Page 21

Neith

O ne thing that I do know is that the blood from magical creatures that is valuable has to be extracted when they are still alive, otherwise it loses its magic, and they will drain a creature dry, making sure that they get every single drop, which is an incredibly painful process for the creature.

I see no reason why it would be different for unicorns.

Beginning to move forward, I freeze before I make it around the edge of the giant tree that I’m hiding behind, and glance at Asael in my hand.

It is a massive risk to walk out there without him in my hands, he’s pretty much the only defense that I have since my magic is still really only a slight trickle and nothing that I will be able to use to attack or defend myself with if this does turn out to be a trap of some kind, or if the unicorn itself attacks me.

However, if I were injured and trapped and some stranger came out from behind a tree wielding a sword, I know that I would be even less likely to trust that person and probably go into full panic mode as well.

I would be almost certain that they were the person who set the trap in the first place, even if they tried to reassure me that they weren’t.

People lie.

Hunted people, or in this case, creatures, are even more sensitive to that and just assume that everyone is lying to them.

I want to help this unicorn as quickly as I can, and in order to do that, I need it to trust me just a little bit.

With this in mind, I ask Asael to disappear, but to be ready in case I need him with seconds to spare. He buzzes in my hand and then does as I have asked.

Now that he is gone, and my hands are empty, I cautiously move forward, and the unicorn's head immediately snaps in my direction. It panics, trying to get away and tearing the teeth of the trap deeper into its leg.

I hold my hands up, “Whoa, steady. I’m not going to hurt you. I know you probably don’t believe that, and to be honest, I wouldn’t either, but I promise you I don’t intend to hurt you. I want to help you before whoever did this to you comes back.”

I have absolutely no idea if it can understand me or not, but if it can’t, I’m hoping that it will interpret the gentle way that I’m speaking and my body language to mean that I don’t intend to hurt it.

It must understand what I’m saying to a certain extent because it stills, watching me with fear, and such exhaustion that I don’t know whether it believes me or if it has just given up, and that breaks my heart.

I move toward it cautiously, and keep my eyes on it as I crouch down.

I can’t risk kneeling since I’m not going to be able to get away quickly if it decides to stab me with its horn, and although it is a supernatural, it is still an animal, and hurt animals behave unpredictably, especially when they aren’t sure if you are helping them.

I decide that the best way to help gain its trust, and to stop it from attacking me, is to talk to it and since I am the queen of talking absolute shit that’s what I do.

“Oh, this looks really bad,” I wince. “I mean, you probably didn’t need me to tell you that, you can feel it, so you know that it’s pretty bad. If you’re squeamish though, definitely don’t look at it.”

I glance at its face, and I swear that it raises its eyebrows at me, but I’m pretty sure that at this point, I’m imagining things. So, I carry on talking.

“I’m going to talk through everything that I try to do to make sure that you know what I’m doing.

I hope that you can understand me, but if not, that’s fine.

I’m still going to tell you,” I explain as I lean closer, and it tenses.

“It’s okay, I just need to see how I can approach this.

We need to do it quickly. I want you out of here before whoever did this comes back to check their barbaric trap. ”

I lean forward again, and this time it stays still, once again allowing me to inspect where the teeth of the bear trap are going into its leg.

“Okay, so I’m going to take my jacket off and wrap it around the teeth on either side, here and here,” I explain as I point to the place where I intend to hold onto.

“Then I’m going to try to pry it apart. It’s going to hurt, it’s pretty fucking deep in your leg, and because of that it’s going to hurt like a mother fucker to pull it out.

Hopefully, my plan will work, and once you’re free, your healing will hopefully kick in.

If not, I should be able to clean and bandage it for you, and then you can get out of here as quickly as possible.

” I pause and frown slightly as I add, “To be honest, if you’re up to it, as soon as I free you, just run.

I am really worried about the people who set this coming back for you. ”

Looking at the unicorn, who seems to be listening intently, I add, “Got it?”

It surprises me when it nods, but I smile and thank my lucky stars that it can understand me because it makes this so much easier.

“I’m going to try to pull it apart now, okay?

” I say. It nods again, and I position myself at the bear trap, wrapping my hands in my jacket to try to protect them as much as I possibly can, even though I know that the spikes are most likely going to go through and pierce my skin.

“I am really sorry that this is going to hurt.”

There’s no time to build it up slowly, and I ask my magic to help as I dig my feet into the ground and start to pull the thing apart.

It doesn’t budge at all, not even a tiny bit.

I frown. I’m not giving up, I can’t give up.

This unicorn's life depends on it. I pull harder, feeling the spikes of the trap where I’m gripping it begin to dig into my fingers, slicing them and causing the blood to soak my jacket.

I don’t pause, I don’t stop, I keep pulling at it with all my strength.

It finally begins to shift, the teeth moving the most minuscule amount that it can, but it fucking moves.

“It’s moving,” I tell the unicorn, the excitement obvious in my voice.

The volume of the voices rises in warning, and I curse as I hear a stick snap in the surrounding woods.

“Shit.” I look at the unicorn, “I’m not going to be able to get you free before they arrive, but I promise that I will not let them near you.”

I don’t have time to wait to see if it understands me, because three heavily armed mercenaries burst out of the trees.

I’m not really surprised that I recognize one of them from the Obsidian Market.

It makes sense that they hunt the unicorns themselves rather than send someone else to do it for them.

With unicorns being worth as much as they are, the temptation for anyone who would be willing to work with these people would be too great, and they would most likely take it for themselves, rather than accept a percentage.

“Well, well, what do we have here, boys?” one of them says almost predictably.

I roll my eyes as I stand up and position myself between the unicorn and them.

“Looks like a little girl who thinks she can steal what is ours,” another one replies, his eyes trailing over me lecherously.

I don’t react to his obvious perusal. If I show that it bothers me, then it will just give him more pleasure. Men like this are all the same, whether they’re supernaturals or not.

Vile.

“I think I’d like to teach her a lesson, a naked one,” another one says, grabbing his crotch and spitting.

“Oh, gross,” I mutter, pulling a disgusted face.

The men laugh.

“You think we care, we ain’t asking, we intend to take,” the first one says.

The unicorn whinnies in distress, and I hear it try to move behind me.

Glancing over my shoulder at it, I smile, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

The men once again laugh and move closer to me.

Now, at this point, I know that I should be worrying, a normal person would be, especially after what they are threatening.

The thing is, they are nothing. They’re weak, and I am so fucking fired up about what they have done to this unicorn and what they intend to do, that they don’t stand a fucking chance.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the one that grabbed his dick move toward me swiftly and the unicorn begins to panic.

I know that I said earlier that it makes the guys more nervous when I wink at them in situations like this, but I can’t help but wink at the unicorn who probably understands the gesture about as well as I understand unicorn speak.

Just as the dick grabber reaches me I spin on my heel, calling Asael to me and grin as I watch the brief flash of surprise appear on his features before his head drops to the floor with a thud.

The other two that came with him just stare at me in utter shock, clearly not expecting me to be capable of killing someone.

“Fuck, it’s that chick off the Choosing,” one of them exclaims, and my eyebrows rise slightly.

Huh, I don’t know why it’s a surprise to me that criminals have watched the Choosing.

I mean, everyone has access to it, all they have to do is say a simple incantation, at least that’s what Ribit did so that we could watch it.

But it does surprise me that they have recognized me, then again I am the only woman in it.

I rush forward. I really don’t have the time to be thinking about this sort of shit now.

My quick movement unfortunately snaps them out of their shock at their friend’s death and they both work together to try to circle around me so that they can attack me from both sides as they draw their swords.

There is absolutely no chance that I’m going to allow them to get close to the unicorn though.

I know that if one of them manages to get behind me then they will take the opportunity to take off with the unicorn and I will have absolutely no chance of being able to find it again.