“—oh?”
As if a giant hand had swatted her, she lurched forward and fell with a splat onto wet grass. She rolled over, dizzy and disoriented, then froze when she saw the most beautiful stallion ever born. A winged stallion.
No. He was a black and silver-touched winged unicorn.
FOURTEEN
NIKOS
After that sudden shift when the sun first appeared, Nikos couldn’t shift back. Nor could he fly.
Joey had to carry Jen after all, as Nikos paced beside him. Doris pulled up, wheeled Jen to her car, then drove off with her.
Nikos had to rely on his mythic state to keep him invisible, as he barely had enough strength left to trot the few miles to Bird’s and Mikhail’s house on the palisade. The journey seemed endless, made worse by the questions and worries he had no answers for.
But at last he reached the house, to discover that at least Petra and Cleo were still with their new friend. Before she left to help Doris, Bird assured him the girls would be sleeping half the day, after being up watching TV, chattering, and eating through the entire night.
At Mikhail’s encouragement, Nikos wandered through the garden, munching fresh clover and then standing in the sun, resting as horse-related creatures do, as he slowly began to recover some strength. He knew that Jen was alive, and that she would be in good hands with Doris and Bird. Right now, they were the best ones to answer the questions she was bound to waken with.
He longed to see her, but had to wait until she was ready, especially as he still couldn’t shift.
As a unicorn, his time sense measured the day by the sun’s movement rather than clocks. The sun had jumped higher on its southern arc when abruptly he sensed Jen’s nearness.
His head came up, and he turned on his hind legs. There, lying in the grass, was Jen.
She scrambled to her feet, ran toward him, then skidded to a stop. “Nikos?” she asked, wide-eyed. “Is that really . . . you?”
He tossed his head, trying to reach her on the mythic plane. But she didn’t seem to hear him. He pawed the ground with a forefoot, and huffed as he watched her gazing at him from tail to horn tip.
“Oh, you’re so beautiful,” she breathed.
He pawed the ground again.
“Is it okay if I ask things?” she asked in that breathless voice. “Like, can I see your wings?”
He stretched them out.
Her eyes widened, reflecting the sunlight, as she exclaimed, “Oh, wow, that’s got to be nearly twenty-five feet wingtip to wingtip. You’re so, so gorgeous!” Then she reddened adorably, and added in haste, “As a man, too. Everything! It’s just . . . I don’t even know what’s real anymore.” She took a step toward him, reaching out.
He sensed her question and closed the distance, lowering his head. She threw her arms around his neck, and hugged him. “You’re so wonderful . . . so amazing,” she kept murmuring into his mane. “I don’t even know where to start.”
I’d like to start with how much I love you, he thought.
She jerked her head away and blinked up at him. “Did I just hear you? How is that possible? I know you didn’t actually talk. But it was your voice, I know it.”
It seems we can talk on the mythic plane as long as we touch, he replied. Her arms were still around his neck. Try it.
But I can’t . . . can you hear me? Her voice was like a shout on the mythic plane.
I can hear you.
She dropped her arms and backed away, looking excitedly up at him. “So telepathy is a thing? Doris and Bird didn’t tell me that!” After a few seconds, she exclaimed, “Oh!” And flung her arms tightly around his neck again.
Mind-speech varies from shifter to shifter, he repeated, and then—very carefully—How did you get here so quickly?
Once again she dropped her arms and backed away, looking startled. Then she covered her face with her hands. “I—I don’t know. So much has happened. So much is new. I still think I’m dreaming. But I said to Bird and Doris, let’s go to your house, because I had this sudden need to see you. Or I began to say it, and here I was.”
He stared back, stunned. Then he had seen it! The oracle stone really had passed through her. Only it was apparently no longer intact. The Transfer Gate that he’d sensed inside the protective barrier of the oracle stone had transferred itself from the stone . . . into Jen.