When she is just steps away from the inferno, she throws the heart into the burning flames. A burst of blood red fire shoots high into the air, knocking everyone off balance with its intense heat. Hattie never falters. She once again holds an open palm in the air, this time aiming it at the fire. She closes her hand while commanding, “Wepụta ọkụ.”
The fire immediately dissipates. The coven comes to an abrupt silence. I turn my attention to Zoë. She looks like she’s in shock. The ground beneath our feet begins to shake. She turns to look at me, her face covered in worry. We are suddenly engulfed in darkness. Our environment changes with lightning quick speed.
When the world stops spinning, we settle in to our new surroundings.
We stand in a clearing of a dense forest. The earth beneath our feet is frozen, the spotty grass covered in a thick frost. Everything holds a deep purple hue under the cover of darkness. Moonlight trickles down through the bare tree branches adding a touch of sparkle to the frost. I hear my name being called, but it’s far away. I look around trying to locate the voice. I see Zoë, but she isn’t standing next to me. She’s at least forty feet away and an icy pond separates us. I call out to her.
She looks up to the sky and an expression I can’t place crosses her face. “Emma, lookout!” she yells to me as she points her finger to the space over my head. I look up just in time to duck out of the way of quickly descending hooves attached to a beautiful white creature.
At first I see it as a horse—an animal that is familiar to me. I quickly realize that the animal has wings and has just flown in for a landing over my head. Could it be a Pegasus? As it settles itself into a slow trot, it turns back toward the pond where its true identity is revealed.
A gleaming white horn embellishes its forehead. As the creature tucks its wings in to its sides and steps confidently toward the water, I realize that this must be a unisus.
It lowers its head to inspect the ice-covered pond. The unisus reaches out one of his front hooves, places it on the ice and slowly leans its body weight into the leg. The ice shatters beneath its hoof and water gushes over the cracked pieces. It pulls back its foot and bends its head down for a drink.
As the unisus drinks, the water is illuminated with a trail of white light. Small, glittering droplets rise up into the air and delicately spread out, brightening the dark space with a soft luminosity.
I look over at Zoë. She is just as enthralled with the creature as I am. Her gaze is abruptly broken by the rustling of shrubbery on the far end of the pond. I follow her stare and see two young girls emerge. One chases the other. “Anna, no! Don’t go to it. It could hurt you!”
Their clothing is from another time. They wear white ankle length nightgowns and have dirt covered stockings on their feet. Their long wavy hair flows behind them as they run.
The girl who leads is younger, maybe eight or nine. The girl behind her stands a good foot taller, leading me to believe she is a young teenager. The taller girl reaches out for the other’s arm. “Anna, please, you mustn’t go to it. You don’t know what it is.”
“Let me go, Clara,” she fights back as she pries the taller girl’s fingers from her arm.
The taller girl continues to protest in a loud whisper, but stays where she is located. The younger girl slowly walks around the side of the pond that Zoë stands on and approaches the unisus as if it were a horse in her own stable. The creature takes a step back, leery of the young girl.
She makes a clicking noise with her mouth and holds her hand in the air, aimed at the nose of the unisus. The unisus whinnies like a horse and gives its head a little shake before leaning closer and sniffing her palm. Appearing to accept her offer, it nuzzles its nose into her hand. She rubs her hand up and down its face, nearing the horn but not touching it.
She turns back around. “Clara, its okay. Just come over.”
The creature relishes in the attention it receives, turning