Page 3 of Silver Linings

It stopped a few feet away from me and tilted its head, almost as though it was trying to ask a question.

About what, I had no idea.

No, I was the one who was full of questions.

At least a decade had passed since the last time I’d seen a unicorn out here. Now, despite the worry and anger that had overtaken me ever since I learned exactly why my mother and grandmother had gone into the woods and vanished, I couldn’t ignore the sensation of awe that rose in me as I stared at the glorious creature, at its milky white mane and smooth white coat, its deep, dark eyes…the faint glow that surrounded the silvery horn protruding from its forehead.

“What happened to them?” I demanded, knowing my voice sounded far too rough. Both my mother and grandmother had always impressed on me the need to speak softly and calmly when confronted by one of the otherworldly beasts, lest it bolt before it had a chance to interact with us.

Because they always did…when they appeared. I still had no idea what attracted the animals to the Welling women like iron filings to a magnet, and yet they always seemed drawn to the females of my family, no matter what.

Not that my last name now was Welling. No, I was Sidney Lowell, my name inherited from the father who, seventeen years ago, had decided he’d had enough of the secrecy and took off. The first couple of years after that, he’d sent me cards and presents at Christmas and on my birthday…even though the presents soon became gift certificates and gift cards, stuff that wouldn’t be too difficult to mail…but all communication had dropped off afterward.

Well, except for a card that showed up a couple of weeks after I earned my bachelor’s degree. I still had no idea how he’d even learned about that, although I assumed my mother must have known where he was living — or had his phone number — and had either written him or texted.

That card had gone straight into the trash. I didn’t need his congratulations, not after he’d ghosted both my mother and me.

Saint that she was, she’d never complained. No, she just said that the whole legendary creatures thing was too much for him, and their marriage hadn’t been strong enough to survive the necessary secrecy involved. I’d often wondered what had kept his mouth shut all these years — I kept thinking I was going to see a story about unicorns wandering the forests of northern California pop up on the front page of the National Enquirer or get splashed all over TMZ — but he’d never spilled the beans.

Exactly why became obvious enough once I came home after my mother’s disappearance. She and my grandmother and I all lived in the big Craftsman-style house that had been Grandma’s, since we’d moved in with her after my father split. My grandfather had died in a car accident when I was only five, so my grandmother had plenty of room for all of us.

Anyway, when I was going through my mother’s files, looking for a copy of her will — officially, she was still listed as missing, but I knew my grandmother had deeded the house over to her years earlier, and I needed to be able to prove it was legally mine just in case things got ugly — I found a small folder full of canceled checks.

Each one was made out to my father, and each one was for ten thousand dollars. My mother had been buying his silence all those years.

To be honest, I hadn’t even realized she had access to that kind of money. We lived modestly, and although she’d paid my tuition…which was padded with a couple of scholarships and grants as well…it wasn’t as though I’d ever thought she had the resources to be paying my deadbeat father six figures a year to keep his mouth shut.

Maybe I’d been naïve about the situation. After all, my family had been in Silver Hollow for generations, and I supposed the money from investments and land we’d owned and then sold had been piling up all that time.

Nothing in the memo section of those checks to tell me where my father was living, though. They only provided mute evidence that he was still alive somewhere.

The unicorn took a step toward me and lowered his head, silver-pale forelock dropping low to hide his eyes. Was that some form of apology, or merely a sign that he had heard and understood the anger in my voice?

I couldn’t say. Years ago, when I’d come to the woods with my mother, I’d sat under a huge hemlock tree and the unicorn I’d seen then had come and lain down next to me. That one had been female, smaller and daintier than the creature who stood in front of me now.

Back then, I’d been utterly enchanted by the silkiness of the unicorn’s mane as it brushed against my bare arm, by the faint, flowery scent that seemed to surround it. Not cloying at all, but fresh and pure as a meadow of highland blooms.

However, I was anything but enchanted now.

“Where did they go?” I asked, and the unicorn shook his mane and began to walk away.

Leaving the scene of a confrontation…or leading me to the spot where my mother and grandmother had disappeared?

I followed, my stomach tense with an unpleasant mixture of worry and anticipation. If the unicorn was taking me to the wormhole or fold in reality or whatever it was, would I be brave enough to step across, the way the two most important women in my life had?

Whatever I might or might not have done, it turned out that it didn’t matter at all. No, the unicorn was there one moment…and then had disappeared into a pool of mist the very next.

I stopped and stared around me in consternation. As far as I could tell, there didn’t seem to be anything that differentiated this particular section of the path from any other.

But the unicorn was gone, and when I moved toward the spot where it had disappeared, nothing happened.

Well, except that I was standing there alone. If it weren’t that my mother and grandmother had now been missing for three months, I might have said it was possible that the wormholes allowed only mystical creatures and not ordinary humans to go back and forth between worlds. But they’d disappeared, and people from both the sheriff’s department and the FBI had combed these woods and found absolutely no evidence of any kind of foul play.

Whatever was going on here, it seemed obvious to me that I wouldn’t figure it out any time soon.

I made a disgusted sound and turned so I could head for home.

Chapter Two

---