Page 100 of Stubborn as a Shadow

Her soft laugh bubbled into the air and filled me with joy. “I am so proud of you. I love you. Always remember that.”

And then she let go. I tried to follow her, but I couldn’t move. She disappeared into the woods, just like she’d done when Uncle Fraser had arrived and found me. Then the misty fog swirled through the trees, and the woods disappeared.

I blinked.

And I was sitting at the table in the Willow Lake Inn again.

“Morgan?” Nelson pulled me into his arms. “Are you okay?”

Almost everyone was staring at me. Except Teague. The death mage was staring at the crystal in my hand. While I’d been in the memory, the crystal had broken in two. The quartz, which had been clear earlier, was now filled with the same murky mist that’d accompanied the vision.

“Morgan? Talk to me,” Nelson said. “Are you okay?”

“You didn’t see?”

“We didn’t see anything except you staring at the stone. Then it broke when you blinked and dropped out of the memory.”

“Oh…” I swallowed.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. But let me know, are you okay?”

Around the table, others started to cry. I blinked, surprised to discover I had tears in my eyes. Oh no, I never cried in public. I wiped the tears from my cheeks and tried to get control. Unicorns shouldn’t cry around other people. I knew that.

“I… It was all for nothing,” I whispered. “I didn’t see my unicorn parents. There was no herd. My mother wasn’t a unicorn. Uncle Fraser died trying to get this crystal so I could find my family. And it was all for nothing. I don’t have a family.”

Nelson rubbed my back. “You aren’t making sense. Everyone comes from somewhere…”

I shook my head and pressed my face against Nelson’s neck. “Not me.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Eternal Magic created me. Mother Magic is my literal mother.”

“Holy shit,” Jeremy exclaimed from the other room. “I didn’t see that coming.”

And based on the stunned silence in the room, he’d just summed up what everyone else was thinking. Including me.

Then another realization hit me and I groaned. “Oh my rainbows! My mother was there when we became mates.” I gulped in horror. “She’s a voyeur.”

37

UNICORNS AREN’T SUPPOSED TO CRY

NELSON

I ignored Morgan’s tearful opinion about the Eternal Magic’s kinks. And thankfully, everyone else did too.

“No one says a word about this. No one.” I scowled at everyone sitting around the table. They all nodded, even the vampire. Then I urged Morgan to stand. “We’ll talk about everything else later.”

No one stopped us from leaving the dining room. Jeremy and Adrian, who had been sitting on the steps leading to the second floor, scrambled out of the way as I led Morgan by them. I doubted my mate even noticed where I’d brought him. He was still too caught up in whatever he’d seen in that crystal.

I wished we’d been alone for that. And I hated that so many people had heard his secrets and seen his shock. Particularly the vampire.

How had the vamp even gotten his hands on that crystal? How had he known Morgan wanted it? How did he know Morgan was Rudy Tada?

I had too many unanswered questions. I didn’t like it.

But for the moment, none of that mattered.