Madly (21 page)

Then, I spot it: a flash of unnaturally bright orange in the trees. I pick up my pace. I want to shout, but something about the silence of this place makes me keep my mouth shut.

I break through into a clearing. Kirsty is there, clear as day, a reflective orange jacket over her normal uniform.
She does not look surprised to see me at all. In fact, she looks like she is expecting me. She holds up a hand, and I freeze on the spot.

“Sam!” cries Molly. My head snaps up toward the sound. She's in one of the trees, suspended in a battered cage made from strips of lacquered wood. She looks so small in there, she could probably fit through the bars if she tried. But it's too high off the ground for her to jump down safely.

Then a unicorn bursts into the clearing, into the space beneath the cage.

I almost fall to the ground. I've never seen a creature more beautiful in my entire life. I want to throw myself at its hooves and pray for forgiveness. I want to bury myself in the earth and tear my eyes from their sockets; they don't deserve its majesty. It's a creature that appears born of light itself, light and beauty and—at the moment—great and terrible rage.

Almost twice her height, it leaps past Kirsty, who in turn leaps to the side, rolling to a stop, barely moments after the creature's horn slices through the space where her head was. It gallops in circles around the clearing, pawing at the tree, pounding its muscular body against the trunk and making the entire forest shake.

It's like a horse, but it's more than that. It appears to have more muscles, to be made of more than just blood and skin and sinew but also of steel and strength and sunlight and the universe itself. Its horn is its most
incredible feature. It stretches out in a dagger-straight line, but it's made up of curves and coils, somehow still menacing, dangerous. When it stops under the cage again, it rears up, but to no avail. Whoever placed that cage up there did so with the utmost precision. The tip of its horn is inches away from the bottom, but it cannot reach. Every time the unicorn rears, Molly draws herself further into the fetal position she's adopted in a corner of the cage. But for some reason I don't think the beast wants to hurt Molly. It wants to save her.

Tears stream down my face. I can't help it. There's something about seeing the unicorn so angry, raging at us for keeping from it the one thing that it wants. But I won't let it get Molly. My eyes dart from side to side, looking for a way through to the tree.

“Stay back, Sam,” Kirsty says. “I've never seen a unicorn act this way!”

“You don't understand,” I shout back. “We think Emilia's jamming the phone signals. And there's a swarm of crazy Zambian vampire bats heading this way! They'll be here any minute.”

At that, Kirsty's face turns gray.

The beat of wings confirms my statement, and Kirsty looks up at the sky, her eyes narrow.

She darts out into the clearing again, taunting the great beast. It stands beneath the cage, raking the ground with a diamond-hard hoof.

My mind races at a million miles a minute. If I can make it to the tree, if Kirsty somehow gets the unicorn to move, if Molly can break free, if, if, if, then what?

Kirsty is wide-eyed with panic, and fear grips my heart. She must have had a plan. Clearly she meant to lure the unicorn here with Molly's youth and innocence. But she hadn't taken into account Emilia, although she should have done. She should have known that Emilia wouldn't stop until we were all dead, including the princess.

The unicorn lowers its horn.

Kirsty stands there, her arms spread wide, holding open her jacket, trying to make herself seem like a huge, imposing target.

Then it charges.

At that moment, I charge too, springing forward from my position behind a tree, and I run to the tree in the center of the clearing.

It's not the easiest to climb, by any means. But I recognize exactly what kind of tree this is from one of my obscure potions books. I take out a knife from the bag at my side and slash at the trunk. Immediately, the cuts fill with sticky sap.

Amber laticifer tree. The thick resin from its bark can be used in the creation of funeral pendants, as it is ideal for binding and storing memories.

I dip my hands in it, coating them in the thick, shiny, light gold substance.

Kirsty turns and runs into the woods, the unicorn following swiftly behind. But the sound of beating wings is getting closer, louder, and I know I don't have much time.

I rub my hands together, the heat of the reaction making the sap sticky. Then I slam my right hand hard against the trunk as I jump up as high as possible. It catches, and I throw my other hand up as well, my feet scrambling for purchase against the bark, struggling to find a good foothold.

The sap starts peeling away almost immediately, so I have to keep moving, throwing one hand higher than the other. My shoulders burn with the effort, but it's only four more swings and I've reached the first branch. From here, now it will be easier.

I jump up onto the next branch.

“I'm coming, Molly!”

“Hurry!” She sounds so scared, her voice a high-pitched squeal.

There's a branch just underneath the cage. If I can remove the thick stake of wood that's holding the cage door closed, Molly will be able to swing over to me, and I'll be able to grab her. That must have been how Kirsty got Molly in the cage in the first place. From here, I'd be able to lift Molly up into it.

The problem is, the first bat lands on the branch at the same time that I do.

“Shoo!” I say, feeling utterly ridiculous. As if a vampire bat is going to shoo? It bares its teeth at me—they're incredibly sharp and long, more like needles than fangs, perfect for injecting venom and removing blood. It squawks, mocking me. Then it stretches out its wings and hisses like a snake.

I take the closest thing I have to hand—my torch—and throw it at the bat. It hits it square on, and the bat screeches at me, then flies off.

“Molly, I'm here!”

I stand on the branch and reach out. I yank the end of the stake several times, trying to pull it out of the lock.

But then the first bat lands on the cage. Its handlike little claws wrap around the bars, its wings beating ferociously against the bowing wood. The force of it sends the cage swinging, but only for a moment. Then it's like a rainstorm of black as the bats swarm over the cage, covering it completely, layering two, three, four deep, attacking and biting each other in their desperation to get to the precious blood inside. The blood that belongs to my Molly.

I can't even hear her screaming anymore. They've completely blocked my view of her, and even more are landing all the time on my branch. I don't have time to make a decision. I stretch out on the branch, and I jump toward the cage.

I don't even get close. A bat slams into my back, its
claws wrenching into my skin, its wings beating against my arms and head. The force of it sends my jump off balance, more like a fall than anything. I throw my arms up, and the sticky sap on my hands helps me cling to the branch. I swing myself toward the trunk, the bat still raging in my hair. I swing my legs around the tree, then peel my hands away from the bark and focus on pulling at the bat. I wrench it away from me, but not before its fangs leave deep scratches along my neck. My hand snaps off a twig from the branch, and as soon as I feel the slightest bit of leeway, I slash at the bat's wing. It falls away.

I'm scrambling now to try to get back up to the cage, and suddenly I see movement. The bottom drops from it; a compartment, a false floor. And Molly, she drops too. The creatures don't notice. But she's falling, and it's way too high.

“Molly!” I scream, as if my words could create some kind of cushion that will protect her. There is no time for me to react. There's nothing I can do. I can only watch her fall.

From the woods, the unicorn bursts out of the foliage. A vision of Molly skewered on the unicorn's horn plagues my mind, but it dips its head at the last minute and instead she falls like a ragdoll onto its body. Her arms instinctively grip its neck, and it carries her off into the forest. A stream of bats follow them, descending from the cage and sky.

I scuttle down the tree, beating off the last remaining bats as they swoop down on me, but the majority of their attention has been diverted.

I stagger off in the direction of the unicorn, running as fast as my weak legs can carry me. Someone calls my name, and I turn my head to see Kirsty stumbling out of the other side of the woods, her face caked with blood, her hand gripping a wound at her shoulder.

“Kirsty, it took her, it took Molly.”

Kirsty purses her lips, sheer determination on her face. And as much as I hate her, and I hate her so much in this moment, she is the only one who's going to be able to make this better.

She breaks into a run, and seeing her do that with her bleeding shoulder means I can run too.

There's a loud whinny from deep within the forest.

I can barely breathe; I don't want to know what's going on.

We reach another clearing, where there's a growth of rock, covered in moss. Molly is there, and she's still sitting astride the unicorn's back, her eyes closed, her hands outstretched. She's got a scratch on her cheek that is dripping blood, and she's wearing a pair of silk gloves.

“No, Molly, stop!” I scream. She's using magic in the most dangerous part of the Wilds.

The bats swoop and swarm around her, but they're unable to attack. They're being repelled by some kind of
force field that is being generated by my sister's gloved hands. Her brown hair streams out behind her, even though there's barely a breath of wind in the forest, and even when the unicorn rears up, Molly holds on with her thighs, moving with the creature as effortlessly as if she'd been riding her entire life.

Kirsty grabs my arm. “Get down!” she says.

“But the magic?”

“She'll be fine, trust me.”

I drop to the mossy, muddy ground. And just in time, as Molly claps her hands together. Her force field spreads outwards, upward, and in an instant the bats are cast aside. Those closest to the blast fall like rain around us, while the others are sent swirling into the sky, far away from this girl and her powerful magic.

The power sweeps over Kirsty and me; I feel the residue of it crackle like electricity over my back, sending waves of goosebumps over my skin, every hair raised.

Molly collapses with a slump on the unicorn's back. It dips its legs, letting her slide to the ground. Then it lies down next to her and they both appear to fall into a deep sleep, one of Molly's arms draped around the unicorn's neck.

Slowly, Kirsty and I stand up. She grips her shoulder. “Be careful. The unicorn will be protecting Molly. But there could still be excess magic that you aren't protected from.”

I grimace. No magical danger will keep me from my sister in this moment. “Molly?” I whisper. I can see the gentle rise and fall of her chest, her brow smooth, and she looks so peaceful. But I know after expending all that energy that she must be close to drained, and she will need medical attention quickly.

We approach cautiously.

“I've never been so close to a unicorn before,” says Kirsty, tears in her eyes. “I mean, at least not for long enough to really examine it properly.”

I know what she means. When the unicorn was raging in the clearing, it had been moving too fast for us to truly appreciate its beauty. But lying here, so powerful yet gentle in sleep, it's possible to really appreciate it. It appears white, but every individual strand of its fur seems translucent, like diamonds stretched out into strands. Its horn isn't pearlescent, as I would have expected, but more like a spear—a twisted sheet of precious metal—like silver, but even stronger. It looks slightly damaged at the tip, and streaked with drying blood, which is quickly turning from crimson to dark brown.

I wonder briefly where that blood has come from, but now I can guess what happened to Kirsty's shoulder.

“Careful,” says Kirsty as I move closer to the two sleeping figures. I reach out and touch Molly's arm. She shifts, and the unicorn shifts beside her.

“Mols?” I whisper.

She groans in response, but at least it's a response. I gradually lift her arm, moving ever closer to her, extricating her from the unicorn's side. I lift her up in my arms, and she feels light as a feather; lighter than normal.

“Wait,” she says, through slightly damp lips. Her eyes flutter open.

“What is it, my love?”

“Did you get the ingredient?”

“Don't worry about that, Mols,” I whisper into her hair, gripping her tighter.

“No, it's okay. I asked.”

“You . . .” It is almost too unreal for me to ask for an explanation. I move her so she's close enough to reach the unicorn's tail, and she gently breaks off a single strand. Kirsty stands back at a respectful distance. Maybe putting my little sister in so much danger has had an effect on her too. There aren't very many people who've met Molly, who then didn't want to protect her.

But then, it's obvious that Molly doesn't need as much protection as I think. She escaped from those bats herself. She didn't need me. She came out here to get the ingredient, she chose to be brave, despite the barriers that we put up around her ever since we found out she was Talented. She could have become insular; spoiled. But instead, she grew strong.

I'm so proud of her, even looking at her now as she falls asleep in my arms.

I turn back to look at the unicorn one last time, but it's gone—melted back into the woods—the space where it had lain to rest empty.

Lights begin flashing through the trees, and I realize that it must be Arjun, waiting in the jeep. We can finally leave this nightmare . . . and get back home.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Samantha

JUST ON THE EDGE OF the forest, a metallic stench reaches my nostrils. I recognize it even before she speaks, and this time, I'm expecting it. I close my eyes, take a breath, before turning around to face her.

“Well done, Samantha.” Emilia emerges from the trees. Her clothes are singed and dirty, her wand smoking in her hand. She must have been hit by Molly's blast. Good. I can only hope that's stopped her from jamming the phone signal. “To be honest, I'm impressed. You're the last one left in the hunt and you're still standing. Well, sort of.”

“The last one?” I'm not able to hide my surprise. Molly is heavy in my arms, and Kirsty leans on me, barely able to stand up straight. I sense her glaring at Emilia, but if she doesn't even have the strength to make a snappy comeback, she's not going to be able to help defend me
in any way. The only thing I can do is keep Emilia talking. “What did you do to ZA?”

“Oh, an incident with their transporting might have occurred. To be honest, it's been all too easy.” The lights continue to flicker at me, and I wish I could signal back to Arjun in some way. I wonder if he can see Emilia from where he is. “It's simply been a matter of clearing away the competition, one Participant at a time.”

“All I want is to save the princess,” I say.

“How nice of you. But I think the other Participants had that in mind too, and they're no longer here. And don't worry; the princess will be cured. We both know this potion is nearly done, and each defeated team has handed me the ingredient I need. So long as I am the one to create it, the royals will just have to hand the crown over to me, or risk watching their beloved Evelyn destroy their own kingdom.”

“They won't let you!” I say.

“What choice will they have? The royals are desperate. The princess is deteriorating rapidly, the love potion ravishing her mind and sending her power spiraling out of control. She's destroying every room they put her in. If it continues, she will end up levelling Kingstown—even killing her won't stop it now. She needs the cure. And in exchange, the power of the Novaen throne will become mine.” The dreamy look leaves her eyes; they flash bright as steel. “Hand over
the last ingredient,” she says, all business now.

“How do you know it's the last one? What if there's more?”

“Don't play games with me, Kemi.”

I don't move. I can't. I'm paralyzed with fear.

“Fine, then I'll take it from you.” She storms over and snatches at my bag, pushing Molly.

“Don't touch her!” I scream, my instincts finally awakening. My face is wet with tears. I place Molly, who is mercifully still sleeping, down on the ground. “Take it.” I shrug my bag off my shoulder and hold it out.

She grabs it. “Good choice.”

“You're nothing but a traitor, Emilia,” I spit at her.

“I was going to leave you alive, Kemi,” she says, her voice filled with hate. She throws down her smoking wand and pulls out a handgun, pointing it at me. “Who shall I kill first? You?” She moves the gun toward Molly. “Or your sister?”

“Go ahead,” I say. “When the world sees what you're doing, you'll never rule Nova.”

“What?” She looks up, drawing back the gun.

The air around us fills with the thud of helicopter blades, the wind picking up and whipping around my head. A spotlight dips low over our heads and I can see a man leaning out of the window, a video camera perched on his shoulder. It's Dan. He waves and gives me a thumbs-up.

“Smile, Emilia,” I say. “You're on camera, broadcasting to the whole world.”

My plan worked. Why fight the media, when I can use them?

Emilia throws her arms up over her face and runs into the forest. The helicopter doors open, and several rope ladders are thrown over the side.

Four men in khaki-colored uniforms with large weapons strapped to their backs climb down the ladders and surround us. “She went back into the forest!” I shout, terrified that she's going to get away again. One of the men shouts an order and the rest run into the trees after her.

Dan is the last man down, and the helicopter swings away. He rushes over to help me with Kirsty.

“You made it!” I smile.

“Thanks for the scoop of the century. I transported straight to Zambi after I got your call, but I was worried when I didn't hear from you about your exact location. When I finally did get the call from Arjun, I thought I might be too late.”

“Emilia was jamming the signal right up until Molly saved us from the vampire bats. Did you get it on camera when she pulled the gun on us?”

“Everything. The world will know she's behind the sabotage of the Wilde Hunt now. Plus, I brought reinforcements.” He gestures to the men around him.

The man in charge has several gold stripes on his shoulder. A badge on his chest reads
PROTECT. SUSTAIN. THRIVE.
“I am Colonel James Odoyo of the Zambi Wilds Protection Agency,” he says, extending his hand.

“I'm Samantha Kemi. This is my sister Molly Kemi and our Finder Kirsty Donovan. Another friend, Arjun Patel, the one who called you here, is still in our car. Please, we need urgent medical attention.”

“We will take you to a hospital. But first, we must search you for illegal unicorn-derived substances on your person.”

I nod and they rifle through our bags and pat down our bodies—except for Kirsty, whose shoulder is still streaming blood. Her hand is clamped down tight over the wound, and even the guards can see that removing it would be dangerous. Molly is still passed out on the ground. I keep my head up high. Thanks to Emilia, we have nothing to hide.

Once Colonel Odoyo is satisfied that we have no unicorn parts in our possession, he leads us out of the forest, toward several big trucks that will take us away. I see Arjun already sitting in the back seat of one truck, and I place Molly next to him.

“Not the hospital,” Kirsty whispers to me when we're inside the truck. “We need to go straight to the transport terminal.”

“But . . .”

“No arguing. Sort it.”

I tap the window of the truck. “Colonel Odoyo, can you take us to the Zambi Transport Terminal? I need to get my sister home.”

“The hospital is on the way, miss,” he replies.

“Please. I know Zambi doesn't follow the Novaen Wilde Hunt tradition, but I must get back. Our princess's life is at stake.” I need to tell someone—Renel, the king, anyone—about what Emilia has done and see if we can get the unicorn tail another way.

The man sitting next to Colonel Odoyo turns in his chair, smiling broadly. “We know Princess Evelyn! My wife follows her in all the magazines. She came to Zambi on a visit last year, and I had to line up on the streets with my wife just so she could get a look at her. She said she's much thinner in real life than in the pictures.”

“Then you'll help?” I say.

Colonel Odoyo changes the direction of the truck and takes us to the terminal. “You can leave to do what you must. But your friends”—he gestures to Kirsty and Arjun—“will need treatment first.”

At the terminal, Colonel Odoyo is proved right—they won't let Arjun or Kirsty through. Neither of them is fit enough to travel. Arjun is still weak from his first transporting experience, and I think he's happy to head back on a plane later on in the day. Kirsty is strangely silent, but she's lost so much blood it's no wonder she can barely argue. They allow Molly and me to use our return
tickets though, especially since we're heading home, so Dan volunteers to stay to make sure Kirsty and Arjun are cared for. And he wants to write up his blog as quickly as possible.

Before we head through security, Kirsty calls me over and asks to speak to me privately. The only place we can find is the ladies' bathroom. Classy.

I assume she wants to apologize for kidnapping Molly, so I come in with my arms crossed, immediately on the defensive. What she did was stupid, reckless, dangerous . . .

She pulls me into one of the stalls, shuts the door, then locks it. There's hardly room in here for both of us. “What the heck?” I say, my leg jammed up against the toilet bowl.

She peels off her shirt from her shoulder, wincing as she does it, and reveals a ragged, deep hole from where the unicorn gored her. I cover my mouth with my hand.

“Sam,” she says through gritted teeth. “Focus.” Then she holds up a pair of tweezers. “The unicorn will have left some splinters of its horn in my shoulder.”

“Oh no, I'm not doing that.”

“You have to.”

“Oh God . . . What for? I don't know if I can.”

“We don't have the tail anymore, Sam. But hopefully you can use these as a replacement.”

My mind goes blank. “I . . . I . . . I guess it might
work?” I say, the realization that maybe I'm not out of the hunt finally dawning. The horn will have the same properties as the tail, but it's much less commonly used because of the increased difficulty to acquire.

“Good, because I'm not going to have had myself gored for nothing. I was going to sell them on but you need to have them. After all, I wouldn't have been able to get it without . . .”

“Without Molly. Right.”

“Sam, she begged me to take her. I know I—” She stops. “Well, anyway, make it quick.”

It's not quite an apology, but Kirsty is the toughest Finder—toughest person—I've ever known. She's gone through so much. I feel like being gored by a unicorn is probably punishment enough.

She takes a deep breath. “Okay, I'm ready.”

“Okay.” I take the tweezers from her hand. I don't give her a count, or build up the anticipation any more than I have to. I dive in, trying to cause as little pain as possible, but I can't see any horn near the surface.

“Are you sure . . . ?”

“It'll be there. Keep looking. Unicorns can't gore things without losing part of their horn. Though normally Finders try to goad them into goring tree trunks—not themselves.”

“That would probably make sense.”

Finally, after some nasty digging, I see it—a sliver of
silver. I catch the end of it with the tweezers and pull. I drop it into the coin purse of my wallet, which Kirsty is holding open. Then I remove a second one, which I spot glinting in the wound.

“Don't let anyone find them,” she says.

Kirsty's wound looks terrible. I bunch up a wad of tissue and press it hard onto her shoulder. “Can I please get you to a doctor now?”

She nods, weakly. “Yes. And then you have to go. Go back and make that love potion, Sam. I'll tell Dan about Emilia's plan. He'll be able to get the word out. But she's going to be moving fast. You have to hurry.”

“Just as soon as you're in safe hands,” I say. I hold her hand until the medics take over. Before they wheel Arjun away too—he's in a chair now—I give him a hug.

“I'm sorry about the unicorn tail,” he says.

“Don't be,” I say. “Kirsty found another way.” I feel like the slivers of horn are burning a hole in my wallet.

His eyes widen. “No wonder she didn't want anyone to look at that wound. Go on, go,” he says. “Kick some potions butt.”

I kiss him on the cheek, then Molly and I head through security and over to the transport bays. “You first,” I say to her. She nods and steps up to the screen. She pushes her arms through, and because she is Talented—and because she is going back home, a place she knows well, where she has a strong footprint—she
doesn't have to have someone pull her through on the other side. It will be a quick, easy journey for her. For that, I'm glad.

Once we're home, I'm quiet. Molly tells Mum and Dad what happened, but when it comes to the part about what she did—the magic she performed—she skips over it. She says she passed out, only to wake up to me rescuing her. She looks over at me, her eyes shining brightly. She thinks I did it. She doesn't realize that it was her all along. I correct her, and she smiles shyly like she doesn't believe it.

“But we got the unicorn tail, didn't we, Sam?” she says, her eyes shining.

“Not exactly.” I hesitate to tell them about Emilia, but I don't know why I'm holding back, especially as they've seen it all on the news. It comes out in a flood, and my parents' expressions flicker from horror to anger to relief that we came out of it alive.

Then I get to the part where I performed some minor surgery on Kirsty, and Dad looks like he's about to be sick. I take out my purse and empty the two slivers of horn on the table.

As I'm staring at it, I can sense how it will work with the other ingredients, the process of it swimming before my eyes. Suddenly my hands itch to mix, to crush the fibers up into powder and begin the process of putting the potion together. Still something is missing. “I have to speak to the royals.”

I head over to the Summons as my family huddles together to watch. I place my hand on the screen. It takes a few moments, but soon Renel's unwelcoming face appears and my throat closes up. “I had another run-in with Emilia Thoth,” I manage to say.

He stops me before I can continue. “It doesn't matter, the princess will be saved. Emilia is no longer a problem.”

“What?” My jaw drops.

“ZA have produced the cure.”

I'm too stunned to speak. My dad takes over. “They found the recipe for the love potion, and all the ingredients?”

Renel stares down his nose, as if he can barely deign to answer the question. “Zol has had a team of scientists and advanced mixers developing a synth version of the cure at the ZA headquarters since the hunt began. The royal family have agreed that a solution from this very Talented family is the best option for the princess, and that synthetic ingredients have proven to be just as powerful as natural.”

“But what about the mirror cure? Won't the horn only accept a natural potion?”