Page 25 of Nine Inch Nasty (Hemlock Academy #9)

Ash

“Beginning? No. I demand you start from…oh. Yes, beginning please.”

I clear my throat and get my mate behind me because I don’t trust this creature.

Whoever he is, he looks too much like my friend Salad.

“I’m deeply uncomfortable with how much you look like a certain fictional unicorn we met and had close contact with recently.

Do lions eat unicorns? I feel like I am very threatening to you.

So be warned, if you harm my mate, even if it’s only emotional, I will…

show you what I did when I went on a hunting trip at a…

something about a zebra…you know what? Talk. Now.”

The pretender holds his hands up as I look super imposing with my hands on my hips.

“I met Shelly years ago. Thought she was kind.”

“Here we go,” Delaney says as she shoves me into a seat and takes one herself. Yeah, if we’re talking about Shelly, it’s not going to be pleasant.

“I come from—"

“A different realm?” Delaney guesses.

“I’m sorry, would you like to tell the story?” The unicorn questions as they blow air out their nose very forcefully, like…a horse.

Delaney smiles and mimes zipping her lips.

“Thank you for letting me speak. So. Shelly. It was a warm day in April, and I had just bought enough flour to refill my baking pantry, when there was a knock on my door.”

Spencer, still sweaty and in his football uniform, raises a hand.

“Yes, sir?”

“Hi, yes, I don’t know if you remember me, but—"

“Oh! Delightful!” The fucker prances and flips his hair. “Stapler, correct?”

Spencer gives him a look of uncertainty. “No…my name is Spencer .”

The unicorn smiles at us like he’s completely patronizing Spencer when he says, “Okay, sure. Spencer. ”

“I was with Shelly that day. Can I just apologize firsthand for everything that went down that day you know, when…”

Skylar blanches and whinnies, which is bizarre coming from a human body. “Please do not bring that day up. My tail has never been the same.”

“Apologies. I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to back you up. Delaney, he’s telling the truth.”

“I don’t actually know what’s happening,” Delaney points out. “He hasn’t said anything other than he was refilling a canister of flour. Do all unicorns have a penchant for doing really unexciting things?”

“I feel as if I should be offended,” Skylar tells her. “But I’m going to overlook that. So, there I was, carefully scooping the fresh flour from the town mill into my beautiful, blue, ceramic canister—"

Delaney starts banging her head on the table. “Let’s fast forward, shall we? Why are you here?”

“Oh. You should have just asked that to begin with! I’m here to tell you you are my fated mate, and I wish to ride off into the sunset with you. Look, I brought visuals to display my aerial prowess!”

Skylar pulls a phone out of his pocket and clicks a few buttons, and soon there’s an image being projected onto the wall. That’s fucking cool.

Video Skylar is wearing a bowtie and a button up shirt, standing in a field of wildflowers. “Hello, this is my application to be your mate, Delaney. And don’t worry, objects on screen may be larger than they appear.” He gives the camera a very exaggerated wink.

Video Skylar starts stripping down, and it’s definitely not my imagination that Delaney’s lust starts getting a bit out of control. She’s definitely panting a little bit, and she’s leaking like crazy. My cock is ready to burst out of my pants.

I clear my throat, gesture to my crotch, and Delaney’s eyes light up as she reaches to unzip me. Unfortunately, I have to stop her. “I wasn’t asking for a blow job.”

“Why is she pouting?” Real Skylar asks as he pauses his cinematic masterpiece, face full of concern.

“She hates being told she can’t give us blowjobs,” Adam explains.

“I was informing you that your lust is getting a bit frisky, love. Blowjob later, okay?”

“Oh. My bad. Proceed, mysterious Skylar.”

He hits play again, and the rest of the video is literally him just drawing things in the sky with self-made glitter as he flies. At least it comes out of his mouth and not his rear end.

When the screen goes black, Delaney continues to stare at him, skeptical.

Maybe I can help her out here. Prove my worth. “Pardon me for asking, but what the fuck was that? It’s…cool you can do all that flying shit, but it’s not exactly winning any romance points with our Delaney, here.”

Delaney stands and approaches Skylar. “Why do you look like him?”

Him being Saladriel, obviously, in case you weren’t following.

Skylar frowns and then pulls something out of his pocket and hands it to Delaney.

It’s a small jewelry box, and inside is a bright, sparkling gem unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

“Every unicorn has a heart gem. This is…

a bit like…our essence. We nurture and polish them as we mature, and when we are ready to find our life partners, we present it to them for safe keeping.

“I mentioned that I met Shelly. She was…not what I thought she was. She had magic that was a bit suffocating, convinced me to do things, both sexually and not sexually that I’d never considered before or after. It was a growing experience. But she deceived me.

“She used to discuss things with me thinking I’d never be able to tell anyone else; classic villain downfall.”

Zac buts in, clearly knowing where this is going.

“Our family crypt stores the power from generations past, Delaney. We inter them there, and the magic they wielded while alive goes into safekeeping in case the family is ever in need of it. That magic cache is for emergencies only, because once used, it’s gone.

“Shelly depleted that to create that elaborate realm we were sucked into, manipulating all of us, manipulating you, and it goes back years.

“She was corrupted a long time ago, unfortunately. Didn’t think children could legitimately be evil, but there’s always an exception.

My parents have been looking into everything so they can better understand what happened and what went wrong, but after sending our parents away, Shelly realized she couldn’t turn back.

Stowing them there was an accident, but nothing after really was.

“Once she got that power, she was lost to us. She was a magical prodigy, able to understand and wield magic most grown witches could never figure out. Her powers were complex and she always had incredible control over them.

“Once she graduated high school, it got worse. She started at Hemlock at 18, and I didn’t see too much of her because her studies kept her busy.

I always did my best as her guardian, had weekly dinners with her, kept on top of her needs and finances, tried my best to provide a good life for her, but she fooled me as well. ”

“So where does this come into play?” Delaney asks, not reaching for the gem but mesmerized by it just the same.

“She made me think we were going to be together forever. That she was my fated mate. She enchanted me and made alterations to my appearance to better suit her tastes, and I gave her my stone as I would, and well, she proceeded to lock down my entire home and everyone in it.

“The unicorns are a small clan, secretive, so no one realized what had happened to us. She found she could use less magic if she used things that were already formed, so I was enchanted in Glittertopia, same as you. I believe I was the only citizen there that wasn’t fully formed by Shelly’s magic.

“I guess technically I am Saladriel, but that’s not actually my name.

My personality there, everything I did, was because she was controlling me.

I remember snippets of spending time with you in your dorm, remember feeling like that was my true life, but in reality, it was only because she was controlling my heart stone.

“When you broke down the Glittertopia construct, you freed me. In tearing apart her illusions, my stone returned to me, and she lost her power over me. Thanks to you, all the unicorns that have been in stasis back home were able to live free once more.

“I don’t know if Shelly knew somehow that you were my actual fated mate or what, but that’s why I’m not on any conduit registries; we don’t normally incorporate with society.

I was an exception because I’m a conduit.

Most unicorns never meet their fated mate, so I was excited when Shelly’s magic made me believe I had found mine.

“I’m sorry. I feel as if maybe there was something I could have done to be stronger, to preserve the sanctity of what we are to each other, because I feel as if it’s cheapened our actual connection here.

I would never want to make you feel as if you’re getting remnants of somebody, or that I’m not serious about this.

“I’m just still kind of in shock myself.

When I came to…it was very unsettling. I’ve had nothing but nightmares since, from being trapped for years.

But, when I accidentally let it slip that I knew who my true fated was, my community rallied and started planning for this…

demonstration. This is the first time they’ve ventured from home in at least 50 years.

“I’m sorry if their presentation isn’t what you’re used to, I’m not sure how most species claim their mates or inform their mates that they’re theirs.

I feel like I’m two steps behind everybody, and I know you have so many mates already, but I couldn’t live another day without telling you that I still feel you in my soul, still feel the ghost of your lips on mine, and that if you choose not to spend your life with me, that you’ll be the only woman that could ever have been mine. ”

“Just to be clear, you’re not actually buttercream sexual, right?” Adam asks like a total dumbass.