She saw me the moment I stepped out of the shadows and toward the water. Her body tensed, her tail rising. My body reacted the same way, obsidian fur bristling as I pinned my eyes on her. My impulses were torn two ways: I wanted to deferentially whine and plead for her not to run, that I was safe, but so too did I want to lunge at her, wrap my teeth around her neck and drag her back home. The ugly storm of emotions I had shoved down all this time won.

My anger was irresistible.

Letting her go would just make me more of a failure, and I couldn’t accept that.

I charged through the creek, splashing carelessly in pursuit. The hybrid retaliated with a startling snarl, and when I thrust my teeth at her nape, she swung her horn, fending me off. My paws slipped on the cold river stones beneath the water. She was too fast for me, despite the obvious wounds ripped across her haunch. I scrambled after her, hungering for any sense of victory. Every battle I had fought so far, I lost. Nothing ever went right for me. I wanted this, and it should have been easy—but despite my efforts, the hybrid made it back onto shore while I slogged through the water, and by the time I hit the grass again, she had vanished back into the trees, leaving me with the ghost of her smell. I was haunted by her tantalizing smell, her memory of ethereal beauty, and the shame that I had tried to harm her.

Panting and dripping, I stood before the trees and stared into the darkness, wondering if that moment had been a dream. I didn’t know if I would ever see her again or if I should even tell anybody what happened.

All I knew was that I wanted her. In some way that might heal all the pain I’d endured, I wanted her.

Chapter 3: Kiara

I

was given only minutes to myself before another poacher arrived to kidnap me, enslave me, or butcher me for my horn. It was infuriating that nowhere I went could I ever be safe, not even long enough to wash the blood out of my fur. The wolf broke free of the shadows, as dark as night itself, and plunged into the river to hunt me. I’d barely fended him off before fleeing; lucky I had healed myself enough to run.

But trekking into enemy territory, I should have expected that every turn would reveal another hostility. It was just tiring that I could barely even catch my breath before having to run again. Nobody in this world wielded kindness toward me, only the blades of their teeth.

After everything I’d been through that night, that wolf, the last living thing I’d seen, became the sole target of my anger. Not even a shifter with whom I shared half my race could let me live in peace. So for that, I would remember that wolf’s face, his piney smell, the colour of his eyes—blue like the abyss of an ocean. If I saw him again, I would drive my horn into his throat as I had done to the dragon. I wouldn’t care that his blood poisoned me. Whoever he was, his identity was forever imprinted on me, his lack of mercy deserving of the highest punishment. I was so angry at that moment; while I fled through the forest, I wanted nothing more than to turn back around and slay him.

If only because doing so would further risk my capture, I kept moving forward.

For the rest of the night, I went straight north. Fortunately, I had found the creek again and traveled through the water, hoping that it would dilute my scent so nobody could track me. I slogged on until sunrise when pain throbbing through my feet urged me to finally rest. In the golden light of a new day, I found a tuft of long grasses between a copse of trees and there lowered to the ground, folding my legs underneath myself. It would have been better if I had another hole to hide in, but I was too tired to keep moving. The area around me was open enough that I would have ample time to flee if someone tried to attack. As long as I slept with one eye open and only for a couple of hours, I would be okay.

But I had underestimated my exhaustion. As soon as I laid my head down and closed my eyes, sleep whisked me away.

A moonless coniferous forest sprawled around me. Silver mist coiled around my feet, smelling sweetly of roses as insect trilling filled the dusk. Large grey boulders painted in vibrant moss marked the path ahead. I recognized this place.

Sleep fell away from me as delicately as the mist, like a curtain toppling off my back as I rose to my feet. I walked between the boulders, remembering their earthy scent. Dark marks were scratched into their surfaces, ancient runes spelling the name of the former owners of this territory, the Brightcloud Herd. They could not make their mark in scent, so they left it behind in primordial etchings made by dexterous necks. If one should look closely enough, one’d see the microscopic grains of opalescent keratin abraded against the rock. A unicorn’s horn was many things: a beacon, a reservoir, a writing implement, a weapon. My mother told me that her ancestors would leave their signatures engraved on the boulders, and only other unicorns versed in the language of Welkin, the Sky Goddess, or those who had studied our race would be able to interpret them. To anyone else, they looked like nothing more than glacial scrapings, thousand-year-old erosion.

I recognized this place. My mother and I were the last of our herd to inhabit our genealogical territory. We were forced to leave it behind months ago, but in the perpetual twilight of my dream, I didn’t question why I was back here again. The place where I belonged should warrant no questioning. I felt peace walking in the footprints of my ancestors.

As I walked, the insect sounds blended and blurred with the symphony of the forest into a strange hum. A million voices wove between the trees like a gossamer ribbon. Strange, I’d never heard this sound in the forest before. I followed the trodden path until the trees began to thin, and the gloaming sky opened up around me. A palette of pink and violet, gradients of late spring hues in rich resplendence were the backdrop to twinkling stars cradled by cotton indigo clouds. These skies were fresh from my memory. These open plains I had once raced through alongside my mother, our home an infinite expanse of freedom. It was magical, my childhood. This home meant so much to my lineage. My mother and I were the only ones left to protect it. I ached to return to it.