Got Hope

by Michael Darling

  “Okay.”

  She really trusted me. The wisdom of that was debatable. Not only was I unaccustomed to that kind of relationship, caution was normal to me as self-preservation.

  “Do you still have that coin I gave you?”

  “Yeah, sure.” She dug into the pocket of her jeans and showed it to me. “I kept it on me, just like you said.”

  It was my turn to dig in my pocket. “Here’s something else.” I held up the silver medallion so she could see it then I took her hand and brought it gently nearer. Her wound from the handcuffs had healed somewhat but still looked raw and tender.

  “I promise this will help. In fact, it will feel very pleasant. And there’s going to be a light but it’s nothing to worry about.”

  “Okay.” She let me keep her hand in mine.

  I cleared my throat and rested the coin against her wounded wrist. I called up my power and whispered, “Leigheas.” A glowing aura surrounded the medallion. I slid the medallion around her wrist and rolled her hand to turn the inner side of her wrist up. Power flowed out of me and through the focus of the medallion.

  A sense of peace and well-being started at the crown of my head and rolled down over me like a drizzle of warm honey.

  Hope’s eyes had closed halfway. She took a slow, deep breath and shivered. Her wrist completely healed, I ended the spell and the blue faded.

  “Whoo,” Hope said, her eyes still unfocused. “A girl could get used to that.”

  “Good,” I replied.

  Hope examined her wrist, feeling skin with her fingertips. “What was that? Is that why my head suddenly felt better this morning?”

  She’d noticed.

  “Is it like laser therapy? Because you could make a fortune with that.”

  She didn’t get it.

  “No. It’s magic,” I said.

  Hope looked at me for a second and started laughing. “You’re funny!”

  Anger leapt to life in my chest.

  I’d planned on being careful about this.

  I yanked her up by her newly-healed wrist. She didn’t cry out but she stopped laughing.

  Good.

  Then.

  What am I doing?

  “Sorry.”

  “Sorry.”

  We both said it at the same time.

  I put my hands on her shoulders telling myself to be gentle.

  She didn’t mean anything by it.

  “You’re fine, Hope. You don’t have to say you’re sorry. Ever. You’re perfect.”

  Why am I so sensitive?

  I let my hands slide down her arms until I could hold her wrists, softly this time.

  “I have one more thing to show you.”

  She looked into my eyes. Hopeful Hope.

  Keep trusting me.

  “Okay,” she said.

  She followed me to the portal room. Her steps were light. I felt as if I were leading a fawn through the forest and the fawn was ready to bolt.

  Just my imagination.

  “I’ve been trying to decide how to explain what happened since yesterday morning,” I said. “How to explain what I did with the bomb. I promised you that much and I’m afraid I’m stuck with the truth.”

  Hope nodded, encouraging. “And that means . . .?”

  “Sometimes the only answer is the truth, even if it’s crazy,” I replied.

  The only way out is through.

  Hope shrugged. “I’m always good with the truth.”

  “Get ready for a super-sized helping.”

  I didn’t have many options, but I did have the perfect place to show her. I chose one of the patterns and dropped it into the circle of silver set into the floor. Then I knelt and called my power to life.

  “Oscailte.”

  The glowing blue dot divided and expanded, following the circumference of the circle around to the other side where it met itself. The floor vanished and the pattern tilted into the new opening. The gate, opening vertically.

  It was dark in the Behindbeyond. Since the realm was ninety degrees to ours, all we could see was a swath of sparkling stars and a smear of clouds. If that didn’t set off your vertigo, nothing would. It looked like a porthole into open space.

  I took a step closer to the edge and Hope grabbed my arm, standing at the precipice.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  I pointed down. “Trees.”

  “Don’t mess with me, Got.” Hope inched closer and stuck out her neck, staring down. “Huh. Trees. Why’re they growing sideways?”

  “Listen,” I said. There was wind in the leaves, rustling in whispers, and behind that there was music. Hope edged a little closer.

  “Is that . . . a house?”

  “It’s an inn. Called Corrchnámhach, or The Angle.”

  Hope looked over the edge again. “How do we get there? Is there a ladder?”

  I laughed, I didn’t remember much about my first trip into the Behindbeyond. I’d been in a trance, controlled by a large and horrible beast named Madrasceartán who was also my father’s pet assassin. Now, it was second nature to me to make the turn.

  Pulling Hope away from the edge, I explained. “This place is called the Behindbeyond. It’s a realm that intersects ours.” I made a cross shape with my hands. “When you tilt into the portal, you’re only falling for a second and then you step forward and just walk. Gravity changes with you and carries you around the corner. Does that make sense?”

  “Not even a little bit,” Hope laughed. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want to try it. Can we go?”

  I hesitated.

  “I mean, this is super crazy, Got, but it has to be real. I’m not dreaming, right?”

  “You’re not dreaming, but—”

  “Then what is it?”

  I looked off to the side. “It’s just, well, we can’t go through with clothes on.”

  “Really?” Hope took off her socks. Then she started pulling off her shirt.

  “Wait, wait, wait! I’m kidding!”

  Hope pointed at my face. “Ha! I knew it! I’ve seen the Terminator movies! My dad loves those. Besides, you get this look on your face when you’re being funny.” She stepped in front of me and turned with her back at the edge of the portal.

  “So, when you started to, uh, you know, you were—”

  She smiled. “I was making sure you were a gentleman and I could trust you. Let’s go!” Hope put her hands behind my neck and let herself fall backwards, pulling me with her. In the spur of the moment, half-surprised, I tilted with her through the portal. Our momentum drove us forward on the path and I picked her up to avoid running her over which made her laugh.

  “Whoo-hoo!” she yelled.

  Too impulsive!

  I put Hope back on her feet. The sound of her continuing laughter was musical but . . . “Look, Hope, you can’t do that.”

  “What?”

  Dialing down my impatience, I replied, “Doing things without thinking.”

  Hope put her arms straight out sideways. “I’m thinking we’re going to the inn.”

  I forced a laugh I didn’t really feel.

  When had I become so testy?

  “It’s my fault. I should have given you the Powerpoint presentation. I have a whole twenty-minute slideshow on the dangers of the Behindbeyond.”

  Hope let her arms hang limp and tilted her head back and made a snoring sound.

  “It’s not that boring,” I said. “It has dragons.”

  Hope looked back at me and smiled. She tilted her head a few degrees. “What could go wrong? I’m with the greatest detective-slash-bodyguard in this world or any other.”

  “Well, that’s true.”

  It was amazing how quickly Hope turned my emotions around. This time, when I smiled, I felt it. “There are things to worry about,” I said. “You’re the first person I’ve brought here and I can’t be sure what will happen.”

  “You mean Nat doesn’t know about this place? Or Max and Sandretta?” Surprise fill
ed the depths of Hope’s eyes, which was a lot of surprise.

  “Max and Sandretta were born here. Sandretta and I are Halflings. One parent is mortal, the other is Fae.”

  “Fae? Like elves and stuff?”

  “Close enough. The Fae are magical beings with the potential to be immortal. Full-blooded Fae are called Eternals. Max is an Eternal. But Nat is a mortal human like you.”

  “And he doesn’t know about this, um, behind-the-back place?”

  “It’s ‘Behindbeyond,’ although ‘behind-the-back’ is accurate. I can’t pronounce it quite right but the Eternals call this An Taobh Thiar Agus Níos Faidh.”

  Hope wrinkled up her nose. “Why such a long name?”

  I shrugged. “I guess when you’re Eternal, you have extra time on your hands to spend on unnecessary words. Like the French.”

  Hope laughed and returned to her question. “Why haven’t you told Nat?”

  “I’ve thought about it.” A frown materialized on my face. “Nat’s very grounded. Very practical. A very ‘one-plus-one-equals-two’ kind of guy. We’ve been through a lot together, but this . . .” I looked around at the thousand foot trees and the unfamiliar stars, “Is not a one-plus-one kind of place. Plus, my father doesn’t want mortals to know about it.”

  “Your father?”

  “The king.”

  Hope stared at me, then she shoved me with both hands. “Get out, Got,” she said.

  “Didn’t I tell you I’m a prince?”

  “No.”

  I stood with my hands on my hips while Hope stared at me. I said, “The other thing is that mortals sometimes react badly when they come here. Something about this realm conflicts with the rational brain and drives some people insane.”

  “Are we just going to skip past the whole being a prince in a fairytale kingdom thing?”

  “I’m trying to. If Nat came here and went nuts, I don’t think I’d be able to put him down. I need Nat to keep things real for me. I need someone who will drag me back down to Earth sometimes and remind me what my mortal life needs to be like.”

  “Fine. Prince Luck. I can see that,” Hope said. “Nat’s your anchor in the mortal realm.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But you weren’t worried about me going insane?”

  “Uh.”

  “What? You think I’m crazy already? Is that it?”

  “You know you get a look on your face when you’re being funny too,” I said, pointing at her wicked grin. “Besides, you handled having a bomb on your wrist. This place can’t touch you.” I looked at Hope with as serious an expression as I could manage. “But Eternals don’t always treat mortals well. We may decide you should stay here, in this realm, if it suits you. It’s dangerous for you in Miami. But I’m not sure if I can keep you safe in this realm if we run into something I haven’t dealt with before.”

  Hope looked for reassurance in my eyes. “You’ll do your best,” she said.

  “You are Hope,” I replied.

  Soft footfalls sent restless sounds from the grass beneath the trees. Creatures in the night had sensed someone new in their world. I put my hands on Hope’s shoulders and steered her toward the trees.

  A family of animals that looked like rabbits gathered at the edge of the clearing. The little ones were tan but the two larger ones had fur tinted pale blue. Their ears were like foxes, and they had twitching tails longer than their bodies. Beside them, twice the size of the elk it resembled, another curious beast beheld us with gentle green eyes. It sported a rack of titian antlers like a room-sized fan of coral and a flowing beard of white curls hung from its chin, descending almost ten feet to the ground. Its hooves were like cast iron cooking pots and when it pawed the earth, the impact moved the ground beneath our feet. It met our gaze for a long moment and only Hope’s soft “Oh!” changed the air.

  The immense creature snorted, expelling breath through its nose like the chuff of a steam engine hitting full boil.

  “What are they?” Hope whispered.

  “Magnificent,” I replied.

  “Yeah.”

  “But for all I know, the little ones eat people after the big one stuns our brains with a force field.”

  “Seriously?”

  I gave Hope’s shoulder a squeeze.

  “We can’t stay,” I said. “We’ll come back.”

  I pulled Hope slowly in retreat toward the portal that remained shimmering behind us. She watched the creatures of the forest every step of the way, and when we turned the corner back into my house, she sighed.

  Chapter Seventeen: Cutest Linebacker Ever

  Hope watched the portal evaporate and we were once again in the “normal” world. As the light faded, she turned her moon-sized eyes to me. I couldn’t guess at what she was thinking, but the look on her face told me she saw the world differently now.

  She didn’t speak and I felt the need to fill the space. “I sent the bomb to a different place in the Behindbeyond. To a remote mountain top where it wouldn’t hurt anyone.” I pointed at my collection of silver patterns. They were all the same size but each pattern had a different arrangement of designs. The only parts that were identical were the four images at the north, east, south, and west compass points. At those points, there was a feather, a flame, a stone, and a wave. These represented the four primary disciplines common to magic abilities: air, fire, earth, and water.

  Hope dragged her gaze away from me to look at the patterns. She was quick to figure things out.

  “Which one of these goes to the mountain top?”

  I pointed to the one on the right.

  “If I put it on the floor, can I go there?”

  “There’s a little more to it than that. Magic requires power.”

  “That blue glow?”

  “Exactly.”

  “And you have to be a Halfling or an Eternal to have magical power?”

  “That’s right.”

  Hope sighed. “I was born on the wrong side of the fence.”

  “The grass is always greener. Or bluer.” I replied. “The bad guys asked me to take you to the Behindbeyond to make all their troubles go away. I told you about the woman they killed.”

  Before Hope could reply, Max appeared at the door. “Forgive the interruption.”

  “It’s all right, Max.”

  “Mr. Oz wishes to speak with you right now. He seems quite distraught.”

  He should be.

  “Let me have a minute—”

  Oz pushed around Max and came in.

  And here he is. Mr. Nitro. Come to call upon Ms. Glycerin.

  Max pressed his lips together in a hard line. No doubt he’d given Oz instructions to stay in his room until he could secure my permission to speak with me. I raised a hand and nodded to Max to let him know everything was okay. Max shook his head, then left.

  Oz drifted to the side like a sailboat in an uncertain wind. His eyes fixed on Hope, unblinking. He started circling the edge of the room.

  “Got? What’s going on? Why’s he staring at me like that?”

  My patience fell apart. “Tell her, Oz. You couldn’t wait to meet her, it seems. Hope, this is Oz. Go ahead, Oz. Tell her what’s going on.”

  Oz continued to drift along the wall. Hope looked at him and then at me. Finally, Oz bumped into the chair. I walked to him and grabbed him by the shoulder, shoving him into the chair.

  “Sit down before you fall down, Oz.”

  Oz swallowed but didn’t speak.

  I put my hand on his head and twisted. Making him look at me. “You want to torture yourself, Oz, feel free. At least tell Hope why.”

  Oz moved his mouth but it took a moment before he made actual sounds. “I got used to seeing her like that.”

  “You really have a way with words there, Oz. Cleared everything up.” I let go of Oz’s head and stepped in front of him, forcing him to keep looking at me. “Please tell the nice lady, who, you will recall, has never met you, why you are staring at her.”
/>   Oz’s face folded in on itself. “We were going to get married,” he said.

  It sounded like the beginning of an explanation at least. I moved by Hope.

  “Who was going to get married?” Hope asked.

  “My girlfriend, Sarah, and I,” Oz went on. “We were both—” Oz paused to look at me, questioning.

  “Hope knows about magic,” I said.

  “Okay. We were both working for some dangerous people. Sarah was a seachmall mage like me. But now she’s dead and it’s my fault.”

  I crossed my arms. Mostly so I wouldn’t hit him. “Back up and organize your facts.”

  Oz thought for a moment. “We were hired to help Ciaróg and Feithid and their boss. We used our magic to create illusions. I can make people look like other people. Sarah could, too.”

  “Remember the video, Hope? The one Marcus had that looked like me and you in a hotel room?”

  “Oh, I remember,” Hope said.

  “I wish we hadn’t done it,” Oz said.

  Hope put her hands on her hips.

  Oz hurried on. “So, yeah. I made Sarah look like Hope.” Oz had the guts to look at Hope, earning points for courage. “I made her look like you for the videos. At the same time, I made one of the other guys look like you, Mr. Luck.”

  “And then your girlfriend and some guy made out while they were being filmed? That must have been hard for you to watch,” Hope said.

  “Sarah liked being an actress,” Oz replied. “She wanted to be in movies. And she looked like you while we were filming anyway. It wasn’t completely her.”

  “And all those other men? In all those other clips?” I asked.

  “That was Sarah and other guys who work for them, including Ciaróg and Feithid,” Oz replied. “We changed all their faces to get the shots they wanted.”

  “You falsified information and ruined my reputation for money?” Hope’s voice bordered on a shout. Before I could stop her, she stepped over to Oz and slapped him while he flinched. “Ow,” she said. She grabbed her hand.

  “I told you it might hurt,” I said.

  Oz had his arms over his head, almost shouting. “I wish I’d never met any of them. I harmed you. And my girlfriend’s dead.”