Yvaine can't move. Yvaine can't move or think or breathe or even scream and - and she killed him. Right there. She killed him and though Yvaine knows that her hands are shaking she can't feel it at all. He was hers and the woman - all sweet words and soft fingers - she had killed him.

The fire roars behind them and all the star can think is that she is freezing and that the unicorn is dead and that he hadn't wanted to stop here.

The crash as the heavy bulk of the unicorn's body hits the floor wrenches a desperate noise from her throat - wild and terrified as the blood pools along the floorboards, life draining utterly with the spread of crimson.