Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

face with his sword but was knocked aside, his shoulder split open to the bone by the unicorn's horn. The girl did not stay in the clearing as she was bid. She lost her wits from fear of the hounds and ran away. The unicorn followed her, stumbling and bloodied from the lances. He laid his head on her lap. The girl did scream and cover her face....
    Will's voice slowed and stopped. The muscles of his jaw were clenched, and his hands gripped the book so hard, Tessa could see the white of his knuckles straining through the skin.
    "Stop reading," she said in a faint voice. The wound on his cheek had broken and two fresh drops of blood clung to it, bright and glittering as tiny rubies.
    "No," said Will. He stared at her. "Listen." He looked down at the page and went on, sounding breathless now, almost as if he'd been running:
    They put the iron shackles on the unicorn and it lay still. The villagers didn't want it killed. Some of them even marked how the creature did seem to have a keen look to its eye. Almost human. I laughed again at that .
    Will stopped and let out a low breath, but his eyes stayed fixed on the words.
    They stayed back--wisely enough, as they had seen how the thing had nearly flayed a man open with its horn. They cowered in fear as I took the thread from the creature .
    I have my unicorn at last. He is woven into the tapestry and will remain imprisoned there forever. I am young again, beautiful and strong. I will travel far from this place, where no one will know me. My life is just begun .
    Will let the book drop. The thud as it hit the floor made Tessa jump.
    "She turned you into a unicorn," Opal breathed. "A real unicorn? And then she put you in the tapestry."
    "Yes." Will wiped his hands on his tunic, as if trying to clean them. "She steals the thread of a life, and from it she creates what she desires. Then she pulls the thread once more to place that creature in the tapestry." He stared at the tapestry. "There may even be others trapped within her woven spell. As I was."
    Tessa turned to Will as the realization of what had happened to him struck deep inside her. "They never knew the unicorn was you?" she said, looking up at his face. "The people of Hartescross, even your brother tried to--" She broke off.
    He faced her and his eyes narrowed on hers with a golden stare, blazing and cold at the same time. He touched the wound on his cheek.
    "Yes. They tried to kill me. My brother nearly succeeded."

Chapter 17

They read further, getting the rest of the story bit by bit. After capturing the unicorn and finishing her tapestry, Gray Lily had prospered. She'd moved from town to town, marrying and outliving (as she related in a gloating tone) a number of wealthy husbands. She became a lady of wealth and influence. And she never aged.
    She kept the tapestry locked away from harm and prying eyes.
    The last entry was dated October 12, 1842. Gray Lily was calling herself Madame Lillian Genoise and living in Paris.
    "Gray Lily. Lillian Genoise," Tessa murmured, and yawned. It was two in the morning. She rubbed her eyes. They felt like they'd been rolled in kitty litter. Not even clean kitty litter. All at once she stopped and straightened up. "Lila Gerome," she said.
    "Huh?" Opal's eyes were bleary too.
    "Lila Gerome," Tessa repeated. "That's who my father said the lawyer was working for." She looked at Opal and Will. "Could it be her? Is Lila Gerome really Gray Lily?"
    "Sounds like it," said Opal. She sat at Tessa's computer, tapping the keyboard, her eyes on the screen. "And she wants her stuff back."
    Give them back . Tessa shivered as she remembered the message. She pulled her sweater tighter around her and faced Will. "So Gray Lily took your life from you, as a thread. How did she do that? What happened?"
    Will gave her a strange, impassive look before casting his eyes down, remembering. "She spoke, making strange noises," he said, "like a demon from Hell. She held a small yellow stone. She touched it to my chest and a cold ache began. Here." He put a hand to his chest. "She pulled the thread from me, until there was nothing left." The memory of it seemed to bring back an echo of the pain. Will rubbed his chest absently, as if soothing a healed but still-tender wound.
    "Then she used your thread to make the unicorn," Tessa said. "Why a unicorn?"
    "I don't know," Will admitted with a weary shrug. "Perhaps as a creature of magic, I bestowed more strength to her."
    "Immortality," Tessa murmured. In answer