“I had my doubts back then,” I said. “A lot of them. The Gatekeeper’s god might have turned on me as well as the Sidhe. I’m lucky she didn’t.”
“You got rid of the talisman,” he said. “The bow, though—”
“Etaina destroyed it.” I looked around the room, at the deceptively normal view from the window. “Like I destroyed my circlet. I can’t… I can’t use magic anymore.”
Did that mean I no longer had the Sight? Was there a faerie revel taking place outside my door without my awareness? Crap. The protection in my family’s bloodline won’t work anymore either.
I’d better hope the Sidhe didn’t come after me, then.
“We’ll handle it.” Darrow took my hands in his, and my heart lifted. Screw the Sidhe. I’d survived.
“I’m free, by the way,” I added. “Just in case you were wondering. No lifetime obligations to serve Faerie and pass on the Gatekeeper’s title to my offspring. So if you want to file that away for future reference—”
He leaned in and kissed me, cutting me off mid-sentence. I grinned and kissed him back, pulling him onto the bed next to me, and we stopped talking for a long while.
Sometime later, we lay side by side on the bed. I shifted closer to put an arm around him. “Ow. This blanket is not made for comfort.”
“It’s odd, seeing your house like this,” he said. “It feels more…”
“Please don’t say real,” I said. “It’s like I stepped several centuries into the past and into someone else’s life. This was probably Thomas’s twin daughters’ room.”
“That wasn’t what I was going to say,” he said.
“Uh-huh,” I said. “You aren’t going to start on that I’m not real crap, are you? Because you’re real enough that you didn’t die when Etaina did.”
He winced at her name, but he shook his head. “No, I didn’t. None of us did.”
“The other Aes Sidhe,” I said. “Wait—did the path between there and Faerie stay open? What happened to the survivors?”
“The Summer armies cleared out their tunnels and brought anyone they found to stand trial,” he said. “Those willing to plead for forgiveness will be offered the chance to re-join the Summer Court.”
“They wouldn’t, would they?” I said. “Not after everything they did for Etaina?”
“Many of them will accept any Court who will take them,” he said. “They are no threat to anyone. They feel they have lost themselves without Etaina. And I would be lying if I said I didn’t relate.”
“You and me both,” I said. “I don’t know that I want to stay here in Thomas’s house, but now I’m human, I can’t even move to Half-Blood Territory.”
“Their doors are open to both us,” said Darrow. “I’ve been back into Faerie, to explain myself to the Sidhe and to do my best to help those who acted in Etaina’s interests out of desperation rather than malice.”
“If the Aes Sidhe need a leader, there’s someone they might follow,” I said. “Hint, hint.”
He shook his head. “What little loyalty they have for me is born of the fact that we were all creations of Etaina’s magic, nothing more.”
“Darrow, the whole of Faerie is a glamour, including everything in it,” I said.
He waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter. I was wrong beforehand, but I know I am as real as I will ever be.”
I tilted my head. “What made you change your mind, then?”
“Because I’m in love with you, Hazel,” he said. “And if that isn’t real, I don’t know what is.”
It was some time before we went downstairs to join the others. The murmur of voices came from the kitchen, and I opened the door to find Morgan sitting at the table beside a man who looked a lot like he did, tall and thin with dark hair. Someone I hadn’t seen in years.
Dad?
“What are you doing here?” Disbelief rooted me to the spot. Dad was human. How in the world had he got here?
“I heard,” he said, in his strong Irish accent. “I heard you broke the curse, and that you are permitted to leave the Ley Line. This faerie told me you were in trouble, and that I was needed.”
The Erlking’s sprite fluttered down and landed on the table. “I was told to find this man and bring him here.”
“Lady Aiten.” Was that supposed to be her way of apologising? “Sorry, Dad. I know things are weird at the moment even by our standards.”
The faeries. I should know by now never to underestimate their capacity for the impossible.
Mum entered the room and cleared her throat. “I apologise for the disruption. I didn’t know the Sidhe planned to bring you here.”
“Hazel was injured,” he said. “A father should visit his children. I should have done so more when you were younger.”
“Don’t blame yourself, blame the Sidhe,” I said. “That’s what we do. It’s usually their fault.”
“You aren’t the only one of us who’s pulled a disappearing act once or twice,” added Morgan.
Swift flew to my shoulder. “It is good to see you awake, Gatekeeper.”
“I’m not Gatekeeper.” I startled as the faerie dog’s wet nose brushed my bare hand. “Morgan, do you still have the Sight?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” He gave the puppy a stroke. “Our family’s special.”
We still have the Sight. Did that mean I had any magic left, or had it all dried up with my Gatekeeper’s powers? Any faerie could make humans able to see them, but the ability to see through their glamour was rare indeed. It came as more of a relief than I’d expected to find I hadn’t lost all the skills Faerie had given me.
Ilsa came into the room behind Mum. “Holly’s gone to Foxwood. I reckon she wants to be alone for a while.”
I didn’t blame her, but Holly would adjust in time. Mum and I would, too, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thrilled that for once in my life, I’d be sorting out my own problems, not the faeries’.
I looked at the sprite. “What’s happening in Summer? Will there be a repeat of the Erlking’s tests, or will someone else be chosen?”
“The Sidhe elected to choose a leader from the remaining contestants. Erlking Anther will serve us well.”
Lord Anther? “He was put back in the running again?” I asked. “The Sidhe found him innocent of trying to poison the others?”
“Yes, of course,” said Swift. “As the Sidhe who ranked highest in the trials, he was a clear choice. Now the crown is back in the Sidhe’s hands, they will crown him in one week’s time.”
I was more relieved than annoyed at being left out of the decision. Finally, the faeries had taken matters into their own hands. It didn’t hurt that the one Sidhe who’d helped Darrow and me during the second trial would be sitting on the throne, either.
“We’re invited to the coronation,” said Mum. “As spectators. I rather think the Sidhe will resent our presence.”
I grinned. “Then it’d be my honour to remind them of my existence.”
Some things never changed, yet others changed beyond measure.
On the day of the coronation of the next monarch of Summer, I went looking for the gate into Faerie again.
The Ley Line might still be where it’d always been, but it took several minutes of tramping around the hills before Darrow spotted a hawthorn gate hidden in a patch of trees. Humans who stumbled across it might find a gate that led nowhere an odd sight, but they wouldn’t be able to reach the realm on the other side.
“At least we can still see through glamour,” I remarked. “I wonder why that is?”
“I’ve often assumed that once you see the truth of something, it can’t be unseen,” said Mum.
“Like a Sidhe orgy,” said Morgan. “Hey, Hazel.”
Ilsa and River walked behind my older brother, dressed in their finest clothing. The finest any of us could achieve without glamour, anyway. I suspected River had tried to glamour Ilsa anyway, and she’d refused on the grounds that neither Morgan nor I had the same advantages. We’
d all be going in as human—and proud of it.
“Hey, Hazel,” said Ilsa.
“How’s the guild?” I asked.
“Not too bad,” said Ilsa. “Quiet, for a wonder. It helps that there aren’t wraiths attacking Edinburgh every other day anymore. I’ve been coming back to find all the books that were in our family’s library.”
“Of course you did.” I rolled my eyes at her. “Dad isn’t here, by the way. He’s visiting Foxwood.”
There was no animosity between him and Mum, as she’d said, but it wasn’t really safe for any of us to be in Faerie. Without my Gatekeeper’s magic, I was stripped of my advantages, and while my Sight had remained, all I had left were the same advantages as a regular human—namely, iron, luck, and the ability to annoy the shit out of any faerie I ran into.
Didn’t stop me feeling vulnerable as hell when we entered the gate and found ourselves facing the bright meadow of the Summer Court. The colours seemed brighter than before, the smells more overwhelming. All the joys of being human. I wore my nicest outfit, but it didn’t hold a candle to the clothes I’d once been able to conjure up using glamour. Hope the Sidhe don’t throw me out.
“I thought we’d end up in the Aes Sidhe’s place,” I said to Darrow. “Probably for the best that we didn’t.
Lord Raivan stepped onto the path in front of us, dressed in an antlered hat and a gold-trimmed coat. “This way, humans.”
As we entered, Ivy Lane strode up to join us. Like us, she wore ordinary human clothes. “Mind if I tag along? It’ll be nice to have some humans to hang out with for once.”
“Sure.” I let her fall into step with me, joining our group of humans invited to Faerie. Without my Gatekeeper’s magic, the sights and smells of Faerie might be more intense, but it was still survivable. Even with my tolerance for elf wine as low as a regular human’s—or Darrow’s.
The ambassadors’ palace was as magnificent as ever, decorated in the green and gold splendour of the Summer Court. The Sidhe filled the hall, dressed in their finery, their attention on the stage. Lady Aiten greeted me with a nod, but she didn’t walk over to make conversation.
I scanned the assembled crowd and spotted Coral and some of the other half-bloods standing in a group near the back. When she saw me, Coral ran over and hugged me.
“You’re okay!” she said. “I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again.”
“Now I’m human?” I said. “Nah, I’m as good at being human as a fish out of water.”
“Or selkie,” she said. “Actually, believe it or not, I’m actually enjoying staying out the water.”
Given the band on her wrist and Willow’s matching one, I figured I could guess why.
“You’re staying in Half-Blood Territory?” I said. “The talisman—”
“I know Etaina destroyed it. Between you and me, I’m glad of it.” She smiled. “The merpeople are welcome to the Sea Court. Besides, I think they’ll find a crown is harder to hang onto than they think. I’m done with politics.”
“You and me both.”
I settled back to stand with the half-bloods and humans and watch the ceremony, soon finding my attention wandering. The Sidhe didn’t seem to care, which made a welcome change from being expected to stand on the stage and make speeches. Halfway through, I caught sight of Holly lurking near the back as though she wasn’t sure whether she was welcome. I slipped my hand out of Darrow’s and whispered, “Back in a second.”
Holly watched me walk over. It was still odd seeing her with brown eyes, not blue, and without her circlet. For a moment, she and I looked at one another. “How are you doing?”
Holly shrugged. “Better now the shock’s worn off. I’m still staying in Agnes’s attic until I can find an employer who’ll hire an associate of the Unseelie. Maybe I’m better off going somewhere nobody knows who I am.”
I understood what she meant. Blending back into the human realm would take some adjustment. To be honest, I didn’t know how to be human, not like someone who’d grown up as one of them. “You never know. You might find an employer looking for someone just like you.”
She made a sceptical noise. “It feels like I’ve been dropped off on an alien planet. Isn’t it ridiculous that I was relieved to get an invitation to the coronation, as though it was the only proof that anything in my life happened at all?”
“Not really,” I said. “It’s to be expected. We had a major upheaval, but we’ll survive.”
She exhaled. “I guess so.”
“I know so.”
I turned back to my family, more than ready to leave the Sidhe to their revelry. Perhaps Darrow and I would go for a walk in the Courts, so I could see them with my newly human eyes. Or maybe we’d go and see more of the mortal realm. The choice was ours.
And if the faeries made trouble, I’d be more than happy to teach them a lesson.
Thank you for reading!
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I hope you enjoyed The Gatekeeper’s Trials. If you have a minute to spare, then I’d really appreciate a short review. For independent authors, reviews help more readers discover our books and help us prioritise which projects to write next. If you want me to write more about Hazel and the faeries, I’d love to know what you thought!
Other books by Emma L. Adams
If you’d like to see how Ilsa gained her own Gatekeeper’s magic, you might like Hereditary Magic, Book 1 in the Gatekeeper’s Curse series.
Ilsa Lynn has made it her life’s goal to avoid the curse that binds her family to serve the Summer Court of Faerie, but when she discovers volatile magic inside a family heirloom, she must learn to wield it before her family faces a fate worse than death.
Find out more!
If you’d like to see Faerie from another perspective, you might like Faerie Blood, the first book in the Changeling Chronicles series.
When faerie-killer Ivy is hired to find a missing child, replaced with a changeling, she’s forced to team up with the seductively dangerous Mage Lord, at the risk of exposing her own dark history with the faeries—and this time, running won’t save her.
Find out more!
If you’re interested in exploring the faerie realms in more depth, you might like Mortal Heir, Book 1 in the Thief’s Talisman series.
Raine Warren, half-faerie changeling and master thief, has one mission: keep her family safe from the faeries who abandoned her in the human realm as a child. But when Faerie comes knocking, claiming she’s descended from Sidhe nobility and set to inherit an unexpected legacy, she must learn to survive in a realm of treacherous immortals.
Find out more!
If you’re curious about what happened in the time of the faerie invasion, try Alight, Book 1 in the Legacy of Flames series. Dragon shifter Ember must risk it all to rescue her sister from the supernatural-hunting Orion League, even if it means kidnapping a lethal ex-hunter who'd like nothing better than to add her name to his kill list.
Find out more!
About the Author
Emma is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of the Changeling Chronicles urban fantasy series.
Emma spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing fantasy novels. When she's not immersed in her own fictional universes, Emma can be found with her head in a book or wandering around the world in search of adventure.
Find out more about Emma’s books at www.emmaladams.com.
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The Gatekeeper's Trials: The Complete Trilogy Page 67