Sebastian! Are you there?The words echoed through the fog that permeated my brain.
Anna’s voice, now, be only a dull echo in my head. I couldn’t rouse myself enough to answer. The Liberi women no longer had to surround me to control me. Without my horn, I be bound to my beast form, limited to what only muscle and bone could provide.
I be not a Unicorn anymore.
Not being able to feed from the life essences meant a slow, lingering death for me. I could eat and drink. But although I may look like a horse, I be not one. Without access to the energy, I would die by degrees.
I should have known Galeran would try something like this. He had, after all, killed Nikolai’s mother. The surge of power Nikolai absorbed at his birth be what had awakened the Perditor in him.
Dehorning me be nothing compared to that.
They had dragged me into a stall, thrown me hay, filled the bucket with water, and left me.
The walls’ lower halves be solid stone with metal bars above them to the ceiling. I’d spent the first three hours trying to kick my way out. All I had to show for it be chipped hind feet. The walls bore the marks of many angry residents.
I be no more powerful than them. Even the door be beyond me now.
I spent hours staring at the bare walls. And then, footsteps shuffled outside the bars. I glowered at Galeran.
He be not alone. “Aren’t you a pretty horse?” Finn, the Torshin, crowed.
Galeran’s eyes glowed with a twisted kind of triumph as he stared at me. “I have something special in mind for you. Finn be in charge of the breeding program at this farm. I wish to produce mounts for those of us that cannot shift to four legs.”
He gestured to the animals within the other stalls. “The Trantils bred here are the best across the realms, and much in demand. But I wish something—more—in our future mounts. So Isobel has developed a way to cross Bellati beast genes with Trantils to produce something extraordinary.”
Galeran’s expression remained stiff, but a sick kind of fascination lurked in his eyes. Finn smirked at me. Bellatis combined with Trantils? With a jolt, I made the connection.
I bared my teeth. “Never.” The word came out as little more than a grunt. I be mortified at how difficult it be for me to speak. The link to the human side of me be too weak, and the beast just wanted to scream.
Finn snorted a laugh. “What makes you think you will have a choice?”
I lunged at the front wall, my hooves crashing against the stone. But neither of them so much as flinched. Finn continued to leer at me as I raked my teeth over the bars.
Sebastian. Dammit, if you can hear me, answer.
I couldn’t do it. Anna belonged to a past that had provided a glimpse of what could be, and now, would never be. I be penned in a stall like a prized breeding stallion. Which, apparently, be destined to be my future.
For what be left of it, anyway.
Isobel appeared beside Galeran and Finn. She’d bound her hair back, revealing her ear with the intricate metal piece—a Dragon, this time. I focused on what she held in her hand—a braided white rope with red crystals worked right into it. It be knotted together to form a bitless bridle with long reins.
I flattened my ears at her. Surely, not.
She smiled at me as her hands fondled the rope. “Did you know that braided Liberi hair can conduct energy?”
No. I did not know that. Nor did I particularly wish to.
Galeran gestured to the Torshin. “I considered riding you into battle myself, but as you are, you are distinctly inferior to my Trantil stallion. Fortunately, Finn volunteered to break you in.”
Outrage flooded through me, but from deep inside, a spark formed. If I be with Galeran every time they gated to and from their targets, it gave me an opportunity to glean the information I needed to send to Anna. It could make all this worthwhile.
Didn’t mean I wouldn’t fight Finn with everything I had. Because they would expect it. And there be no way I would carry that Torshin monster willingly, like a common beast of burden.
So I peeled my equine lips back from my teeth and did what no ordinary horse could do. I spoke, focusing hard to make sure the words be clear.
“Just try it.”
Finn’s smirk broadened. “I thought you’d never ask.”
