We're practically flying, that's how fast he is. The palace grounds soon become a speck in the distance, and we're blazing through the enchanted forest.

"Stop! Right there!" Not far behind us is Queen Liana on a black unicorn, and several male elves on normal horses. "Reyna Edith, how dare you corrupt a pure white unicorn?!" She screams.

"How dare you keep humans from returning to their own worlds?!" I scream back. The fairy queen flies up off of her unicorn into the air.

"Magnum!" She commands. "Kill the Halfling!" The dark beast rears and charges, his spiraled horn coming straight for me. No....

"No!" Acadium roars, rearing and dumping me on the ground before charging his fellow unicorn. The two kick up dust. I hear their horns scrape once, and I hear a sickening squish and scream of agony. The dust falls.

Acadium stands over a still black unicorn, blood dripping from his horn and staining his pristine coat in large red splotches. Queen Liana gasped and pointed at me. "Look what you have done! You have defiled a pure beast!" Before I can respond, Acadium returns to my side and pushes me back on his back with his nose. This time, we are no longer being followed.

He finally stops at the stairway. The places where blood splashed against his coat are now staining deep brown. "Now do you understand why you must listen?" I nod.

"Yes, Acadium.... But what will you do now?"

"I do not know. I will face punishment in the Land of the Fey. Liana will have me killed, and as I am no longer pure, my powers will fade slowly." He turns his long face towards me and walks towards me so that his front feet are now on the human side of the Conestoga Gate.

"Might you.... Permit me to enter the Human World with you? Just as Melody did with Matthew? Perhaps.... Maybe then I could eventually erase this sin, just as Melody did." I nod quickly and hug the unicorn around his neck and press a quick kiss on his nose.

"Of course." What I don't expect is for the unicorn's form to be engulfed in harsh light. Slowly, the form morphs and shrink to be only slightly taller than I am. When the light fades, the unicorn is no longer in my arms.

Instead, it is a boy with pale blond hair with darker streaks and brown irises containing flecks of gold. He's wearing a thin white tunic and brown pants. I jolt and am about to let go when he holds me closer to him.

"Reyna, don't you recognize me?" He asks in a light yet deep voice. I look up at him. Now, I can recognize some similarities. The eyes, the hair, and even the nose elude to who it is. But the voice gives him away completely. He looks so different now though....

"Acadium?" I ask tentatively. A soft smile breaks out across his face.

"Yes. But please call me by my true name, Cade." So, Acadium hasn't even been his real name at all?" Before I can ask anything else, he presses a single finger against my lips gently. "I was an elven student in training by Queen Liana. I was to be her next seer. I saw a future event though, in which a human would topple her reign. The next day, she instilled the laws of the land that dragged humans into her bondage if they drank anything in the land of the Fey." He looks down at me. "It was my fault, Reyna. I'm sorry-" it's my turn to quiet him this time with my own finger. His cheeks tint pink slightly.

"What did you do to be a unicorn?" He sighs.

"The first human she trapped, was a little boy. He was only five years old... I protested for her to release him, but instead she made him responsible for exercising the timber wolves...." I cover my mouth. No... "The poor boy never lasted five minutes. And as punishment for protesting her methods of ruling, I was placed under a curse that trapped me in a unicorn's form." He slips a gentle hand under my chin. "That curse could've been broken only by defying one to help another." His brown eyes glitter. "You broke it, Reyna." I shake my head.

"No, you released me. I would still be in the palace if not for you."

"I would still be a Monoceros if not for you!" I roll my eyes, but I have to say, I like Cade's personality better than Acadium's. Before we can argue more, he finally says, "we freed each other." Somehow I find my arms reaching up and wrapping around his neck when he says this. His arms wrap around my waist firmly as he holds me close.

"I owe you my freedom," he whispers lowly into my ear.

"And I owe you mine," I sigh. He presses a very light kiss on my cheek before we let go of each other completely except for our hands. The sun is rising, and panic surges through me.

"Cade? How much has passed?" The taller boy closes his eyes briefly.

"We were lucky. It's only been two days."

"We need to hurry! My dad's probably worried sick and-!" I can't finish because Cade has cut me off by lightly placing his lips over mine. When we finally break apart, he flashes me a little smirk.

"Better?" I shake my head, but I'm grinning like an idiot.

"Yeah, I'm better."

Hand in hand, we descent the stairway in the cliffs together. Once we have descended the final step and are on the solid earth of Port Deposit, Cade speaks in an odd tone.

"I can see a beautiful future in store for us." I look at him strangely.

"I thought you said that you would slowly lose your powers?" He gives me a bright smile.

"I don't need powers to see that."