Page 37 of Silver

“This is amazing!” Altair said, having cleaned out some of the honey. “Can you make some glass jars?”

I nodded. “I can, but they’ll have to have cork on top, does that work?”

He nodded eagerly. “That’ll be perfect!”

I made him four glass jars all with fitting cork tops. And he got to work filling them with honey.

“I can help you filter them, if you want?” I offered, knowing he had to strain it so it would be clean.

“I would love that!”

And so, I began to filter honey with our newest family member.

Chapter 30

Silver

An hour later, Niam and Xari returned looking flushed and happy. Niam proudly showed off his own ring which was a band with small diamonds around the whole ring. It was very Niam and oh so gorgeous.

Altair and Wilston had filtered out the honey and we now had six glass jars. We had to get back to the portal making now, and I worried that if we were successful, Altair would be sad over the amount of honey we had to leave behind.

“Look!” Altair said, bringing out a wooden trolley that held all the honey and our kitchen stuff. “Wilston made me this! We can take it with us through the portal. It even has wheels on it!” He seemed so excited that all I could do was smile. Altair was this bright person who seemed to look at everything with a positive attitude. Tino had better love him as much as the rest of us did. Or actually, more than us since Altair deserved someone to love him more than anyone else inallthe worlds.

“Ready to create a portal?” I asked them, feeling sure that we had what it took now. Somehow the extra sleep and maybe the sex was what each of us had needed to be able to create a functioning portal.

The others gathered beside me, ready for us to work our magic. Niam held the locket out and we all thought of Tino as Julie and Altair looked and cheered us on from the sideline.

I opened my eyes, somehow knowing I had to see to make it work. A bright green light appeared, slowly forming a circle. It was working!

“Holy shit! Xari exclaimed, stepping away from us to look closer at the portal. “We did it!”

“Allit took was some sex and sleep!” I agreed, not caring that Niam was blushing, like we didn’t know.

“We need to pack everything. Like right now,” I said, rushing inside the RV for our stuff. The others did the same while we ordered our familiars to guard the portal. Just to be safe.

We all stood, packed up with way too much stuff to carry, but we had magic to make many trolleys if needed. The portal glowed in front of us. This was it.

“Ready to find Tino?” Xari asked, and we all nodded.

“Wait? His name is Tino?” Altair asked.

“Yes,” Xari replied, looking over at Altair.

“Tino… Tino Holden?” Altair stammered, almost nervously.

“Tino Hold,” I said. “Why? Do you know him?”

Altair shrugged. “I knew a Tino Holden.”

“Maybe it’s the same guy?” I said, feeling like this person had been important to Altair.

“If it is,” Altair began, then sighed, “then he has over one hundred letters I need a reply to.”

And then we entered the portal, leaving Sutiner behind.

The End.