“It was the Bright Boys who gave me the scars?”
“I didn’t see it happen, but Skya said they could be vicious like that.”
Rafe closed his eyes and let his head fall back in relief. Now he knew where his scars came from, finally had an answer to a question that had plagued him for years. And it was a much better story than a bobcat or barbed wire. He almost laughed. A little part of him had been afraid it was something…but it wasn’t. That’s all that mattered.
Rafe opened his eyes.
A tear landed on the unicorn’s face.
“Sorry, milady,” Jeremy said to the little creature. “Go back to sleep.”
“I’ve never seen you cry before,” Rafe said.
“Yes, you have.”
Rafe moved closer, as close as he dared. Without touching the unicorn, he leaned forward and, using the cuff of his shirt, wiped the tear off Jeremy’s face.
“Thank you,” Jeremy said.
“This place is where we were those six months?” Rafe asked. Jeremy nodded. “Why did we leave here?”
“That’s a long story and the Bright Boys are probably already on their way here. But the short answer is you.” He nodded toward Emilie. “Skya always left an empty place for you at the table.” Jeremy looked at Rafe, met his eyes. “I was going to go back home alone, but you wouldn’t let me leave without you. So Skya took us to the Witch of Black Wolf Cave. She’s the one everyone goes to when they need magic. The witch told Skya it was too dangerous to send us both back, dangerous for Shanandoah. One of us says there’s a magic kingdom through a door in the woods, and they think, ‘Oh, he’s crazy.’ Two of us say it? Maybe they go and look.”
“What did she do?”
“She divided the memories in half. I would remember this place and everything that happened here, but she took away my memory of how to get back. Red Crow would be like the Bermuda Triangle for me. And from you, she took all your memories of this world. But she let you remember—”
“How to get back,” Rafe said. “That’s why I drove here in my sleep?”
How often had he woken up in his truck to find he’d driven halfway to Red Crow? Six times? Seven?
“How did she make me forget everything?”
“She gave you a book. A sketchbook with a silver lock on it, like a diary. You had to draw in it everything you needed to forget. You shut yourself up in your room and drew all day and all night. The next morning, we rode to the Painted Sea and boarded the queen’s ship. We sailed a day and a night and another day to the farthest shore. Then we changed into our old clothes. What was left of them anyway. Our shoes didn’t fit anymore. I was given a map of Red Crow. I had to burn it. That’s how I was made to forget the way back to the door in the tree. Then you shut your book and locked it with the combination. You passed out.” Jeremy snapped his fingers. “When you woke up, all your memories of our time here were gone.”
Rafe nodded but didn’t speak. That was it. That’s exactly what it had always felt like…that he’d locked up his memories, and if he’d only had the key…
“The spell came with one rule,” Jeremy said. “One ironclad rule that could never be broken—I couldn’t tell you. If I told you, we’d never be allowed to come back. Before you locked your book, you looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Whatever I do, whatever I say, no matter how much I beg you, don’t tell me anything.’ ”
Rafe closed his eyes and exhaled. “God. Jay…”
“But I wanted to tell you. A thousand times a day, I wanted to tell you. But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to lie to you, and I couldn’t tell the truth, so the only other option was to stay away from you.” The unicorn lifted her head for a chin scratch. “They love having their chins tickled. On the worst days, the days I wanted to tell you the most, I told myself if we ever wanted to scratch unicorn chins again, I needed to keep my big mouth shut. Right, milady?”
She bleated softly, just like a toy trumpet.
“I know,” Jeremy said to the unicorn, talking the way everyone does when addressing a small animal or a baby. “You’re exactly right.”
“What did she say?” Rafe asked.
“She said you should pet her.”
“I don’t want to scare her.”
“You won’t scare her.”
Rafe held out his hand to the unicorn and waited.
She turned her regal head and pushed her velvet nose into his outstretched palm. His fingertips brushed the shimmering horn, and he felt a laugh bubble up in his soul, but he kept it inside. He stroked her silky jaw and her ears and neck and yes, yes, it did feel like holding a cloud in his hand.
Jeremy said, “Welcome home, Rafe.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Jay.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“Yes, I do.”
All his anger at Jeremy, all the bitterness, which was simply another name for loneliness, fled like shadows at the touch of the sunlight.
“Is there more?” Rafe asked.
“A little more,” he said. “It’s all in your book of memories.”
“Then let’s go find—”
Suddenly, a hundred or more unicorns appeared in the clearing. White unicorns, silver-gray unicorns, black unicorns with golden eyes…Rafe inhaled and froze in fear and wonder and awe. The unicorn in Jeremy’s lap raised her head and blinked. One large unicorn stepped forward and snorted his mild displeasure.
“Better run along, milady,” he said. “Don’t get us into trouble with your father.”
