Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

"No!"
    The spear shot through the air.

Chapter 44

The spear struck, quivering into the unicorn's arched neck. The animal screamed and rose on his hind legs as the pole of the spear dangled to the ground and blood sprayed out.
    "Will!" Tessa screamed. She leapt down from Hannibal's back and ran. She heard a dull, distant twang as she flung down the crossbow.
    The unicorn staggered forward. He buckled to his knees in front of Tessa and sank to the ground. As he dropped his head, his long, spiraled horn impaled the ground.
    "Do as I say, girl," said Gray Lily. "I can make him bleed forever. Or I can heal him. Which shall it be?"
    Tessa knelt beside him. The spear jerked in the grass as the unicorn's body shuddered. With every movement more blood seeped from the animal's neck. Tessa took hold of the spear in a trembling hand. One thrust deeper and the unicorn would die. This was the reason she was here.
    Will's thread would be freed if he died. If Tessa could prevent Gray Lily from taking it, he would be released. His must have been the first thread stolen; it only made sense. She gripped the cold weapon and closed her eyes. Kill the unicorn, Tessa .
    "No!" With a hoarse, sobbing cry Tessa pulled out the spear and fell to her knees. She couldn't do it. "I'm sorry," she whispered. The blood flowed freely from the unicorn's neck, crimson against pure white. Tessa pressed her hand on the jagged wound to try to slow it down, but bright blood ran slick and hot over her hand. The unicorn's head slumped to her lap.
    Tessa stared. The moment froze in her head and she couldn't move. She thought of a picture in a book--it seemed so long ago now--of a pathetic girl with sad eyes who just sat there while the unicorn bled. Tessa fisted her hands in frustration. She let out a cry of rage and sadness. She would not be that girl, that heartless, stupid girl.
    "Will." She whispered his name over and over, crooning reassurances to him and burying her face in the thick tangle of the unicorn's mane.
    But she'd failed. To find the key, to find the threads. She had failed at everything. She couldn't take care of herself, or anybody else, for that matter. She wasn't in control of anything and she couldn't fix anything. She was just a puppet on strings.
    Gray Lily stepped forward and, reaching out, offered her hand to Tessa. "Come now. He will be all right."
    Tessa blinked. She looked down at her hands. She had been stroking the unicorn's soft cheek, all the while smearing blood. Her hands were covered. The unicorn's eyes, Will's eyes, were closed, but the rounded belly moved with shallow breathing motions. He was still alive. Tessa raised her eyes to look up at Gray Lily. Slowly, gently, she slid the unicorn's head from her lap. With mechanical motions she forced herself to stand. Her bloodied hands clenched, she stood for a moment. Then, with a fierce scream, Tessa launched herself at Gray Lily.
    But Tessa's body slammed to a violent stop when Gray Lily lifted her slim, beringed hand. She touched Tessa's chest lightly with her fingers. "Come," Gray Lily said. Tessa looked down at the golden yellow stone that glowed in the center of her ring. Gray Lily's fingers pressed harder. Tessa cried out as a needle of icy cold pain shot through her.
    "At last," muttered Gray Lily. Her gentle tone was gone, stripped away like a discarded bit of costume jewelry. "I'm going to be rid of you once and for all, girl. You're not going back, not after what you've done."
    Tessa made herself look into Gray Lily's eyes. Eyes so filled with hate it seemed that they should burst. Gray Lily opened her dark mouth and begin to spew words. The noise rattled and coiled around Tessa like chains.
    "No," Tessa said. She tried to back away, but she couldn't move. Pain arced through her body, a hundred times worse now than it had been before. The pain brought tears as she stared down at the spot where Gray Lily's hand, wearing the silver ring, touched her.
    Tessa stared at the ring. She tried to focus on it, even as her vision became blurry. The stone was large. Pretty, Tessa thought with an odd detachment. Her head drooped toward it and she saw details within the polished stone. It was a rich, glowing yellow with a dark brown fleck deep within it. Like a splinter. Snatches of words buzzed in her head.
    A piece of a tree .
    Stone from wood .
    She carried a little yellow rock .
    Then a realization broke through Tessa's muddy thoughts like a beam of light through darkness.