The Star Child (The Star Child Series) (20 page)

“So am I, Kellen,” said my mother. “I’m sorry you had to find out about pain and betrayal so soon. I wanted to come and find you, but I couldn’t. I’ve missed you so much.”

“It’s okay.” I wanted to put her at ease.

“No, it’s not. None of this is okay. What I wouldn’t give to go back in time, to leave your father and take you and Roger with me.”

“But you could come with me. This girl— Gran, it’s the girl I told you about, remember? Calienta. I’m trying to find her.” And suddenly it all came back to me: what I was trying to do, Calienta, the prophecy.

“We know, Kellen. We’ve always known,” said Gran.

“You know about her? Do you know what I’m supposed to do?” Both Gran and my mother nodded their heads almost in unison.

“Lugh came to me when you were six,” Gran explained. “He told me about the prophecies and he asked me to have you come and live with me. He didn’t know that I’d been trying to get custody from your father. Naturally, he wouldn’t let me have you. The best I could do was to get you to that boarding school in England so Alistair could check in on you.

“Yet I didn’t know about your mother. Both Alistair and I hoped that there was somehow a mistake, that you wouldn’t be needed. When I saw your mother for the final time and I learned the story, it was clear that there would be no other path for you.”

“Kellen, listen to me,” my mother pleaded. “The hounds know where you are and they’re waiting for you. We’ve come to warn you and protect you for a little while, but they’re hoping that you’ll lead them straight to Calienta.”

“How do they even know where to find me? I keep changing my appearance, not at will I might add, and I’ve been on the move since I got here. How could they possibly have found me?”

“You’ve angered many a creature in this land by disrupting the flow of time,” Gran cautioned me.

“I didn’t even know I was moving through time. The first time was an accident, but I learned that it was the only way to get back to where I needed to be.”

“It was an easy mistake to make. You’ve been lost for over four years, looking for your love. You were desperate.” My mother’s eyes were compassionate.

“Four years?” I stared at my mother as the enormity of her words sunk in. Four years. I’d been gone for
four years?
I was never going to find Calienta now. How could I? Yet I wanted my mother to reassure me, to tell me that everything would be all right.

“I’ll never find her, will I?” I stared at the ground, tears pricking the backs of my eyes. I’d no idea how to solve this and not a clue as to how to find Calienta.

I stared into my mother’s eyes. “The funny thing is that they don’t really need me. I have no special powers at all. There isn’t anything remarkable about me.” I smiled then, looking at my Gran, who was shaking her head.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Kellen. You can do anything that you set your heart to and you will.” Her eyes bore into mine.

“But how can I save her when I don’t even know where she is?”

My mother smiled. “That’s precisely why we’re here. The Hounds of Hell are unable to stand the realm of Contentment. There is too much happiness, too much love here. However, they will come looking for you anyway.”

“We’re going to slip out the back door?”

“Something like that,” said Gran.

“Take my hand,” my mother said, reaching for my fingers.

“Wait. You won’t be coming with me, will you?” I already knew the answer.

“I can’t go with you, my son, but you must know that I love you with everything that’s in me.”

“Will I ever see you again?”

My mother smiled and hugged me before stepping back to let Gran hug me as well. “In dreams, my son, you’ll see us in your dreams.”

With my grandmother and my mother gripping my hands firmly on either side, the scene before me disappeared and I found myself hurtling through the air toward a feather-light rainbow suspended under the husky glow of a setting sun. It was probably one of the best moments of my life.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

FOUR YEARS

When I finally landed, surprisingly unscathed, I looked around in wonder. If I didn’t know better, I’d have guessed that I’d arrived at a farm somewhere in the midwestern United States. The climate had changed to that of late autumn. The placed looked so American, so normal to me that I was instantly at home.

“What’s this place?”

“It is a safe place. You’ll find friends here, I think.” My mother gently touched my cheek.

“You have to go.” It was a statement, not a question. My mother, who’d seemed so real, so solid before, now appeared more transparent. It was only a matter of time before they left me. Both she and Gran nodded, almost in unison.

My arms went around the pair of them and I hugged them both, trying to savor the feel of them. I wanted to commit these few seconds to my memory so that I’d never lose them. Not a hard feat for me, but one I paid special attention to anyway. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, Kellen.” Her voice was wistful as she slowly faded before my eyes.

It was almost harder to say goodbye to Gran than it was to my mother. My mother had been gone so long that I’d long ago learned to live without her. Gran, on the other hand, had only just left my world. I hadn’t had a chance to really deal with her death yet, so it was still too raw, too painful.

“Kellen, I want you to do something for me,” Gran said.

“Anything.”

“You need to trust Calienta. Stop letting your head do the leading all the time. Start letting your heart take the reins more. Calienta is who she claims, so you need to trust her.” The intensity in her words startled me.

“I do trust her. She was always meant for me, but I think you knew that all along.”

“Your old Gran does know a few things after all, see?”

“I guess so.” I was teasing her.

“I also know that you don’t trust easily. You’re young, but you’ve never truly been your age. You’ve an old soul. Now be off with you. She’s waiting for you in that house at the end of the lane. Go to her.” And both Gran and Mom were gone. I was alone again.

Turning to look in front of me, I found myself at the end of a long gravel drive, fields of green surrounding it on either side. The land, this place, took my breath away with its beauty. There was a red barn, which stood out against the ripe, rich green of the surrounding farmland. To my right, a generous farmhouse in shades of white and gray sat welcomingly.

Someone had grown a small garden in the front of the home that practically spilled over with brightly colored flowers. Giant trees dotted the landscape, ancient protectors, keeping the place safe. Near an orchard at the top of the hill, a small herd of miniature goats ran freely, chasing one another across the field.

There was a sense of
home
here that I could feel down to my bones. It was everything that I’d ever thought a home could be as a child. Unlike the cold stone mansion of my youth, this place was the epitome of the word “home”. It was simply breathtaking. Though it was late summer, it wasn’t so hot as to make things unbearable, but rather the perfect temperature.

This place encouraged the visitor to stop and to rest forever. This, I thought, was probably one of the reasons that mortals were so drawn to the faeries, and many spent lifetimes trying to breach this world. For those who made the journey, it was probably one of the reasons that they never returned above ground.

But what was even more compelling to me in that moment was the lone figure that awaited me at the end of the lane. Her dark hair blew in the warm summer breeze. She looked as wonderful as I remembered, but even more so because I’d been searching for her for so very long.

I don’t know when I started running, maybe it was in the first moment that I glimpsed her, but run I did. Nothing could stop me, not even the odd feeling of running through cobwebs that I experienced as I charged down the lane. I needed to get to her, and suddenly our separation seemed like it had lasted for hundreds of years. I couldn’t get to her fast enough.

My arms were around her and I started hugging her, never wanting to let her go. The urge to kiss her was so great, so intense that it seemed as though there could be nothing in the world that I wanted more than her lips upon my own. At first, I hesitated because our relationship was new and I wasn’t sure if she wanted what I did.

Then I didn’t care. My mouth found hers anyway. I’d never kissed anyone this way. In that moment she was the only thing keeping me going in my life, my only source of warmth, of light, of love. She welcomed my kiss, my touch, with the same warmth that I felt.
She’s mine
, I thought greedily.

“I’ll never let you go again.” I made this promise as I kissed her eyelids, her lips, and her cheekbones.

“I know.”

“I didn’t know how to find you.” Tears unwillingly pricked the backs of my eyes.

“I know.”

“I didn’t think I would ever find you again. I thought you were lost.”

Innumerable moments passed as we stood there entangled in one another’s arms, heat pulsing through our veins. Prophecy or not, this was the woman I’d waited for all my life. I wouldn’t be apart from her again.

“Hhmmmp!” There was a grunting noise behind us, causing us to jump apart.

A little man stood behind us, beaming from ear to ear as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. I glanced at my clothes and took a peripheral glance at my hair to confirm that I hadn’t morphed into anything else. I glanced at Calienta, but she seemed relaxed and her emotions seemed calm, so I sensed that we were safe.

The man was quite petite in stature, roughly three feet tall. He was dressed in a kilt, an off-white fisherman’s sweater, and a tasseled fuchsia-colored beret. From the angle at which he was leaning against a nearby fence it appeared that his black shoes had spikes on the bottoms.

“Welcome to my farmland, child.” He burst into a series of giggles. In fact, the joviality emanating from him was almost tangible. I couldn’t help but smile back.

“I am Dillion. I am a member of Calienta’s family. This farm belongs to me. I call it Dei. You are a welcome guest in my home.” He smiled again.

“Dillion, I’d like to introduce Kellen St. James.” Calienta gestured to me.

The color drained from Dillion’s face. Almost immediately, he dropped to his knees. “It is an honor to meet you, your majesty.” He bowed his head repeatedly until I intervened.

“That’s okay, I’m not a king yet,” I reminded him, holding out both hands in front of me. “It’s nice to meet you.” I extended my hand. Dillion looked at it but didn’t accept it, instead turning to Calienta as he slowly climbed to his feet.

“You never told me that it was he you were looking for. Why did you fail to disclose this information?”

Calienta seemed to consider this momentarily. “Because I did not know at first if I could trust you, and I’d not endanger his life.”

Dillion nodded, his brightly colored beret bobbing awkwardly on top of his head with each nod. “I suppose that I would have done the same in your position.”

Calienta let go of me and walked over to Dillion, placing her arms on his shoulders, gripping him urgently. “Uncle, the time that was foretold is upon us. Kellen is the one who will save us, I am sure of it.”

“This is really the one that prophecy decreed?”

“Yes, it is he.”

Dillion gave me a quick once-over. “He does not seem very powerful.”

“Hey, what happened to all of that ‘your majesty’ business?” I was offended on my own behalf.

Dillion, ignoring me, pivoted on the spot and started walking down the lane. We followed him. “You are not a king yet!” he cried.

As we started walking, I held Calienta back to give us some distance between our host and ourselves. Wrapping my arm around her waist, I leaned toward her ear and whispered, “How can he be safe? I thought all of Lugh’s relatives were bad news. I’m sure you know what you’re doing, but I’m still concerned.”

Calienta shook her head in response. “Most of them are, but not all.”

Dillion stopped his procession to turn back and look at us. “I do not expect you to know the difference, so I do not take offense to your questioning my hospitality. You are a mortal after all. There is much that you cannot see in this world or your own.”

He addressed me as a small child or at least a slow and dim-witted adult. I tried not to take offense at his patronizing approach and instead simply nodded. Better to blend in with the locals.

“Dillion,” Calienta said, “I think you’ll find Kellen far more intelligent than most mortals that you’ve encountered.” There was laughter in her voice.

The man looked at me and shook his head before continuing on. Apparently, he was not in agreement.

She raised her voice to get his attention again. “Now that Kellen is with me again, he’ll be in need of rest, food, and some information. Can you provide those to us?”

He stopped and looked at her before responding sarcastically, “Of course. Follow me. Nothing but the finest here.” Almost immediately, he began sprinting down the path.

When he reached the end of the drive, Dillion turned back and looked at us. “What are you waiting for, Manuel?” He looked pointedly at me before giving me a wink and a smile.

“Manuel?” Calienta said questioningly, her lips curving into the slightest of smiles.

“You don’t want to know.” And, taking her hand in mine, we walked down the lane to the farmhouse with its curious garden. I wondered silently if we’d ever leave this place. I realized that I didn’t want to, but I kept that information to myself.

Dillion’s home was as welcoming on the inside as it was on the outside. There was a small entryway with faded floral wallpaper and a distressed bench of aged oak. The carpeting was worn but still cushioned my feet as we entered. The whole place looked oddly mortal to me.

In the small sitting room, the walls were covered in rich mahogany, with built-in bookshelves that were simply crammed with books. I was immediately drawn to those and I realized that for the first time in my life I couldn’t remember the last time I’d read a book.