something within me.
Drawing her up into my arms, I press my lips against her forehead, silently begging her to wake up and look up at me with her beautiful dark eyes.
She doesn’t wake, though.
Instead of warm with her usual life and vitality, her skin is cool to touch. She feels so remote from me. I want to weep and rage at how limp she rests in my arms. This never should have happened to her! She should have been able to accompany me between worlds without complication like any other mare. My mate ceases to make sense to me. She is even afraid to mount me. Never have I heard of such a thing.
But it does not matter. She is mine, and I will never allow this again if I can help it! I will do everything in my power to woo and win her so that never again will I be forced to allow her to endure the portal.
A hand clamps on my shoulder, dragging my attention from my mate and I meet the goblin’s green eyes. For once, he is not smiling or laughing. Instead, he squeezes my shoulder knowingly.
“She’ll be all right,” he says gruffly, glancing down at her with a certain fondness in his eyes that would have made me defensive if not for the anguish consuming me. “Never heard of a human making it through a portal conscious before, actually. She held out better than I expected.”
I stiffen, my arms tightening around my mate to keep for lunging out to throttle to the male. She looks so vulnerable right now that it physically hurts me to know that I am a part of the reason that she is now like this. But mostly I burn with an intense anger toward the goblin.
“You knew?” I spit angrily. “You knew that it would affect her like that and did not warn us?”
If I had known, I would have hunted down one of the elvish portals and damned all the consequences.
Grimsal drops his hand only to bring it up to rub along his chin thoughtfully. “Not exactly. I had no way of knowing how it would affect her if she was awake through it. To my understanding, most humans pass out the moment they hit the void. Their minds are unable to deal with the nothingness and so they slip into shock. It doesn’t hurt them. Instead, it’s pretty peaceful. It even happens occasionally with the elvish portals, from what I hear. Theirs are a bit easier on the mind in most cases though, since they’re created in a way that makes a sort of artificial tunnel between the worlds. It is why so many of the fae species travel through them without suffering ill effects. I swear to you, your mate should have just slept the entire time. She must either have a very strong mind, or it has something to do with the unicorn magic inside of her. Likely a bit of both, if you ask my opinion,” he adds with a weak smile.
I snort and brush back my mate’s thick curls lovingly.
“My anhandral is quite strong,” I agree. “No doubt she will be an exceptionally powerful mare once we truly mate.”
“If you mate, you mean,” Grimsal reminds me, but wisely goes quiet when I shoot him a displeased glare.
“It will happen… eventually,” I amend, my heart constricting anxiously despite the hope that swells within it. “My Steph will see that I am a worthy male to call her own.”
“Hmm… Unicorn society really has its interesting checks and balances,” the goblin chuckles. “You are known far and wide for stealing females from their doting families, and yet in the end you’re completely at the mercy of your females. How positively delightful!”
“I am so glad you find it entertaining to see how our survival hinges on the acceptance of our mates,” I mutter dryly.
Grimsal snorts in amusement.
“And why wouldn’t I? Males and females all over the fae world use stories of unicorns to frighten their daughters into obeying, as if once you got your horn on them—so to speak,” he adds with a merry chuckle, “that their life is now yours. Knowing that you must seduce and earn your female’s favor is a delicious detail that really ought to be common knowledge.”
Easing my female against me to make her more comfortable when I scoop her up into my arms, I glare at my unwanted companion.
“Why is that? So they can encourage their daughters to stubbornly wait us