Spiral (Spiral Series) (36 page)

Pure sadness shone back at me. All I could do was fold her into my arms and hold her until the crying stopped.

“This is all so confusing,” she mumbled after the worst of the sobs had subsided. “You should start from the beginning, please. And now I know what that family business is that you mentioned.”

I smiled at her. “Right. Healing. Easy enough to make it sound like a doctor’s visit.” Around me I started to feel the air get heavy and stiff. Natalie must have felt it too, because she said, “Let’s keep moving.”

We set off again towards my secret destination.

“So, my mom was Spiral,” she mused. “And my dad?”

I was forced to stop short again. This time fear radiated down Natalie’s body and into our connected hands. I could feel her cringing away from me.

“He’s not my real father, is he,” she whispered. She wasn’t looking at me, and my heart ached that I had to tell her this pain too.

“Yes,” I murmured. “He is. Unicorn powers run through the bloodlines of the mother. No matter who the father is, the mother’s bloodline rules.”

“So, my dad’s some ordinary guy? I’m not sure I can handle ordinary after all this.”

“Yes,” I said, pulling her closer. “He’s just some ordinary guy. I don’t know how the Elders found him. I just knew you were gone.” My jaw clenched at the memory of losing her.

She nodded. Even in the darkness I could see tears falling from her eyes. I stepped towards her and she looked up at the movement. Her eyes glistened.

Gently, so that she wouldn’t back away, I reached my free hand up. Barely touching her skin I brushed my fingers across her cheek, wiping away the tears.

“It’s going to be okay,” I murmured. “We will figure it out.”

“But that’s my dad,” she cried, looking blearily in the direction we had come.

I nodded. “He’s going to be fine. No one is going to go after him. Everyone who wants you knows how the bloodlines work. Your dad is going to be just fine.”

“How can I remember none of this?” she sputtered, her frustration spilling over.

“They performed a spell so you’d forget,” I said. “They used hele to heal your memories of that day.”

“Great job they did of fixing everything,” she said bitterly. “It’s like they fixed a hole in the roof by taking a mallet to it.”

“You have a way with words.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I got it from Jill.”

“Look, your dad probably has no idea who you are. I’m not sure. My aunt won’t tell me anything about it.”

“So, once I was taken away that day our moms died. . . ?” her voice caught.

“I never saw you again,” I confirmed. I could say it now without a throbbing pain. There was just numbness.

“Should I tell my dad what’s happening?” she asked.

“In my experience, telling people you are a mythical creature instead of a human being doesn’t go over well,” I said dryly.

She grinned. “Right. Good point. My dad is the most normal guy I know. He probably wouldn’t take it well, especially now that he’s trying to make a nice normal life with Olivia. I wonder what Mom was doing with him.”

I didn’t want to say this right then, but she might have been with him precisely because he was normal. Everyone feels strange sometimes, so that a little normalcy can be a relief. And in Natalie’s mother’s case, she really was strange, in the sense that she could heal with her touch and turn into a horse-like creature.

“I’m glad my dad doesn’t know,” she said, still deep in thought. “It would be harder for him.”

“It’s going to be hard for him anyway,” I said.

“Because the Visioners are after me?”

“Yes.”

“But the Silves will protect me, won’t they?”

I looked away. I wasn’t sure any more. I had wanted to trust my aunt and the Elders, but the second I had seen Haley at Locke, I knew I couldn’t count on them. I had never trusted Gretchen, and yet she now appeared to be the only one telling me anything like the truth.

“Am I going to meet other Silves?” Natalie prodded.

I thought about the fight I had just had with my tribe. “Not any more any time soon,” I said.

Her eyes widened, the silver shining out more brightly. “Was it something I did?”

I snorted. “No, it’s that they are horrible unicorns.”

She was quiet for so long I started to worry that I had offended her. But all she finally said was, “Are we in trouble?”

I thought about that. Yes, we were in a lot of trouble. I didn’t think my aunt or Prospect would sell Natalie to the Visioners, but I was no longer sure of anything.

“Maybe,” I said. “But it will be fine in the end.”

“I just think that if this is such a big deal I should be talking to other unicorns. You’re my only connection to that world.” Her forehead was puckered in a frown and I knew she was trying to make sense of something that you couldn’t make sense of.

“Look, you weren’t supposed to know until after graduation. I shouldn’t have told you. That’s why they took me away from the fight yesterday. I’m a little surprised they even let me come back.”

I had been very surprised when they let me come back. Then again, my aunt and Prospect knew that if they had tried to stop me a lot more damage would have been done.

“So why did you?” she asked. “Because of the romance slam?”

“Yes,” I said. She was walking behind me and I had to look over my shoulder to see her face, but it was shrouded in shadow. “Does that surprise you?”

“I just don’t remember any of it,” she said so softly I barely heard her.

“Right, we need to fix that too,” I muttered, irritated at whatever my aunt had done to her memory.

“How?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “My friend Jar is working on it.” A vibration at my hip made me look down. “Speaking of which.”

“Hey Jar,” I said, answering the call.

“Hey,” said Jar. Just from that one word I knew something was very wrong.

“What’s wrong?”

Jar said. “Where are you?”

“I am taking Natalie to the Deker’s Field of Unicorns,” I said. I heard Natalie perk up at my words and Jar chuckled. “Pulling out the big guns. That I saved your life and have been in love with you since before I knew what love was didn’t cut it?” Jar asked.

I laughed. I could feel Natalie’s eyes on me and I tried to focus on my friend. “What do you think is happening?”

Jar sighed wearily. “I think the Visioners are coming after Natalie. Someone is coming after Natalie, anyhow, and they aren’t waiting until graduation. The Elders, sorry man, but the Elders don’t care about her. They’ve done what they could to protect her and there’s a large faction of them who feel like she’s more of a liability than an asset, so they aren’t going to mind cutting her loose.”

I stood stock still, listening to Jar. Alone in the woods with Natalie, and the darkness, and the shadows - it should have felt menacing, but she gave off enough light to burn it all away.

“If they touch one hair on her head. . . . Everyone knows there are just two people I care about. Jar, are you alright?” I asked, suddenly distracted by the idea that my only friend was in danger. I left my father out, because no one would go after a man in his state, even to hurt me.

Jar chuckled. “I would like to see them try.”

I relaxed slightly. “Ideas?”

“Wait to see what they do about Natalie.”

“She isn’t leaving my sight,” I said fiercely. “Not after all this.”

After hanging up with Jar I glanced at Natalie.

“They’re coming for me? And your tribe doesn’t care?”

I sighed. “They care. Some of them, like my aunt, want to protect you, but it’s not up to her alone.”

Natalie looked lost. “I feel like I keep getting families and then losing them.”

I put a reassuring arm around her shoulders. Touching her helped. “Some you never lost. Never will.”

After a moment she said, “So, Field of Unicorns?”

I grinned. “Yeah, come on.” I wanted to show Natalie that there was more to being a unicorn than just being chased and killed. There were good things, wonderful even.

The Field of Unicorns was one of our focuses of power. It was an ancient worshipping ground that many generations of unicorns had walked on, and it was where, if the unicorns came together, they would be stronger than if they were alone. I explained this to Natalie as we walked.

“Are we going to do this?” Her voice sounded nervous.

“No,” I said. “You should have more training. You never should have done what you did with Andrew. It was dangerous.”

“It wasn’t dangerous with you there,” she pointed out.

“Hele is always dangerous, even if you’re with unicorns who know what they’re doing.”

When we crested the hill I was rewarded with Natalie’s gasp. Each unicorn tribe had a Field of Unicorns, or at least the more powerful ones did. We were at the Dekers’. If they caught us there they’d probably imprison us, but then again, they probably didn’t want us anywhere near their compound with the Visioners coming for Natalie.

In front of us was an open field where the grass came to up to my knees. It was filled with unicorns. When enough unicorns got together in a Field, they could change. It was difficult and it required most of their combined hele, but once a year they came to the Field at night and reaffirmed their devotion to their tribe. Tonight happened to be the Dekers’ night, and I had brought Natalie with me so she could see the show.

“Wow,” she breathed. In front of us and down the hill were hundreds of white horses. Most had tiny spirals coming out of their heads. All were shining and white.

“Wow,” she repeated. “I’ve never seen anything like this. And you say I can do this?”

I glanced at her. “Yes, you should be able to do this. Only you shouldn’t need other unicorns and you shouldn’t need a Field.”

“What are they doing?”

“They’re giving their power to the tribe. That’s what turns them. With enough hele you can turn, but most unicorns, all Deker unicorns, can only turn if they’re in the Field with everyone else in their tribe.”

“But I can do it any time.” There was wonder and warmth in her voice. It was the first time I had heard her sound happy about being a unicorn.

“Yes,” I murmured, “you can.”

I don’t know how long we stood there, but eventually Natalie started to sway from tiredness. The unicorns were gathered in a circle, their backs facing outwards, performing rituals that were older than the oldest unicorn.

On our way back down the mountain I had to admit to myself what I wanted. Jackson and my fears be damned. I wanted Pierce to hold my hand again. It was that simple.

He moved closer to me as we made our way in the dark, dodging past trees and around bushes.

“What did you think?” he asked when we were almost to the bottom.

“It was beautiful,” I said. And before I realized it I was stumbling, falling, trying to catch myself. Then I didn’t have to catch myself as one strong arm reached out to steady me. I gripped Pierce until I was upright again, too ashamed to look at his face.