Page 3 of Stubborn as a Shadow

Again, not what I expected.

Then the portal vanished.

I blinked into the darkness for several long minutes, waiting to see what would happen next. When nothing did, I leaned back in my cage.

No one had ever accused me of being a patient person, and I had no intention of waiting around here. Not if I could figure out a way to escape.

I just wished my tongue wasn’t throbbing so much. Sheesh. Had I bitten right through it? I poked at my tongue with my finger. It seemed to all be attached still, so there wasn’t anything to do about how sore it was. It’d heal. Eventually.

Now what?

I looked around for inspiration. Nothing came to me. But Jack Reacher wouldn’t let something like this stop him. Angus MacGyver wouldn’t either. I could brainstorm this. My uncle always said I had more ideas popping up in my skull than popcorn at a movie theater.

“Okay, start with the lock,” I said. I winced when my sore tongue banged up against my teeth. Maybe talking was a bad idea. I brushed my finger over it again, as if that’d make it feel better.

Then I reached through the bars of the cage and felt around the lock. There was no key—not that I’d expected one, but a unicorn could hope. I knew the lock had been reinforced with magic; some of the others had figured that out pretty early in our captivity. And now I swore I could feel the magic under my finger like an invisible entity that made my skin tingle.

“What in the rainbow…?”

Magic zinged along my finger, across the back of my hand, and up my arm. Oh. Was this my magic finding a way to break through the lock?

After finding out I was a unicorn, my uncle had conducted a lot of experiments. All those stories about unicorn tears? Yeah. They were all hooey. But what if my spit was magical? Or my blood?

Could that be enough to break through the magic sealing the lock? I shook the door. It was still stuck.

I yanked my hand back inside the cage and gathered up a big mouthful of bloody spit, then dropped it into my palm. I smeared that on the whole mechanism. My hand was tingling all over as I worked my spitty concoction into the lock.

Something clicked.

My heart pounded. Was this it? I stared at the door for several long seconds before testing it. The door swung open.

I gaped. Then I was scrambling out of the cage I’d been trapped in for way too long. My legs were all wiggly and jiggly as I tried to stand. How long had it been since I last did this? I had no idea… and apparently my body was a teensy bit forgetful, because I was like a newborn colt trying to keep my legs under me.

The pouch was sitting on the floor, mocking my escape. As long as they could track me, I’d never be free. I opened the pouch, thinking it was some kind of witch’s bag with a tracking spell, but the contents weren’t magical. A little rectangular object tumbled out. It had to be a tracking device.

That would never do.

I snapped it in half.

Then I remembered the bump on my arm. I bet they’d put something in there too. All the caged supes complained about similar bumps. I used the sharp edge of the broken tracker to dig into my skin. It took longer than I’d have liked, but I finally got the second device out of my arm. I broke it in half like the other one. I wasn’t a super strong supe like some, but I could do that much.

I rubbed over the rest of my body to see if I had any other strange lumps or bumps, but I didn’t feel anything.

Yes! I shimmied. I was absolutely rocking my escape.

Now to get out of this… whatever it was… and find my way home.

I just wished I knew where I’d been before I was pushed through that portal. Then I could help all those other people too. But if I could break free, everyone could! I truly believed that. Especially if the whispers were right, and the heroes were already on site. Yes, I could feel it right down to my hooves (or, at least I would if I was shifted)—everything was going to be brilliant from here on out.

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AS EASY AS FINDING A UNICORN IN A GRAIN BIN… OR NOT

NELSON

People used the word “unicorn” to describe the rarest of the rare. The thing that was more myth than reality. The thing that made you question if it even existed.

Yeah.