The Source: Book III of the Holding Kate Series (45 page)

Three days later, they stood on the platform as Trip and Tara gave their farewell speeches, hugged their children, and said goodbye to their dragon mates. Then with his eyes cast down and his heart even lower, Corey activated the sphere and they jumped home.

Without Kate.

KATE CONTINUED ALONG
the bank of the great lake keeping her eyes and ears alert. The day loomed misty and overcast. She felt drenched to the bone after riding for hours in the heavy air, her heart lethargic and heavy as the moisture laden day.

How many more setbacks would she have to endure before she got to Corey? It seemed the universe was against her, so many obstacles stood between her and the one she loved. The muted sounds of the lake lapping against the shoreline and the ticking of insects accompanied her heavy thoughts.

When she thought of Gregory coming after her, a sense of dread and hopelessness clenched her. She turned in the saddle, looking over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being followed. No signs of pursuit presented, but the foreboding feeling grew in her chest with every glance behind.

Corey
!
Think of Corey. Don’t worry about Gregory or the Children of the Dragons, just keep thinking of Corey.

The pressure released in her chest when she pictured his face, the loving look in his eyes, the scent of his skin. Warmth flooded her face. His memory dispelled the fear and dread.

Lifting her eyes, she spotted a small campsite beside a ferry crossing ahead. As she drew near, an old man stepped out of the rough dwelling and watched as her horse closed the distance between them.

“G’day, miss,” he called to her when her horse stopped in front of him.

“Good day, sir. Are you the ferryman?”

“Aye, the very one,” he stated with a dip of his chin. “Name’s Cron.”

“I need to cross the lake with my horse. Are you able to take us across?”

“Well, yeah, ‘course miss. Ifns you got the coins to pay the toll.” He squinted one eye and then scanned her attire and the plump saddlebags.

“I only have two coins.”

“Well, see now, that would get one o’ you across, but not the both o’ you.” He spat dark fluid to the ground and cocked his head. “That is a might’ stout beast there.”

Kate frowned. She couldn’t trade her horse. She would need her once she crossed the lake. “Is there anything else I can trade for the transport?”

He looked her over again. “Well, there is one thing I think I would like to add to my collection.”

Kate narrowed her eyes dubiously. “What would that be, sir?”

“Your story. I collect ‘em see. A lone lady out on a poor man’s horse with a wounded arm and a self-made spear slapped to the side of her saddle sounds like it might be pert near the best one I’ve heard all my long days.” He chuckled.

“A story.” Kate glanced around behind her. “Could that story be told on the crossing? I am in a bit of a hurry.”

“Aye, Milady.” He waddled up the plank and began untying ropes.

Kate dismounted and led her horse to the center of the barge. She paid the ferryman her two coins, and he pushed off from the little dock with a grunt.

Kate scanned the hills behind her but there were no signs of pursuit, so she sighed and leaned her forehead into her horse’s neck.

The ferryman guided them into the lake and poled gently into the darker waters, aiming for the far shore. “There now, Milady, you c’n relax now. We’re well away.”

Kate nodded and began stripping the saddle off the horse and rubbing her down, easing the sore spots. She began her tale with her wedding night under the blinking colors of the fireflies and poured out her heart and soul to this stranger.

It was cathartic. The more she spoke, the easier the words came. As she finished her tale with the strange meeting with Doc the night before, tears trickled down her face. “If I can just get to Corey, I know everything will be healed in his arms.” She turned to the ferryman to catch a scowl before he turned away from her.

“You don’t agree?” she asked, her bared soul sensitive to his reaction.

“Ah, now miss, don’t go putting stock in an old man’s skepticism.” He spat into the water and shifted the pole. “It was a right fancy tale, fer sure. Well worth the ferry.”

Kate looked down. “You think it is fabricated.”

“Nah, I can tell you believe every word.” He hesitated. “It’s just…”

“Just?”

“Well, seems to me that with all that special magic that Corey has, he could’ve found you by now if he was alookin’.” He scowled. “Ifn I had a beauty like you, I sure wouldna let her out o’ my sight for thirteen years.”

Kate slipped the saddle blanket back over the horse in silence. She had thought that too, before she had talked to Tara. It was a legitimate concern.

“Well and you said this Queen had been gone for eleven hundred years? Who knows what changes go through a pers’n in that amount of time? She was working on ancient information. I am sure this Corey person has moved on by now, if he still exists! He could be long dead in his grave!”

Kate panted and nearly dropped the saddle. That thought had not occurred to her. She knew time worked differently outside of the sphere. But eleven hundred years? What ways had eleven hundred years changed Trip and Tara? Could she believe anything they said?

“I don’t mean ter add to yer trouble, miss.” He shook his head. “But even if Corey is waitin’ fer ya, I can’t imagine a man being willing ta forgive all ya’ve done. That kinda betrayal don’t sit too well with a man.”

Kate cinched the saddle straps while deep in thought. Her heart felt as though it had been punctured with a skewer, repeatedly. There was truth in the old man’s words. She recognized that he was speaking from the level head and wisdom of age, not the dreamy whims of a young flighty girl.

Heaviness weighed on her shoulders as the ferry reached the far side of the lake and bumped against the dock.

The ferryman reached for her hand and dropped her coins back into her palm. She searched his eyes. “You hang on ter these miss. You might be needin ‘em.” He closed her fingers around the coins and patted her hand in a fatherly manner.

She led her horse up the bank and climbed in the saddle under such a load of despair that she didn’t have the gumption to even kick the horse into motion. She stared at the ferryman as he started to push away from the dock.

“Yer almost there, miss, half a day’s ride. The One go with ya!”

“Thank you, Cron.” She waved as he pushed off the shore and headed back across the lake.

She watched him pole back through the misty lake, her eyes locked on memories of his words rather than the actual images in front of her. Could it be possible? Was Gregory going to be her only future? All of his lies were motivated by his love for her. He just lied to be with her. There were worse existences.

Corey was pure and beautiful, she no longer had doubt of that. It was unthinkable that she had lost faith in him and believed the lies that led to her complete debauchery. Corey would forgive her indiscretions, but would he forgive her betrayal of all they were? Could he forgive her complete loss of faith in who he was?

She was not worthy of such a man. Corey was so far beyond her! How could she even consider that they belonged together? She folded herself over the pommel of the saddle and wept into the horse’s mane. She was a fool! She had come all this way with a child’s fantasy blazing the trail.

Her dark soul reached tentacles around her and drew her into deep despair. She turned the horse toward Lumisfere and they picked their way slowly across the landscape. With each step, Kate’s heart grew heavier and heavier.

She fingered her empty ring finger. She had taken the wheat stem wedding band off years ago, when she thought Corey had betrayed her. She hid it away in a drawer of silks in a small velvet box. She would give anything to have it back on her finger. Some small symbol that she had not completely given up on Corey would be better than returning to him like this, ragged, weary, filthy and broken beyond repair. If he took her back, it would be out of pity, not love.

The horse had faltered to a stop without any prodding from her. She slipped out of the saddle onto the ground beside the horse.

Drifting, she was drifting just like the horse. No direction, no purpose, nowhere to go. She rocked back and forth on her knees, the agony in her chest seeking release. Tara’s words came back to her with frightening clarity.

Faithless! I have been faithless! I lost faith in our love! I believed the lies that Gregory told me! I lost the best part of who I was!

Corey was always the best part of who I was. He was always the strong one, the beautiful one, the pure one. I was made better by his love.

Every morning and every night he would take her in his arms and purge her of all false thoughts and feelings. Their marriage bed was a sacred place, a place where she felt whole. It was an act of redemption every time he poured love and affection on her. He lavished his goodness on her with every kiss, in bliss so full of worship.

The memory of Corey’s face burned into her mind. His clear blue eyes pouring love and forgiveness into her. His strong hands ministering to her body seared through her, blazing a trail of cleansing fire.

She threw her head up with a sharp exhale. NO! She would not do it again! She would not betray their love again. It was real! It was perfect! It was eternal!

She would not be drawn into self-deluded thoughts again! AGAIN?

“NO!“ she shouted and the horse skittered at her sudden outburst. “No. I will NEVER doubt his love again!”

She pulled the image of Corey’s face into the forefront of her mind and held it there. “Corey,” she whispered with closed eyes. “Corey, I’m coming!”

Just keep his face as your focus!

She climbed her mare and sped off with renewed hope. Knowing that soon she would be in Corey’s arms, the day blurred by. She knew she was getting close when she started seeing dragons flying in the distance.

Soon. So soon.

She drove the horse up a rise and paused at the top. She released a half-cry half-laugh at the view in front of her. The city of Lumisfere, breathtaking, sprawled out in the valley below. Corey would be down there soon. Her heart spiked and flutters awakened in her belly.

Corey!

She kicked the sides of the mare and tore off into the valley with her eyes fixed on the tallest spire of the city.

She did not recognize the rumble of ground around her until she was surrounded. Kiarnusk and their human riders encircled her, and they all came to a stop.

“Hello, Kate of a Thousand Years.” Midri rode her Kiarnusk forward until it was nose to nose with Kate’s mare.

“Midri.” Kate’s eyes scanned the group around her.

“You led us well.” Her eyes flashed, accentuated by her dark skin. “We are glad to be near our dragons again.”

“Well, that’s nice, but I need to go.” Kate jerked the reins of her horse to the right.

Midri leaned over, snatched the reins out of Kate’s hands, and shook her head.

“What are you doing? You found your beloved dragons, now, let me go!” Kate reached for the reins, but Midri put her hand against Kate’s chest and shook her head.