Chapter Seven

 

 

Magnus waited in the Crossed Star Bar for five hours before he realized that he could sense her in his vicinity, but she wasn’t in the bar. He needed to investigate and that was what he did best. He moved at top speed to the Meditation Centre, and when he saw Teal and Tony, he came to a halt.

“Where is she?”

Tony frowned. “Who?”

“Ystella. I can tell she is here, but she isn’t in any of the normal haunts.”

Tony blinked and Teal smirked. Teal murmured, “It seems that all bets are off, dear. Tell him.”

Tony scowled. “She is in the shifters’ field. She couldn’t deal with the energy of the Axion or the Open Heart, and if they weren’t suitable, the Isthmus would be out of the question.”

Magnus nodded. “Thank you.”

He turned and sped through the Crossroads, looking for the wild unicorn. He was a hunter, and he was very good at his job.

 

* * * *

 

Ystella ran around with wild abandon. She could run as fast as she wanted, and there was no worry of running into a human or even one of her own family.

She belted along at a dizzying speed until the trees next to her were a blur. The magic of nature was wrapped around her, and she could see the zigzag pattern of wildflowers that she was leaving in her wake as she turned and ran up and down the field. A pattern was taking shape in her mind, and when she finished it, she stood in the centre of the blooming space.

The flowers were wild and moving in a wind that wasn’t from the Crossroads. She stood and looked out over the space that finally felt comfortable. She stood in the centre of the pattern and heaved a sigh of relief.

Across the meadow, she saw a figure moving in the grass. Well, it wasn’t a figure, it looked like a rock, but it was moving toward her.

Her equine features couldn’t truly smile, but she recognized that bashed-up lump of shell. Magnus. He was at the Crossroads, and that meant he was searching for a mate.

The giant tortoise was lumbering toward her at a slow pace, and she believed that she had waited long enough.

She stepped toward the first bank of flowers and got stuck. The magic she had woven wasn’t just making her comfortable, it was keeping her in.

Fuck.

Ystella was stuck watching Magnus’s beast slowly approach. She paced and pawed at the trap of her own making. Every step she took continued the blooming, but when she tried to step over the flowers, they blocked her.

She shifted into her human form and sat down in the grass. At least now she wasn’t shrinking what little space she had left. She lay out in the field and watched the sun slowly creep across the sky. Getting an all-over tan wasn’t what she would normally be into, but since her rescuer was a tortoise, she was going to have some time on her hands.

 

* * * *

 

The Crossroads was having an effect on his beast. Magnus’s tortoise couldn’t go faster than a natural pace and that pace was not fast.

He could see the rich brown unicorn pawing at the air and stabbing at it with her horn. When she kicked out at an invisible wall, he got the hint. Something had trapped her.

He put all of his effort into increasing his pace, and the slow pace turned into a moderate pace. He should be there in an hour or two.

Fuck.

He hoped she had patience. The Crossroads were playing a game with them, and games like this had to be carried out. The interdimensional space was never frivolous. It was doing this for a reason.

 

* * * *

 

When her skin got hot, she rolled over and grilled her other half. When her other side got hot, she stood up and tried to see how close Magnus was.

She groaned and stared at the distance between them. This was going to take a lot more patience than she normally had. She could sand off her horn in less time.

Ystella shifted to her unicorn form and lay down on the ground. Her equine form was content to wait.

 

* * * *

 

When Ystella stood up naked with her skin glowing from the sun, Magnus fought to regain his human form. The Crossroads held him fast.

He reached the boundary of flowers and bumped into it. There was resistance, but he was old enough with enough natural magic to push through. He tasted one of the flowers, and it disappeared in his beak. He continued to eat the magic as he walked into the centre of the flowers.

When he looked up, she was in her unicorn form and that was almost as arousing as her human form. Almost. He dug in and moved his nine hundred pounds as fast as he could while taking down the flowers in his path.

The magic he was eating was new. It was bright, and it was from the human world. The fact that she had managed to drag that energy to the Crossroads and anchor it was showing that she was stronger than he had imagined, and he had imagined her in a variety of ways.

 

* * * *

 

She opened one eye when she heard the slow munching followed by rustling. She turned her head toward the sound and then turned back, remembering that her forward vision was crappy as a unicorn. If it wasn’t for the magical sonar, she would be blind for six feet in front of her. It was hard to be a member of a prey species.

Ystella awkwardly got to her feet, and her skin quivered. She flicked her tail and shook her head in excitement. Magnus was only two feet from the edge of the barrier.

She moved to the side when he reached her and munched his way past the gate. Ystella leaned down and touched her horn to his shell.

There was a flash, and a ring of light spread out into the Crossroads like a rock dropped into a pond.

She pulled her horn back and looked around as the ripple of power kept spreading. Oops.

Magnus went from his giant tortoise form to his naked man form. She admired the view and stood still as he came up to her and stroked her neck.

“This is not what I expected, and that horn of yours is deadly.”

She leaned into his touch for a moment before stepping away and turning human. “Thanks for the rescue. I apparently pranced myself into a corner.”

He looked at her with amusement. “Did you?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I did. I just have never been able to take my unicorn form out for a proper run. Now, I am beginning to think that it is not such a great idea.”

“It is a wonderful idea. There are places in the human world that desperately need your brand of magic. You are a gift that the wild magic has given to us.”

She cocked her head. “Are you serious? This is not a proper gift. This is a responsibility.”

Magnus reached out and took her by the hand and pulled her toward him. “It is not a responsibility that you need to shoulder alone.”

When their bodies pressed against each other, she was reminded very forcefully that they were naked. Her eyes widened in shock at the contact. He was far warmer than a giant tortoise had any right to be. Parts of him felt like they were made of armour, that was certain.

Ystella glanced down, blushed, and looked up at him. “Um, are you saying that you want to become my mate?”

“I am saying that I could see you when you weren’t there, and you have been in my mind since I first glimpsed you in the doorway of the party.”

She quirked her lips. “I have never been stalked by anyone before.”

“You weren’t stalked, you were hunted. That is what I do.” He leaned in, and his lips were just over hers. “You are the first person I have ever volunteered to hunt for free.”

She went up on her toes and kissed him. “Thanks for finding me.”

He looked around them. “We are perfectly alone here.”

“I know, but I am not going to have sex out in the open. Not today.” She smiled at him, patting his chest.

Her hand went from patting to stroking as she leaned against him, but she kept her path from getting too intimate.

“Well, this is fascinating, but the path is filling in again. We need to get out before it closes us in again.” She could see the buds forming in the path behind him.

He nodded. “Your form or mine?”

“Human bodies, you go first, and I will be behind you in case the flowers keep sprouting after I step.” She smiled.

“Sound reasoning. Let’s go.” He released her and held her hand as he led the way out of the design.

She held his hand and felt the magic closing around her feet. “We should run.”

He followed her urging, and they ran out of the pattern until they fell out of it and the energy shot skyward. Ystella laid in the meadow and watched the power that she had trailed around coalesce and shoot upward.

“Where is it going?” Magnus asked from her side.

“I have no idea, but I am guessing that wild magic has just been planted at the Crossroads.”

She looked at the spot where the magic had gathered and disappeared, and she felt that it might be a weird event, but it wouldn’t be devastating. The Crossroads needed a little wild magic.