Got Hope by Michael Darling

Author:Michael Darling [Darling, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944452728
Publisher: Future House Publishing
Published: 2017-03-13T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty: Questing Party, Plus One

“How did you get here?” I dismounted and gave Peachfuzz a pat on the neck.

Hope tossed her shield coin to me as she walked. I caught the coin and she said, “This needs recharging.”

“Why? What happened?”

She inhaled sharply through her nose. “It’s out of power.”

That didn’t answer either of my questions. Opening the coin, I held the silver four-leaf clover flat in my hand and called up my power. I said, “Sciath,” and pushed a thread of blue into the sigil. I felt it accept the magic. Hope was right. The shield was empty. I fed power to it until it was full. I asked, “How did it lose power?”

Hope shifted her shoulders as she crossed her arms, her hands flat along her biceps like five-legged spiders. “I used it to open the portal.”

Open the—

“—what now?”

Hope stared me down. “You told me the portal opened with magic power and you said there was magic power stored inside the coin. So, I took out the clover and held it against the silver part and said ‘Oscailte’ like you did. It worked.”

I guess it did.

“Then you came through the portal and wandered up to the castle?”

“Sure. I need you to recharge my shield now. Please.”

In that moment, I understood why Hope had shoplifted bottled water at 18 years-old. She hadn’t been thirsty. She’d been making a point. To whom or why, I didn’t know and it didn’t matter. I consciously ignored the heat in my chest as I put the sigil back inside the coin.

Hope snatched the coin out of my hand.

“I told you I wanted to come with you,” she said. “Although I’m having a hard time remembering why right now.”

Hope dropped her arms to her sides, hands clenched into little fists, and walked past the line of guards. They looked at me and I shrugged. When she reached the steps leading up to the castle, she stopped and turned, folding her arms again, and glared.

By nature, I was a gentle person, despite my recent tendencies towards anger. Right now, I was mad but at the same time a little in awe. My first trip to the Behindbeyond had employed borrowed power too. The power for a portal didn’t need to come from someone’s internal reservoir and Hope had been clever to figure that out. Stinker.

I told myself to be calm. Then I noticed Wince, who was staring first at Hope and then at Fauxpe and then back to Hope.

“Twin sisters?” he asked.

“You’ve never seen twins before?” I asked.

“No.”

You still haven’t.

“It’s amazing.” Wince was captivated.

It made sense. For the Fae, a single birth was rare so twins were practically impossible.

I wasn’t prepared to reveal our deception to anyone outside our inner circle. “We’re going to need a minute. Sir Siorradh, can we delay our departure?”

Siorradh nodded. “Briefly.”

“All right.” I pointed at Oz. “Come with the ladies and me.”

Wince piped up. “May I help with anything?”

“Are you familiar with the mortal realm? Twins? Prenuptial agreements? Toad the Wet Sprocket? Any of those things?”

“Well, no.

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