Hey, girl.”
The first part of Stella that appears as she steps up to the open half door is her horn. Golden light erupts from the spirals, and the whole thing shines like a candle submerged in the darkest depths of Sally Ray’s black soul.
Stella nickers impatiently as I approach. “You look good.”
She shuffles, and the sound of metal scraping against the floor draws my attention. With the light cast from her horn, it’s not hard to make out the cuff that’s secured to her hind leg, just over her hoof, and is attached at the other end to a plate on the wall.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.
Her dark eyes are sad as she lowers her head. I slide a hand under her cheek and press my forehead to her nose.
She smells of earth, hay, and sorrow. It’s that last emotion that makes anger flare bright and hot in my core. But before it’s able to take a firm hold of me, it melts away like snow on a sunny afternoon and is replaced by love—pure, limitless love.
It’s the kind of gift that only a unicorn can give.
“One day,” I whisper. “One day I’ll get you out of here.” I throw my arms around her. “I promise.”
As I hug her, the smell of roses fills my nose.
I open one eye and jump back as a stem shoots out from a crack in the board lining the stable.
More do the same, and the stems grow, unfurling into delicate green leaves, which reveal pink buds that grow at an accelerated pace until they open up into red-petaled roses.
The blooms sprout by the dozens, snaking through the boards in the walls, falling from the ceiling, rising up from the ground to wind gently around my ankles.
Their perfume fills the air as big, crimson-bloomed flowers blanket the walls, ceiling, and floor.
I grin at Stella. “Thank you for that beautiful gift.”
I give her another hug just as a voice breaks the peace.
“Dammit, Sally Ray, how many times have I told you to make sure that door’s shut?”
“Oh, can it, Luke. You know that stupid uni ain’t going nowhere. Nobody wants her.”
Oh, crap.
“Nobody but Rowe,” Luke says snidely.
“Speaking of . . .” Sally Ray and Luke are getting closer. I go very still, pushing myself up against Stella. “What happened last night at the poker game?”
“Nothing, that’s what,” Luke spits. “Nothing worth mentioning.”
“Uh-huh,” she says, sounding like she doesn’t believe him.
“I’m telling you, we’ve got nothing to worry about. That farm’s going to be ours, and so will whatever magic that place has left. We take the farm, breed the unis on that land—we get the magic back. Our plan is gonna work, Sally.”
What? They’re going to take the farm hoping to get close enough to the ley lines that their unicorns will have magic again? Well, I’ve got news for them: If the piggycorns don’t have magic, there’s no way the unis will get it back just by moving closer to the source.
Those jerks.
They want to take the farm that’s been in my family for generations. No way will I let that happen.
Outside the barn, I can hear the clank of keys on a key ring and the clomp of boots on grass.
“That Wadley place took my best worker.” Sally cusses. “I tried offering Ron triple the pay, but he still won’t come back.” There’s a pause. “You get that drone yet?”
“It’s coming,” Luke tells her. “Now, I’ll take this side,” he says. “You make sure the other side’s locked up, too.”
“Why do I have to walk around to the other side?”
“Because I’m tired. Someone’s got to make sure the Wadleys don’t succeed in buying back that property. You think it’s easy to come up with ways to break Rowe’s spirit?”
Sally Ray laughs, as if hurting me is some kind of fun game to her.
“I got to admit, honey, buying the furniture was a good idea. And using that foreclosure clause? It was brilliant. I tell you what . . .” There are sounds like she’s kissing him.
“When we get back inside, I’m gonna show you how proud I am of you. ”
More kissing. Gross.
“I tell you what,” he says, his voice sounding low and horny. “When we get back inside, I’m going to let you.”
They are two peas in a pod—horrible, despicable people.
While they’re kissing, and as quietly as possible, I dart away from Stella, out of view of the door that I stupidly left open, and head deeper into the barn toward the far end.
The door’s shut tight, and Sally’ll see that as soon as she comes around. Now I’m in the dark, and there’s no way Luke will spot me.
The kissing stops, and it sounds like he smacks her ass. Then his inky-black silhouette comes into view.
Luke starts to close the door and stops. “Roses? What the hell? The only person Stella makes roses for is Rowe.”
Double crap.
He studies them for a moment. “Hmm, probably just a fluke. You don’t have to check the far door, Sally.”
“Good,” she mumbles from beside him.
Luke pauses and I’m deathly still. What is going on? He starts to close the door, and I exhale.
But my relief is short lived, because from out of nowhere, the opposite door—the one closest to me—slides open and light slices through the darkness.
They tricked me! Luke sent Sally to open the door anyway!
And now there’s nowhere for me to go, nowhere for me to hide. I’ll be caught. I’ll be arrested. I’ll lose my farm.
Just as a beam of moonlight hits the toe of my cowboy boot, a hand clamps around my mouth and I’m dragged back.
A flash of adrenaline surges to my limbs until the scent of juniper hits me. I take hold of the hand that’s gently cradling my lips.
“Shh, little Sunbeam,” Pane murmurs in my ear. “Not a word, or they’ll find us.”
He’s pulled me into a corner of the barn, out of sight as Luke and Sally Ray study the roses that line the walls and sprout from the ceiling.
“You here, Rowe?” Sally asks. “You come to see your bestie, Stella?”
Pane relaxes his hand on my mouth, but now I notice that he’s holding on to my waist, holding me so close that I’m flush against him. My shoulder blades dig into his chest. My rear end is flush with his crotch.
Memories of our kiss ping-pong around in my mind, and when his thumb begins making little circles on my waist, I wonder if he’s remembering the kiss, too.
Luke rips some of the roses from the ceiling and drops them on the floor. He shines his phone’s light in the stall and sweeps it around.
“Nah, she’s not here. Probably just a fluke. This old unicorn’s so crazy, she may have made them just for the hell of it.”
Luke gets his hand too close to Stella, and she bites at it.
He reels back as she stamps the floor in anger. “Crazy-ass unicorn.” He stares at Stella for a moment before swinging his attention to Sally Ray, who also sweeps her light across the stalls.
“Looks empty,” she says.
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
After several long moments, they cross back to the doors and slide them shut. I exhale as the sounds of their footsteps grow fainter and fainter.
Stella’s horn starts to glow again, throwing light around the barn. I turn around to find myself nose to nose with Pane.
Like, literally. I back up a step and say, “Thank you. You saved me from being caught.”
He folds his arms and cocks his chin. “Is that what you call trespassing?”
I scoff. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re doing it, too.”
“That’s only because Tallulah told me that you were in danger.”
“Tallulah?”
He points behind him, and sure enough, sitting on the floor, giving me her best piggycorn smile, is Tallulah.
I drop my head in my hands. “She must’ve seen me head toward the road. We sometimes come out here together to visit Stella.”
He nods in her direction. “And I assume this is Stella?”
“Yes, come meet her.” I head out of the nook we were hiding in and pass the night-light. “She’s afraid of the dark,” I explain. “If she wasn’t, Sally Ray and Luke would leave her in darkness all the time.”
The unicorn pulls back as Pane steps up. “It’s okay. He’s a friend,” I explain gently.