“One gyre,” she said.
The debates abruptly ended as everyone turned back to her.
“For those who are willing to give one last gyre of our horns.”
“To who?Witches will not use a spiral to heal the plague they started.”
“We’ll find an enchantress,” the alpha mare said.“They are healers as well.”
Slowly, one by one nodded their agreement.Some even grew their horns in order to break off the top spiral, or gyre.The alpha mare collected them and handed them to her husband for safekeeping.
“This will be the last time we meet as a herd,” she finally said.Emotion welled up in her eyes, and tears ran down her cheeks.“Hide yourselves.Never reveal your true nature.May the light carry you.”
This was the end of the unicorns.
Chapter One
Today
Juniper Parsons stared at her dead dad through the glass viewing window at the morgue.She intended for his body to be cremated, and none too soon in her opinion.She held no love for the man who had occupied the now empty vessel.When she’d learned of his demise, she’d been sad at first.The devil you know instead the devil you don’t, and all that.He might have been her father, but he’d been a truly horrible person.Beating and killing her mother.Beating her.Threatening her sister, Clover.A monster fueled by too much liquor and an inferiority complex, with a dash of self-righteousness.
For a while, she’d been doing some self-help investigating.Trying to figure out what she’d done wrong that had made him so angry, only to learn she’d never been the problem.Ezra Parsons had simply been a mean son-of-a-bitch, with deep rooted anger issues.
“Would you like to bury him?”
Juni looked at the medical examiner.“No.The mortuary will be by to pick him up for cremation.I don’t care where the ashes go.”
The man’s eyebrows went up in surprise, but he didn’t question her intentions.Without a second glance, she turned and left the man who had contributed to her creation behind.She wouldn’t think of him ever again, unless it was to curse him in Hell.
****
Juni kicked some rocksas she meandered her way back to the trailer.The sun slowly set over the mountains, creating beautiful streaks of pink and orange.Only one more day stuck in purgatory and then she could set fire to the dumpster she currently called home.Ezra had forced them all to live in the tackiest, dirtiest place he could find in the middle of nowhere.Although still on pack lands, they were far removed from the rest of society.Ezra never allowed them to go on full moon runs, go to school, or even work.Once quarantine was over, she and Clover would move into the little two-bedroom bungalow that Alpha Jericho promised to provide.Then she was determined to experience everything her father had denied her.Date, drink, smoke, work.Run through the woods.Find someone to have sex with.All the legendary stuff of debauchery sounded like loads of fun.
Clover sat on the steps leading up to the trailer’s front door, so Juni sat down next to her.Her sister was small for her age due to malnourishment.She’d done her best to take care of her, but her father refused to shop at a grocery store.The farthest she’d been allowed to go was a gas station that had a small store, and she was positive the owner ordered extra food just for her to buy.Whenever she had enough money, that is.Although charity and pity grated on her nerves, Juni wasn’t about to refuse the type of food that Clover needed.
Together, they watched as twilight gave way to the night.Nocturnal animal sounds popped up around them.
