Page 50 of The Last Hope

Oh.I should’ve remembered. There are no Influentials in Grenpale. If Stork has a deathday that is later in life, he would’ve been sent to another country. Instantly. As a newborn.

Stork nods.

“What’s your deathday?” I ask.

“Not for another one hundred and thirty-two years.”

I try not to gawk. “You’re living to be… one hundred andfifty?” That’s one of the longer life expectancies. Anything past one-fifty-five is rare and starts feeling like tall tales. A girl at the orphanage said her brother would die at one-sixty, but I thought that was a bold-faced lie.

“With certainty,” Stork says with an arrogant smile.

Jealousy nips at me like a cold draft.

Mykal is rolling the snow leopard in his palm. “He’s fallen into luck.” I hadn’t thought about that… how Mykal isn’t the lucky one since his ma never died giving birth to him. She died giving birth to someone else.

Stork is the true Kickfall,blessed by the gods.

He tosses the statuette back to Stork, and before he protests, Mykal says, “A pa still crafts one for his Influential newborn. It’s yours.”

Stork opens his mouth to reply.

“It’s the baby,” Court interrupts us. We all turn to look at him. He’s wandering back and flipping thelastpage in a hefty-sized book.

“What?” Mykal and I say together.

“There’s a myth about a baby.” Court reaches the bar and still scans the end of the hardback. “Said to be the first of her kind, neither human nor Saltarian. A new species. She carries the ability to both teleport and cloak items.” Court plants his sternness on Stork. “You want her to hide Earth. Your retrieval operation—you’re not planning to retrieve asomething.You want to retrieve asomeone.”

A baby?

Stork rubs his mouth, shock parting his lips.

Mykal points his knife at Stork. “Never underestimate our Court. He’s smarter than the best of anyone on any damned planet.”

Court doesn’t roll his eyes or say he’s not good. He breathes deeply, letting himself soak up the praise for once.

Stork recovers by jumping off the countertop, his sandaled feet hitting the ground with athud.“Yeah,that’sthe mission.Because if we bring her to Earth, she’ll keep everyone out of a war that we can’t win.”

Strained silence bleeds into the strategy room.

He outstretches his arm. “This kid…” He pauses. “Thischild. She is Earth’s last hope. Otherwise, Saltarians will find us sooner than later and overrun the planet.”

I slowly stand to my feet.

Mykal follows. “I’m just going to come out and say it.” He smacks his lips. “What’s teleporting?”

Court shuts the book hard. “It’s made up. Fictional. Like a fairy tale.”

Stork laughs curtly. “We’ve been through this. Myths can be true. And teleporting is the ability to transport objects, including people, from one place to another.”

Mykal shakes his head. “No, that doesn’t sound right. Seems made up.”

Stork turns to me. “Do you think this is make-believe?” He’s asking because I’ve kept my mouth shut.

Teleportation?I can barely picture a person with an ability to move objects, but if anyone asked me to imagine and believe ourlink—I’d call them mad.

I exchange a look with Court and Mykal, and they must remember our strange,unrealconnection because their skepticism begins to subside and their stressed shoulders drop.

I shrug at Stork, keeping my thoughts close.