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

there was a lot more to the older boy than it seemed. “Well, tell me what's so important already. Oh!”

Derf’s voice trailed off as Tim sent memories of his parents’ murder and his discovery of the portal and everything that happened since. He’d never sent so much at once and he could feel it draining him. He wished his grandmother was there with him to help. When it was done, he staggered to a chair and collapsed. He watched Derf through half closed eyes, hoping the boy could handle everything Tim had just dumped on him. Derf was young, but he’d had to leave childhood behind long ago.

Derf looked into the other room, at his sisters, one on Anna’s lap and the other playing with her hair and found it hard to associate that girl with the one in his new memories. He found himself wanting to get his sisters as far away from her as possible, but he knew they wouldn't understand.

“She won't hurt them. That only happened that one time. I think it would only happen again if Anna felt really threatened. She’s gotten control of her powers a lot since then.”

Derf turned to Tim in surprise. “Powers. How many powers do you guys have? Why do you have so many?”

Tim shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know how many we each have because it seems a new one always pops up. As for why, I can only guess it's because Anna and I are meant to save Snillotia.”

“There was a boy in your memories. I’ve seen him before.”

Tim nodded. “That’s Pete. Well, Retep, my cousin, but he’s decided, after being in the backwards world, that he prefers Pete. He’s Ronnoc’s son.”

Derf nodded, accepting the explanation, but something seemed off about it. Not knowing why, he dismissed it. He had a more important question to ask. “Time is different between here and the backwards world. That’s why it seems like your older than you should be.”

Tim nodded. “So, my father could have been there a lot longer than 2 weeks.”

Tim nodded again, but added, “But, he also could have been there a lot less. It’s always different, when you go through a portal.”

Derf thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to ask his next question, but before he could, Tim spoke again. “Yes, Derf, I’ll bring you all to the backwards world, but I can't yet. We need to take Goldie back and see if we can help her and find out what happened to her, so I need you to be patient. I’ll come back for you; I promise.”

Derf stared at him for a moment, and then held out his hand, silently. Tim smiled and shook his hand. Derf watched as the green swirls appeared then disappeared, then he smiled. “You should be leaving, then. The faster you go back now, the sooner you’ll return, and I can find out what happened to my father.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

After a lengthy goodbye, Anna and Tim stood in front of the portal. Goldie was in Anna’s arms. Tim closed his eyes and took Anna’s arm. After a moment, he pulled them through the portal. It was dark in the secret room. Anna placed Goldie on the floor and used her light, so they could see their way out of the room. Once in the hallway, they could see it was dark outside. Tim headed for the kitchen and stopped at the counter. “It worked or it’s a coincidence,” he said quietly.

“What?”

Tim reached out and picked up the note Anna had put on the counter before they left. “It’s the same night. No one even knows we left.”

“So, what do you think worked?”

“I’m trying to see if I can figure out how to control when I go through the portal. In the books, Eimaj learned how to do that after a while. If she's real, I thought maybe that ability could be too. So, before I pulled us through, I thought very hard about when I wanted it to be on the other side. So maybe it worked. I guess I’ll have to try it a few more times to know for sure.”

Anna nodded, understanding. Goldie let out a quiet bark at their feet. “I know it's the middle of the night, but I think we need to come clean. They’ll realize once they see Goldie anyway.”

Tim agreed and they went into the copied rooms attached to the kitchen. The front room was empty, and in the dim light they could see into the further rooms. Everyone was in bed. Anna started towards her parents’ room to wake them, but Tim stopped her. “Wait. Maybe we should call Fey before waking everyone up. If she can help Goldie, then that would be one less question we have to answer,”

Goldie let out a soft bark, in agreement, and Anna nodded. “Fey!” Tim whispered as loudly as he dared.

There was no response, at first, but then they heard a loud crash behind them. They spun to the noise and saw Fey tumbling down the steps. “So much for keeping quiet,” Anna said, as she heard movement above them and saw Grandma An climbing out of bed, through the doorway.

By the time everyone had come to find out what had made the noise, Fey had found Goldie and was excitedly running in circles and sniffing her. Goldie let out a sharp bark and Fey froze in her tracks. She cocked her head, listening. “Fey, can you translate for her? It seems Goldie can’t talk to us anymore. We don’t know what happened to her.”

Fey turned to look at Anna but remained silent. Goldie started barking, in earnest, but Fey stopped her. “I’m sorry. I was never formally taught that language, so I only recognize a few words.”

“Well, what words do you recognize?” Grandpa Cire asked.

“Room, Storage, and…” she paused for a moment, thinking, “floor.”

Goldie erupted in a series of barks. “Sorry,