Excerpt from Zac's Destiny available in paperback and on Kindle.

Journeying in the Forest of No Return:

Moments felt like hours, and hours like days, in this place of death. No matter how high Zac held his brand, he could see no sign of the tops of the trees. Nor could the light cut through the wooden wall on both sides of them. The more accustomed his eyes became to the dark, Zac could make out slight changes in shades of blackness, but that was all. The brands supplied a couple of feet of light around each rider, but no more.

            Zac started to wonder how the unicorns felt. They were creatures of light and beauty. How could they bear this? He also doubted how much longer he himself could stand it.

            It was awful, terrible. He felt trapped, suffocated. Zac didn’t feel he could breathe properly. He was hot, so hot. They would never get out. They were doomed to wander forever in this nightmare world until they died of starvation, or fright, or something worse. He had to get out. He had to get out now. Zac kicked at the sides of his unicorn, and in shock it set off at a fast canter.

            Moving faster and faster along the path, Zac felt the unicorn stumble. He hung on as the hooves continued to speed, only hearing the frantic cries of Brynn in the distance.

            “Zac, for Fate’s sake, STOP! Yer’ll lose the bloomin’ path. Stop, yer young fool!”

            Zac didn’t stop. He barely even listened. The unicorn crashed on, its usually peaceful demeanour shattered by the horror all around it and the smell of its rider’s terror.

            The boy could see fleeting shapes now, moving in the trees reflected in his bobbing torchlight. Then they were gone again into nothingness. He saw misshapen limbs rise to cover sightless eyes as the unaccustomed glare penetrated even their blindness. He saw shapes that could do little more than slide and slither, others that limped along on three limbs of different length. Still more propelled themselves along by dragging their bulk with long arms. He saw it all, heard the slithering, the bumping, the shrieks. He felt the pressure on him to leave the path, to try to escape through the trees. Still, the unicorn galloped on, and Zac’s mind threatened to shut off altogether.