The Gossamer Gate

by Wendy L. Callahan

  “But he didn’t?”

  Khiara shook her head. “No,” she answered, her throat closing with tears as she remembered the pain. “He told me that he didn’t feel the same way. He was holding my hand and kneeling in front of me, and I just started crying. He was upset too. I could tell he didn’t want to hurt me.”

  “Of course he did hurt you.”

  She nodded. “I guess didn’t learn my lesson. After that… Well, I met Ronan immediately afterward. I was still only fifteen, and I didn’t have any feelings for him as more than a friend. I was pretty vulnerable then, though, so I can see where maybe he thought I was easy prey.”

  “Yes.”

  “After the whole incident with Ronan, I moved in with my Nana and started college. There, I met another person I loved.”

  “You found another man who didn’t love you back?” Liam looked surprised.

  “A woman this time, but still the same situation of unrequited love.” Khiara shrugged. “She cared for me and we had fun times together, but she had no interest in a relationship or love. Her whole focus was her career. We parted on good terms, and we’re still friends, but it was just another hurtful experience in love.”

  “How did you come to know Sean?”

  “Sean and I have been friends for the past ten years. We met when I moved in with my Nana and started my sophomore year of high school. Only a few years ago, I realized what I felt for him was more than friendship, but I didn’t want to screw up our friendship by saying anything about my feelings, so I kept them to myself. I kept dating other people, and hanging out with him as if nothing had changed between us.”

  “Here in the Otherworld, very little alters. Change occurs very slowly. However, when there is change, we acknowledge it.” Liam looked at her. “You needed to say something sooner or later to Sean.”

  Khiara laughed. “I did say something to him. Only a few weeks ago, I pretty much laid my heart out in front of him, and the reaction I got was exactly the reaction I expected.” She felt tears prick at her eyes. “It was another person I loved rejecting me, as always.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I can understand your concerns and your feelings about love, now that you’ve explained everything to me,” Liam said. “But if Sean is here, that must mean his feelings have changed.”

  “Well, that’s what worries me more than anything.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Khiara cocked her head to the side. “Sean doesn’t love me. He said so. So why would he be here? I’m afraid that it’s one of Ronan’s – and your – tricks. I don’t think I believe he’s really come to find me.”

  Chapter 16

  “This could be a problem.”

  “What is it?” Khiara waited pulled rein beside Liam.

  “We’re approaching the forest of the Cat Sidhe.”

  They stood at the edge of a vast forest with trees taller than any Khiara had ever seen in her life. Moss and ferns dotted the ground, their blue-tinged green highlighted by the azure mist that pervaded the forest. The tree trunks were unnaturally black, adding to the ethereal aura of the woods.

  Liam urged his horse to a slow walk over the border and into the forest. To Khiara’s surprise, sunlight sparkled down through the trees, casting a blue-green glow over everything. There were ruins here too: blue-gray and white, isolated benches or walls at unexpected intervals. The entire forest felt even more foreign and ghostly than the rest of the Otherworld. Khiara shuddered as a chill shot through her body.

  “I have a feeling I’m going to know much more about faeries than I want to after this,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

  “Well, there are many different kinds, and it wouldn’t hurt you to know the differences,” Liam said, his tone only mildly reproachful. “For example, Ronan and I have a bit of the Gancanagh in us from our father.”

  “Do I even want to know what that is?” Khiara asked, nudging her mount closer to him as they rode.

  “It is a faerie who seduces mortal women. If we choose to, we can make them fall in love with us. The problem for mortals is that we don’t tend to come back or stick around for them, so they often die of longing.”

  “Are you serious?” Khiara looked at him, eyes wide.

  “Absolutely. They die from that love. You were lucky. When you kept Ronan from making love to you all those years ago, you saved yourself in more ways than you realize. You might have even saved your life. However, I have a feeling that your fae blood makes you immune to some of our abilities anyhow. Ronan no doubt made the attempt to use his magick on you and failed.”

  “If your life is all about seducing and abandoning women, why are you here?” Khiara wanted to know. “One minute you rescue me and the next you betray me.”

  Liam opened his mouth to respond, and then gasped as something twanged through the air, embedding in his shoulder.

  “Liam!” Khiara cried as the arrow protruding from the back of his arm quivered.

  “It’s the Cat Sidhe,” he said. “They aren’t prejudiced against mortals, but they are a solitary race. They don’t like to be bothered.” He reached back and pulled the arrow out of his flesh. Khiara watched with a grimace. “Damn. That hurt, you violent little bastards!” Liam called into the forest.

  “You’re in our territory now,” responded a voice that echoed from somewhere in the trees. “Prince or not, you had better move along. We don’t want you in here.”

  “Come on.” Liam urged his mount forward and Khiara followed without hesitation.

  Just what I need – more faeries trying to kill me, she thought.

  The road disappeared as they progressed through the misty forest. The land was rocky and uneven, but also a fertile green. The tall trees with their rich blue-green leaves obscured the sun. Their black bark was moist with humidity, their roots home to lush, creeping green moss. For the first time during their travels, Khiara heard birdsong. It was a solitary, eerily echoing sound in the vast forest.

  “These particular faeries are very protective of their bloodline,” Liam said. “If they perceive any threat from us, you will be dead before you can blink. Even my status as royalty means nothing to them. Faeries have not always treated one another kindly in the Otherworld. There are old, long-borne grudges.”

  “Well, I have no wish to hurt any of your people,” Khiara responded with a shiver of uncertainty. “I just want to go home.”

  As they rode, she noticed exotic blooms among the trees’ leaves. They were a pale pink and looked like lilies. The color was startling and enticing in the blue mist of the forest. Khiara reached up to touch one gently as she passed beneath it.

  As she did, something slithered over her body and wrapped around her waist, pulling her from the saddle. She screamed as Liam dodged one of the branches grasping at him.

  He turned around told Khiara, “Hold still.” She held her breath as Liam weaved his fire magick around her. “You’ve run into a particularly nasty breed of tree.”

  “Oh, really? I had no idea!” Khiara shouted as she dangled from the branches that tightened around her with every passing moment.

  Liam just shook his head and frowned at her as he continued to work his magick. “No need to be sarcastic with me. Can you get yourself free?”

  “No!” she cried. “It’s… ow!” Breathing became more difficult and her head swam as dizziness claimed her, followed by blissful unconsciousness.

  ****

  Khiara opened her eyes slowly, blinking until her vision adjusted. Her body felt crushed and in desperate need of stretching. She moved her limbs. Feeling tingled through her as she pushed herself into a sitting position. What happened? she wondered, then winced. Oh yeah, a pissed-off tree tried to kill me. This place just keeps getting creepier. The sooner I get out of the Otherworld, the better off I’ll be.

  Still stretching her aching, cramped body, she took her time looking at her surroundings. The bed on which she sat was soft and comfortable, and in a small room. The stone of the
floor, walls, and ceiling was startlingly gray-white. Outside the window, she could see the blue mist of the forest.

  At the foot of the bed was a chest. There was a wardrobe standing against one wall and a silver vanity by the window. She saw a bookshelf next to the bed and rose to her feet to investigate it. Very few of the titles were in English. Many were in a language she guessed was either Celtic or Gaelic.

  There were no weapons in the room; nothing she could viably use for attack or defense. She opened the chest and found only bedclothes. With a huff of frustration, Khiara looked inside the wardrobe and found only dresses, pants, tunics, and other garments. Shoes were lined up neatly in a row. She looked at the vanity, but all that she found were various jars of cosmetics, a brush and comb, and a small handheld mirror. Her bag of holding was nowhere in sight.

  Glancing down at her travel-worn dress, Khiara decided that it would not hurt to take something new to wear. She reached into the wardrobe for a pair of pants and one of the tunics. The garments were soft against her skin, and it was a pleasure to slip into something clean. She laced the brown pants at her waist, and pulled a pale green tunic over her head. As the fabric settled comfortably against her body, she took a pair of sturdy-looking brown boots with soft lining and slipped her feet into them.

  With a sigh of appreciation, she turned to approach the door to the room itself. It was the last place she had not checked. She reached for the handle. It took only one pull to tell her that the door was locked. Releasing another sigh of frustration, Khiara turned and looked once more around the lovely little room. When she approached the window, she saw that the mist obscured the ground. She had no idea how far up she was. Climbing down or attempting to jump were certainly not good ideas, since she could not see. What amazed her was that the outside wall she saw seemed incredibly expansive. She realized this was a palace, somehow hidden among the trees of the forest of the Cat Sidhe.

  The door opened and she turned to look at the dark-haired woman who entered. The woman kept her eyes on the floor and curtsied slightly. “You are to come with me, my lady, if you please.”

  Khiara dragged her feet as she approached the woman. “Where is Liam?” she asked.

  “The prince has requested your presence. That is all I know, my lady,” the woman said, her tone deferential.

  “I have a feeling you aren’t talking about Liam. Where is he?” Khiara asked again. “Is he here? Is he safe? I won’t go anywhere until I know.”

  “You must speak to the prince. Please, come with me or I will get in trouble.”

  Khiara pursed her lips, then nodded and followed the woman.

  They walked along the hallway, also made of the gray-white stone. There were several doors along the hall, all of them shut. The woman led Khiara downstairs and then around to a large wooden door underneath the staircase. She knocked at it, and a male voice said, “Enter.”

  The servant opened the door and led Khiara into a library. There was a male faerie standing on the other side of the room, looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows. His back was to Khiara, but he turned as the servant departed, closing the doors behind her. Khiara glanced at those closed doors, wondering if she could simply run for it.

  “I am Kieran, the prince of the Cat Sidhe. I understand that you have been brought into the Otherworld by Ronan, son of King Oberon.”

  “Yes, and I’m trying to leave this place, if you don’t mind,” Khiara said. “I just want to go home.”

  “You aren’t interested in getting to know your own relations, even after coming all this way to us?” He turned to her, and she startled at how blue his eyes were. His disheveled dark hair concealed his brow, but his eyes were hard to miss.

  “The Cat Sidhe are my relatives?” Khiara asked.

  “Yes. You may not have the look of us – you resemble the Viking ancestors in your maternal bloodline, but your faerie blood is from the Cat Sidhe.”

  “What does that make us?” Khiara tilted her head.

  “It doesn’t ‘make us’ anything, really. We might be very distant cousins, but the Cat Sidhe were once a very prolific race. Regardless of how you arrived in the Otherworld, I feel that you were brought here for a very important purpose.” Kieran approached her. “Our people have had the hardest time of all faeries in procreating. You might not think that would be the case, but it is. Once, long ago, we had twins and triplets, and children by the dozens. Now, while we are still a widespread faerie race, the fertility of our people seems to have decreased.”

  “I’m very sorry to hear that.” Khiara truly was sorry. There was also something oddly familiar feeling about the area and the prince. Because he’s telling the truth, she thought.

  It was then that Khiara saw the pointy, black-furred ears that were somewhat concealed by his messy hair. He certainly reminded her of a cat, with his unblinking gaze, his casual demeanor, and the grace with which he moved. Unconsciously, she ran her hands over her head and ears.

  “I will help you find your friend – the one who seeks you – and get to the gate that will take you home, if you will give me your firstborn child.”

  “As in the first baby I have?” Khiara looked at him in shock.

  “As in you and I will create this child and, yes, you will leave it with me.”

  Khiara looked at him. “That presents several problems, Your Highness. First, having any sexual relations with a faerie in the Otherworld will make the terms of my quest null and void. Secondly, and I’ve explained this to others before, I don’t think I can give birth to a new life and then give it up, never to see it again.”

  “Then stay here with me and help us regain our numbers.” Kieran’s blue eyes locked on hers and he offered her his hand. “It would be so nice for you to just be able to stay here as my consort, to start a family and watch them grow. You know that you belong here, and I would make you very happy.”

  “Yes,” Khiara agreed, feeling soothing magick at work through her mind. “I could do that…” She closed her eyes, imagining her life as a princess among the Cat Sidhe. Kieran was a kind and gentle king, and he would treat her well. “But, no, I won’t. I won’t!” She opened her eyes and glared at the prince. “I truly am sorry for your situation, but I am not interested in fulfilling your request. Please tell me where Liam is, so I can continue my journey.”

  “He is already far ahead of you.”

  “What?” she cried, her eyes wide.

  “I had my Sidhe escort him out of our lands, to the other side of the forest. He will be quite safe there until he wakes up.”

  Khiara turned and ran to open the doors.

  “I wouldn’t recommend going out there on your own. Any other faerie could try to seduce you or kill you, or simply bring you back here,” Kieran said, maintaining his distance. “You may as well stay here and start a happy life with me.”

  “No thanks. I had a happy life at home, even if I didn’t have a man or a family of my own.” Khiara turned and flashed him a smile. “It was nice to meet you, cousin. Maybe someday you can teach me your little hypnosis trick, and if I ever have children, I’ll bring them here to meet you.”

  With that, Khiara made her escape. To her surprise, nobody pursued her through the courtyard or to the stables, where she found her palomino in a stall. She mounted up and rode out into the forest in search of Liam.

  Chapter 17

  After a few hours of riding, Khiara made it to the edge of the forest. The blue mist had thinned and, while she did not see the sun again, the area seemed just a little bit brighter than it had before.

  It was there that she found Liam, just as Kieran had said he would be. He was sleeping and unharmed. His body lay on a soft bed of moss, with a blanket over him.

  She looked down at him and sighed. “I’ve been relying on you far too much,” she murmured. “That’s pretty stupid of me, considering the fact that you’ve betrayed me at every turn. So get your rest. When you wake up, I’ll be far away.”

  Blowing the sleeping
faerie a kiss, Khiara turned toward the north to continue her journey.

  ****

  The misty green and blue forest gave way to sepia-toned shades of earth and sky as Khiara rode. The leaves hanging from the black trees were black themselves, and she had a sense of being completely surrounded by Ronan’s dark faerie magick.

  She relaxed into the palomino’s smooth canter along the slightly worn path. In that moment as she let her guard down, the horse reared up, throwing her from the saddle.

  “Oof,” Khiara groaned as she hit the ground. The palomino had already taken off down the road, far too quickly for her to give chase. “Shit!” Khiara pushed herself to her feet and brushed the dirt from her bottom. Fortunately for her, the horse had also dropped her messenger bag and bedroll. Still, she would not be able to make good time without the horse.

  “How unfortunate for you,” said a familiar voice to her right. “But these things do happen.”

  Khiara looked up to see Ronan standing there, leaning against a gnarled tree. “You bastard,” she hissed straightening to glare at him.

  “You do realize you have almost reached the end of your journey,” he said, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “However, I’m not sure how you will ever make it to my castle from here on foot.”

  “I’ll run if I have to,” Khiara retorted, clenching her fists in anger.

  “Why not give up this foolish game?” Ronan suggested, walking toward her. “Just accept the inevitable and admit defeat.” He extended his hand toward her.

  Khiara shook her head. “There is no way in hell I would do that.”

  Ronan chuckled and laid his hand over his heart. “I think that’s what I like so much about you. You think you can actually fight your fate.”

  Khiara turned her back on him and continued along the path on foot. There was a hand on her shoulder, and then she was thrust back against one of the twisted trees. Ronan looked down at her, gripping her shoulders.