Eternal Hope (The Hope Series) (20 page)

His whispered words sounded too loud inside the confinement of the car. A ripple of alarm flooded her head, and Farley subconsciously reached out to hit the lock button on her side of the door. Like that would keep a Reaver out. Why the hell hadn’t he told her this before? He’d had three days to tell her. She fumbled with the seat control, suddenly needing to sit up.

“Hey… Hey…” Daniel rested his hand on her shoulder, propping himself up on his elbow. “It doesn’t mean anything. They’re just words.”

“Easy for you to say. There isn’t a deranged mad man out there attempting to hunt you down so he can delete your personality and install the soul of his dead wife onto your hard drive.”

Daniel gave her a flat look. “Have you been talking to Grayson?”

“That obvious?” Grayson had been the natural person to go to when she’d wanted answers. The guy knew everything. It seemed reasonable to assume that if there were any indication as to why Simeon thought he needed to capture her specifically, and how he thought he was going to accomplish the end goal of bringing someone back from the dead, Grayson would know of it. The answers he’d given her were beyond the realms of science fiction…and he’d almost made them sound possible. They’d gone something like this: Simeon forces her to turn into a Reaver; Simeon kills the Reaver who ended his wife’s life as a whyte (Reaver currently unknown); Simeon takes all of said Reaver’s power, and in turn all of the souls he has stolen throughout his lifetime, wife included; Simeon singles out his wife’s soul and forces it into Farley; Aided by a round or two of gentle ‘persuasion’, Farley is convinced to hand over reigns to his wife. The whole thing sounded skeevy and so terrifying that the concept had made her hyperventilate.

“You shouldn’t listen to Grayson,” Daniel admonished. He reached out and found her hand. “He’s an unhinged genius with no sensitivity switch. He probably gave you a logical explanation to some hideous possibility and made it sound like an ironclad reality. He could do that with just about anything.”

Ironclad reality was an appropriate term to use. He’d drawn
diagrams
. “What am I supposed to do, then?” she sighed. “I can’t just bury my head and pretend none of this is happening. Believe me- if I thought I could, I would.”

“No one’s asking that of you. Just … don’t panic, okay? I’m not going to let you end up with some freakishly old, insane Reaver as your husband.”

Farley laughed but only because, when he said it, the whole thing sounded so ridiculously unfeasible. “Oh, yeah? And why’s that? Because you don’t think I’d like having a freakishly old, insane Reaver as a husband?”

Daniel shook his head, something solid and determined forming on his face. “No,” he whispered. “Because I kind of have designs on that position, myself.”

A loud rap on the window behind her head made Farley jolt so hard she smashed her knee into the console between their seats. A tidal wave of pain coursed through her body, leaving behind it a sick, twisted feeling. For a second it was tough to work out whether the emotion was owing to the virtual dislocation of her kneecap, or
because of what Daniel had said. There was a brutal look in his eye when Farley’s own stopped watering enough to see him again. That meant only one thing: Kayden.

The sky had darkened dramatically since they’d gotten in the car, and the flint-like chip of burnished silver overhead shone down onto pale blond hair at Farley’s side of the Viper. There was something reassuring about seeing Kayden with paint on his clothes. She sat up and rubbed furiously at her knee, unsure how to greet the crouched figure of him. Right then, it felt equally appropriate to thank him effusely and start spitting curse words at him, rapid fire- the worst, most horrible kind. He smiled when she buzzed down the window.

“Hey.” His voice far too bright.

She stared at him, dumbfounded. “What?”

“I need to talk to you.
Both.
”

“Not a good time, Kay,” Daniel exhaled, but he buzzed the chair back into an upright position all the same. Farley repositioned her chair too, and Kayden took this as an invitation to clamber into the back seat. Daniel slumped forward so his head came to rest heavily on the steering wheel.

“What. Do. You. Want?”

Kayden ignored him and studied the interior of the car, sniffing. “I think I preferred the Charger, y’know. This car smells weird.”

“It does
not
smell weird. And, funnily enough, I never asked for your opinion. Now, what the hell do you want?”

Kayden leaned forward, propping his arms on the backs of their seats. “Well, I came to tell you that the Quorum have been in contact again. They had some interesting requests, but if you’re busy…”

Daniel shot him a hateful look and blew out a long breath. “Don’t play games. What did they say?”

Kayden looked directly at Farley when he spoke next. “They want to see you. Agatha wants to see you.”

“What?!” The word burst forth from her lips before she could analyze the rush of hot and cold, fear and joy that erupted through her veins. Agatha wanted to see her
. Agatha wanted to see her
. But, in the back of her mind, lurking, was the knowledge that the dynamic in their relationship had changed somewhat. Agatha wasn’t the same woman who had help save her at the fairground, or used to cook her chicken soup and force orange juice down her neck. Agatha was the Quorum’s head now- the Emissary. She had a role to play, and knowing Agatha she would play it down to the bottom line.

“That’s wonderful,” Farley said carefully, trying to force herself into believing it. Into believing that she wasn’t just a tiny bit scared.

“When?” Daniel asked. Kayden cut him a frustrated look that said,
when do you think?

Now. Of course he meant now
.
Farley touched her fingertips lightly to the base of her throat, trying to remember how to breathe. “Okay.”

Daniel ducked down in his seat, searching for her eyes. She gave him a small smile, which he returned. “Okay,” he said.

Kayden clapped them both on the shoulders, earning him another vile look from Daniel. “Great. I thought for a moment there we were going to have to stick around and eat that fluorescent slop in the kitchen. Let’s go.”

“And I swear, if you paint another picture of my girlfriend, I’m going to kill you.”
Daniel had been less than thrilled when they’d arrived to meet the Quorum. Farley had found herself upright, ankle deep in snow, wrapped snugly inside a fleecy Parka that matched Kayden’s. Daniel had been sprawled out in the snow on his back, wearing nothing but the t-shirt and jeans he’d worn in the car. After a brief bout of swearing and muttering, he’d stalked off towards a thicket of silver birch, apparently familiar with his surroundings. Kayden watched him go and then gave her a reprehensible smirk. “Welcome to Alaska.”

The words formed thick on his breath.

Farley rolled her eyes skywards, where a trillion stars throbbed like beacons in the midnight blue. “Would it kill you to try a little harder?”

His expression brightened. “Probably wouldn’t kill me. Would definitely hurt, though.”

She scowled and set off after Daniel, his dark silhouette fading to merge into the sh
adows of the eerie white forest.
Something felt vaguely familiar about this place. It took a few minutes to trudge through the snow and reach the clearing- the one Farley had suspected would be materializing at some point. A faint kind of memory tickled at her senses, trying to consolidate before elusively disintegrating into smoke. Maybe not a memory, after all. Maybe a dream. No. A nightmare.

The indistinct feeling of the nightmare washed through her, bringing with it a penetrating cold. Yes, that was it. Daniel had been stood on the rocky tor that overshadowed the clearing and blood had been pouring through his hands. Figures- bone-thin, robed figures with skeletal fingers- had been hiding in the tree line, ready to pounce the moment she’d succumbed to the cold. Those figures from her nightmare had looked suspiciously like the ones gathered below them now, turning to look at them in unison.

“Man, that doesn’t get old,” Daniel gritted through his teeth. He started sliding down the slope, skidding on the backs of his heels, distinctly unstable. Farley made to go after him.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to take the easier way down?” Kayden asked, a hint of something supercilious in the timbre of his voice. Farley watched Daniel manfully navigating his way down through the waist-deep snow.

“I think I’ll take the hard way.”

“Why am I not surprised?” He vanished from her side, leaving her to trawl through the wake of disrupted snow Daniel had made with his body. He paused to wait for her halfway down. She clutched hold of the hand he offered her, unsure that it actually improved her balance as apposed to making it worse. It didn’t matter, though; it felt better to battle through together.

At the bottom of the slope, Daniel paused. His breath came out in twin forks of mist as he huffed out of his nose. “Listen,” he said, “This is the first time I’ve been before the Quorum since I swore my oath. They might not be too happy with me, but whatever happens, don’t worry.”

Farley felt her head nodding up and down. Worrying over the fact that the Quorum knew they were together was pointless, when some of these robed statues were probably super pissed he hadn’t died liked they’d hoped he would. For that matter, they were super pissed that
she
hadn’t died like they’d hoped she would, either. She swallowed down the golf ball-sized lump in her throat and squeezed his hand. The words repeated through her head like a mantra:
it’s going to be okay.

Kayden hovered on the outskirts of the circle formed by the Quorum, watching them approach. His serious expression was a good indicator that this situation was not to be taken lightly. Kayden had laughed his way through dying, after all, yet now he looked particularly grave. The moonlight bathed them all in silver light, washing the color out of their faces and their clothes, making the thin, narrow lengths of the naked trees around them look like ghostly limbs. This place was stark and lonely but in a way that made it ethereal. Beautiful.

“Sovereign and Talisman,” a loud voice declared, booming through the crisp silence. The sound made Farley jump. Daniel gripped her hand tighter, squaring his shoulders off so he stood in front of her protectively.

“We were called, and we have come,” Daniel called out, his voice lower and more sure than she’d ever heard it before. She peered around his shoulder, searching for Agatha. It took a while to discern which shadow was her. The eleven figures all stood in uniform, wearing the same heavy robe. A deep cowl was pulled up over each of their heads, drawing their faces into darkness. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Agatha was no taller than five feet, it would have been impossible to pick her out at all. That Kayden stood behind the smallest dark outline only confirmed it must be her. The figure stepped forwards, and Farley’s legs threatened to collapse out from underneath her.

“Sovereign and Talisman,” the figure said again, walking slowly towards them, “you have been called before the Quorum.”

Farley hesitated, looking at Daniel for reassurance. The voice was familiar and yet it didn’t sound the same. Agatha’s faint Scottish accent was there, sure, but her voice was lower and filled with a resonating hum that made Farley’s eardrums tingle. Daniel gave her a sidelong glance and nodded his head. It was definitely her.

“Our messenger informs us that you’ve been told why you are here. Is this the case?” she said.

“We have been informed of Simeon and his plans for Farley,” Daniel answered. He sounded so formal. His whole body was rigid, as though he were waiting for Agatha to leap forward and attack him. More worryingly, it looked like he thought she would attack
her
first.

“Yes,” the small figure said, “his plans are in motion as we speak. He has escaped his prison and returned to the Tower. There is no other Reaver but him in residence. They are too wary to return.”

Daniel nodded, taking in the information calmly. Farley, on the other hand, broke out in a cold sweat. Simeon was out of the cell- the one she’d seen in her vision. How he’d done it was a mystery. There had been no door, no windows. Just the darkness and the cold. And now he was in the Tower, not hiding or staying under the radar. He’d gone back home and was waiting for her there. On top of that, none of the other Reavers had shown. Even they were too scared of Simeon to take up residency on the Judgment seats. Custom dictated there should be at least two others with him, but obviously no one wanted that honor.

Agatha took another step forward. “The Quorum has cast their votes. It has been decided that you are to live, Farley Hope, against the previous edict handed down by us. It is clear to us, now, that your survival is key to defeating the Reavers, given that the Talisman resides in this man.” She pointed at Daniel, who remained level and composed. “Since he is not a Reaver, the power that your soul possesses cannot be drawn from you to combine with the Talisman. As such, it is our chief goal to ensure that you do not fall into the Reavers’ hands, especially Simeon’s. Do you object?”