Chapter 18

Aunicorn! There is a unicorn here!

Caleb’s dragon snorted and twisted its head around, smoke rising from its nostrils in curling streams as it searched about, looking for the source of this spine-tingling feeling that told him a unicorn was somewhere nearby.

All right, calm down,Caleb told it, trying to tamp down on the dragon’s wild instincts. You already knew there was a unicorn baker in this town, after we ate that cupcake. So just be sensible and don’t cause a fuss. And in any case, it’s definitely not in Kira’s car.

Unicorns and dragons weren’t enemies as such, but it didn’t change the fact that a dragon was a territorial beast, and having another mythical shifter around could sometimes make it edgy. Another powerful shifter meant potential competition, despite the fact that Caleb was pretty sure that a shifter living amongst humans wasn’t even slightly interested in fighting.

“So, uh, who is this friend we’re going to see?” Caleb asked Kira as casually as possible as she pulled the car up in a parking space, cutting the engine. He wasn’t certain how a baker exactly could help them, but he was certain that Kira didn’t know they were a unicorn, and it wasn’t his business to tell. That was something whoever this unicorn was would have to decide for themselves.

“He’s the husband of a good friend of mine,” Kira said, flashing him a grin. “He runs the garden center in town – he knows everything about every kind of plant. I’ve never seen him misidentify a single one, even after just glancing at them, and he’s got the greenest thumb of anyone I’ve ever known. There’s nothing he can’t grow – people bring him their dying houseplants and he has them looking lush and green as anything in no time. He can even make roses flower in the middle of winter. It’s seriously amazing.”

Caleb thought over what Kira had said as he got out of the car.

So it seems like I was mistaken. The unicorn isn’t the baker.

He didn’t know a lot about unicorns, but he did know they were in tune with nature, in a very special way – they could grow anything, anytime, anywhere. In the past, unicorns had grown medicinal herbs and made healing tonics and potions, but these days, they were more likely to be found working as gardeners, landscapers or foresters – anything where they could be around plants and get their hands dirty. A nursery and garden center sounded exactly like the kind of place he’d expect to find a unicorn.

But I wonder if a unicorn would expect to find me?

Caleb’s question was answered a moment later as they approached the front gate of the garden center, located on the main street just down the road from where Kira had parked her car. There were lush, green plants, just as healthy-looking as Kira had said they would be, lining the sidewalk outside the front gate – and, as Caleb watched, a man – tall, with dark hair and wearing a pair of coveralls – suddenly came bolting out of it, looking around as if trying to get his bearings.

Yep,Caleb thought, that’s definitely a unicorn.

Even if the tingling sensation at the back of his neck hadn’t been telling him there was another mythical shifter nearby, Caleb would have been able to tell at a glance – though it was invisible to humans, to his shifter eyes, the unicorn was very slightly shimmering in the pale fall sunlight. A pale gold and pink aura surrounded him as he turned toward where Kira and Caleb stood, and his eyes narrowed.

I’m not here to cause any trouble,Caleb thought, hoping he was projecting a calm and friendly aura himself. He actually had no idea how good unicorns were at reading auras – maybe they couldn’t at all. But Caleb hoped he wouldn’t do anything rash, particularly not in front of Kira.

“Gale,” Kira called, raising her hand to wave as they got closer to each other. “How are you? Do you have a moment to talk?”

“I’m fine. Never better.” Gale’s voice sounded a little strained, his eyes moving from Kira to Caleb and back again. “And… sure. I can take a few minutes. What’s up?”

Kira hesitated, glancing up at Caleb, and Caleb realized her dilemma. Can you show us how to prepare this potentially deadly poisonous mushroom so my friend here can eat it? could not have been a question she’d had to ask very often.

“It’s a little complicated,” Caleb said. “But I think once we’ve gotten a few things sorted out, I’ll be able to explain everything better.”

The unicorn – Gale – narrowed his eyes. “Okay,” he said, after a slight pause. “Well, I guess you’d better come in and have a cup of tea with me then, and I can listen to what you have to say.”

He still sounded just slightly stand-offish, and it was clearly confusing Kira. Her eyebrows drew together as Gale turned away, leading them back inside the garden center.

“Maybe we caught him at a busy time,” she whispered as they began following him. “But I really don’t want to wait a second longer to –”

“It’s not that,” Caleb said, cutting her off gently. “I think… I think probably things will become a bit clearer soon.”

Kira opened her mouth, but then apparently decided she could wait to find out whatever that meant.

“Kira!”

Caleb looked up at the sound of a woman’s voice from across the room. Standing there was a pretty, black-haired, green-eyed woman, her hair pulled back in a bun, smiling as she crossed the room.

She is the unicorn’s mate.

His dragon’s instincts flared up, telling him in an instant that it was true. So that was why the unicorn was here – he’d clearly found his mate in Girdwood Springs, and decided to stay. It made Caleb feel a little easier about the situation – the unicorn wasn’t here trying to establish a territory, or anything like that. He’d clearly just wanted to be where his mate was.

“Sylvie, I’m sorry if we’re interrupting something,” Kira said, as she and her friend pulled each other into a quick hug. “I’m afraid what we have to ask may sound a little weird. And it might be a little complicated.”

“Oh? Well, now you’ve got me interested,” Sylvie said, cocking her head and raising an eyebrow. Her eyes moved to Caleb, widening a little in surprise as she looked him over. “And this is…?”

“Oh, sorry, I’ve been so rude, not introducing you!” Kira said, throwing her hands up and turning to Caleb. “Sorry – I forget you’re new in town, because it just feels like I’ve known you forever now, and – um.” Kira cut herself off, her face coloring a little – something that Caleb had to admit he found utterly beguiling. “Sylvie, Gale – this is Caleb. We just met. He’s my – um. I – I guess you could say that we – uh –”

“We’re mates,” Caleb said firmly. If Gale was a unicorn and Sylvie was his mate, then there was no point in dancing around it. They’d know what he meant, and they’d understand what he and Kira were to each other.

Beside him, he could sense Kira’s confusion as she looked up at him, her mouth going wide.

“Caleb –”

“It’s all right, Kira,” Sylvie said reassuringly, glancing up at Gale, who nodded at her, as if to affirm that it was all right to reveal what he was. “I know what he means. Because Gale is my mate.”

Kira gasped, her eyes going wide. “Gale? Gale is – a dragon?!”

Caleb didn’t miss the way Gale’s shoulders stiffened slightly as she said it, but he didn’t really blame him – he might have had the same reaction if someone had called him a unicorn!

“No – not quite,” Gale said, shaking his head. “But I am a shifter. A unicorn shifter.”

“A – a unicorn shifter?” Kira’s mouth was hanging open, her eyes wide. “All – all this time, you’ve – you’ve really been a unicorn?!” She turned to Sylvie. “And you didn’t tell me?! I thought you were my friend!”

Sylvie laughed lightly, raising her hands. “I’m sorry! I did want to tell you – but you have to admit, it’d be kind of a difficult thing to believe, right? And honestly, it’s a little bit complicated. People don’t really know about shifters – telling you about Gale meant revealing the truth about all shifters, and we weren’t sure we wanted that responsibility. But believe me, it’s been tough sometimes keeping it to myself.”

“Wow. Okay. I just – wow.” Kira shook her head. “And here I thought I had some mind-blowing news to tell you. And it turns out you’re married to a unicorn.”

Sylvie laughed. “Believe me, Kira – if you’ve found your mate too, then I am pretty mind-blown. And happy for you. You won’t know what’s hit you for a while, but it’s all worth it.”

Sylvie put her arm around Gale’s waist, while he rested his arm on her shoulder, both of them looking as deliriously happy and content with each other as Caleb had always dreamed he’d be with his mate, if he ever managed to break the curse and find her. And now, it seemed, he’d found her despite the curse – but he still needed to try to find a way to break it.

“I’m sorry if I was a little… well, tense, before,” Gale said, a smile on his face. “It was a bit of a surprise – sensing a dragon shifter out of nowhere like that. I’ve been getting a bit of a weird feeling the last few weeks, but I wasn’t sure if it was just my unicorn acting up.” He frowned slightly. “But how long have you been in town now?”

“Just a couple of days,” Caleb said. “But it wasn’t just your imagination. There have been dragons around – and these ones you can definitely get a bad feeling about. Tongle Heit Developments is a completely dragon-run organization.”

Sylvie sucked in a quick, shocked breath. “The developers who’re trying to buy up the parklands? They’re dragons?”

Caleb nodded. “That’s right – that’s why they’ve been so persistent. Other developers might pack up and leave, but Tongle Heit… well, it’s clear they want the Girdwood Springs parklands to add to their hoard. And getting between a dragon and something it wants… well. It’s not easy. So I’m helping Kira to find the documents she needs to prove the land is held in trust.”

“That’s actually what we came here to ask your help with,” Kira said. “Well, part of it. Uh.” She glanced up at Caleb. “Do you want to explain the bad luck curse, or shouldI?”

“Okay, okay, wait just a second,” Sylvie said, holding up her hands. “This sounds like a conversation that calls for tea. And cake. A lot of cake.”

As it turned out, the conversation did run a lot more smoothly over cake – it helped, Caleb supposed, that it was literally the most delicious cake he’d ever eaten in his entire life. But he supposed it made sense, given it had all been made with spices and other ingredients that had been grown by the hand of a unicorn.

“… So, you think eating these deadly mushrooms is the key to breaking this curse,” Sylvie said slowly, frowning.

“They’re not always deadly,” Kira told her. “If they’re prepared in a certain way, then apparently they’re completely fine. I just don’t know how to do it – you know what a lousy cook I am.”

“And even if I did know, I wouldn’t want to risk it,” Caleb said. “I’m just as likely to set all the mushrooms on fire accidentally as anything else. The curse has a way of creating these kinds of situations.”

“I can imagine,” Gale said, wincing. “I wasn’t under what you’d call a curse when I first arrived here, but my unicorn’s magic was definitely out of control – everything I touched burst into flower. I couldn’t do a thing without risking everyone seeing it. It wasn’t as bad as what you’ve had to deal with, but it wasn’t exactly convenient, either.”

“Oh – what solved it in your case?” Kira asked, leaning forward.

“Finding Sylvie.” Gale smiled. “Sorry – in my case, it was just my unicorn having a temper tantrum, so once it got what it wanted it calmed down a bit. This is something completely different.”

Caleb sighed. “Yeah. I wish finding my mate had cured this, but enough things have happened over the past couple of days to convince me that even though Kira and I have found each other, I’m still under the curse.”

“Well, how about you show me the mushrooms you found?” Gale asked. “I haven’t seen them before, but if they have any magical properties, my unicorn will be able to sense them. Perhaps I’ll even be able to figure out what we need to do with them.”

After Kira had passed him the bag filled with mushrooms, Gale carefully sprinkled a few of them out onto a napkin to make sure they stayed together, before just as carefully resealing the bag.

“Hmm,” he said, leaning down to inspect them. “Okay. Yeah. I can see it – my unicorn is definitely having a reaction to these.” He reached out, poking one with a finger. “They’re okay to touch – it’s just ingesting them that’ll cause problems. And… they’re not going to taste very nice. I can tell you that now. As in, they’re going to be rancid. If you want to eat enough to break the curse, you’re going to have to disguise the taste somehow.”

“Maybe I can help there,” Sylvie said. “I’ve been trying out a few different things with savory cupcakes recently. I’m not sure I can make them pleasant, but I can sure try to up rancid to edible.”

Caleb laughed. “Well, I guess that’s about as much as I can ask for. That, and that they don’t kill me when I eat them.”

“Hmm.” Gale’s forehead creased. He picked up one of the mushrooms, turning it over in his fingers. “C’mon, what’re you hiding. I know there’s got to be a safe way to eat you, if you’re the way to break the curse.”

Caleb had to admit he was mildly fascinated, watching a unicorn having a conversation with a mushroom.

“I think… I think it needs some kind of fire,” Gale said at last, after communing with the mushroom for a moment or two more. “If you can set it on fire… or something like that… then that’ll make it safe to eat. Does that sound like it gives you any clues?”

Caleb nodded. “The parchment I saw did mention something about flames – so perhaps that’s what it was referring to. The sentence is only partially there, but that’s the general gist of it.”

“Hmm,” Sylvie said, nodding. “It’s been a while since I got the dessert torch out – not since I went through that crème br?lée phase.”

“Then you’ll help us turn it into something Caleb can eat?” Kira asked, her eyes bright with hopefulness. “You really think you can do it?”

Caleb felt his heart leap in his chest. Was he really so close to having his curse broken, after so many years? And even more important than that, was he about to be of use to his mate – to finally be able to use his dragon’s luck to make sure something that was important to her would never be taken away?

Caleb couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it just yet. But he also couldn’t stop the surge of hope that rose up within him, nor could he stop his smile from spreading across his face.

“Thank you,” he said sincerely to Gale and Sylvie. “You truly don’t know what this means to me.”

“Right,” Gale said, grimacing. “I was only temporarily under the thumb of a unicorn’s temper tantrum, and that was bad enough. I can’t imagine what you’re going through. But if I can help, I will.”

Sylvie put her hand down on Gale’s. “And I feel just the same way. I know how happy having Gale in my life has made me. So if I can help a friend of mine have happiness like that – well, obviously, I’m going to do whatever I can to help. Besides which, it sounds like breaking this curse could help get Tongle Heit out of our hair for good.” Laughing, Sylvie leaned forward, patting Kira on the shoulder. “And look, even if the future of the parklands weren’t at stake, I’d still do it. Not only are you my friend, I never could resist a baking challenge. And making curse-breaking cupcakes out of poisonous mushrooms? Now that’s what I really call a challenge.”