Page 67 of Silver Linings

What did you do around a dead body that didn’t actually look like a dead body?

I swallowed, then asked, “Do you think the unicorn did that to protect us?”

“I’m sure he did,” Ben replied. He’d let go of my arm as soon as I started to move, but he came close again, as if he was worried I might bolt into the portal anyway despite the unicorn’s obvious warning. “Not that I’m an expert or anything, but I have a feeling the medical examiner will find he died of a stroke or a heart attack.”

“And by the time anyone comes out here to investigate, the circle of standing stones will be long gone,” I said softly.

“With the investigation wrapped up weeks before it returns,” he said. For a moment, he was silent as he gazed around the clearing, at the glowing plants and the solemn circle of pale stones, each of them taller than he by at least two feet or more. “If it even comes back to this spot.”

For a moment, I could only stare at him, trying to absorb the implications of his comment. “You mean…it moves around?”

“Maybe,” he replied. Again, he went quiet, as though trying to process the new and unexpected ideas moving through his agile brain. “Isn’t that a common thread in folklore and fairy tales? That these sorts of things could never really be pinned down because they never appeared in the same place twice?”

“But it was here twice in a row,” I pointed out.

For a few seconds, Ben was quiet, mulling over the conundrum I’d just presented. Then he gave a small shrug and said, “Maybe it appeared here twice in a row because this is all part of the same moon phase. Next month, it could show up someplace entirely different.”

To be honest, despite knowing that unicorns and griffins and other mythical beasts sometimes roamed these woods, I’d never been a huge reader of fairy tales and had no idea what kind of rules we might be dealing with. “I suppose it makes sense,” I said slowly, trying to pick up the bits and pieces of comments I’d heard my mother make…things I’d read in my grandmother’s journal. “It does seem as if when the creatures appear, it’s in different parts of the forest. That’s why it was always so hard to get a glimpse of them. They have to seek you out.”

“Like the unicorn did with us,” Ben said.

“I think so,” I replied. “And it could also be why those glowing flowers can be spotted in different places without much rhyme or reason. What if they appear where a portal has once been?”

He ran a hand over his stubbly chin, then gave a considering nod. “Like…the portal has left enough of its energy behind that some of the plants from that plane that were left here can still feed on it.”

“Right.” But I had to shrug, adding, “Or maybe something else is going on. This is all so out of my experience that I’m not sure I can say for sure.”

“It’s fine.” His hand reached out to take mine, and I didn’t try to resist. After everything that had happened during the past few minutes, it felt good to have our fingers intertwined, his touch strong and warm, and to know he wasn’t the kind of person to bail out just because the situation had gotten increasingly complicated. “We don’t have to figure out everything right now.”

Maybe not. But I’d never been someone who liked unanswered questions, which was why growing up with a father who’d walked out on his family and a forest full of magical creatures had created a sort of not-so-subtle dissonance in just about everything I did.

Before I could respond to his comment, however, movement inside the portal caught my eye. I stiffened, my grasp on Ben’s hand tightening.

The unicorn emerged in the center of the stones, only this time, it had something draped around its neck.

Oh, my God.

“What is it?” Ben asked.

“That scarf,” I breathed. “It’s my mother’s.”

Her favorite, the nubby handwoven one in shades of purple and turquoise that she’d bought at a craft fair in Eureka when I was in high school. She’d worn it at least two or three times a week, weather permitting, and it didn’t surprise me that it might have been wrapped around her throat when she disappeared.

The unicorn came over to me and lowered his head. With trembling fingers, I reached up to remove the scarf from his neck.

Pinned inside was a strange piece of paper, rough to the touch but oddly glowing at the same time.

Only a few words, written in my mother’s graceful hand.

We’re safe. Protect the crossing.

I looked past the unicorn to the circle of standing stones. They looked solid, more real than almost anything I’d ever seen, but I knew they would vanish with the coming of dawn…and wouldn’t return for another month.

Possibly in another location, although I still didn’t know that for sure.

The message was clear, though.

If I crossed over to the other world, I wouldn’t be here to protect this one.

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