Page 24 of Stubborn as a Shadow

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I’d obviously been hanging out with Jeremy and Ash too much lately. Not that I’d been around them by choice. But their attitudes had clearly rubbed off on me if I wanted to roll my eyes.

“Of course you aren’t going to believe me,” I muttered.

I pulled out my phone and pulled up Ogden’s number. Thankfully, he answered on the second ring.

“Hey, Ogden, this is Nelson?—”

“Ha!” Morgan pointed at me. “I knew Eric was an alias.”

“I think I found him,” I said into the phone, ignoring Morgan’s outburst.

“Let me talk to him,” Ogden demanded.

“Here.” I passed my phone to Morgan.

He took it with a shaky hand and pressed it to his ear. Damn it. I should have put it on speaker so I could hear what Ogden was saying. But it was probably better like this. It was a small token of trust, right?

“Hello?” Morgan said apprehensively.

I couldn’t hear what Ogden said, but Morgan’s eyes widened. His gaze darted to me.

“It’s really you? And you’re free?” Morgan whispered. A soft, hopeful look passed over his face. He swallowed hard, and tears gathered in his eyes. Fuck, even his tears had an iridescent sheen. “I was so worried about you. But how…?”

Ogden said something. As Morgan listened, he sniffled and wiped his eyes. Then he smiled. His smile was almost as radiant as the rainbows in his laughter.

“Yeah,” he said, sounding choked up. “I found a way to get out… Please don’t ask how I did it...”

Morgan nodded in response to something Odgen said.

“Yeah. My uncle always said the same thing. Magic finds a way.” Morgan drew his sleeve across his dripping nose.

I scrambled out of my chair. Morgan cringed.

Oops.

I offered what was hopefully a reassuring smile—although I knew next to nothing about reassuring people, so I might not have been successful—then I went on a hunt for a box of tissues. I finally found one in the bathroom and brought it to him. I yanked out a couple of tissues and shoved them into his hand before setting the box beside him.

I waited for him to use them. He stared at me.

I was looming over him, wasn’t I? I retreated to my chair. He stared at the tissues for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure what to do with them… or perhaps wondering if they were a trick of some kind. Then he shrugged and blew his nose. Some of the makeup rubbed off on the tissue.

The unicorn—his identity was fully confirmed now—spoke with Ogden a few more minutes. When the conversation ended, Morgan set the phone carefully on the table beside him and stared at me.

“Your name is Nelson,” he said. He grinned at me.

I nodded. “And you’re Morgan. And you’re a unicorn.”

The longer our gazes held, the wider his smile grew. Shit. His smile was stunning. Literally. At least I felt stunned just having it turned toward me. His tears had vanished as if they’d never existed. Despite all that hideous makeup, his smile was magical.

“This is awesome. You can be my sidekick.”

Uh, what now? I frowned.

“Okay.” He clapped his hands. “So, we should probably go over the plan, or we’ll be tripping over one another’s tails.”

“I don’t have a tail.” I shook my head. “And the only thing we need to plan is how we’re getting you out of here.”

He folded his arms across his chest. The smile disappeared. Damn. I missed it immediately. “No. I’ve been looking for an artifact. I need to find it. I’ve been going to magical markets like this for months now looking for it.”