Free The Gossamer Gate by Wendy L. Callahan Page B

it’s their mission to get laid as much as they can, in hopes of getting knocked up, or getting mortal women knocked up, and then taking their babies away to strengthen the faerie race. All you people want are brood mares, so who are you to scold me about love when you’ve forgotten how it even feels?”
    Liam faced her and said, “You’re right; we do have to procreate for survival. But you’re wrong about us forgetting what love is. Just because it isn’t a priority for us, that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to be able to find love too. We wish we had the leisure to make a priority of something that you, and many other mortals, take for granted. It must be nice to be able to be so cavalier about something like love.”
    Hearing the pain in his voice, Khiara turned to apologize.
    But he had already disappeared.
     
     

Chapter 8
    The path led into a small village, which Khiara had not expected. She had envisioned the Faerielands as a place of flowery fields and crystal palaces, not gray skies and withered forests. Nor did she think faeries lived in large enough groups to form a village of simple homes made from bark and thatched with straw, but there they were. She saw several houses, faerie men and women at work in the fields and around the homes, and a few children playing outdoors.
    Reminding herself of Liam’s words that some of the faeries would like to see her punished for her actions almost a decade ago, she gripped the strap of her bag and set off with grim determination into the village. She knew faeries were capable of deceit; she did not know if they were capable of outright hostility. It seemed that encountering faeries on her journey was inevitable, though, and it was a chance that she would have to take.
    The faeries watched in silence as she approached, and Khiara bowed her head in an effort to appear deferential. They would want her to fail, to serve out the punishment they felt she deserved by living among them and giving up the life she enjoyed in the mortal world. Her penalty would be to help them add to their numbers, until she no longer served Ronan’s purposes. It was not a thought she relished.
    Even though this area was greener than the forest, it still had the gray pall over it that made it so very different from the mortal wor ld to which she was accustomed. Other than that, the Otherworld seemed more or less normal based on her human standards. There was far less wildlife, however the earth, trees, and sky were all fairly similar to what one would see in the mortal realm.
    Khiara made her way swiftly through the village, trying to ignore the discomfort she felt as a result of the attention she was receiving from the faeries. They had paused in their work to watch her travel by and she could feel their earthy magick tingling around her. It was life encouraging and nurturing. They were using it to sustain and increase their crops. The sensation was very different from the dark magick that Ronan exuded, and the sensual energy that Liam radiated. She realized that Liam’s was a fire magick, akin to her own. Maybe that’s why I was immune to his glamour , she thought. Our energies must be attuned to one another's.
    As she pondered this, she also realized she was feeling back to normal. That sense of everyone staring at her faded with each step. She glanced back to see that she was just outside the village and the unfriendly faeries had returned to their work. Silently, she offered a prayer to whatever deity might be listening – her own or any other – for their good health and an abundant harvest.
    Sighing with relief at surviving yet another unnerving ordeal, Khiara continued to walk until she came to a crossroads. The statue of a fae woman stood there, with four faces that looked in each of the cardinal directions. The gray stone looked as if someone had carved it recently, yet the moss that crept up the base told her the statue had been there for a long time; possibly for eons,