Victor led them through a tunnel hidden behind the main house, deep underground. The air grew colder with each step. Dim lights lined the narrow corridor, flickering slightly as they passed.
"This facility was built over something ancient," Victor explained. "Long before I bought the island. Before any of us knew unicorns were real."
Zara said nothing. The pulse inside her chest had returned faint but constant, like a heartbeat not her own.
At the end of the corridor stood a massive circular door, sealed with metal locks and strange, rune-like symbols. Victor pressed his hand to a panel. The symbols glowed, and the door hissed open.
Inside was a domed chamber lined with stone and strange carvings. In the center stood a pedestal on it, a hollow, circular frame, like a ring made of bones fused with crystal.
Zara stepped inside slowly. Her skin prickled.
Damian stayed close. "What is this place?"
Victor's voice dropped to a whisper. "A portal."
Zara froze. "To where?"
"To wherever *they* came from."
Zara turned to him. "You've activated it?"
"Not yet. The energy source was lost centuries ago." He looked at her. "Until now."
She stepped back. "No."
"It reacted when you touched the unicorn," Victor said, stepping closer. "Your blood. Your bond. You're the missing piece."
"I'm not your key," she said firmly.
Victor smiled faintly. "You don't have a choice. Because *they're* coming. And this portal may be the only way to stop what's already been set in motion."
Suddenly, the ring on the pedestal sparked faint light flickering within the hollow.
The unicorns had found it too.
And whatever lay on the other side…
Was waking up.
---
Zara stumbled back from the pedestal as the ring flared brighter soft pulses of blue and white, beating like a living thing.
Victor turned, eyes wide, but thrilled. "It's responding to *you.* This is it. The connection between your bond and the ancient gate... it's real."
Damian grabbed Zara's wrist. "We're leaving. Now."
But the light from the ring surged again, and a sharp wind blasted through the chamber coming from *nowhere*. Dust swirled. The carvings on the walls began to glow with the same eerie hue as the unicorns' horns.
Zara's breath caught. She heard it again. Not words. A thought.
*Not ready. Not yet. Close the gate.*
Zara clutched her chest. The voice wasn't from the dark unicorn. It was *older.*
Something beyond this world was reaching through.
Victor stepped forward, hypnotized. "This could give us access to power that predates mankind. What else is out there? What if unicorns were just the *first*?"
Zara shouted over the wind. "You don't know what you're opening!"
"I don't need to know!" Victor said, eyes glowing. "All I need is you."
He lunged.
But before he could grab her, the ring let out a high-pitched shriek and blasted him back with a burst of light. Victor slammed into the stone wall and slumped to the ground, dazed.
The portal shimmered and then began to close.
Zara stepped forward, her hand outstretched.
As the last flicker of light faded, the message became clear:
*You have awakened the gate. Now you must guard it.*
Then silence.
Victor groaned, barely conscious. Guards rushed in, but the damage was done.
Zara turned to Damian. "We have to find the unicorns. We need answers. Because whatever's behind that portal…"
She looked back at the dead-silent ring.
"Isn't done with us."
---
Zara stood in the center of the chamber, heart pounding. The portal ring had gone dark, but the energy in the air still buzzed against her skin.
Damian helped her step away. "That thing whatever it is it nearly *killed* him."
Victor was groaning on the floor, blood trickling from his mouth, but his eyes were still full of twisted awe.
"You saw it," he rasped. "It *chose* you."
Zara stared at the ring. "It didn't choose me. It *warned* me."
Kael and the guards hovered at the entrance, unsure whether to move Victor or keep their weapons trained on the artifact.
"Seal this room," Zara said suddenly, her voice firm. "No one enters. Not unless I say so."
One of the guards hesitated. "But he"
"She just saved his life," Damian growled. "Do as she says."
Kael stepped forward, torn between science and survival. "You realize what we just witnessed could be one of the most important discoveries in human history."
Zara turned to her, calm but steady. "Then don't *ruin* it by rushing in blind."
She walked toward the exit, the stone walls still warm behind her, and paused.
The voice from before the one that had spoken through the unicorns whispered again.
*The gate is sealed… for now. But cracks have formed. And others will come through them.*
She clenched her jaw.
"Then we'll be ready."
And she meant it.
Because whatever this place was... whatever the unicorns were guarding…
Zara wasn't just a witness anymore.
She was the line between two worlds.
---
Zara followed Damian out of the underground vault, the door sealing shut behind them with a low hiss. The walls of the tunnel seemed to breathe now, like the whole place had awakened from centuries of slumber.
Neither of them spoke until they reached the open air.
The night sky was heavy, clouds rolling over the moon, wind pressing through the trees like whispers. Somewhere deep in the forest, a low, distant rumble echoed. Not thunder.
Something *else.*
Zara leaned against the railing of the stone terrace just outside the main house, her body still trembling from the pulse of energy inside the vault.
Damian stood beside her. "We're in over our heads."
"I think we always were," she replied.
He looked at her carefully. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know," she said honestly. "Something came through me down there. A presence. It wasn't the unicorns. It was older. It knew about the gate. Knew about *me.*"
Damian's jaw tightened. "You're still you. No matter what they awakened."
Zara glanced back toward the trees. "The unicorns aren't just magical animals. They're watchers. Guardians, maybe. Of that portal. Of the boundary between this world and something else."
She turned to him. "And now I'm part of it."
Damian looked toward the compound, then toward the dark line of trees. "Then we have two options. We run before Victor comes to his senses or we find the unicorns first and get ahead of whatever's coming."
Zara's gaze didn't waver. "We find them."
Suddenly, from the woods, a faint shimmer caught her eye just between the trees. A soft silver light, like moonlight bending wrong.
Then it was gone.
She felt the horn's call again like the unicorns were reaching out to her, guiding her.
"Tomorrow," she said softly. "At first light."
Damian nodded.
Behind them, Victor was being taken to the medical wing battered but alive. Kael stood watching Zara from the window, her expression unreadable.
Zara didn't care.
The rules had changed.
Whatever was behind the gate wanted out.
And the unicorns weren't just trying to survive anymore.
They were preparing for war.
---