Beyond: Snillotia Trilogy Book One by Donna Wagner (books you have to read TXT) 📕

hadn’t moved. He had checked, just to make sure she was still breathing. He didn’t know what her power was, but it had hurt her too, and that wasn’t a good thing. “She’ll be fine.”

Tim had looked behind him. The woman had been standing in the doorway. Tim ignored her and bent to pick Anna up again. He’d decided they couldn’t stay in his house. It wasn’t his anymore, apparently. He had carried Anna passed the woman, who moved out of his way, to the front door. He’d tried to shift Anna’s weight so he could turn the knob, when the door opened on its own. At first, Tim thought maybe he’d discovered a new power, only to realize there was someone standing on the other side of the door. It took a moment to register. It was the social worker. Tim had almost dropped Anna, but the social worker had reached out and steadied him. “Careful, son. It’s okay. You’re safe here.”

Tim had laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Seeing as someone who looks exactly like you just tried to kill us, I don’t think I’m going to believe you.”

The man’s face had paled. “He tried to kill...,” his voice faded out.

“Yes. But don’t worry. Obviously, he didn’t succeed.”

The man had then looked at Anna, who was still unconscious in Tim’s arms. “Did he do this to her?”

Tim had stared at the man for what seemed like forever. His arms began to ache from holding Anna. Finally, it seemed like his whole body had deflated. These people knew who they were. There was nowhere else to go. He could either trust them, or not, but the end result was the same. He was thirteen years old and needed help. He had looked at the man, but before he could ask any questions, the man beat him to it. “Let me first say, I do not want to kill you. I’m sorry my brother tried. I did not know he was going to do that. Let me start from the beginning. I’m Adam Cooper.”

Adam told him about himself. He and his twin brother Aaron were born in the backwards world, but their mother had told them stories about Snillotia and about how wonderful it was growing up there. She had left because she met their father. He was from the backwards world and had come to Snillotia by accident. Tim had interrupted him at that point. He had questioned how someone could come through by accident; how anyone could get through the portal more than once and without a key. Adam had nodded and explained that he knew that the understanding was that only royals and those they chose to bring with them could pass through a portal and only with a portal key, but somehow his father could do it as often as he wanted. He also didn’t need a key. Tim filed that information away for later. Apparently, his one-of-a-kind power wasn’t that one of a kind. Adam had continued and explained that his brother had grown obsessed with Snillotia after hearing his mother’s stories. When Adam and Aaron had turned thirteen, their father had taken them through a portal. It was the one in the park that Tim and Anna had gone through with Anna’s parents. When they came through, they realized that what his father had thought was an old abandoned army fort in Snillotia wasn’t abandoned any longer. It was there that they had been captured by the group that later became known as the Rebels. This group was very interested in the ability Adam’s father had. They tried to make both Adam and his brother go through the portal alone to see if they possessed the ability as well. They didn’t.

It was that night that the Rebels staged their uprising on the palace. Adam’s father falling into their laps had been a sign that the royal’s powers were changing. If a man of no royal blood could pass through the worlds, at will, then anyone could rule. His father did not want to help them. To encourage him, they kept Adam and Aaron captive and let their father go home. They told him that if he helped them, they would treat his sons well and would reward him. Aaron had been so happy to be in Snillotia, he hadn’t cared he was being kept prisoner. He soon learned he had developed quite a useful skill to the Rebels. He could get in and out of anywhere. Whether being in Snillotia awakened a power in him, or if he just became very good at picking locks, Adam didn’t know. Adam never developed any powers. Aaron soon was more than a prisoner. By the time he was fifteen, he had become a private in the Rebel army. Their father had come and gone many times in the two years that had passed since they were captured. He had figured out how to imbue communication keys with his power, making them portal keys anyone could use, letting whoever held it come and go between the worlds at will. He had also come up with a way of communicating between the backwards world and Snillotia by using old walkie-talkies, wired to a portal key.

After almost three years in captivity, Adam’s father came to see him in his prison. It was a nice enough room; he was just never allowed to leave it. His father secretly gave him a portal key and told him that Aaron was lost to them, but if he ever had the opportunity, to take it, no matter what else happened. That time came shortly after that conversation. His father suddenly appeared and opened his locked door, then ran away from him. Adam only found out what happened next years later. To free Adam, his father had attempted to appeal to his brother’s better nature. He had gone to him, with the hopes that he would come home with them and escape back to their old