James O’Neil should be celebrating his graduation from high school, but things have gone very, very wrong. Fortunately for him, he’s made the acquaintance of a few people who have some experience in dealing with situations like his. What follows is a fragment from the end of “Sigils”, the novel I am working on finishing.
“Words!” Meg stood up. “We should exchange them now.”
Bone and Syn looked puzzled. “Uh, she means like, passwords,” James said. “So if this works, we will know that we’re really who we say we are, and that the monster isn’t pretending to be one of us.”
“My word is ‘Yarrow’, Meg said.
“Um. ’Yinzall’,” James muttered.
Syn spoke without hesitation. “Perkele.”
“That’s something profane in another language, isn’t it?” Peach asked.
“Maaaaaaybe.” Syn looked at Bone. “Yours?”
Bone considered, then narrowed his eyes. “Mary.”
Syn reached out and took his hand to give it a quick squeeze, then wiped her hand across her face quickly before forcing up a smile. “Great! Now, before we start coming up with secret handshakes, could we get hypnotized into the land of dreams or whatever? There’s a Fae bozo over there that needs a good swift kick in the ‘nards. Then set on fire.” She looked over at Meg, concerned. “We can set things on fire over there, right?
Meg seemed taken aback. “I am sure. You… do you set things on fire in your dreams often?”
Syn smiled lazily. “All the time, m’am. All. The. Time.”