Chapter Nine

 

 

After spending three days at the guesthouse, they were ready to face the world, they just needed the balance ceremony and they could get back to the world.

Ystella got off the carpet at the Meditation Centre. Magnus was holding her hand, and she walked next to him, into the area that would send them home.

Tony saw her, and he smiled. “Ystella. Were you looking into a balance ceremony?”

She nodded. “Yes, we would like to have a balance ceremony.”

Tony’s mate, Teal, stepped forward. “You don’t need one, and it might be dangerous to administer one to you.”

Ystella could read their stress in every inch of their bodies. “It is the wild magic.”

Teal nodded. “We can deal with fey magic and shifter magic, even ancient versions of each, but we can’t balance wild magic. That is its very nature. It can’t be contained.”

Ystella looked to Magnus. “Is this a problem for you?”

He shook his head. “I am with you, and you are with me. If we can’t split our beasts and magic and share them, I can be satisfied with your body.” He winked.

She looked upward for a moment, and then, she looked back at the guardians of the Crossroads. “Okay, so we can’t be balanced here without blowing the place up. I will look into alternatives back in the human world.”

They were both relieved, and after the official bonding documents were signed, there was one more matter that Tony hadn’t shared.

“Your grandmother has demanded that you return home, Ystella.”

She smiled. “Thanks for waiting until I signed the document.”

“I am making a note that you did not know that your herd master was reinstating your status before you signed.”

Ystella leaned against Magnus. “I would have signed regardless.”

He wrapped his arms around her, and he gave her a squeeze.

“Well, I wish you two the best of luck.” Teal smiled. “I am sorry that we couldn’t do the ceremony.”

Magnus answered, “We understand.”

The next few minutes were preparations for them sending her to her family with Magnus in tow.

She looked at her mate. “Are you ready to face some horses?”

“I am protected. Nothing gets through my shell.”

“Good. My grandma’s hooves can be vicious.”

He chuckled, and they were wrapped in light and on the way to her family home.

They appeared in the empty meadow next to the family home and started walking toward the farm, hand in hand.

Her family spilled out of the house, and her grandmother was leading the herd.

Bryt Hist was scowling as she approached. “Ystella!”

Ystella kept walking toward her grandmother. “Yes, Grandmother?”

“Who is that?” She flapped her hand at Magnus.

“This is my mate, Magnus. We have just come from the Crossroads.”

Bryt looked him over. “What is he?”

Magnus inclined his head. “Too old for this shit.”

Her grandmother drew her head back. “What?”

“I am a tortoise who has seen centuries come and go. You have given Ystella attitude because of her spirit, and that I cannot abide. She was born to stand out, to be the embodiment of wild magic, and you threw her out.”

Her grandmother paled. “You know about that?”

“I do. She is my mate. Her woes are mine, and though we could not be balanced at the Crossroads, we will live as man and wife with our backs to each other, defending ourselves against the world.”

She blinked and smiled slowly. Her parents were beaming, and her sisters were looking at her battered mate with fascination. Her grandfather was laughing is ass off.

Her grandmother paused for a moment and then regrouped. “You are truly a unicorn?”

“I truly am. I know how fussy you are on our mangled genes, so I didn’t want to tell anyone.”

Her grandmother looked abashed. “Can I see?”

Ystella inclined her head. “You may as well.”

She went behind the nearest shed and stripped. She stepped out as her equine self with her horn sparkling in the sun.

Her family looked at her as she pranced toward them, and her sisters squealed and rushed up to her, throwing their arms around her neck. Her mother cried and stroked her forehead. Her father got a measuring tape and looked at her horn.

Her grandmother was wobbling in place, and Magnus moved to catch her when she collapsed.

Bryt had her hand over her mouth, and she was shaking. “There hasn’t been a unicorn born to a herd for centuries.”

She kept staring.

Magnus filled in some details for her. “Your granddaughter was conceived at the Crossroads to two very strong and determined people. Wild magic came into her at birth.”

Bryt stood and pulled away. “How do you know that?”

“The Crossroads keeps records.”

Magnus stood at the ready in case Bryt collapsed again.

Her mother looked around. “Ystella, do you know that healing herbs and wild flowers are growing where you step?”

Ystella nodded carefully. Her father was still fascinated with the horn.

Bryt asked Magnus, “Why weren’t you balanced? Isn’t that traditional with creatures of power?”

“It is, but the wild magic is not suitable for the Crossroads. We didn’t want to blow a hole in the place, so we just left as standard mates.”

Bryt straightened. “I will make some calls. I will see if there is a mage out there who can do what needs to be done.”

“There is one, but she lives at the Crossroads.”

“And she couldn’t do it.”

“We would be an explosion in a paper bag.”

Bryt nodded. “So, we will see if we can remove the bag. There has to be somewhere on earth where you can spill extra magic and not have it strike a population.”

Ystella couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her grandmother was scheming to get her a balance ceremony on the heels of her being disowned and banished. Life could certainly turn on a dime, but looking on the bright side, she might have more life with Magnus than either of them thought.

 

It took seven months of negotiations, but finally, Ystella was dressed in a flowing gown and holding a bouquet made of the wildflowers that she now trailed in any form where she touched earth.

She walked out of the white fluttering tent with her sisters walking in front of her. Music was playing, and mage Melwiss was standing at the center of the three-part platform. Her sisters led her toward the stairs, and she lifted the edge of her skirt, stepping up to the platform, and she stood on her mark.

The mage was wearing a catcher’s mask and protective padding. She raised her hands and began the ceremony.

When power began to flow out of her, Ystella remained calm. Her body was overfilled, and now that power was flowing toward Magnus, she was worried.

Her family was nearby; the descendants of his siblings were there to watch their great-uncle several times removed get balanced.

Melwiss kept pulling the power until she apparently got bored. The existing magic was mixed, divided, and it began to flow into them once again.

Magnus’s eyes were wide, and he looked over at her in surprise as his skin smoothed and took on a slightly olive tone. He was getting younger.

She smiled. She didn’t feel any different herself, but a look at her hands showed that her skin had shifted into the more mahogany spectrum.

Melwiss straightened and lifted her hands, “And now to release the extra energy.”

The pulse shot out of her and spread across the small, isolated island.

Ystella walked over to Magnus, and he met her halfway. “How do you feel?”

“Strong. Energised. Younger.”

She stroked his cheek. “You look younger, but I wanted you scarred and scruffy, I will get used to you being pretty.”

He growled and wrapped his arms around her, bending her back and kissing her thoroughly. When he released her, she was laughing and her heart was finally in the right place with the right man. It had just taken a little bit of hiding until the right man found her.

 

* * * *

 

For thirty kilometers, flowers bloomed and barren sand sprouted lush and vibrant flowers and healing herbs. All women and men attending the balance ceremony were blessed with fertility, and no one really took into consideration that they had just witnessed the bonding of a goddess and her consort.

They would figure that out much later.