Now that they were outside the boundary, Chan couldn’t track the unicorns. But they didn’t need to, as hoofprints made a road through the mud and grass and straight into the forest. The trees blocked the moonlight, momentarily blinding Chan. Thank the Gods the flying carpets had an anti-crash spell, dodging around trees automatically.

A few seconds later, the silvery glow of dozens of unicorns caught his eye. Even before he closed in on them, their noises made him shiver. Their whinnies bordered on screams, banshee like and chilling. 

He and Mihn pulled to a halt in the canopy, the herd beneath them. Chan frowned. The unicorns were moving strangely, each frantically pushing forward toward a single tree. But the ones that were closest were trying valiantly to get back. He already saw dripping red lines where careless horns had scored flanks.

Chan’s heart ached at the sight. “We’ve got to get them out of here before they hurt each other even more.”

Without a second thought, he rolled off the carpet, needing only to stop the unicorns from hurting each other in their bizarre frenzy.

"Chan!" Mihn barked. 

Chan’s drop stopped abruptly, leather straps digging into the meat of his shoulders. He tilted his head up, wide-eyed. 

Mihn had darted down and grabbed the back of Chan’s harness with both hands. The tendons on her forearms stood out like metal cables beneath her moon-white skin. She was all head and arms, the rest of her body pressing against his flying carpet to arrest Chan’s fall.

Chan looked back at her with innocent eyes, unbothered by how he was literally dangling from her fingers. "We have to help them, Mihn."

"Going in like that is going to get you gored or trampled," Mihn yelled, voice carrying over the noisy unicorns. Her face was growing red.

A slow smile took over Chan’s face. "Aw, I didn't know you cared."

"I only care about the paperwork I'll have to fill out if you die." With a grunt, Mihn heaved Chan back onto his flying carpet, Chan reluctantly cooperating. He would have been fine. Mihn was overreacting.

"Okay. Then get your Void cats to do their thing."

"You won’t get scared?" her eyebrow raised.

Chan urged his carpet a little higher–closer to her and farther from the thrashing unicorns. "If I do, I can always latch on to you."

“No, you can’t,” said Mihn predictably. Her bright eyes scanned the trees below them. 

Chan bit down his grin and swallowed another tease because she was focusing, and he really wanted the poor creatures below them to stop hurting themselves.

Without warning, she parted his lips and let out a yowl. 

Chan jumped, the hair on his arms prickling. He jumped again when answering yowls sounded from either side of the herd. 

As one, the unicorns stilled. Each elegant head came up. Each restless hoof paused.

Four shadows darker than night oozed from the trees in a semi circle around the shining knot of unicorns. The echo of an eclipse approaching the moon. 

One Void Tiger roared, a disembodied sound. It broke whatever enchantment hung over the herd, and with more snorts and whinnies, the silver creatures turned tail and thundered through the forest toward the Reserve. Four sets of claws dug into the same dirt turned loose by hooves, disappearing into the forest. 

The lack of cacophony rung in Chan’s ears. He shook his head once before turning to his partner, impressed. He made sure it painted his voice  "Once again, you’re right. How'd you tell them what to do?"

Mihn gave him a scathing look. Chan wanted to take a picture and hang it up next to his bed. 

Instead of answering, she zoomed down to the base of the tree, Chan close behind.

The poor tree was gouged, pale wood showing through the wounds. He lay a hand against the abused bark, and more crumbled away at his touch. Down here, it smelled of crushed pine needles, warm earth, and spicy unicorn blood. That last thing, more than the others, made his eyes sting and water.

Chan’s boot nudged something harder than soil and softer than wood at the base of the tree.

"That's it," said Mihn flatly. She stood ramrod straight.

Chan knew that tone. Whatever had caught Mihn's eye was magical.

Chan crouched, ignoring Mihn’s hiss as he trailed his fingers over the odd little bundle. From the outside it was just a brown canvas sack, tied at the top with dirty twine. In fact, Chan couldn't tell if the canvas was naturally brown or had been made that way by so many frantic hooves.

He poked it harder, and whatever was inside felt firm like a block of cheese. It didn't give him any tingles, like the Reserve’s magical border did, but that didn't mean anything. He had failed Witchcraft 101 after all. If Mihn thought it was magic, he'd believe it.

The neck of the bag was disturbingly warm beneath his palm as he gripped it and stood. "So-"

In a blink, Mihn pushed him against the tree, caging Chan with arms that radiated heat onto his shoulders. She smelled like salt and flowers.

Chan swallowed. "H-hello there." The abused bark dug into his back everywhere his weapon’s harness wasn’t. One hand clenched the sack tightly, and he dug the fingers of his free hand into his own leg to keep from brushing them along Mihn’s waist.

Though, maybe she’d welcome that? He didn’t know why here, why now, but surely she was pinning him against a tree for some romantic-type reason.

Mihn bent her arms like a push-up until her lips hovered next to Chan's ear. Chan fought down a shiver. "There is a blind on the other side of this tree.” Her whisper sent goosebumps scurrying across Chan’s skin and only slightly cooled the wild thoughts in his head.

A blind was a hunter’s shelter camouflaged to look like its environment. Automatically, Chan tried to poke his head around the mass of the tree trunk so he could see. 

Mihn caught him by the jaw before he moved more than an inch. The slightly rough pads of her fingers pressed Chan’s head back into the tree. He went easily, savoring the feel of her hand on his face.

"Don't let them see us, dimwit.” Mihn’s face was still out of his line of sight, an electric presence right by his ear.

Chan almost giggled at her angry tone. As much as he enjoyed it, he was perplexed about why it was here now, heating the air around them. "Is there someone in the blind?" Chan asked.

"At least one," Mihn growled. She finally pushed herself up, standing upright but still caging Chan against the tree. 

Chan’s breath caught. Mihn’s face was a mask of rage. The moonlight gilded her snarl into a luscious sculpture of shadows and silver, made her smoldering eyes glitter like arson. It was the most beautiful thing Chan had ever seen.

Mihn wasn't looking at him, not really. Her eyes were a little unfocused, and Chan would bet his 1990’s vinyl record collection that her entire attention was funneled into her ears, just like Chan's. 

Well, not all of Chan's attention. A good bit was tracing the alluring snarl on Mihn’s face, hung up on how pretty she was. And another chunk of attention was insistently poking at his brain, telling him to look past the beauty and see the murderous intent written there.

Because, this whole strange night made sudden, terrible sense. Poachers were lying in wait behind the blind. They had lured all these unicorns out here beyond the border of the Reserve. 

“Mihn,” Chan said urgently, desperately. His partner didn’t even twitch. “Sweeth–Mihn, you cannot kill those men.” He’d almost let an endearment slip out, he was so worried. He couldn’t, though. It would only rile her up more, and he needed her to calm down. 

“You can’t. It is illegal. You would get thrown in jail.”

“Only if someone ratted me out,” growled Mihn, feral enough that Chan's heart started racing.

“I’d never,” Chan said vehemently. Mihn’s eyes flickered into focus. “I wouldn’t rat you out. But that–” He didn’t know how to finish that sentence. Chan would do–had done– a lot for Mihn over the years, but aiding and abetting a murder might be where he drew the line. 

“Listen,” he tried again, uneasiness swirling in his gut at the stillness that permeated her body. She was like a leopard before it pounced. “We’ll arrest them. Tie them up. Give them to the police. Then they can’t do any more damage.”

Chan held his breath, waiting through Mihn's deadly silence. A moment passed. Two. Then three. 

Abruptly, she relaxed. Dropped her arms and blinked slowly at him. “Okay.” 

Chan gaped at her, feeling like he’d just been hit over the head. “O-okay? Just like that?” This couldn’t be real. Maybe he’d actually dropped straight into the frenzied herd and been knocked out. 

Mihn smiled sweetly. It was terrifying. “Yeah. I won’t try to kill them.”

Eyeing her suspiciously, Chan tried to move away from the tree. She pushed him back with a hand on his firm chest.

"What now?"

Mihn cocked her head to the side, her posture still relaxed save for her unyielding palm and straight arm, "Wait just a few–"

A bloodcurdling scream pierced the night behind him.