The Gossamer Gate (4 page)

“I think that’s for me,” she said with a giggle as she shoved everything back in her bag. Paper crinkled beneath her book, but she ignored it.

“Why are you so damn jumpy?” Sean asked, watching her movements.

“Excuse me?” Khiara loo
ked up at him. “Oh, I guess…” There was another knock and she slung her bag over her shoulder. “I’ll see you guys next weekend.”

“By the way,” Sean said. “Your character is trapped together in the cave and you’ll pretty much die, unless the party decides to rescue you.”

Khiara hesitated on the threshold and glared at him. “That’s kind of bullshit, Sean.”

“It’s my game.”

She gaped at him for a moment, then shook her head, bit back her retort, and flung open the door. Matt stood on the front step, fist poised to knock again. “Wow,” he said after a breath.

“Thanks. Let’s go.” Khiara shut the door behind her and followed him to his car. As she slid into the passenger seat, she realized that feeling of being watched had resumed when she stepped outdoors. It wasn’t quite as strong as it had been during her walk earlier, but there was a definite presence there. She took a deep breath and turned to Matt as he got into the driver’s side.

“
So, are you ready for ice cream?” he asked, as he turned the key in the ignition.

“No,” she answered softly. “Do you
want to come back to my place?”

He looked up at her and then down at her dress. “Oh, wow…”

“Good.” She relaxed in the seat and said, “You know where I live.”

Matt
nodded. “For the record, I’m not going to say anyone about tonight, whatever happens.”

Khiara smiled at him.
Out of all her students, he was one of the sweetest, the nicest. She knew he was telling the truth. “I just need something else right now,” she said in a soft voice. “We can always have that ice cream later.”

It was a short ride down the street to her house. Khiara slid out of the car and
led Matt up the path.

Don’t forget.

She turned to look back at the street, and pushed a stray strand of hair off her face as a breeze sprang up, whispering through the leaves, the flowers, and the grass.

I still
need you. This mortal cannot keep me from you.

Khiara squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on the feeling of the ground beneath her feet.
She fought back against the chill that tried to wrack her body, against the pull of the whispers.

Nine years
. The dry words rustled against her like autumn leaves.

Her eyes snapped open and she turned to jam her key into the lock. “No fucking way,” she retorted under her breath. “You won’t take me.”

As soon as she and Matt were inside, that feeling of someone watching her disappeared once more, but now she knew... This sense of hide-and-seek with the unseen presence she had tried for so long to forget was now making her angry.

Without a word, she put her hands on
Matt’s shoulders and kissed him.
I’ll show you
, she thought.
I never was yours, and I never will be.

Matt’s
arms went around her waist and his hands began to roam her body. Khiara felt instantly turned on as he touched her. It had definitely been far too long since she had been with anybody, since someone else had touched her intimately. If she could trust Matt to be discreet, then she saw no harm in turning an innocent flirtation into a mutually beneficial one-night-stand.

Somehow they made it up the stairs and into her bed, even though they had yet to take their hands off of one another. Khiara straddled him, not even bothering to take off her clothes. All she wanted at this moment was to forget all the strangeness of the past two weeks
, to show the past it had no place in the present.

Tonight felt like her last chance to… What?

Whatever it was, she felt like it was imperative that she make one last attempt to hold on to this world, before another
tried claim her once again.

Chapter 4

Matt
surprised her by sleeping over that night, and then running out for coffee and bagels in the morning, while she showered and dressed. “I wish I was smooth enough to do the pancake or waffle thing,” he said with a laugh as they sat in the kitchen, eating their breakfast, “but I’m just not that talented.”

“Then it’s a good thing I love bagels and the occasional coffee,” Khiara retorted with a playful grin.
Part of her felt much better than she had in the past couple of weeks; after all, last night had been not just an ego-stroke for her, but had relieved a great deal of tension that she hadn’t realized she was carrying.

“I had a very good time last night.”
Matt leaned across the table to kiss her forehead.

“You got laid. Of course you had a good time,” she laughed as
Matt sat back in his chair. “You have no idea how much I needed that. Thank you.”

“We should do it again sometime.”

Khiara drummed her fingers against the Dunkin Donuts cup and swallowed around the lump that had formed in her throat. “I wouldn’t mind having you available for a booty call,” she finally conceded.

“
I can’t believe someone like you doesn’t have a guy on call.” Matt shook his head at her. “What about all those guys you game with?”

“
None of them care about me like that,” Khiara muttered, bringing the cup back to her lips. She let herself focus on the coffee – the smell of the French vanilla, and the sweet, smooth flavor.

Matt tilted his head and said, “You’re really close to one of them, though, aren’t you? Steven…?”

“Sean,” she said the moment she swallowed. “We went to high school together.”

“And he doesn’t have anything to say about who you date?
”

“We don’t share everything.” Khiara pondered the remark, then realized that Sean was well aware of each and every sexual partner she had had in the past decade, every date, every triumph, and every failure in her life. “Well… Everything until now,” she amended. “I certainly wouldn’t tell him about us,
unless things got serious.”

Matt
shrugged and said, “Sometimes friends are in love, and just won’t admit it.”

Khiara laughed sharply, the sound a bit harsher than she had intended. “I know for a fact that isn’t true.
At least, not from his side.”

“You do?”
Matt looked at her, an eyebrow raised. “You seem very confident about that. So it’s something you’ve discussed?”

“
It is. Trust me, there’s nothing between me and Sean, or any of the other guys.” Khiara set her cup down, reached out, and took her hands in his. With a toss of her hair, she said, “Anyway, this is just between the two of us, right?”

“If that’s how you want it, then, yes.”

Khiara felt the corners of her lips quirk up somewhat and she gave his hands a squeeze. “Do you want to do this again, except go out for a real date next Friday night?” Even though she was enjoying having breakfast with a companion, she hoped he would get her not-so-subtle hint that it was time for him to leave. There were other things to deal with today.

“I think that would be fun, as long as we don’t piss Sean
or your other friends off.”

“Oh, please
.” Khiara scoffed, tired of hearing Sean’s name. “Stop worrying about him. You probably won’t meet him for a long time, if ever.”

Matt
laughed as he rose to his feet, and scooped up their cups, plastic knives, and take-out containers of cream cheese, and dropped them in the garbage can. “I’ll see you next Friday.” He kissed the top of her head and left the house.

Khiara sat for a long moment at the kitchen table, pondering the less pleasant aspects of the previous
evening. Had she been alone throughout the night, the fear would have kept her from sleeping. Being in Matt’s arms had provided satisfaction in more ways than one. Unfortunately, she knew it was a temporary comfort.

The past was haunting her, and she had to find a way to stop it from doing more.

Khiara rose from the table, smoothed her hair, and went to turn the sign on the door to “Open” for the shop. To her surprise, the first person to walk in was Felisa Levine, one of her coven sisters.

Felisa belonged to the coven branch in southern New Hampshire, where she taught classes on healing,
magickal journaling, and much more. Although Felisa was quite introverted, Khiara could count on her for an inappropriate remark to lighten a tense mood.

She embraced Felisa and said, “I didn’t expect to see you today. How’s that adorable daughter of yours?”

Pushing her long, windblown black hair out of her face, Felisa said, “I’m worried about what I’ve been feeling lately. I wanted to check on you.”

As her friend regarded her with large, dark eyes, Khiara stared back. After a moment, she gave a nod. “You probably know as much as I do at this point. Come in to the living room.”

As soon as they sat on the couch, Felisa reached out to hold her hand. “My guides tell me someone or something is stalking you,” Felisa told her. “They said you already know, and that there’s nothing I can do, but I still had to see you. Have you been having any nightmares?”

“A
h, I thought you were here about the Sean thing,” Khiara responded. She would not have been surprised if Cate had talked to Felisa about her idealistically romantic faux pas. She knew she was the topic of discussion when her coven sisters thought she was in need of extra support.

“Cate did fill me in on the Sean situation but, no, I’m thinking further back. I know we’ve talked about the things that happened back when you were sixteen,” Felisa said. “The whole reason you moved up here was very sensible. I just feel like somehow that it’s coming back around, and I’m not sure why. Does that make sense?”

“It absolutely does.” Khiara took a deep breath and tucked her hair behind her ears. “Yes, I’ve been having awful dreams. Not only that, but I think… No, I’m certain he’s here, following me.”

“I thought you destroyed him.”

“So did I, but…” She held her hands up, then let them fall into her lap. “The ninth anniversary of that night is coming.”

“Nine
… That’s the number of a completion of a cycle,” Felisa said, reaching out to touch her shoulder. “And soon you will be going through your first Saturn return, about to enter a new phase of your life.”

“I know all of that, but I didn’t want to read too much into it,” Khiara said as she glanced around the living room. “I would like to believe that the timing is simply coincidental.”

“We always say there are no coincidences,” Felisa reminded her with a smile.

“True. That is one of our mottoes.” Khiara rose to fiddle with the pillows in the corner. “However,
I’m prone to overanalyzing and, well, between the dreams and the voices–”

“Voices?”

“He says he’s coming for me.”

“
Have you cast any spells of protection?” Felisa asked.

With a shrug, Khiara said, “I’m in no state of mind to work magick.”

“Well, just be careful,” Felisa warned. “I would rather you be too cautious, than ignore any signs of trouble. The concurrence of these events is far more than a fluke, I think. I feel very strongly about this. Forget worrying about being over-analytical and ask yourself if you truly think you are in some sort of danger. May I?” Felisa reached toward her, and Khiara sat down again and let her friend take her hand. “Yes, you are being watched,” Felisa said. “By something you dread; by the thing you thought was gone, and it was for a time. But it found its way back. You need to be careful this coming Saturday.”

“The anniversary of when it happened,” Khiara acknowledged.

“It will try to disconnect you from this life. You will have a way to keep that from happening, but it won’t hinge directly on things you do.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Khiara grimaced. She liked to be able to take care of herself, solve her own problems and deal with trouble on her own.
Relying on others usually did not end well.

“It has the potential to be very serious.” Felisa looked at her, her deep brown eyes troubled. “I would invite you to come and stay with me, but I don’t think you w
ill be safe no matter where you go. I feel like you need to be here if this has any chance of playing out in your favor.”

“That’s weird. What about safety in witchy numbers?” Khiara laughed without humor.

“You might want to ask your coven to help you strengthen your wards, but I can see that won’t help.” Felisa dropped her hand. “Oh my gosh. I knew something was going on, because my guides told me so, but it wasn’t until just now that I saw it clearly.”

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Khiara said earnestly, trying to put her friend at ease, even as her own heart was racing.

“As it stands now, when this thing happens,” Felisa whispered, her dark eyes wide with apprehension, “you won’t be coming back. I don’t see anybody who has the power to help you return.”

****

The sense of being watched had intensified to the point where now she felt like someone else was controlling her every move.

She stood in a desolate forest, in an unfamiliar land.

Everywhere she looked around her, there were no signs of life. This was a dead place.

Yet she was not alone.

And the presence was all too dreadfully familiar.

“
Khiara,” something whispered, and she shuddered as if she were cold. “I am coming for you.”

“
I don’t want to see you. I just want you to leave me alone!” she shouted.

“
I can’t leave you alone. You owe me a life for a life. You belong to me.” Something reached out to brush her face. “You will see, even though we are beyond saving, I still need you. I will see you soon.”