“You missed a lot.” I looked at Nathan. “And there’s a bunch you need filling in on.”
“It sounds like it,” he replied, placing his glasses back on his nose.
I was about to regale them when one final figure stepped out of the gateway—the man who’d caused this mess in the first place. Letting go of Genie, I stormed over to Fergus and drew my hand back, slapping my palm across his face with all the anger in my veins. But my hand went right through him, the uninterrupted momentum almost making me stumble. Rallying quickly, I blocked his path, determined to get an explanation even if I couldn’t have the satisfaction of a soap-opera slap. However, as I came face to face with him, all the venting I’d planned got carried away in the wind, like the ashes of those who’d died in his realm. Tears streamed down his cheeks, his expression a confusing blend of happy and sad.
“Did ye do this, lass?” he asked, bowing his head.
I nodded slowly. “Yes.”
“Then I owe ye a debt of gratitude. I never thought, for a moment, that ye’d do this after I hoofed ye out of me world like I did,” he said softly, his breath hitching. “I never thought there were a soul alive who’d put me back where I belong. With her…” His green eyes sought out the headstone, though Lorelei’s name had long been erased by the elements. “I know I’m dead as a doornail, but… ye’ve made me feel like I’m alive again, lass. She’s calling me. I can hear her singin’—I’ve missed that sound, like ye wouldn’t believe.”
He tried to step forward, but I stood in the way. “Not so fast, Fergus. I’ve done something for you, now I want you to tell me everything. Starting with what’s going to happen to this gateway.”
Fergus wiped a tear from his cheek. “Me love died before she could get te the paradise I built fer us, so her soul never made it there. There ain’t no point in it existin’ now. Burn me bones—both our bones—and it’ll destroy the gateway fer good. Them Wisps, too. They’ll not bother no one again, and nor will I.”
“Is that why the Wisps chased us?”
“Aye, they’re crafty kippers. Tryin’ te ruin me life, even after I died. I expect they could’ve brought me love’s soul te me, if they’d wanted… but they knew what’d happen if they did.” Fergus’s eyes glinted with anger. “Well, now they’ll get what’s been comin’ to ‘em.”
I sighed in frustration, still not understanding the whole story. “So, why trap them? Why not pass on when you died, where you’d have been reunited with Lorelei anyway? What if you’ve ruined that chance, by doing what you did?”
“I’ll hope, with every piece of me blackened soul, that she and I will meet in the beyond. They say if a love’s powerful enough, it’ll happen. Ours were the strongest of all, and I ain’t just sayin’ that. Our paths crossed time and again like it were destiny, ‘til we understood that it were fate what brought us together. As bairns, she saved me from drownin’ in the sea. A few years after, I rescued her when her horse were boltin’. Then, she hid me when them witch hunters were after me, and I hid her when some rogue were wantin’ a piece o’ her. We tried te fight everythin’ te be together—her father, my magic, a whole world what didn’t want us united. I thought we’d finally be safe, in a world all our own. I were wrong.” He lifted his head to the stars and blinked away fresh tears. “All these years, I’ve missed her more and more, until it ate up me innards and left me hollow.”
“But how come your bones were outside your realm?” I’d seen the grave with my own eyes. Hell, I’d dug it up.
Fergus gave a bitter laugh. “It were the price I had te pay, in the end. The cost of heaven is always death, lass. But I didn’t ever mean te live in my paradise as a spirit. Nah, that weren’t the plan at all.” His face fell, crumpling as a sob wracked his chest. “I were a Primus Anglicus—one o’ the last. Me family name ain’t written in no fancy books or aught, but it’s true. Mine were a secret bloodline in a magical world, where folks thought we’d all been cut down. And that meant I were still able to beg a favor of the Children. I guess they thought they owed us a courtesy or two, since it were their watered-down magicals who were cullin’ us left, right, and center.”
Nathan stepped into the conversation, with Genie flanking me on the right. “Was Lorelei a magical?” he asked.
“Probably would’ve ended up the same way if she were, but no, she didn’t have a drop o’ magic in her, unless ye count the magic of her beauty, and her voice, and the love she gave me.” He held his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking with the weight of centuries of grief. “Our love were thwarted from the off. Her da wouldn’t let me near her, threatened te run me through if I came by again… But we met in secret, in a little glade that no one else knew. The gateway used te stand there, before time smothered it.
“Then, someone told a tale te her da, who were the ruler in these parts. They said I were a dabbler in devil worship and other evils.” His mouth twisted into a grimace, teardrops running over his lip and into his mouth. “One night, the village elders came fer me, and I had te flee for me life, not knowin’ who’d betrayed me. I left me love a message, tellin’ her where te find me. That’s when I begged the Children fer help, and Gaia answered. She gave me the power te build an eternal world, just fer me and
