Hope Read online

  by beth bracken & kay fraser

  illustrated by odessa sawyer

  capstone young readers

  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  PART 1

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  PART 2

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  PART 3

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  PART 4

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Dedication

  Author

  Illustrator

  Copyright

  Not so long ago, a girl was wished into faerieground . . .

  The girl was alone. She didn’t know what to expect on the other side of the faerie curtain.

  She knew a little bit about the faeries, but only what she’d learned from stories. Only what she’d heard in whispers.

  But the girl wasn’t alone. Not really. Another girl followed her. Tried to get her back. Tried to save her.

  Because the faeries, as it turned out, were not sweetness and light and gentleness and kindness.

  Not all of them, anyway.

  And some of them were the worst kind of evil.

  The second girl wanted to save the first girl. But was it going to be possible? Would the faeries let her go? And at what price?

  After all, a wish is a wish, and not all wishes are good.

  The faerieground is still there, just past a wish made in the woods . . .

  Soli

  I can’t stop thinking about my other mother.

  My real mother, my mom, the one who adopted me.

  Not the mother who gave birth to me.

  That was Calandra. The Willow Queen. The one who killed my father and named me Hope.

  I don’t know the whole story, of course.

  There’s so much left to learn.

  Lucy’s mother, Andria, was the one who gave me to my mother. The real one.

  The mother who raised me.

  How did Andria explain me to my mother?

  How did she convince her?

  How much does she know?

  Does she love me?

  She must love me. She and my father both must love me. Did they know I would leave them one day?

  Do they know who I am, did they know who I would become? Did they know all along I was a princess?

  Kheelan, who knows these woods so well, is leading Lucy and me to the clearing where the big willow tree stands in the middle of the forest. We are heading home.

  The door is in the tree. The path home. The way I came in, the way I’ll return.

  My wings are heavy on my back.

  We are quiet. I can hear the creek nearby, and I know that in the woods, armies follow us. Every few steps, a twig snaps, a leaf rustles.

  A low growl.

  Kheelan shoots me a glance, and I nod.

  Yes, I heard it.

  He nods back.

  We both heard the noise, and we both know what it means. I’m surprised, but not surprised. He and I can talk without saying a word.

  We are in real danger, I understand. We aren’t being pursued; we’re being tracked.

  We are being hunted.

  And when Lucy and I leave, Kheelan will still be here, and he’ll still be in danger.

  Kheelan, who I think I love, without ever knowing before what it would be like to love a boy. Here, in danger. Because of me.

  Kheelan, of Roseland. Who stands beside me now, leading me and Lucy toward our way home.

  Or what used to be home.

  And Kheelan, of Roseland, who protects us from the people who hunt us. The angry faeries.

  They are angry.

  Whoever Calandra’s people are, they’re angry.

  I came here to the faerieground to get Lucy back, but when I did, I found out who I am. Heir to the throne. The long-lost princess.

  And I found out who Calandra is. Human, pretending to be faerie. Letting a kingdom crumble around her.

  And then I stripped the queen—my birth mother—of her powers.

  Of course her armies are angry.

  I should have known they would be.

  I just wish I understood who they are.

  There is a battle ahead of us, I know that now.

  But before the battle can begin, I have things to do at home.

  So we trudge on, slowly, softly through the woods. Suddenly I notice that Kheelan is holding my hand.

  Above us, a crow cries.

  Lucy

  Her wings! I can’t stop staring at them.

  As Soli and Kheelan lead me through the woods, I think about what I’ve learned in the last few hours.

  Soli is a princess. Her mother is a human woman who was a cruel tyrant in the faerie kingdom. Soli broke the spell and now she has wings.

  And now we’re going home, but not to stay there.

  We’re going home to tell my mother that I need to return to the faerieground and fight. We’re going home to tell Soli’s parents what we know.

  Soli is a princess, a faerie princess.

  Also, she’s totally holding hands with Kheelan.

  Soli, my sweet friend. Who I always thought was so naive, kind of babyish. She’s acting like someone new, someone I’ve never met before.

  She’s acting like a princess.

  She is a princess.

  She came here to save my life. But first, she wished me away for doing something stupid. For kissing that boy she liked, Jaleel.

  I liked him too. I didn’t kiss him to hurt her. At least I don’t think I did.

  Funny, how for days and days I thought only about Jaleel. Before we kissed, and after. I thought about him all the time. And now I had almost forgotten about him, forgotten that he’s the reason we ended up here.

  But that was just an excuse. Queen Calandra would have found a way to get Soli here eventually. It didn’t have to be because Soli wished me away and then wished me home again. It could have been anything. Eventually, she would have found a way. That’s how badly Calandra wanted her back.

  I wonder if she knew that Soli would make her human again.

  When we get to the big old tree in the middle of the woods, we stop.

  Soli shifts her body, stretching her arms. Her wings shimmer in the light streaming through the trees.

  She smiles when she sees me looking at them. “I’m never going to get used to these,” she says.

  “Me either,” I say, and just like that I can stop worrying about things changing: we are just Soli and Lucy, best friends, again.

  Kheelan pushes leaves away from the tree’s roots. “Do you know what to do?” he asks.

  I’m used to being the leader, the one in charge, the one with the plan, so I say, “No.”

  But he’s not looking at me. Of course he isn’t. He’s looking at Soli. “I think so,” she says.

  Soli takes off her crown and hands it to Kheelan. She closes her eyes for a moment, and her wings disappear
: not gone, I know, but hidden.

  I look at the crown. “Could I—could I hold it?” I ask.

  Kheelan passes it to me. It’s still warm from resting on Soli’s head.

  It doesn’t look like much, this crown. Almost like a bundle of twigs. It’s very old, and somehow feels brittle and strong at the same time.

  I think about the fact that it sat on the bottom of a lake for so long, and that makes me shiver.

  Kheelan clears his throat, and I look up. “Sorry,” I mutter, and hand the crown back to him.

  “That’s okay,” Soli says. “But we do have to go right now.”

  It’s so strange, I think, how quickly my friend has become brave.

  “It must be strange,” Kheelan says, looking at me. For a second I think he’s read my mind.

  Then he says, “To discover that your friend is a princess, and has been all along, without you knowing it. It must be so odd. She’s different than you ever imagined.”

  Soli frowns. “I’m the same,” she says. “And since Lucy is basically like my sister, it’s almost as if we’re both royalty.”

  I laugh, but it feels flat and false.

  “I didn’t mean—” Kheelan begins, but I stop him.

  “I know,” I say. “And yes. It is strange.”

  “I have the feeling it isn’t the last strange thing you’ll see here,” he tells me.

  “But first, back home,” Soli says.

  She steps forward and kneels down. She puts a palm on a root and turns to look up at Kheelan. They both ignore me.

  It’s odd to watch Soli in a private moment with a boy. And a cute boy, too, I might add.

  It’s like they’ve known each other since birth. The way they understand each other already.

  Well, maybe they really have known each other since birth. They’re both faeries, after all. They both belong here.

  They stretch their hands to touch. “I’ll be back soon,” she says.

  “I know,” he says. “Be safe, but hurry. There’s so much to do, and so much still to explain. Come back as soon as you can.”

  “I will,” she says, and then takes my hand, and then we are gone.

  Soli

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask Andria.

  She sits across from me in the living room, her arm around Lucy. They have hugged and cried and now we sit.

  I need answers.

  Andria has them.

  She shrugs.

  “Soli, you can’t possibly understand,” she says.

  That makes me angry. Andria has never treated me like a little kid before.

  “Oh, really?” I say. “What part couldn’t I understand? The part where you pretended to care about me? Or the part where I thought I knew my own life?”

  She sighs. “That isn’t what I meant,” she says, her voice almost a whisper.

  Lucy turns to her mother. “Maybe you could just try to explain it to us,” she says. Then she glances at me. “Soli has been through a lot. This is hard for her.”

  Lucy is protecting me again. Just like she always has. At first I feel a warm glow, and I want to thank her.

  But then I remember who I am.

  I do not need her protection.

  Not anymore.

  “Don’t, Lucy,” I say, and I see hurt fall across my friend’s face.

  Andria sees it too, and frowns. “I’ll tell you what I can,” she says, tightening her grip on Lucy’s arms. “But you might not like all of it, and I can’t tell you everything.”

  I can see that this will have to be good enough.

  She takes a deep breath. “Did you meet the Old Ones?” she asks us. “The Ladybirds?”

  Lucy frowns, but I nod. “Yes,” I say.

  “They’re the ones who brought you to me,” Andria says. “You were almost two when they brought you out of the forest.”

  I gasp. “I thought I was a baby,” I say.

  Andria smiles, remembering. “No,” she tells me. “You were two. You were talking, and walking. You loved to sing.”

  She stands up and walks to the window, looking outside. “They came in from the woods and brought you to me, and gave me the Seal, and told me to keep you safe,” she says. “So I found you a mother. I couldn’t do it alone; I had Lucy.”

  Lucy and I look at each other.

  I know what she’s thinking: that there were two entire years before we became friends.

  That two years went by in which we didn’t know each other.

  That I was Hope for two years.

  That the beginning of our story has always been a lie.

  “That’s crazy,” Lucy says.

  “I know it’s not what you believed,” Andria tells us. “But it’s the truth, and I’m sorry I had to keep it from you, but I did.”

  “So the faerie offerings,” Lucy says. “The things you leave at the edge of the woods. You left them there to protect Soli?”

  “Not exactly,” Andria says, a faraway look on her face. “The Seal protected Soli. And mostly, Soli’s parents protected her.”

  “How did they get stuck with me?” I ask. Angry tears are struggling behind my eyes.

  Andria smiles, a soft, gentle smile. “They didn’t get stuck with you,” she explains. “They wished for you. Your mother, especially, wished for you her whole life.”

  “I don’t understand,” I tell her. “How did you know to give me to them?”

  She smiles. “They wanted you. They wanted a child so much. And I knew they would keep you safe, and I knew they would love you.”

  “But how did you know?” I ask. “I mean, how did you choose them?”

  Andria looks out the window again.

  The room is quiet.

  Finally, she says, “I filled a jar with fireflies and let their light guide me. And that is all I can tell you.”

  Lucy

  “I have to go back, Mom,” I say, squeezing my mother’s hand.

  “I know,” she says. “I don’t like it, but I know you have to go with Soli.”

  She packs some things for us: a wicker basket stuffed with peanut butter sandwiches, a thermos of broth, two small cartons of berries.

  Soli hugs her, and then waits outside.

  My mom wraps her arms around me and squeezes tight. “Please be careful,” she says. “I couldn’t tell you everything, but you need to know that you can’t trust everyone there.”

  “I know,” I say. “I think Queen Calandra won’t be dangerous anymore, but—”

  She pulls away. “Calandra was never dangerous,” she says.

  “She wasn’t?” I ask, confused.

  Mom shakes her head. “She had dangerous powers,” she says. “She controlled too many people, and some of them are dangerous. But she—”

  She wants to say more, I can tell. But doesn’t.

  And I don’t have time to ask.

  I lift the basket and kiss my mom’s cheek one last time. Then I leave, closing the door gently behind me.

  “Ready?” I ask Soli.

  “I think so,” she says.

  But before we’ve reached the end of the path to the street, my mom runs out.

  “Wait!” she says. “Lucy, please come back. Just for a minute. I—I forgot something. Something very important.”

  I go back, and she closes the door, keeping Soli outside. “What’s up?” I ask.

  My mom’s eyes are wild. “I forgot to give you this,” she says. She hands me an envelope. It has my name on the front.

  “What is this?” I ask.

  “Don’t read it now. Wait till you’re alone.”

  “Okay,” I say. I tuck it into my pocket. Then I turn to go, but she grabs my hand.

  “What, Mom?”

  A tear falls from her eye. “I can’t
believe I’m letting you go back there,” she says.

  “It’s not so bad, Mom, really,” I say. “You’d like some parts of it.”

  She closes her eyes.

  “I’ll be okay,” I say. “Soli will keep me safe. And there are other people there who I trust. A girl my age. And a boy—well, the boy who Soli likes.”

  She takes a deep breath. “A boy,” she whispers.

  “He’s a nice boy,” I say.

  “There are people there who will trick you,” she says. “And there are people who aren’t people at all. They are worse than people.”

  “I think I met some of them,” I say, thinking of the palace guards. And of Calandra, I guess. Although I’m not afraid of her anymore.

  “Come home the second anything starts to feel wrong,” she says.

  “The whole thing feels wrong, Mom,” I say. “I mean, it’s scary, and I don’t know anyone, and at least Soli is, like, from there.”

  “I’m—” she begins.

  “I’ll be safe,” I say. “Don’t worry. I’ll be safe. Seriously. I promise. I’ll be home again before you know it. This isn’t a big deal.”

  A tear slides down my mom’s face. “Just promise,” she says. “Come home if you notice—if anything goes wrong.”

  “I promise,” I say.

  “Okay,” Mom says. She takes a deep breath. “I guess that’s all I can ask for.”

  And then I leave, quickly, before I can change my mind.

  “Read the letter,” she calls after me.

  “I will,” I tell her.

  And then Soli and I walk away.

  Soli

  “I knew you were never mine to keep,” my mother says.

  “Yes, I was,” I say. “I still am.”

  We stand in the doorway. Lucy is waiting at the bottom of the sidewalk.