Eternal Hope (The Hope Series) (31 page)

“Did Agatha know what she was agreeing to when she came running to the Quorum?” Farley called over the roar of the charging rain. “Did she have any idea that she was going to lose her identity?”

Agatha froze in the same way cats do when they find something irresistible to stalk. She angled her body towards Farley and formed a smile that flashed too much teeth. It was a grimace, a display of dominance, a threat. “I have retained my identity in every way. My eyes have simply been opened. I see more now than the petty trifles that affect the few, and I have adjusted accordingly to incorporate the many.”

“I don’t believe you. Agatha would never speak the way you do. She’d never be so remote and cold.”

A roil of thunder rumbled overhead. Agatha looked towards the sound dismissively, like it was nothing more than furniture being shifted in a room above them. Her face was still tilted toward the sky when she said, “You can choose to believe what you want. I see into you, Farley. You know the truth. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it any less true.” Her gaze dropped, eyes piercing and emotionless. “It is time you both left.”

             
It really
was
time to leave. This place felt like the darkest corner of the earth, wh
ere even darker things happened.
Agatha stepped back into the void, leaving both Farley and Kayden staring vacantly after her. Kayden got to his feet, his movements stiff. “I’ll take you back to the hotel.”

Farley accepted his hand, filled with sorrow. The blind rage that had bubbled through her entire being was gone. All she wanted to do was comfort Kayden, but she couldn’t. The undeniable damage he’d caused all those years ago was like a rift in time, still sending out wave after wave of destruction in a blast radius that threatened to carry on forever.

When she opened her eyes, she was back in the hotel room and Kayden was gone. Daniel stood leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his jeans pockets, watching her. He gave her a profoundly sad smile, made even sadder by the way the subdued mid-morning light cast shadows across his face.

He came and stood in front of her, less than an inch between them, and they stayed like that for a long time. By the time it felt appropriate to speak, Farley couldn’t find anything to say. Between them, a pool of water gathered on the marble where the rain’s crystalline tears dripped out a heavy grief from her fingertips.

Farley couldn’t get warm. All that rain had penetrated her core, and no amount of blankets seemed to make a difference. She was going to turn into an icicle in the middle of an LA summer. Tess came to join her on the sofa and demanded they put on a cheesy romance DVD to make themselves feel better. Farley didn’t bother reminding Tess that she wasn’t a huge fan of chick flicks. Not that it mattered- fifteen minutes in when the guy and the girl shared their first kiss, Tess went crazy and practically ripped the disc out of the machine. They’d been watching the UFC ever since. Tess stole a foot of blanket and shunted closer, resting her head on Farley’s shoulder.

“Do you ever wish you were a dude? I sometimes think having huge fists to pound the crap out of other people would be a massive plus.”

Farley wrinkled her nose. “Nah. Think about all that hair and the weird places it grows.”

“Ugh. You’re right. So, Daniel’s pretty hairy, then?”

“No! He’s…he’s none of your business, thank you very much!” she spluttered, yanking the covers back.

“Ooh, I like a guy who waxes.”

“I did
not
say he waxes.”

The sound of a throat being cleared interrupted them, and Daniel, at the other end of the sofa, made a show of turning the page in his book. “I’m right here, y’know.”

Tess stifled back a hail of laughter. She was incorrigible but at least she was smiling. “Sorry, Danny. Blame my social inhibitions on my hippie upbringing.”

Farley arched an eyebrow at her. “Your parents are both doctors. They’re Presbyterian.”

Daniel ignored them both and submerged himself in his book. Seeing him with a book in his hand reminded Farley she hadn’t had a chance to read any of his poetry. And for that matter, she hadn’t been able to look at the photos in his room before they’d left the cabin, either. Both were pieces of him that helped tell his story, and they’d been dangled under her nose like a carrot and then snatched away.

The monstrously big guys on the television were wrestling around on the floor when the elevator buzzed. Daniel hit the button to open the doors and Grayson stalked in, pulling a face at the TV. His hair was a little crazy, like he’d been conducting scientific experiments all morning and a few of them had backfired. He kept wringing his hands nervously. “Daniel, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment?”

“Sure.” Daniel pulled him into the kitchen, and the two of them bowed their heads together while Grayson whispered and made shapes and wild gestures with his hands. At one point it looked like he was drawing an air diagram with his index finger. Tess twitched restlessly, making the leather squeak.

“Do you think it’s about Oliver?”

“Yes.” Lying would be a fruitless exercise, and besides, if Grayson was this worked up, that had to mean he’d discovered something. Or so she hoped. “Maybe Cassie and Anna found him while they were driving Grayson’s Jeep here?”

The girls would be arriving late in the afternoon. Farley was looking forward to seeing them about as much as she looked forward to one of her pulverizing migraines.

Tess chewed on her lip and stared at the back of Grayson’s head like she could read his mind. “If they know something, they’re going to tell us, right? I mean, he’s my boyfriend and your brother. They wouldn’t keep something important from us, would they?”

Farley weighed up her response, comparing logic with past experience. “They probably wouldn’t tell us.”

“Damn it!” Tess flung back the blankets over her legs, throwing them onto Farley so she had to flatten them down to see. “You two! Hey! Get in here and tell us what’s going on.
Right. Now
.”

Grayson halted his murmured diatribe mid-gesture. His glasses slowly slid down his nose as he took in one angry-looking Tess. “I don’t,” he said, “know how wise that would be.”

“I don’t care about wise. I care about my boyfriend, now where the hell is he?”

Grayson looked at Daniel, who pinched the bridge of his nose. The action was fast becoming a habit.

“Okay, fine,” Daniel said, “but you can’t freak out or start screaming. We don’t know anything for certain yet.” He pulled Grayson back through to the sofa and threw himself down. “You’d better explain. It’ll make more sense coming from you.”

Grayson laced his fingers together in front of him and then unlaced them. He seemed to need a comfortable position for his hands before he could begin speaking. Eventually, he went with cupping his left hand around the balled up fist of his right, which was a good thing because it looked like Tess was about to lean forward and slap him. He blew out a shaky breath. “Okay,” he said. “Simeon has Oliver.”

Silence.

Tess went white. “What?”

Grayson’s shoulders hunched, like he was unsure how to proceed.

“
Extrapolate
,” she growled.

“Well, it’s like I was explaining to you the other day, Farley, remember?”

Tess and Daniel turned to her like she’d been holding out on them. She gave them a baffled shrug. “Don’t look at me. I’ve got no idea what he’s talking about. Be more specific, Gray.”

He nodded. “Right, specifics. Farley asked me the other day how I thought Simeon intended to reincarnate the soul of his dead wife into her body. I told her I suspected he would make her to turn into a Reaver. After that, he would locate his wife’s soul and force it into Farley. Then it would be a simple matter of employing various torture methods until she agreed to hand over control of her body to that specific soul.”

Tess held up her hand. “Wait a minute. Why would he be turning Farls into a Reaver? That’s not possible. She was supposed to destroy them, not become one of them.”

“Farley’s of their bloodline. There is no reason why she couldn’t become one of them.”

“So she could have powers like them, perhaps?”

Grayson shrugged. “Sure. She’d have to undergo her rites, though, just like they do.”

A panicked look swept across her face. “Are you sure? It just doesn’t happen, does it? She’s different from them, after all.”

“I don’t think so. I mean Farley has shown no signs of changing.”

The awkward look on Tess’ face made absolutely no sense. It lasted barely a second, but long enough for Farley to register it. Tess started chewing her fingernails. “Why would Simeon want her to become a Reaver?”

“Because only Reavers can house another soul and give them voice. Except for Daniel, of course. He’s special.”

Daniel slapped a hand on Grayson’s back and gave him a false smile. “Thanks, buddy.”

“My pleasure. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Simeon needs to find his wife’s soul before he can force it into Farley. We thought when you were attacked in the mountains the other day that something drew the Immundus right to you, Farley. But what if we were wrong? What if it wasn’t you calling to them at all?”

The room went silent again while everyone pondered Grayson’s words. Daniel was looking at Farley like he expected something to hit her any second. She was about to shake her head in defeat when it came to her. She screwed her eyes shut tight and groaned. “Oh, no. You can’t think…”

“Think what?” Tess grabbed hold of her hand and dug her nails in, hard. She clearly had no idea she was gouging out chunks of skin. “They can’t think
what
?”

“That they were coming for Oliver. They think he has Aria’s soul.”

Tess recoiled like Farley had swung for her. “Don’t be ridiculous. Oliver only killed those three Reavers in the Tower. And they were all pretty new Reavers in the grand scheme of things. Simeon’s wife was killed, like, a thousand years ago. Her soul would be in a Reaver much older than Farley’s dad or the others.”

“Not necessarily,” Grayson said. “The Reavers have been known to pass souls around like currency, sometimes as tribute to a Reaver ascending to the Judgment Seats. If you’ll recall, Simeon’s wife was a whyte when she was destroyed by the Reavers. Tricky area. We don’t know if the whytes actually retain part of their soul, but-”

“They don’t!” Farley’s hands clenched so tight around the blanket it felt like her fingers might snap under the pressure. “There’s no way they keep any of their soul.”

“Well, we don’t know that for sure.”

“
I
know it for sure.” Her eyes stung like sulphuric acid was trying to work its way out of her tear ducts. “There’s no way any part of them remains after they turn.”

Grayson gave her a strange look and bridged his fingers. He was about to say something else when Daniel leaned forward and whispered not-so-covertly, “Tobin turned Farley’s mother into a whyte. Farley had an encounter with her before she… uhh…”

“Had a shotgun blast out half her intestines,” Farley finished. She looked at Daniel, a little more than vexed. How had the subject of her mom being turned into a whyte not been mentioned to these people? That definitely should have come up in ‘things not to talk about with Farley’ conversation. “Yes, my mom was turned into a whyte. So I have first hand experience here, and I’m telling you there was nothing left of her in that monster. Her soul left her body and was far, far away when what remained tried to kill a whole bunch of people.”

If Grayson dared even suggest she was wrong, Farley was going to scream. The belief that her mother was at peace long before her body had done all those horrible things- before she’d bitten Tess- was one of the only things keeping Farley from the brink of a nervous breakdown. Grayson had the good sense to realize that now was not the time to argue.

“I’m very sorry to hear about your mother. I apologize if I’ve been insensitive. Regardless, Simeon may
believe
that Oliver holds his wife’s soul. He’s probably interrogated a handful of Reavers and located the one who killed the whyte. I have no doubt in my mind that the Reaver in question told Simeon he passed souls to Tobin when he accepted the High Judgment Seat. Logic dictates that trail would have led Simeon directly to Oliver. Now, we know that one of the Immundus who attacked you in the mountains escaped. It’s not too difficult to believe that when Oliver ran off into the forest, he was captured and brought back here to the Tower. That would be why Kayden couldn’t sense him.”

This was all too tenuous. Tess’ eyes were brimming with tears, but she was clenching her jaw like she refused to let them spill. Farley took her hand and squeezed it. “I don’t understand why Kayden wouldn’t be able to sense Oliver in the Tower, though. He found Daniel and I there.”