Book Two Wylan: Chapter 11
Key and Mirror
Chapter 11: Key and Mirror
1993
The scent of smoke woke Wylan up.
Untangling himself from Kaelis, Wylan sniffed the air. He nudged his sleeping lover’s shoulder.
Kaelis blinked open his eyes and yawned.
“Do you smell that?” Wylan said instead of a good morning greeting and kiss.
“Impossible not to,” Kaelis said, his whole body tensing up, every trace of sleep gone from his face.
“Where’s it coming from?” Wylan asked, equally as tense.
The stench intensified, and crackling noises began to accompany it. It sounded like flames gnawing away at wood. Like someone set a massive bonfire. A strange thudding pounded out below them and the treehouse trembled and shook. Wylan lunged over to a window. It was dozens of animals fleeing.
Gray curls of smoke drifted and wove through the tree branches.
It was a fire. No. Not just any fire. The Severing Grove was on fire.
A small army of fae below reached out for the trees.
“FOR TAMSIN!” One of them bellowed. Flames jetted out from his fingers, and the tree he touched caught fire.
Tree after tree after tree burst into flames. The roaring blaze intensified, creeping ever closer to the treehouse.
“We have to go!” Wylan hurriedly gathered up his bow and his too-small backpack, throwing his camera, sketchbook, and remaining art supplies into it. He wound his iron chain around his waist and strapped on his hip holster of arrows.
Together, the men raced down the treehouse ladders to the forest floor. Holding their cloaks over their noses to keep out the smoke, they hurried through the burning landscape.
The oppressive heat smacked into Wylan like a wall. As he pushed through it, his body broke out in sweat. Kaelis reached for his hand.
“You don’t have to wait for me!” Wylan cried out, “Transform! Run!”
“No!” Kaelis objected, interlacing his fingers with Wylan’s.
Wylan couldn’t resist throwing a look back over his shoulder at the treehouse one more time. Their sanctuary was burning to the ground.
“We have to keep moving!” Kaelis commanded.
Heart thundering, stomach twisting, and sweating, sweating, sweating, Wylan obeyed. They finally burst through the tree line and into the line of fire of the fae arsons.
Wheezing and coughing with his arms trembling, Wylan shot fae after fae; some died, some fled, joining the ranks of animals and creatures escaping the roaring blaze.
Alone, Kaelis and Wylan embraced each other.
“Th-that was so scary,” Wylan stammered, feeling for the first time in ages like that scared little boy who first crossed over into Tamsin’s realm from the cave.
Kaelis rubbed Wylan’s back and released him, “We have to get out of here.”
“We have nowhere else to go,” Wylan said in horror. Their one safe space was gone forever.
“Not true,” Kaelis shook his head. “We have to get out of here.”
It dawned on Wylan. There was no place for them in this realm anymore. It was time for them to leave. Forever.
In Tamsin’s mansion, the celebrations for her wedding were underway. Her husband-to-be and his guests were from another realm, and were probably portaling their way here as Kaelis and Wylan spoke.
“I understand,” Wylan said, “We’ll sneak back into her mansion, and find the portals.”
The duo marched to the village, men on a mission.
The village square was decked out in honor of the wedding. It had all of the same booths and stands as it did during the executions, with the addition of arches blooming with ribbons and rainbows of flowers and tables of cakes and other desserts lined with gauzy white table cloths.
A grand stage was erected and it too was bedecked with ribbons and flowers. There were two golden thrones and a large golden table, empty for now, in front of it.
“I think she’s getting married today,” Wylan gasped as he took it in.
“Perfect. They’ll be distracted. I’ll lead the way again,” Kaelis said as they made for the mansion’s kitchens.
For the last time, Wylan stowed his bow behind the cold dairy shed. He kept his arrows, though, at hand’s reach.
Wylan followed Kaelis’s cat form through the bustling kitchen and into the halls of the mansion.
They were also filled with enslaved humans and fae rushing this way and that, eyes only for the wedding preparations.
The mansion was huge. Where could the portals possibly be?
“If I was Tamsin, where would I want my guests to arrive?” Wylan whispered to Kaelis. “It’s probably not in any of the rooms we checked the last time we were here. So let’s go in the opposite direction.”
Kaelis bowed his head in agreement.
“Let’s turn right here,” Wylan whispered. “We haven’t been to this part of the mansion yet.”
Kaelis froze, sniffing the air. Just as suddenly as he stopped, he started moving again. He continued straight down the hallway instead.
Where is he going?
“Hey! Come back!” Wylan hissed.
Kaelis ignored the request, taking a left at the end of the hallway to boot.
If he gets us killed, I’m going to murder him myself, Wylan screamed internally.
They were at one of the highest parts of the mansion now. As Wylan followed, on edge the whole time that a wrongly timed creak could give them away, he noticed that it looked like they were nearing a bedroom suite.
Kaelis nudged the door open with his pink nose, and trotted in.
Wylan crept up to the crack and saw he was looking in on Tamsin’s rooms. The portals probably weren’t there … but no… Kaelis couldn’t be thinking… but clearly he was.
Wylan swore under his breath. He couldn’t do anything about it now. Not without putting both of them in danger. “Fuck,” he seethed.
Tamsin sat in a chair in front of a trio of mirrors as fae women styled her hair. She was clad in a shiny, white, wedding gown. One of them settled a tiara on her head with a shriek of joy.
The women clustered together and gave Tamsin a final nod of approval as they departed the rooms…and nearly straight into Wylan. He barely had time to slip into the shadows of the darkened doorway of a nearby room. As the fae womens voices faded, Wylan tiptoed back to the crack and watched what Kaelis was doing.
Kaelis purr-meowed at Tamsin.
“Oh, hello,” Tamsin cooed, delighted by the cat’s cheerful greeting. “Where did you come from?”
Kaelis flopped onto his side and rolled on his back in a patch of sunlight, uttering more feline joy. He was irresistibly cute.
He knows exactly what he’s doing, Wylan crept into the first room, keeping far away from the mirrors. If his reflection showed up now it would ruin everything. And now I’m going to need to … Wylan swallowed thickly. This wasn’t part of the plan.
“Aren’t you just adorable?” Tamsin reached for Kaelis’s striped head. He enthusiastically leaned into her touch, purring loudly. “And your coat is just … magnificent,” she said, examining the way Kaelis’s butter yellow fur glimmered in the sunshine. Wylan could practically see the visions of another fur cloak swirling in Tamsin’s mind.
Kaelis rolled back to standing on his four paws. He leapt onto Tamsin’s lap, purring and curling himself into a doughnut.
“No, no, none of that. I can’t get your beautiful hair onto my beautiful gown,” she said, picking Kaelis up. As she lifted him, Kaelis lunged. He swiped his claws, raking them across Tamsin’s eyes once, twice, three times.
The woman screamed. Blinded, she dropped Kaelis. Her fingers groped at the blue blue gooping out from her eyes. She screamed for help and disorientedly tried to make her way out of the room.
Wylan felt himself move into action like the commands were programmed into him. He body checked Tamsin with his shoulder, and threw his iron belt around her neck and squeezed.
He tried to ignore her ruined eyes, but they were impossible to look away from. More blood oozed from them as she choked, her fingers tugged, sizzling and burning at the touch, at the chain.
It’d be easy to snap her neck like he did to the fae in the stables. But Wylan was done with easy.
Using his free hand with a fierce tug he yanked his skeleton key necklace, breaking it off the silver chain. With all his might, he shoved the key into Tamsin’s throat. He felt it burst through her skin, and more blue blood spurted out.
It splattered onto his fingers, but still he shoved it in deeper and harder. Finally satisfied, he yanked it out, and wiped it clean onto her wedding dress, smearing the goopy blue across the beaded bodice.
She didn’t immediately die, but collapsed, gurgling and gagging as more blood spurted out. Wylan couldn’t believe how much blood the woman had in her. It seemed to be spewing out of her at an endless rate.
“We need to find the portals now!” Wylan urged, rubbing his bloodied fingers on the skirt of her gown, as she writhed on the floor in agony. Any minute now the fae who heard Tamsin’s cries for help and the commotion would rush to her aid.
Wylan scooped Kaelis into his arms. They had to keep moving.
“Portals, portals, portals, where are the portals?” Wylan murmured as they hustled away from Tamsin’s suite.
As what they did sunk in, his heart leaped into his throat and his whole body burned like he was lit on fire.
Oh, god. Oh, god. Other than the skeleton key and his belt and the few arrows at his hip he had no weapons to defend himself, and here he was in a mansion crawling with fae.
One room, two rooms, three rooms were all duds. No sign of portals anywhere.
“I can’t do this,” Wylan panicked, his eyes blurring with tears. “Kaelis, I can’t do this. I couldn’t even find the cave and I spent years searching for the damn thing. We have minutes before they find Tamsin. I can’t do this. I can’t.”
Wylan’s whole body tremored and spasmed. His knees buckled and, as he dropped to the ground, Kaelis jumped out of his arms.
Hunched over, Wylan hugged his arms around his knees. His breath burst out of him in sharp, ragged, gasps. He felt just like he did that day at the lake so many years ago when he was terrified by those boys. Except this time his life was actually on the line.
I didn’t come all this way to die here, Wylan cried and gasped harder.
Kaelis meowed and trotted away, his tail held high and proud. He disappeared around the corner.
“Good, save yourself,” Wylan croaked. He felt faint, like he was going to pass out at any minute.
What were we thinking! All we needed to do was find the portals. That was it.
What was supposed to be an escape to freedom was now a suicide mission.
I could’ve told Kaelis no. I could’ve stopped it, Wylan continued spiraling.
They killed the bride. The ruler of the realm. If they got caught, like they were going to any minute, they’d be the next pile of headless bodies on the stage. This wedding was now a funeral.
Kaelis returned with another bright, downright musical meow.
“Di-did y-you f-find anything?” Wylan stammered out.
Kaelis meowed more urgently.
“I can’t understand you!” Wylan moaned.
Kaelis bopped Wylan on his knee with his paw. He pivoted quickly, nearly smacking Wylan in the face with his tail.
Wylan couldn’t understand cat, but he heard Kaelis loud and clear now: Get up. Get over it. Let’s go.
Shakily, he rose to standing. Kaelis prodded Wylan’s ankle with his paw and meowed. He tilted his head at the hallway ahead of them.
“You want me to lead? Kaelis I can’t… I can’t find it… I need you to–”
Kaelis meowed more sharply and he smacked Wylan’s ankle again, this time with his claws partially out.
“Hey! That actually hurt!” Wylan exclaimed.
Kaelis practically rolled his eyes.
Wylan furiously wiped his teary eyes with his sleeves. “We’ll find the portals, together.”
Kaelis’s ears perked up, and his whiskers fanned out. He purr-meowed.
Keeping pace, they worked their way through the next rooms.
Wylan just had to keep putting one foot in front of the other, just like when he first arrived in this realm and was terrified out of his mind.
A bright glint caught Wylan’s eye. He tried to block out the sounds of commotion and chaos below them.
They were both out of time and just in time.
It was a room full of mirrors. Just like the mirrors in the garden of mirrors, they were all shapes and sizes, some with elaborate frames, others simple panes of glass. Wylan rushed over to each individual mirror, looking deeply into the glasses.
He saw a red, smoky sky above a field of bones in one mirror, a towering metallic skyscraper shooting up from a robotic city in another, and elephant-sized mushrooms in another. None of them looked like home.
Then it hit Wylan. Home didn’t have to mean home. He was thinking about it all the wrong way. He didn’t need to be looking for his house…
The garden of mirrors… if he could find the garden of mirrors...
Wylan searched faster, racing by mirror after mirror after mirror. Finally, he stopped when he saw a familiar sight in one of them. In the middle of a garden bursting with colorful flowers was a wooden trellis covered with climbing vines with a mirror with a bronzed metal border with a chubby-cheeked angel blowing a trumpet.
“That’s my world!” Wylan gasped.
Kaelis leaned in. His pink nose was barely an inch from the surface of the glass.
“Wait!” Wylan cried. “Your world is probably through one of these mirrors too. We have to hurry!”
Kaelis transformed back into his human form. “Or I can go back with you.”
“Go back with me?” Wylan repeated, feeling stunned by the notion.
“There’s nothing for me back in my world… especially now that Lyris and Tallis are gone,” Kaelis said bluntly.
“But… but your mom…” Wylan tried.
“Is probably busy with her next litter. She probably doesn’t even know the three of us were gone,” Kaelis said.
“That’s terrible,” Wylan said, his throat tightening and eyes budding with tears again.
“Lyris and Tallis were my world. Going back there without them is … wrong,” Kaelis said heavily. “Now I have you, and I want to be with you.”
“We can be together,” Wylan said, loving the idea. “Just like we are here. We can run away together.”
“But what about your brother?” Kaelis asked.
“He was my world once. Not anymore. You’re my world now, Kaelis, and I want us to be together. Forever,” Wylan said, and he believed every word. He’d never wanted anything so badly in all his life.
Kaelis’s eyes were bright and shiny, like maybe he was about to cry too. He launched himself into Wylan’s arms and kissed him. Wylan kissed him back, holding them together. He both wanted to let go, and never let go again.
“We have a new adventure ahead of us,” Wylan said, trying to believe it was true. With Kaelis by his side, he knew he could do anything.
“Well, then let’s go, Adventurer,” Kaelis grinned.
Hand and hand, they leaped through the glass.
Everything went black. It felt like he’d been hurled into a cold pool while on a roller coaster. Everything was upside down and twisting and turning.
The sensations stopped as abruptly as they started, and like a light snapping on in complete darkness, the garden of mirrors surrounded Wylan as he tumbled out into the grass.
Gasping for air and shaking all over, Wylan crawled on his hands and knees. “Kaelis!? Kaelis!? KAELIS!”
He watched in horror as the butter colored tabby shrank down to a kitten.
“No, no, no,” Wylan moaned. He dragged himself to the pond and saw his twelve-year-old self staring back.
He burst into tears. Crying hard, he was barely aware of his holster of arrows and cold iron belt disintegrating, the particles drifting to the dirt. He crawled back to Kaelis, feeling like he was on the verge of total collapse. No. None of that! Wylan yelled at himself. Be strong. Keep it together!
“Kaelis! Turn back!” Wylan demanded.
The kitten mewled a high-pitched mew and disorientedly limped towards Wylan.
“What’s wrong, Kaelis!? Are you hurt? Please, Kaelis! Talk to me!”
Kaelis mewed again, and his legs gave out on him. His little kitten body crashed to the dirt.
Wylan scooped him up. Sitting on his butt in the grass, he held Kaelis up to his chest.
Kaelis’s heart was racing, racing, racing.
“Turn back, please! Please! Please! I need you! I can’t do this without you, Kaelis!” Wylan’s voice cracked and the tears dragged thick, salty, slimy trails down his cheeks.
Shakily, Kaelis placed a trembling paw on Wylan’s chest, right above his heart. His eyes closed. His racing, racing, racing, heart stopped.
Wylan howled. He sobbed and screamed, his legs thrashing at the ground like he was possessed by a demon.
“NO! NO! NO! NO! THIS WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!” Wylan screamed at the top of his lungs. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t supposed to happen.” He cried harder. He hugged Kaelis’s kitten body closer. “I love you Kaelis. I love you. I won’t leave you, I’ll never leave you.”
Shakily, he rose to his feet. His arms hugging Kaelis tightly, he walked through the garden of mirrors, and the meadow in the direction of Grammy and Grandpa’s house. Everything seemed colorless. What was his life without Kaelis? What was his life?
He walked on.
Aaaanddd this is it, the last chapter of Wylan’s time spent in Tamsin’s dark fae realm! Did it end how you expected it would?
It sure says a lot about how adult Wylan in the modern day has been living his life, huh?! Just like his twin brother Wendell, “Wen”, surviving a werewolf attack on his Boy Scout camping trip, this trauma follows Wylan through his second round of adulthood.
The remaining chapters chronicle how modern day Wylan continues to grapple with such a big loss, and whether he has what it takes to find healing and release. ✨🪞🗝️
Thank YOU for being a part of Wylan’s journey! ❤️🔥
(PS, a special thank you to Kayla Solis for her exceptional beta reading!)