Just Believe Read Online Free PDF Page A

these things."
    Eochy smiled. That was always a bad
sign.
    "If you'd check your e-mail once in
awhile you'd be better informed. I sent a reminder just a week ago,
Otherworld time."
    Gaelen shook out his wings and tried to
make himself comfortable with their unfamiliar weight on his
shoulders.
    "E-mail? You sent it by e-mail?" He
looked around then, scanning the crowd. "Where's Lucas?" When he
didn't spot his little brother, he settled back in the chair and
smirked at Eochy. "There, see? You must have left us off your
e-mail alias, Eochy. Lucas checks the e-mail, and he isn't here
either."
    Eochy smiled again.
    Double-damn.
    "That's right. And if you'll look at
your agenda, you'll see Lucas is item number three."
    His mouth snapped shut and Gaelen
jerked his eyes down to the single sheet of paper lying on the
table in front of him. Spotting number three, he decided he'd keep
his mouth shut for a bit longer.
    The ritual preliminaries passed without
Gaelen even hearing them. He'd responded by rote, ignoring the
meaning and depth of the words. Still seething, shoulder blades
sore, deadlines and unfinished work weighing on his mind--it was
all giving him a splitting headache.
    Not to mention having his brother
waiting for him at number three.
    "Now," Eochy intoned, settling his
spectacles on the tip of his nose. "Item one, the 'Fairy
Controversy.' Without objection, since this relates to the matter
of item three, we'll pass on to item two, 'Reclaiming Ireland for
Her Indigenous Peoples.'" Eochy pulled off his specs and leaned on
the table. "Phelan, I know you mean well," Eochy said, his eyes
meeting those of the man on Gaelen's left, "but we made a deal with
them. We can't back out after three thousand years."
    "But it was a bad deal. That Iberian
con man took us, and we all know it."
    Eochy squashed a smile. Gaelen felt his
own lips move with unwelcome amusement.
    "Well, Phelan, we can all agree that
agreeing to splitting Ireland in half and accepting the half
underground was not the most shrewd land transaction in the history
of the world, but what's done is done. This Council has had this
debate at least once a year for three thousand years, and I'm sure
everyone is getting tired of it."
    "I make a motion to table the issue,"
one of the Hundred said.
    "I second," another said.
    Gaelen could predict the
process.
    Phelan wasn't to be deterred. "I demand
a recorded vote." He sneered at the assembly. "Just so we know who
the weak-kneed fairies are."
    The chamber rocked with moans and
expletives in various languages, some of them very interesting to a
linguist like Gaelen in their imagination, and a variety of
suggestions as to what Phelan could do with himself, various
barnyard beasts, and sundry of his own female relatives.
    "Give him his vote, Eochy," Gaelen
muttered, just wanting the whole thing over with. He glanced down
again at the agenda and Lucas's name there. How long had it been
since he'd seen his younger brother? He started to
worry.
    Eochy grimaced. "All right, the motion
has been made."
    Gaelen blocked out the droning voices
and voting. He focused his mind and tried to find his
brother.
    * * * *
    "Holy Bridget!" Lucas Riley struggled
through the open window of Erin's house. His shirt stuck to the
trickle of blood oozing from his torn wings.
    How could I have been so stupid? Acting
like an untried schoolboy on his first outing, forgetting himself
to the point of....
    Lucas scrambled over the sill and set
one foot down on the floor inside the Tinkers' sprawling ranch
house. It was dark still, but it would be daylight soon and he had
to be gone before Mrs. Tinker was up and around.
    He had to check on Erin. The terror on
her face just as he popped out was imprinted on his memory and made
him heartsick that he'd caused her such anguish. Worse, he'd not
been able to stop himself until somewhere near the Great Pyramid.
When he'd gotten back to where they'd been parked, Erin was
gone.
    "Oh, Bridget! What must she think?"