Gossamer (15 page)

“One night she approached the couple and told them she could save their baby if they listened to what she had to say. Willing to do anything for their child, they agreed. Your Fae mother promised to take their baby to Tír na nÓg where she would be healed. In exchange, they had to take her baby and raise it as their own. She told them your identity must be kept secret and they would have to leave their current life behind and start a new one. In exchange, she would be sure they were well taken care of. They would be debt free, have a nice house and money to buy the things they needed and wanted.”

“But even so why would they give up their own baby to a stranger?”

“It’s kind of like the story about the two women fighting over the baby. The king ordered the infant be cut in half so each woman could have a part of him. He discovered the real mother when one of the women cried out and said the other one could have the baby. The true mother loved her baby so much she would rather have given it to someone else than see it suffer.”

I inhaled deeply trying to digest this information. “Both you and the other child were in danger. The Rite continued searching for you and she risked succumbing to her medical problems. Each parent sacrificed their child to ensure their survival. Only the parents would suffer the loss, the babies would have no memory of their previous life. As part of the agreement your Fae mother would take the human baby to Tír na nÓg to be healed and when you reached adulthood, their child would be returned...only a few years older.” I gave him a look of confusion. “Once there, she would be growing up in Fae years. She would age only a little, while eighteen human years passed.”

My mind reeled. This was unreal. “Why do you think my parents know who you are?”

“Probably because they were told when the time was right a grant would be sent for you.” Of course, it would be something that simple. “Guess the name sort of gave me away, well that, and the fact you just turned eighteen.”

My words felt clumsy as I tried to form my thoughts into something coherent. “I have to talk to my parents. If they know…they can give me more answers…I have to speak to them.”

It must have been shock compelling me to move because when I stood and went downstairs, I had no idea if Grant followed. For once I wasn’t hyper-aware of his presence. I wasn’t even aware of myself, it felt like an out-of-body experience.

As I reached the bottom step, I saw Dad hugging my mom. Pink spotted her pale complexion making it obvious she had been crying. Dad noticed us first. He quietly said something to my mom and she moved to face me. She dragged the back of her hand across her eyes to wipe away any stray tears. She looked young and vulnerable standing next to my dad.

“Can we talk?”

Chapter 11

“Sure, honey. Let’s sit.” Dad led my mom to the couch and sat.

I moved to the loveseat and discovered Grant had followed me. His eyes were a mix of compassion and concern, and I knew right then he was there for me. Though it wouldn’t make the words easier to hear, him being by my side brought me comfort.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” my dad said with an apologetic smile. Mom looked on the brink of a breakdown. She no longer cried, but it seemed she just barely held it together. I nodded, not sure I was capable of speech. I took a deep breath and swallowed hard.

When I finally spoke my voice wavered. “Why?”

Out of all the questions, this was the only one I needed an answer to. Did they do it to save their baby? Did they do it for money? Did they do it because they were young and careless?
Why?
My mom let out a tiny squeak as she tried to hold back tears.

“Well, I’m not sure how much you know, but I can tell you our version of the story and hope it helps answer your questions,” Dad said, patting my mom’s hand.

“That’s a start.” I wasn’t sure what I expected to hear, or even what I wanted to hear, but I steadied myself for it, nonetheless.

“A little over seventeen years ago, your mother and I had a baby girl, Katelyn. Our little Katie was very sick. She was born too early and on top of that she had a congenital heart defect and needed surgery to repair it. After several weeks in the hospital we were able to bring her home, but we had to make a decision about her heart surgery and not much time to do it. She was a tiny little thing. We weren’t even sure she would make it through the surgery but she had to have it. We were very young and unfortunately didn’t have the money to seek a specialist for answers or different treatment options. All we knew was she needed heart surgery to survive but her prognosis was grim either way.”

He looked at my mom, and they exchanged a sad expression. “We used to watch her sleep at night, this tiny little person we created, knowing that every night could be her last with us. It broke our hearts, a no-win situation–either way we might lose our baby.

“Then one day, a beautiful woman with a baby approached your mom. She had a natural charisma about her that drew a person in so they felt like they’d known her their whole life and could trust her. She told your mom she had a bargain for us that would save our baby’s life. As I said, she drew us in. Instinctively, your mom invited her into our tiny apartment–an efficiency–times were very hard. We were both trying to make it through college, had a mountain of debt and a sick baby girl.

“I’ll never forget that day. I sat at the kitchen table with my nose buried in a book, when your mom,” he looked over to my mom, who smiled, “walked in with this stranger. At first I thought she was crazy, but one look at this woman and I trusted her. At the time I didn’t realize why we were drawn to her but now of course we know it was because she was a faery.”

I sat there stunned, hearing Dad say I had a faery mother made it seem more real. Much more real than hearing it from Grant.

My mom seemed to have steadied her emotions and with a bit of a smile still on her face, she spoke up almost dreamily. “Your mother was beautiful and sweet. You are just like her, you know. You look like her and you act like her. When she came to me, she carried this baby on her hip. A beautiful green eyed baby, with a mess of brown hair.” She laughed at the memory.

“You had so much hair on your little head, and your adorable round face was just precious when you smiled. It made me sad when I thought of our Katelyn, who was very small and fragile. She tired easily and couldn’t seem to gain much weight. Looking at everything our baby should be, but wasn’t, tore at me. I think your mother knew this and we would accept her offer.

“Your mother told us who and what she was, although that should have shocked us, somehow it made sense. She kept us calm the entire time. I tell you, Fae have a gift and your mother knew how to use it. Everything she said made perfect sense.

“She told us her baby was in danger. It wasn’t safe for you anywhere because people were looking for you and would find you as long as she was with you. Her only choice was to hide her baby somewhere no one would ever search, with humans, hidden in plain sight. No one would suspect your mom would leave you in the care of vulnerable humans–it’d be the last place they’d look. So we were asked to hide you. In return she would take our Katie and heal her. She told us healers in Tír na nÓg could fix her with no surgery and she would live a long healthy life.”

“Of course, we couldn’t imagine living without our baby,” Dad jumped back in. “But the thought of saving her life was incredible. Whether she lived with us or not, just knowing she was alive somewhere out there was more than we could ever ask for. Your mother felt the same way about you. We were in similar predicaments. We could give up our babies and suffer, but know they were having a better life than we could have given them, or refuse to help each other and seal the fate of our precious baby girls. It was the most difficult, yet easy decision we ever made, so plans were set.

“Your mother promised to return Katelyn, healed, when you became an adult. But the crazy part was she would be only a few years older than when she left. So although it would be a long eighteen years for us, we would only miss a few years of Katie’s life. As for your mother, she would only be away from you for a few years but, miss watching you grow up. It was a give and take situation.”

“And of course,” Mom spoke again, “you were hard to say no to. You were a beautiful baby, so happy, so adorable. Knowing you were in danger made my maternal instinct kick in.” She smiled at me, but her eyes were far away in memories. “We made the choice to help each other. She called you a changeling. It was the Fae word for taking a human baby and replacing it with a faery baby.”

“Now we get to the hard part.” Dad wrapped his arm around Mom. She leaned into him and as if he were the only thing holding her up. “We knew after eighteen years we would see our little girl again, but for those eighteen years
you
were our little girl.” His eyes were glassy and Mom began sniffling again. “We love you as our own. We knew you would leave us one day, eighteen years seemed so far away, but days became weeks, weeks became months, months turned to years and soon eighteen years passed.” Tears freely flowed down his face. “I envy your mother living in Tír na nÓg, where time moves slower.”

Hot tears rolled down my face.

“We will forever love you, Kylie, please don’t think otherwise. It’s not that we don’t love Katelyn, but you’re our baby, too.” Mom’s voice sounded strained and I imagined, like me, she had a lump in her throat.

“When Grant,” her gaze flicked to him then returned to me, “walked into our home tonight, and I realized who he was, something just tore inside of me. I knew this day would come, but I guess I thought that if I didn’t think about it maybe it wouldn’t happen.” She smiled weakly at me. “But I guess that day is here. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to think you are leaving us. Don’t get me wrong, I am excited about seeing Katelyn after all these years, but well, these last eighteen years have been you. You were the one I watched take your first steps, you were the toddler I scooped into my arms when you scraped your knee, you were the little girl who climbed into our bed in the middle of the night when you had a bad dream.
You
are our little girl.” She cried harder now and I realized I did too.

I stood and threw myself into my mom’s arms. I wrapped my arms around her and cried. I couldn’t believe I ever doubted their love for me. After a few moments I sat back, cheeks still damp with tears and said, “Well, I guess that kind of makes me Katelyn’s sister. Her big sister.” I laughed. Mom wiped my cheeks and laughed too.

“Yes, you are.” Though her eyes were filled with tears, I could see they were also full of adoration, “I hope you know how much we love you Kylie.”

“I know, Mom. I love the both of you, too.”

Dad cleared his throat. “So, Grant, is that what brought you here? Is it time for Kylie to go back to Aislinn?”

“Well, yes sir,” Grant’s gaze shifted downward, and I sensed he didn’t want to bring my parents more grief. “But it’s not just because she is eighteen. We have reason to believe The Rite is on her trail. In fact, one member has found her. To our knowledge he hasn’t revealed this information, but they know enough to search here and it’s only a matter of time until the rest find her.”

Mom raised a shaky hand to her mouth clearly shocked and scared. Dad raked his hand through his dark hair.

Something clicked in my memory. “Matt.” My mom and dad gave me equally confused expressions. “That’s where I heard the word changeling before. He’s the member of The Rite.”

Why it took me so long to put this together was beyond me. Of course, that’s what the argument had been about. I just had so much to take in I missed the most obvious detail.

“When he was on the phone at lunch, the man he spoke with was extremely loud and I heard the word changeling. He demanded he find
me
.”

Grant’s gaze met mine, seemingly apologetic for Matt’s betrayal.

“Matt? As in my student Matt?” Dad’s face reddened. “Right under my nose, he set a trap and like an idiot I led Kylie right into it.”

“It’s not your fault, Mr. Ashbury. It was only a matter of time until they found her, and actually, you introducing the two may have just saved Kyla.” Dad, still angry, looked at Grant skeptically. “You see, he was obviously onto your family and just needed concrete proof, but after meeting Kyla, he couldn’t turn her in. She won him over just like she wins everyone over.” He smiled at me. “Had he not met her, he probably would have alerted The Rite and they would already be here.”

Dad seemed a bit relieved but I knew he wouldn’t forgive himself for his error even though it wasn’t his fault.

“So, as you can see, he may have stalled but he can’t do that forever. We need to get Kyla out of here as soon as possible.”

“If it keeps her safe, then I understand why she needs to go.” His anger seemed to cool as his sorrow returned. “Can she ever come back to visit?”

“If and when it is safe, I don’t think it should be a problem.” Grant smiled reassuringly.

“When does Katelyn come home?” I asked the question I’m sure they were wondering but didn’t ask.

“As soon as you are safe in Tír na nÓg, she will be sent here. She’s a very sweet, precocious little girl, I must say.” His mouth curved up and his eyes brightened at her mention. “She’s being raised by Nanny. She is pretty much your equivalent to a grandmother. She is also a healer and a respected elder. I assure you, Katelyn has been well taken care of. Because of the circumstances of the switch, she’s been tucked away in Nanny’s small village. Aislinn didn’t want anyone to know she had been the one to bring her over out of fear it would lead to Kyla. She also worried it could jeopardize Katelyn’s safety but that has never been a problem because no one,” he chuckled, “and I mean no one would mess with Nanny.”