It was so quiet.

Hugh couldn’t get used to the echoing silence in his own head. He’d always thought of his unicorn as a quiet presence, but now…now he knew the difference between quiet and nothing. He kept holding his breath, listening for a whisper that would never come again.

“Hugh?”

He jumped, coming back to himself. “Sorry. Keep zoning out. This is damned peculiar.”

From the expressions on his fellow firefighters’ faces, damned peculiar were not the words that they would have chosen. Dai and John were both staring at him as if he’d misplaced a limb. Griff didn’t seem able to look at him at all. Chase had his back pressed into the corner, all his usual laughter drained from his face. Only Ash was as expressionless as always.

It was strange, seeing them all crowded into his kitchen. It was even stranger to just see…them. They all seemed oddly different now that he could only see their physical forms. No hint of the powerful energies hidden underneath their skins; no subtle brush of their minds against his. He couldn’t even sense that they were shifters. They could have been any ordinary group of humans, for all he could tell.

And they didn’t hurt. There wasn’t even the faintest trace of pain, despite their proximity. He’d never truly realized how omnipresent his headaches had been. Now, instead of the familiar dull ache, there was…nothing.

It was so quiet.

Chase cleared his throat. “Uh, Hugh? You still with us?”

Damn it, he’d drifted off again. “Right. Sorry. What was I saying?”

“You were explaining,” Dai said very carefully, as if he thought Hugh might have lost the ability to understand simple English along with his unicorn, “why this is a good thing. Again.”

“Yes. That was it. Anyway, I know it’s going to be hard for you to understand, but—what do you mean, again?”

The rest of Alpha Team exchanged glances. He wondered if they were talking to each other telepathically. He didn’t have the foggiest clue anymore, of course.

“Shield-brother.” John Doe stumbled on the name, the faint melody of his sea-dragon accent more pronounced than usual. “You have now told us how this loss is actually a blessing three times, by my count. There is no need to repeat the chorus. If this is truly what your heart desires, then we…we rejoice with you.”

“No, we don’t!” Chase burst out. The pegasus shifter gestured at Hugh, his mouth twisting with distress. “How can you look at him and say this is right?”

“This is right,” Hugh said firmly. “And you’re all going to be happy for me.”

Chase raked a hand through his black curly hair, making it stand on end. “But you’ve lost your animal. You’re not—this can’t have been what you wanted. Did that damn wyvern talk you into it?“

“Ivy did exactly what I wanted,” Hugh said icily. He hoped that Ivy—who was in the front room explaining things to Hope separately—couldn’t overhear any of this. “And don’t any of you dare make her feel worse. She’s having a hard enough time as it is.”

The way that she’d jerked away from him, the terrible look on her face when she’d realized what had happened…that had been the worst part of losing his unicorn.

He’d tried to reassure her that it was all right. That everything was fine. That for the first time in his life he was without pain. He didn’t think she’d even heard his words. She’d just stared at him, eyes blank with shock and horror, as if she could see some wound that he didn’t even feel.

He didn’t know why she’d reacted like that. This had been her idea in the first place. This was what she’d wanted, wasn’t it? Why was she now creeping around as if it hurt to look at him?

Perhaps she was just feeling guilty at having taken his animal, but in the silence of his soul, he feared that it was more than that. Was there something wrong with their bond now? Something he could no longer sense himself?

He waited for his unicorn’s reassurance that they were still her mate, as she was theirs…but none came. No whispered comment. No subtle pressure. No wordless nudge.

Nothing.

It was so quiet.

“See?” Chase flung up his hands, entreating the ceiling to bear witness. “There you go again! And yet you still insist that this, this maiming is a good thing?”

“I’m afraid this is going to take some getting used to, Hugh.” Dai was still squinting at him as if he might be able to uncover Hugh’s missing beast if he just found the right angle. “Most of us didn’t even know you were a unicorn, and now we have to wrap our heads around you not being a unicorn? You insist this is better, but I can’t imagine anyone being happy to lose their animal.”

Ivy unfortunately picked that moment to come back into the kitchen. Catching the dragon shifter’s last few words, she flinched.

“It is a good thing,” Hugh said sharply. “Believe me, this is much better. I was in pain, and Ivy healed me. Griff, tell them I’m not lying.”

The griffin shifter’s golden eyes flickered over him, but jerked quickly away. “He’s telling the truth. He honestly prefers his state now to how he was…before.”

Chase sank down onto a kitchen chair, scowling. “Well, I don’t. And what’s this going to do to the case against Gaze, anyway?”

“That is a good point,” John said, his brow furrowing. “We cannot bring the evil-doer to full justice, if there is no evidence that his greatest crime was ever committed.”

“He’ll go down for assault and kidnapping.” Hugh shrugged. “That’s good enough to put him away for a long time. I was never going to stand up and publicly accuse him of trying to saw off my horn, after all.”

“He should be charged with murder,” Chase muttered. From the dark look he threw at Ivy, he didn’t think the basilisk was the only one.

Ash spoke before Hugh could snarl at the pegasus shifter. “Hugh, while you may not have been intending to reveal your true nature, I fear that the same is not true of Gaze. There is a very real risk that he will announce what you are during his trial.”

“Oh, perfect.” The sheer irony of it made him laugh out loud. “So now that I’m not a unicorn anymore, everyone is going to think I am one. Wonderful.”

From Ivy’s pale face, she hadn’t thought of this either. “Is there any way to convince him not to talk? Make a deal?”

“There’s an idea,” Chase said, straightening. “I know where he’s being held—the police brought him back to a secret shifter detention center not too far from here. We could go pay him a visit. Persuade him to hold his tongue.”

John Doe drew back as if Chase had wafted garbage under his nose. “One does not negotiate with honorless pondscum.”

Chase cracked his knuckles meaningfully. “I was thinking of a different sort of persuasion.”

“Leaving aside the legality of such action,” Ash said, looking rather pained, “I fear that it would be futile. We have no leverage. Apart from a certain amount of short-term discomfort, we have no way to threaten Gaze. He is already facing life imprisonment for his crimes. We have no power to either increase or reduce that sentence.”

“And he has every reason to want to reveal Hugh’s nature,” Griff said grimly. “Once Hugh’s secret is out, he’ll be a tempting target for other criminals. Not everyone is going to believe that he’s truly lost his animal. Someone might decide to see if he can be ‘persuaded’ to rediscover his unicorn. If Gaze goes down for life, that’ll be the only way he can get revenge on Hugh.”

“Damn it.” Hugh glared around at them all, his anger at his own helplessness spilling over. “Why couldn’t one of you have just killed the bastard when you had the chance?”

He regretted his outburst instantly as Ivy winced, looking stricken. Reflexively, he reached out to her, but she recoiled.

It made his heart hurt worse than his head ever had. She was in pain, and he couldn’t do anything about it.

She hadn’t let him near her since last night. She wouldn’t let him touch her, not even fully clothed. She’d insisted that they had to wait until she’d done…whatever it was she was planning. He still didn’t know how she intended to get around the problem of her venom.

He let his hand drop again, though it went against every instinct not to touch her. “Sorry,” he muttered, looking round at the rest of Alpha Team. “That was unfair.”

“But not wrong,” Chase said, his own fists clenching. The pegasus shifter looked as frustrated and helpless as he himself felt. “Damn it, there has to be something we can do.”

“There is,” John Doe said. He drew himself up to his full seven-foot height, chin lifting. “We can let it be known far and wide that any miscreant who thinks to threaten our shield-brother will very quickly regret it.”

“Right. If anyone comes after you, they’ll have to get through us,” Dai said, to general murmurs of agreement.

The unanimous show of support brought an unaccustomed tightness to his throat. He’d lied to them all for so long, about so much, and yet they still had his back. They’d forgiven him so easily, it was like they didn’t even think there was anything to forgive.

He was lost for words…but he had more than words available to him now. Reaching out, he clasped John’s forearm, in the sea dragon gesture of one warrior thanking another.

John gripped his arm in return, his indigo eyes softening. It was strange, so strange, to feel nothing but warmth and comradeship in his touch.

Releasing the sea dragon, Hugh turned to Chase next. He’d intended to just shake his hand, but the pegasus shifter sprang up, instead pulling him into a bone-crushing hug. And then they were all around him, clapping him on the back or clasping his shoulder. Their friendship and support surrounded him.

And for the first time, he could accept it without flinching.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Ivy circling the room, being careful to stay as far away from everyone as possible. She sidled over to Ash, who also still stood a little apart from the group.

“Can I talk to you for a sec?” Ivy muttered to Ash. “Privately?”

“Ivy,” Hugh said, concerned by the way her gloved hands were twisting together. He broke away from his friends, stepping toward her. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” Ivy looked up at Ash, her face set and pale. Hugh couldn’t interpret her expression. “But I need to talk to the Phoenix.”