Free Unicorn Keep by Angelia Almos

the difference now?”
    He nodded.
    “You’re young, you’ll feel the difference between regular attraction and a draw soon enough,” she said hurriedly.
    He kept himself from rolling his eyes. He might not be the most experienced, but he was old enough to have felt a regular attraction for a female mage and non-mag e alike. An awkward silence settled between them.
    “Well .” Brennah smiled. “Times like this make me wish your father wasn’t a traveling mage.”
    He didn’t agree, but nodded anyway, anything to get the conversation over. He doubted his father would have been any help at all since they barely knew each other.
    ****
    Her body ached by the time her head hit the pillow at lights out. What made it worse was knowing she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep than she had the night before. She couldn’t allow herself to close her eyes as she wasn’t sure she would wake up. Making herself count to two hundred, she peered around the room and listened to the breathing.
    She could just make out the shapes of the other nine beds. With her bed against the farthest wall from the door, she would have to pass all of them, five on one side and four on the other to get out of the room. Uncertain if everyone was really asleep inside or outside her room, she made herself count to five hundred.
    Silent as she could be, she grabbed her cloak this time along with her boots before sneaking out of the room. She moved with more assurance, but kept her ears open to make sure she didn’t run in to anyone as she exited the Keep. The unicorn colt had assured her they would keep the keepers distracted so she didn’t hesitate as she swirled her cloak on and descended down the hillside. It wasn’t as difficult tonight.
    Breaking into a run, she headed toward the third wood she had been led to the night before. A glint of white told her she was heading in the right direction. This time three unicorns waited for her a t the ancient tree.
    She stumbled to a stop and tried to catch her breath as she waited. None of them spoke right away.
    “I’m here.”
    We see that . The new unicorn said. They all had distinctive voices. She doesn’t have enough power .
    I’ve hidden it .
    The new unicorn stared at the unicorn colt , who looked away.
    You sure she can break the barrier .
    The unicorn colt raised his head back up. Yes.
    The new unicorn nodded his head slightly. Very well .
    With a swirl, the new unicorn flitted through the woods and was gone. Leaving the two original unicorns with her.
    “Break what barrier?”
    The help I referred to last night .
    “Oh .” That didn’t really explain anything to her. “What did you hide?”
    Your magic from the mages. It was how the crystal didn’t pick it up.
    “Why does it glow if it doesn’t pick up magic?” She would think it would glow if it sensed magic.
    They did originally. The mages changed it’s chemistry to make it appear the crystal is choosing someone when it is actually eliminating who they don’t want coming to the Keep.
    “But they have magic.”
    The older unicorn took over explaining. Most of you do. Very few people are born without a spark of magic. Your mages have learned to grow the spark.
    The unicorn colt snorted. Steal is more like it.
    They grew their spark to become powerful enough to imprison us and steal our magic.
    “Imprison? But I thought the Keep was built to protect you?”
    The unicorn mare stepped closer to Jiline so she could look in her eye. A lie. The valley is our prison. They use our own magic to keep us within the mountain walls. We cannot break them. The more we push at it the stronger it gets.
    Jiline gazed at the mare in horror as images of the unicorns’ confinement for nearly two hundred years flowed through her. “I’m sorry.”
    You are not responsible, Jiline. My son seems to feel you can help us break the barrier.
    “But how?” If the unicorns with all of their magic couldn’t break a magical barrier, how was she supposed