The eyes, so gray they were almost without color, widened and the Unicorn tossed its head. “Thaat is not something most can touch. Or should, for thaat matter.”
The life energy flowed through all living things, but Nikolai sensed how it fed the depths even as it was fed in return.
The Bellati was wrong. The core was key to everything.
Why could he touch that deep power, while others barely acknowledged its presence? What was his purpose, other than as a destroyer? Where did he fit in this great balance?
Perhaps he didn’t. He was an anomaly. A freak. Something to be squelched before he could bring it all down.
He understood, now, why the Watchers had come after him. And they hadn’t been wrong. Being a unicorn wasn’t so bad. The great cycle of life soothed away his angst and offered him only peace.
Yet something vital was missing. When he curled his long legs beneath him and lowered the tip of his horn to the ground at night, he dreamed of long red hair and wings the color of gold.
She is not your destiny.
The voice had become a permanent part of him, whispering through his dreams, speaking to him throughout the day. It showed him how to trace the energy that flowed around him to each individual source. To evaluate the strength, and the vulnerability. But it also wanted him to touch what the Bellati had said to leave alone.
The core energy,the voice supplied.
Nikolai sensed both the life and core energies, but bound by the runes, had no control over either.
You are a conduit. Your destiny is tied to my own.
Who are you?Nikolai asked it often, but never received an answer.
The voice was male, he was certain of it. But the Bellatis who accompanied him every moment of the day rarely spoke, even to each other. He didn’t think the voice belonged to any of them.
Despite the peace that surrounded and flowed through him, Nikolai never lost sight of the fact they were there to guard him. Even as they joined him in his grazing, their demeanor remained watchful. Alert, always, to anyone or anything that approached, and never more than feet away from him.
The Bellatis came and went around him in shifts. He observed them while pretending he was absorbed in his grazing, like any good animal would be. Now, as his strong teeth tore away the grass, he saw two more Bellatis rounding the hilltop.
The tension their arrival caused among his group was subtle, but there. Why would the arrival cause worry? Nikolai watched them as he grazed. It was a task suited to his equine body—his eyes enabled him to view everything other than narrow strips in front of his long nose, or directly behind.
The two newcomers arched their powerful necks as they approached, their ears flattened so that they disappeared into their thick manes. Their heads lowered until their horns were pointed straight at the group.
The numbers around Nikolai varied from day to day, but he had seven with him now. Three bowed their heads low and moved aside for the newcomers. The other four mimicked the arched neck, flattened ear posture, but their nerves showed in their clamped tails.
A newcomer stepped forward and tossed his head. His horn glowed with suppressed power. And from over the hill came three more, who lined up behind him.
The four guards exchanged glances, and snorted, shaking their manes, but one by one, they backed away. The five newcomers moved in and established themselves around Nikolai.
Nikolai had no idea what to make of it. There were undercurrents present that he didn’t comprehend. Were there factions among the Bellatis? Why would guarding Nikolai cause any conflict? He couldn’t imagine a more boring duty than following him around all day.
He expected his inner voice to express an opinion on the topic, but it remained silent.
He felt a difference in the new arrivals. These Bellatis moved to a rhythm all their own, as though united by a common cause. It didn’t quite make sense.
They escorted him into the forest. As they walked, the biggest Bellati suddenly blocked Nikolai’s path, and gestured with his horn to a smaller side trail.
“Thaat way,” he said.
“Whaat is down there?” Nikolai asked.
Your destiny,the inner voice answered.
Nikolai’s heart accelerated as he took the side path. It wound through the forest, opening finally into a large clearing. And it wasn’t empty.
Everything that the Bellatis were, or could ever be, folded into the creature that graced the center of the clearing. Rippling with muscle and glowing with life energy, he stood nearly seven feet at the shoulder. His coat was a deeper gray than the others, his mane and tail so long they trailed upon the ground.
