1.5 True of Blood: Kallen's Tale (3 page)

Pulling back gently from her embrace, I say, “Perhaps I will be allowed to return some day.  In the meantime, my cousin is going to need someone to keep him out of trouble. 
So,
I am begging you to keep close tabs on him
.  H
e is prone to
disaster
as he is somewhat dim witted.”  I laugh as I rub the spot on my arm that Kegan just punched. 

Alita’s
cheeks are a nice rosy color as she peeks at Kegan shyly from under her lashes. 
Then she turns to me. 
“Kallen, that was
not
nice nor
fair
,” she admonishes
, but her face is full of good humor
.  “I believe more often than not, you have been the one to instigate
the
trouble
the two of you have found over the years.”

“Yes, and you dragged me along as an unwilling partner in crime,” Kegan adds, earning him a disbelieving snort from
Alita
.

“I believe you both need keepers.  Now, I want all the details.  Why has this fate fallen to you?” she asks me.  She sits down in the sand with
her legs extended in front of her and
her toes just barely touching the water.  Kegan and I join her
, sitting on either side of her as she leans back on her hands
.

I give her the abbreviated version
, and with each sentence, her face becomes sadder.  “Kallen, that is awful.  Isla is positive this is the only way?”

I nod. 
“Apparently.”
  I am still not sure I
believe that
.

“What do you know about the girl?” she asks.

I sigh.  “I know
her name is Xandra and
she is
just
seventeen
.  With her birthday, her
magic is now unbound, giving her the power to do as Dagda wishes.  That is about it.”

Alita
shakes her head.  “I cannot imagine you being gone.  Life will not be the same around here without you.  Who will make me laugh now?” she teases.

Kegan raises a brow.  “I believe you are mistaking which cousin actually has a sense of humor.”

She laughs at that.  “I believe you are both equally matched.”  Turning to me, she asks, “What would you like to do on your last night here?”  As the words tumble out, her face sobers once again.  “Is there anything, or anyone, special you would like to spend the evening with?”

Alita
is always trying to make other Fairies more comfortable.  It is her way.  But, I shake my head.  “The only two I truly care about are sitting here with me. 
Perhaps a quiet night on the beach, with a fire later?”

She nods.  “That sounds lovely
.”

“If a tad boring,” Kegan says, but his jest is half-hearted.

“I know,”
Alita
says.  “You can tell us what you will miss the most
when you are gone
.”

“That is a bit morbid, is it not?” Kegan asks. 
“Seems a bit cruel, at the very least.”

“Nonsense,” she replies.  “It is good to talk about your feelings.  And yes, it may be a bit morbid, but why should Kallen not mourn what will be lost to him?  Perhaps that will make his journey easier if he acknowledges what will pain him the most.”  Kegan rolls
his eyes, but he does not say anything else, so
Alita
turns back to me.  “What will you miss the most?”

I push my shoulder into hers playfully.  “You top the list.” 

She swats at my arm.  “Be serious.”

“I am serious.  I will miss you greatly.  I will also miss my cousin, I suppose
, but not nearly as much
.”

“What things about this realm will you miss?” she pushes
, wanting me to be serious
.

I think for a moment.  “I believe I will miss the magic, most of all.  Living among non-magical beings, I imagine, will become tedious quickly.  I do not want to have to hide what I am for the rest of my life. 
My long, long life in the Cowan realm.”

Alita
gasps and puts her hand over her mouth.  “I forgot about that.  It will be as if you are living thousands of years!”

I groan.  “Do not remind me, please.”

“Perhaps that will finally give you enough time to work out all of those character flaws o
f
yours, such as being more personable,” Kegan says with a grin.

“
Alita
, will you please lean back for just a moment?” I ask.  With a little giggle, she leans back far enough for me to punch my cousin in the arm. 

“
Ow
,” he says.  “Precisely my point, you are far from pleasant to be around.”

Looking at
Alita
, I ask, “Do you find me lacking in charm and wit?”

She laughs.  “For fear of a giant bruise on my arm, I believe the only answer to that is, no, I do not find you lacking in either.”
 
I grin in satisfaction. 

“I believe her answer was coerced,” Kegan gripes.

“By me?”
I ask, feigning innocence.  “I would never do such a thing.”  That earns me a snort from him.

We sit quietly for several minutes before
Alita
asks, “What else will you miss?”

“I will miss this,” I say with a sweep of my hand, indicating everything around us. 
“The serenity of the ocean and the mystery of the forest.”

Kegan laughs.  “I believe they have oceans and forests in the Cowan realm.”

“Yes, but are they this pure?  From what we have learned over the years, we know them to be tainted with chemicals and debris.  The forests are
rapidly being
divested of their trees, soon to be completely devoid of timber.”

“He does have a point,”
Alita
says.  “What else?”

“I will miss not seeing the two of
you
hand-fasted, as it is inevitable.” 

This time it is
Alita
who punches me in the arm.  It does not hurt at all, but I grasp my arm as if she landed a death blow.  “You are angry with me for speaking the truth?” I ask, not being able to hold back my grin as her cheeks pink and Kegan glowers over at me.

“You know that could never happen,”
Alita
says quietly, giving her full attention once again to the ocean.

“I know no such thing.”

“I would like to
suggest
a new topic,” Kegan says
,
with an edge to his voice.  “We should discuss what neither of us will miss about you
,
when you are gone.”

I
chuckle
.  “As I am near
perfect, that
would have to be an extremely short list.”

We fall into silence again.  A comfortable silence that is only possible amongst family and good friends. 
Every once in a whil
e, one of us will speak, but
not about anything important.
 
I find a lot of peace sitting here with them.  My heart does not feel quite as heavy as it did earlier.  I imagine that will change tomorrow morning.

Chapter 2

I spend the night on a comfortable, reclining chair on the terrace outside of my bedroom.  The sound of the waves occasionally lulls me into a light sleep, but my mind refuses to be still for long.  Kegan,
Alita
and I stayed on the beach until late, sitting around a fire, reminiscing about past events.  As the evening wore on, it became harder for us to be jovial
as we remembered how much we had shared over the years
.  It began to feel as if I am dying, not leaving for another realm.  Essentially, I will be dead to this realm
, I guess
. 

I already have a strong loathing growing in the pit of my stomach for this girl who is going to ruin my life. 
This girl who Isla wants me to kill if she cannot be stopped.
  I still cannot reconcile the grandmother from my childhood –
loving and
overprotective, with this grandmother who has asked such a thing of me.   The fact that she is willing to say good-bye to me, forever, for the sake of this girl she has never met, makes me question the sincerity of her actions over the years.  Was she simply grooming me for this day?
  I try not to believe that, but it becomes more difficult as the sky lightens.

Morning
has come
all too soon.  The rising sun finds me
now
pacing my room, frantically trying to figure a way out of this inane journey.  I could run from it, but I am not a coward.  Nothing short of a logical solution will suit.  So far, my mind has come up with nothing. 

Noting the time, I find that the hour has arrived.  I must go downstairs to face the task asked of me, feeling no less bitter or resentful than I did yesterday.  Taking a last look around at my spacious, comfortable room, I go in search of Isla.

I find her in the kitchen, drinking a cup of tea with Tabitha.  As she brings the cup to her lips, I note how her hand shakes.  Her eyes are full of pain.  She seems to be trying for stoicism, but her face is having a hard time concealing her guilt.

“Good morning, Kallen,” she says as her teacup clatters back onto its saucer. 

“Grandmother,” I say with a slight nod. 
Giving Tabitha a quick kiss on the cheek,
I sit down on a stool and help myself to the pancakes
she
has prepared.  Spreading blueberry jam on them, I dig in, ignoring the two sets of eyes trying to bore holes into my brain.

“You
be
sure to eat naturally,” Tabitha says gruffly.  “Not that Cowan food that comes in those little containers.”  I have no idea what containers she is talking about, but I nod anyway, putting another mouthful of pancakes into my mouth.

“Kallen,” Grandmother says softly.  I look up at her, not
even trying to hide my
anger.  “I am sorry.”

“Of course,” I say, taking another forkful into my mouth so I do not have to say anything else.

“We should
hurry,
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
may have found her by now.”

Apparently, I am not even granted the decency of finishing my last meal in this realm. 
Laying my fork down on my plate, I ask, “Where?”

She knows what I mean.  “
This will best be done outside
,
”
she says, rising from her stool.
She turns and walks through the large living room to the terrace
outside
, and then
down the few steps
to the shore.  I follow because my feet are taking it upon themselves to move one in front of the other, completely ignoring my mind which is telling them to turn around and run. 
But d
espite what I
was feeling
earlier, I know
in my heart
that Grandmother would not ask this of me if there was another way.
 
I am s
till angry and resentful, though.

Isla stops near the water of the ocean that washes up almost to the terrace
at high tide
.  Turning to me, I notice that she has a long strand of hair
in her hand
. 
Horse hair.
  “I did not know that you kept any of
Dagda’s
personal effects
,
”
I say with a frown.

She smiles sadly.  “Neither does
he
.”

“Did you know this day was to come when you sealed the gateways?”

She nods.  “Yes.”

Kegan speaks up
from behind me.  He must have come to say good bye, even though we had done that last night
.  “And you could not
have kept
two
so that he could use it to come
home?”  His tone is sharper than I have ever heard it be with Grandmother.

“Kallen is not meant to come home this way.”

I would ask what that means, but she probably would not answer me. 
Not to mention, I probably do not want to know. 
“What do I need to do?”

“You will take this hair from
Dagda’s
tail,”
Dagda’s
animal form is a horse, “and you will combine your blood with mine, for only those who closed the realm may allow passage back and forth between them
.”  It was powerful magic that closed the gateways.  It would make sense that it will take powerful magic to open one.
  Mine and
Isla’s
specifically.

I nod and Tabitha hands me a knife she takes from her
bulging
apron pocket.  I wonder what else she keeps in there
; she seems to always
pull out
something handy
. 
This is no time to be thinking such mundane thoughts, though. 
I have a badly planned destiny to follow. 
I use the point of
the knife
to stab my finger until a steady stream of blood is meandering down to my palm.  Isla does the same.  When she is ready, we combine our blood over the hair, letting it dribble over it. 

From out of nowhere, a gateway opens.  For a split second
,
I feel my world spinning and suddenly, I am on the other side of the gateway, staring at the Fairies I call family.  “I love you,” Grandmother says. 

“You had better find a way to make it back here,” Tabitha says
,
with absolutely no threat in her voice
, as she dabs her eyes with a tissue
. 
T
here is a significant amount of hope
in her voice, which makes me smile
.

“I second that, cousin.  You owe me a rematch in archery.  Do not loll in the Cowan realm to avoid it.”

I smile at them each in turn.  I’ll admit
,
I find it a little harder to smile at Grandmother than at Tabitha or K
ega
n.  The tightening around her eyes tells me that she noticed.
  “I will be home soon,” I say.  I am a liar.  I will never return, and the three Fairies standing in front of me know
that as well as I do
.  With final goodbye
s
, the gateway closes
, sealing my fate
.