Little did Colleen McBride suspect that the reoccurring dream which haunted her nights, and plagued her days, would lead her to an age old curse which only she could break and her window of opportunity for doing so was rapidly closing.
Past Reviews
"Five Angels! Kay Wilde is without a doubt one of the best authors I have ever read. Tempting Fate: Journey's End is a short story that compels and grips readers from the very beginning. Kay Wilde is an excellent storyteller; even her short stories have an abundance of love and passion. I have read all of Kay Wilde's Tempting Fate series and I have enjoyed each and every one of them. Each story is unique on it's own, but every book consistently portrays believable characters within the context of a very well written, awesome story!" Fallen Angel Reviews
* * * *
"Five Flames! Kay Wilde's HOLIDAY FANTASIES short stories just keep getting better and better. The writing is excellent and the story flows smoothly. Colleen and Ronan are wonderful, lovable characters. Their sizzling lovemaking is really magical. JOURNEY'S END is a terrific St. Patrick's Day romance." Sizzling Romances
* * * *
“Four Hearts! What a fascinating tale! Ms. Wilde is a master of building sexual tension in her stories, making one get drawn into the story, and feeling everything along with her characters. When the tension finally culminates, the passion is so strong it can cause spontaneous combustion." Love Romances
* * * *
"Kay Wilde’s journey with her Tempting Fate: Holiday Fantasies series has been wonderful and thankfully hasn’t ended just yet. Each book just gets better and Journey’s End is another short and powerful hit in this collection!" The Road to Romance
* * * *
"Four and 1/2 Hearts! Journey's End was very romantic. Kay Wilde always seems to catch the characters' emotions so well. Kay Wilde has become an auto-read for me, and I'd gladly recommend Journey's End to any romance readers!" The Romance Studio
* * * *
Originally released as part of the Tempting Fate Holiday Fantasies collection
Excerpt:
“Please don’t do this, Donal. There must be a way to defeat her,” Megan pleaded, unable to quell the edge of hysteria in her voice.
“The curse the Lianhan Shee forced the old witch to put upon me ‘tis a far better fate than were I to concede to her demands and leave ye to be with her.”
“But Donal, ‘tis it not said ye kin send another to the Lianhan Shee in yer stead?”
Megan suggested hopefully.
“And what kind of man would I be to send another to suffer me fate?”
“Donal, please.” There was a catch in her voice and her tears started to flow as she was forced to accept the inevitable.
“Near tears me heart out to see ye hurtin’ so, me love. But ‘tis the only way. Least this way, I’ll be free to watch over ye.”
“If ye must do this,” Megan forced herself to say, trying to equal his courage, “‘tis also said, the Selkie kin shed their skin at night and walk among humans. We kin still be t’gether.”
“Ah, luv.” With a weary sigh Donal pulled Megan into his arms. “Unless I kin stand by yer side, night and day, as yer husband, protector, and the father of yer children, I must leave ye free to find one who kin.”
Megan held him tightly and then said the words she already knew he loved her too much to accept. “Then I’ll ask the old witch to put the same curse upon me. We will share the same fate.”
Donal had anticipated such a desperate action on Megan’s part. He’d already extracted a promise from the witch that she would grant no such request. “The old witch has done her best fer us. She has given us a chance to say good-bye and the promise that in another time, our souls will be given the opportunity to find one another.”
“How kin I live without ye?”
“Ye will do what ye must,” Donal insisted. “Promise me, Megan. Grant me the peace of knowin’ ye’ll not remain alone.”
Megan knew that without Donal half of herself would be forever missing, and she would never again find the happiness only he could give her. But, if it would give him peace, she forced herself to speak the words he needed to hear. “I give ye me promise, Donal.”
Beginning to feel pain in his flesh and bones and the overpowering call of the sea, Donal O’Shea knew their time together was about to end. Sliding his hands up her back to her shoulders, he gently pushed her away from him. “Me prayers be with ye, me love. And may God watch over and protect ye on yer journeys, ‘til we are again united.”
“I’ll always love ye, Donal O’Shea,” Megan whispered, also sensing the end was near.
His beautiful, long-lashed, dark eyes misted over as he looked deeply into hers, so deeply Megan felt as if he were caressing her soul. “And I will always love ye, me lovely Megan.” He leaned down and tenderly kissed her good-bye, then turned and walked into the sea.
Megan stood on the beach watching as the huge swells washed over him. What seemed like an unbearably long time later, a sleek black seal broke the surface. Bypassing the other seals grouped upon an ocean-washed outcropping of rocks, the lone seal began moving out to sea.
“Nooo,” Megan cried out, then fell to her knees upon the sand.
* * * *
Jerked from the depths of her unsettling dream, Colleen McBride bolted upright in her bed. Chilled, she pulled the quilt around her, wrapped her arms around her bent legs and rested her head upon her knees. The dreams were recurring with increasing frequency, each occurrence leaving her more shaken, with a lingering sensation of desperation which was intensifying. Time was running out. But time for what? All she had to go on were small fragments she remembered from the dreams: haunting, long-lashed, dark eyes gazing deeply into hers; the image of a house on a hill overlooking the ocean; a door upon which a shamrock had been painted; and a door mat embossed with a gold claddaugh design.
Barely having the energy to lift her head, Colleen looked at the clock radio on her bedside table. It was only 4:00 a.m. Previous experience taught her that going back to sleep would be impossible.
Wrapping the quilt securely around her, Colleen rose from the bed. Using only the glow of the street light outside which filtered through her closed blinds, she made her way to the kitchenette area of her small, one bedroom apartment. Taking a glass from the cabinet, she turned on the tap and filled it with water. Her hand was trembling so badly, the glass slipped from her fingers and shattered when it hit the stainless steel sink.
It took a while, but Colleen managed to pull herself together enough to make a pot of coffee, a cup of which she carried into the living room. Still feeling chilled all the way to her soul, Colleen started a fire in the gas log fireplace, then curled up on the sofa, cocooned within the comforting warmth of her grandmother’s handmade quilt. And as she had done on many such nights, there Colleen sat until the sun came up and it was time to get ready for work.
* * * *
“Are you out of your mind?”
“That’s a distinct possibility,” Colleen responded to Karen, her best friend and coworker, as she emptied her personal belongings from her desk drawer and placed them into the cardboard box she’d found in the storeroom.
“I can’t believe you quit your job.”
“He didn’t give me any choice,” Colleen insisted. “I told him something personal has come up and I needed to take a week of my vacation time. He won’t give me the time off without two week’s notice. So I quit.”
“Jeez, Coll,” her friend groaned. “These crazy dreams you’ve been having are really getting to you. You’re exhausted, on edge, and not behaving like yourself at all. Go back in there and talk to Goldstein. Hell, he thinks you walk on water. He’ll give you your job back.”
Colleen’s wordless response to her friend’s impassioned speech was to pick up the photograph of her parents and grandmother from the top of her desk, gently place it in the box, and close the lid.
“Damn it, Colleen. I’m your friend. I care about you. Stop and think about what you’re giving up. You’ve invested six years here.”
“And I’ve barely missed a day in those six years. What about all the days I come in early and stay late, or the weekends I’ve put in. All without overtime pay?” Colleen hastened to point out, cringing inwardly at the sharpness in her voice. “You’d think that would grant me a little consideration the first time I’ve ever asked for anything.”
“You’re also the highest paid secretary in the company and you have an excellent benefit package,” Karen inserted. Working in payroll gave her access to the salaries and hourly rates of all the employees. “Keep your job, Colleen. Give Goldstein the required notice, then take your vacation. What’s two weeks?”
“That’s two weeks more than I have, Karen. If I don’t go now, I’ll be too late.” Colleen knew Karen was trying to be a good friend, a friend who was genuinely concerned for her welfare.
“Too late for what? Go where? You still haven’t told me where you have to go that’s so damn important.” Karen’s voice was laced with frustration, confusion, and more than a little hurt that Colleen wouldn’t confide in her.
Confide what? That apart from her flip answer regarding her sanity, Colleen was also concerned that she might truly be losing her grip on reality. The only answer she could give her friend was the plain and simple truth. “I don’t know.”
