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I look at the magnificent unicorn, which seems to somehow emit an inner light, though that could be my imagination. “True, but I’m getting the feeling that she wasn’t at risk until she showed up here.”
Paxton stares even more intently at the ground. That seems to be guilt.
“Seems about right. Hang on a sec.” Tammy folds her arms and closes her eyes.
“Tam?”
“Sec. Checking Faeriepedia.”
Paxton and I chuckle at that. We stand there in silence for about a minute until a tiny comet of amber light shoots out of the distant trees at the back end of the yard. It’s on us almost as fast as a bullet, hitting Tammy in the left shoulder where it bursts into a flash. Only, it doesn’t ‘hit’ her exactly. It’s not a bullet. The flash dissipates to reveal Queen Maple perched on my daughter’s shoulder. The faerie queen’s mouth drops open when she sees the unicorn. Basically, she’s a miniature version of Paxton, staring in awe at the creature that’s not supposed to exist.
“What are you doing here?” blurts Maple in her tiny, squeaky voice.
The unicorn angles her head at the faerie, slightly shaking her mane.
“Oh, bother.” Maple sighs as if the unicorn said something. “You need to return to Thelmora before things get worse here.”
“Thelmora?” asks Paxton and Tammy at the same time.
The unicorn twitches her head and neck like a teen girl tossing her hair over one shoulder.
Maple sighs at Paxton. “She can’t stay here, child.”
“I know,” says Paxton to the ground.
“How did she get here?” I ask.
The faerie queen points at Paxton. “She summoned her.”
This gets Paxton to finally look up, eyes wide. “I… what? I don’t have magic. The only summoning I can do is Mom… and that requires a cell phone.”
Tammy giggles, until the queen shoots her a sharp look. “Tammy did the magic. You changed it.”
Paxton looks as confused as I do.
“Wait a sec.” Tammy holds up a finger. “If she doesn’t have magic, how did she change my spell? I was only recharging my batteries, so to speak.”
“She loves unicorns.” Maple flies up off Tammy’s shoulder and circles around Paxton. “She wanted a real one so much it affected your spell.”
Tammy blinks. “That doesn’t make any sense. Her just wanting a unicorn made my spell do something different?”
I wag my eyebrows. “You underestimate just how much this kid adores unicorns.”
Paxton almost chuckles.
“Oh, is it because she’s an empath?” Tammy scratches her head. “Did she somehow tweak my emotions or something while I was in the process of doing the ritual?”
Maple rubs her chin. “Might have helped,” she says, her tiny voice barely loud enough to hear, at least for mortals. “Magic is about intent as much as it is power. You had the power. She had the intent.”
“Okay.” I hold my hands up. “We can pick over the details of how this happened when no one is in danger. Where is Thelmora?”
“What is Thelmora?” adds Tammy.
Maple scoffs at her. “You forgot?”
“Umm. What do you mean?” Tammy bites her lip. “How can I forget something I never knew?”
“We taught you this.” Maple shakes her head in disappointment. “During the Fourth Cycle.”
