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Rachel’s hand steals out and covers mine. “I’m not that future badass—yet—but you know anything you need from me, all you have to do is ask. I’m there.”
I turn my hand over in hers and squeeze. “Thanks.”
I pray I don’t have to take her up on that, but something tells me I might.
Chapter44
Breath of the Murder Pony
Collecting shed unicorn horn is a job that requires hazard pay.
Even though Darwin and I restored the wild magic with what Charlie keeps calling our “sexual healing,” like the plonker he is, we decide to collect all the components for Saturn’s Stone Sigil anyway and try to open the Spellcase. Because who doesn’t want to read a book that can send them insane?
After I Earth-Walk us to the unicorn pool, Gabe leads me to a thicket where the unicorns rub their horns against a stand of diamondwood trees. They’re not real diamonds, Gabe explains to me, although their bark is even paler than birch and glimmers faintly in the moonlight. Whatever they are, the bark is tough and this stand is only one of a few dozen growing outside of Faery. Gabe warns me about stepping on twigs and branches on the ground, which could puncture my feet like rebar.
He also cautions me about the unicorn horn. It’s as hard as steel and when shed in spirals, it’s like coils of barbed wire. Although we’ve both worn Docs, he tells me both the diamondwood branches and unicorn horn will go straight through, so my eyes are trained on the ground as we move through the thicket. As soon as we see the gleaming trees, we start shuffling instead of stepping. Gabe’s the first to find a long ribbon of shed horn. As he bends over to carefully load it into the lined bags we’ve brought, I see a pale shine in the grass and shuffle over to it.
The horn’s partially buried in the loam. The one Gabe’s found is silvery, probably from Arcadius, the lead stallion and maybe the foal’s father. This horn is the dull bone of Galerius’s horn, and there are little purple mushrooms growing out of it. I kneel, careful of where I’m putting my knees, and start to gingerly dig it out.
“Hey, Gabe, this horn has some mushrooms growing on it. Have you ever seen that before?”
I hear a soft step behind me and warm breath blows over the side of my neck where it’s exposed by the fall of my hair. I stop digging to flick my fingers over my shoulder. “Quit it. Tickles.”
“Teddy,” Gabe says, his voice low. “Stay very still.”
His voice is not coming from right behind me.
I put both of my hands flat on the Earth and turn my skin to stone.
“No, Teddy,” Gabe hisses. “No magic. They can sense it.”
“They?” I squeak with my eyes still trained on the half-buried horn, even as I let my magic trickle away. “They who?”
“The herd’s here. Galerius is right behind you. He’s scenting you. Just let him. He’s not aggressive unless he’s defending the herd.”
Warm breath blows over the other side of my neck, as though confirming Gabe’s words. Then something warm thwaps into the back of my head.
“How is this not aggressive?”
“He’s getting a sense of you. He’s nudging you with his nose. It’s okay. Just stay still.”
Better than nudging me with the point of his horn, I guess.
I hear soft movement behind me but am afraid to look up. A pair of black hooves step into my peripheral vision and another warm breath blows across my cheek.
“Gabe, what’s happening?”
“Huh? Oh, nothing.”
“This isnotnothing, mate.”
“It’s all good. That’s Commodus. He’s scenting you, too. Don’t worry. He’s nothing like his namesake. I’m over to your right, petting Valeria. I’m going to try to lead her over to you so you can pet her when the stallions move away.”
“You’re petting one of them while I’m getting roughed up by a pair of murder ponies? How is this all good?”
Gabe chuckles, which makes Galerius thump the back of my head with his nose again.
“I’m totally putting ‘murder ponies’ in my next academic paper about the unicorns,” he says. “They’re just getting to know you. They’re not doing anything aggressive. Trust me, you’ll know when they’re getting aggressive.”
