The Gossamer Gate (11 page)

Chapter 11

“Why are we leaving?” Khiara gasped, glancing back over her shoulder.

Liam pull
ed her along through the corridor, his grip on her hand crushing her fingers. “We have to leave because it is time for you to be on your way. He has come to take you away from here, and I won’t let that happen.”

“Is Ronan here?” Instinctively, she laced her fingers through Liam’s,
both to alleviate the uncomfortable hold he had on her and to bind their hands together more intimately.

He did not answer, but she could feel the tension radiating from his body as he pulled her out into the night and ducked into an archway in the fence surrounding the palace. “Here
.” He seemed to produce Khiara’s messenger bag from out of thin air as he shoved it into her hands. She put the strap across her body as he opened the door beneath the arch. He guided her through it and into the city behind the palace.

Khiara found it difficult to keep pace with him as he dragged her along.
The skirts were heavy against her legs, the dancing shoes thin and dainty, and not at all appropriate to walking along cobbled streets. The laces of the corseted bodice were tight enough to keep her from getting the air she needed while running. “I need to get out of this dress!” she cried.

“You can change clothes when we get out of the city. It isn’t safe here
anymore.”

“Couldn’t we get horses or something?” Khiara asked, her hopes for a comfortable night’s sleep diminishing with each step they took
away from the glittering palace.

“No time
for that.”

They ran on through the faerie capitol and into the night, past darkened homes and alleys, past the sparse houses on the edge of the city. Khiara wished that they could stop for just a moment, so that she could truly appreciate the winding streets; so that she could admire the warped, twisted, and asymmetrical little houses that looked like something out of a surrealist painting; the delicate white birch trees, topped with glowing crystals, that lined and lit the streets.

Yet they plunged on ahead, passing through the city so quickly that Khiara had no time to wonder what might happen next. One moment, the sounds of their footfalls scraped against the cobblestone, and the next the lush foliage of a new forest cloaked them in ever-deepening darkness. Liam slowed from his sprint to a jog, still maintaining a fast pace and relentlessly pulling Khiara along behind him.

She tried to focus on what was going on around her. The
messenger bag seemed lighter, despite the Queen’s promise of clean clothes and provisions.
Shit,
she thought.
Neither of us thought this through.
Bewildered and panting for air, she tugged on Liam’s hand. “That’s enough!” she yelled at him and dug her heels into the ground. “I need to stop!”

“Fine.” He dropped her hand and folded his arms. “Make it fast.”

While he watched, and paced back and forth, Khiara dropped to the ground in exasperation. She didn’t care if the ball gown got dirty. It was useless to her now. She took a few seconds to catch her breath, and then reached up to unlace the bodice. “It’s about damn time,” she grumbled. “This thing isn’t exactly made for a getaway.”

“I’m sorry about that.” Liam glanced back the way they had come
and Khiara followed his gaze. They couldn’t even see the lights of the capitol through the trees anymore.

Khiara
took only a moment to speculate about why the playful bard had become so nervous. At the moment, she really wanted to get out of the voluminous, constricting dress, and get some sleep. She sighed as she dropped the black corset to the ground. “Even though they gave me a bath, I must smell awful after running around in this heat and humidity.” She fanned herself with her hands and shuddered as a trickle of sweat ran down her back.

When t
he faerie man turned to look at her, he had regained control of his expression once more. Gone was the lust and the anxiety. The poker face was back. “You’ll find a pond through those trees.” He pointed and Khiara’s gaze followed the gesture. “You can freshen up there. Don’t take long.”

“Thank you.” Khiara hardly realized she had said the words
until the moment they tumbled out of her mouth. They were second nature in the mortal world.
I guess my sense of self-preservation takes a vacation in Liam’s presence.
She took a few more deep breaths, then rose to her feet, grabbed her bag, and walked in the direction he had indicated.

The moon was slightly larger than half-full
and cast an iridescent glow over the land. There was enough light for Khiara to find the tranquil lake and she had no trouble removing the elegant red dress. Dropping the dress and the bag on the shore, Khiara kicked off the thin, flat dancing shoes, and dipped her toes into the water. It was as warm as a comfortable bath, and she waded into it with a sigh. The lake was so still and serene, she wondered for a moment if anything lived in it.

Actually, I’m not sure I want to know
the answer to that question…

A
s she immersed herself in the summer-warmed water, Khiara felt all her worries melt away. She sank down until she was shoulder-deep in it. Everything around her was calm. Even the air was completely still. Shrubs of pale pink, lily-like flowers grew along one shore, just within the ring of trees that enclosed the area, giving the lake a comforting feeling of seclusion.

With a
nother sigh of surrender, Khiara swam to the other side, then back. “This feels wonderful,” she said to herself as the water washed away the sweat of her escape.

“
So do you,” responded a rich, feminine voice and the water rippled around Khiara.

“
Holy shit!” Khiara cried as she turned and splashed instinctively in the direction of the voice.

“Stop that right now young lady! You’re making a mess of my lovely lake.” Even as it scolded her irritably, the voice still managed to sound seductive.

“Who are you?” Khiara turned left and right in her search of the area for signs of life.

“I am the spirit of this pool. Do not be afraid.” Something with a human shape took form in the water opposite her, near the shore of the
pond. The figure reclined back against the mossy earth, sensuously moving its legs through the water.

“
Does that make you an undine?” Khiara asked as she remembered what water spirits were called.

“It certainly does.”
The woman was tall and voluptuous, her bare skin pale and completely visible in the moonlight, her hair a light shade of silvery-blue, with seaweed and grass intertwined through locks that rippled like water. “Why do you run away from the faerie world, mortal girl?” the undine asked as she lounged on the shore, her wide, liquid silver gaze on Khiara. “When love is being offered to you, you should welcome it. It isn’t every day that you find it, you know.”

“What Ronan feels for me isn’t love,” Khiara answered as she tread water. “It’s an obsession with something that he can’t have.”

“Is that right?” The undine rolled over to lie on her belly as she regarded Khiara. “Did you know, mortal girl, that we do not have souls?” it asked.

“I’m sorry?”
Khiara knew that she sounded as taken aback as she felt.

“An undine has no soul, unless a mortal man will help her to conceive a child. Every one of my race dreams of what it must be like to have a soul. We need the love of a man to make us complete. There is a reason the Goddess made us this way, and you and I are not so different if you consider this.”

“I’m sorry, but I fail to see the parallel there. In the mortal world, we are taught that nobody needs another person to make them complete,” Khiara answered and shook her head. “I have never needed another person to make me feel like something more than what I already am. I’m secure in the person I have become in my life.”

“I think it is sad that mortals have lost their belief in the power of love.” The undine looked down at the water and
ran the tips of her fingers lazily along the surface. “Love calms the mind, ensouls the body, and fills the heart.”

“That’s what they say,” Khiara acknowledged
and swam closer to the undine. “But no modern human woman believes that. Romance novels, chick-flicks, and music are all calculated to perpetuate unrealistic romantic stereotypes. If we believe in any of it, we only end up disappointed.”

“Do you?” the undine asked,
then slid headfirst into the water. She surfaced and smiled. “What about two young people who are deliriously happy and live each moment for the one when they will see each other next?”

“I’m not in high school
.” Khiara scoffed. “That kind of love never lasts.”

“But it is the most lasting,” the undine argued. “No one ever forgets the first time they feel that way. They simply forget how to let themselves feel that way
again, because it hurts them too much when the feelings are taken away from them.”

Khiara opened her mouth to argue and found that she had no response. Instead, she swam around the pool to gather her thoughts. F
inally floating back to the center of the lake, she said, “So you think that first experience of love is so intense that, when it ends, we decide the love is far more memorable than the pain? That, despite the heartbreak, we will do it again just to feel love?”

“I think you have said it well, yes.” The undine leaned back so that her hair trailed like rays of moonshine on the water. “Do you remember your first love?”

“Yes,” Khiara answered without hesitation.

“Who was he and how did he come into your life?”

“His name was Evan. I met him during the summer of my freshman year of high school.”

“What did he do that was so terrible, that you cannot believe in love?”

“He… he didn’t love me back.” Khiara bowed her head. “That seems to be my lot in life. I loved another person in college who didn’t reciprocate my feelings. And now there’s Sean, who acts more like he’s my big brother.”

“This Sean is someone you love now?”

“I’m not so sure anymore.” Khiara sighed and let her own head fall back into the water. The moon looked larger and closer to the earth from her vantage point.

“Why aren’t you sure anymore?”

“Well, I told him about my feelings for him, and of course he rejected me. Maybe by getting it out and getting the rejection I expected from him, I was able to turn my romantic feelings for him off.”
And turn them on for someone else
, she thought.

“Do you think that love is like that?” the undine asked disbelievingly. “Do you think that it can be turned off and on so easily?”

“I’ve never thought about it,” Khiara answered. “But I have had plenty of time to heal from Sean’s rejection, and I’m ready to move on with my life.”

The undine began a lazy backstroke across the surface of the pool
, kicking up little splashes of water as she swam. “Tell me how love feels to you.”

Khiara
shrugged. “I really don’t remember,” she hedged.

“Try again, and be honest with me this time.”

“Well…” Khiara felt a protest rise to her lips, but she closed her mouth and thought about it. “It’s like…”
Like being with Liam at the ball.
“It’s as if you are the only two people who exist in the world, even if he doesn’t look at you like that. You just want to spend every moment with him. When you wake up in the morning, he’s the first person you think about. When you go to bed, he’s the last person on your mind.” As she spoke, as she thought about dancing with Liam, her heart fluttered. She felt a grin tug at the corners of her lips, then stopped with a laugh. “Shit. I sound like those stupid movies or novels or songs,” she grumbled.

“You are only speaking an age-old truth,” the undine answered. “Love is unchanging. Everyone experiences it in the same way. They have that overwhelming yearning to be with the person they think can make them happy.”

“Love is a bitch. I don’t want any of it.” Khiara turned toward the shore.

“But I think you will have it, whether you want it or not. It is closer than you think. Do not cling to your illusions of independence. Your heart yearns for more, and you will have to learn to exist outside of yourself.” There was a splash and Khiara looked back to see that the undine had disappeared under the surface of the lake. She
stood at the edge of the water for a long moment, pondering what the water spirit had said.

When she turned back to the shore, she saw a flash of movement in the trees. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. “Liam!” She reached down to pick up the ball gown and hold it over her body. “What the hell are you doing
out there?” she growled.

“I
’m just making sure you’re safe. You were taking a long time,” he answered from where he stood in the trees.

“Bullshit,” Khiara muttered. “You’re just another horny faerie.”

There was a rustling of leaves and grass as Liam turned and left. Picking up her bag from the shore, Khiara reached inside and felt around frantically. “Where is everything?” she grumbled. “I want my own underwear… My bra… Something to wear…”