Eternal Hope (The Hope Series) (50 page)

“Oh God, don’t…” He trailed off when she bit lightly at his collarbone. Whatever he’d been about to tell her not to do was suddenly lost. He sucked in a sharp breath and staggered back from the wall, carrying her with him. His legs seemed to go out from underneath him and he sank to his knees, setting her down.

“You have to… I…”

Farley ignored him, tracing her fingers down his chest until they skimmed across his tattoo. The heart. The crown. The sun. Before she'd had no idea what that tattoo meant, that it meant anything at all. But now she knew better. It was him. Her. The prophecy. He'd marked himself with a symbol of what they would be even before he'd met her. Daniel gazed at her with the intensity of a starving man who had just been promised all the food he could ever eat. Trembling, she leaned forward to place her lips gently over the heart.

He groaned again. There was something incredibly amazing about how vocal he was being. It left no doubt about what he was thinking, what he wanted. He wound her hair around his fingers. “Damn it, Farley…”

The sound of the door crashing open made Farley’s heart detonate in her chest. Everything came crashing to a halt, and Daniel sagged against the side of the bath, hyperventilating. Farley toppled backwards, her Dunlops squeaking loudly against the cool tile floor. When she managed to calm herself enough to look up, she found Tess standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips.

“Yahtzee! I knew it." Tess' grin was salacious. "I have a sixth sense when people are up to no good. Why… why is there hair everywhere?” She scowled. “You guys are so weird. Can you hurry this party up? We need to get moving.”

A low growl rumbled in Daniel’s throat. He rose and snatched up his t-shirt, shoving his arms into it as quickly as possible. “You’re a very bad friend,” he hissed. Tess pouted and spun on her heel, throwing a sassy wink at Farley as she disappeared. Farley almost laughed, but the fact that she’d just been busted clawing at her half-naked boyfriend was embarrassing enough to make her want to die instead.

             
Daniel dragged his hands through his short hair, grinning wryly. “I’m going to pack.”

“Daniel?”

Once her mortification had subsided, Farley followed after Daniel and rapped lightly at his door. When she pushed the door back, he wasn’t packing. He was sitting on the edge of his bed in the dark, staring at the photos on his wall. He gave her a slow, sad smile when he noticed her in the doorway.

“Come here,” he whispered.

She padded over to him in her socks and sat down carefully at his side. He kissed her lightly on her temple and pulled her closer, sighing heavily. “Sorry. That was…”

“Uhuh,’ she laughed nervously. “It was.”

A regretful look passed over him, making it obvious, even in the dark, that he was sad. “I know I said it before, but I promise… this really isn’t forever.”

Farley echoed his sigh. “I know. I just get the feeling things are going to get much worse before they get better.”

Daniel laughed quietly. “How? How can they possibly get worse?”

“Well, apparently I sleep walk and hurt people now. I could go on a rampage every night and beat up my friends.” It was easy joking about it, but really the idea scared the crap out of her. Who did that? And now she was linked to Daniel and their power was so much bigger, who knew when it would happen again. Daniel nodded.

“Don’t worry about the sleep walking thing. I’ll always be with you from here on in. I won’t let it happen again.” Farley sighed and tipped her head to rest on his shoulder. At least there were some benefits to being an aggressive sleeper. The prospect of sharing a bed with Daniel every night was a happy one.

Farley glanced around the room, trying to take it all in before they had to leave. There was no saying how long they’d be gone for. Her eyes stopped roaming when they hit upon Daniel’s photos. In the faded light, she couldn’t make out much on the far side of the wall. The only picture she could see was one of Aldan. Black and white. He was dressed similarly to the way she’d seen him when they’d travelled back in London, the very first time Farley had met Kayden. At his side, a little boy with cropped black hair stared tensely out of the picture. It could only have been Daniel. She nodded cautiously at the wall.

“Can I look now?” she asked, repeating words she’d said to him once before, what felt like forever ago.

This time Daniel’s answer was different. He didn’t say anything, just took her hand and walked with her over to the wall. Farley’s breath caught in her throat when she drew closer.

“This…” he breathed, “was when you were reading Dr Zhivago on your front porch last summer. Moira…Moira had only been gone a couple of weeks. You used to wait for her for hours out there. I guess you thought she’d come home.”

Farley stared at the picture of herself, head bent over the pages of her favourite book, her hair shielding her face. She remembered those days when her mother had just gone missing. She’d still been filled with such hope that any day she would catch her walking down the street towards the house.

“And this,” Daniel continued, sounding impossibly shy, “this is when you were asleep in the hangar that night you busted me watching you. You just looked so peaceful. I couldn’t resist.”

The picture was dark, but Farley could make out a subtle pale glow that highlighted her face and her hand, curled up next to her cheek.

“And here, you were laughing with Tess…. This was the first time I ever saw you laugh. This is my favourite.”

Farley couldn’t get over it. A lot of the photos were of Aldan and Agatha, some of them impossibly old. Some of them were of Kayden and Daniel together, arms thrown over each other’s shoulders, grinning like mad men out of the snapshots. But most of them… most of them were of her.

“I don’t understand,” she managed.

“I replaced a lot of my pictures when we first arrived here. It felt…right. I used to have more pictures of this idiot,” he said, tapping a picture of Kayden with his index finger, “but after what he did…I wanted to replace the painful memories with good ones. Ones I was eternally hopeful about.”

He turned and stepped closer, closing the gap between them. His hands found their way to her cheeks, cupping her face. “Please don’t think I’m a creepy stalker. I’m really not, I swear. I’ve just never loved anybody like I love you. I’ve never been so sure of anything, of how
right
this is.”

Farley stared up at him, terrified for a moment. Not because of the photos, not because of how it felt like she was standing dangerously close to a precipice…but because she knew she was about to jump off it.

“Remember…” She had to take a deep breath.

Daniel smiled nervously. “Remember what?”

“Remember the conversation in your car? The one Kayden interrupted when he took us the Quorum?”

Daniel went still. Farley could actually feel his heartbeat quicken in the feather light pressure of his fingertips against her face. He didn’t say anything, just stared at her with wide eyes.

She leaned forward and kissed him slowly. “You said,” she leaned her forehead against his, trying to find the words. “You said that maybe I’d remember one day, too. When I was ready.”

“When you were ready,” Daniel murmured. His eyes flashed in the dark, holding something within them, some kind of unfathomable emotion Farley had never seen on him before.

“Well,” she kissed him again, because it was impossible not to.
A
deep
, deep breath and it was time to leap
. “I’m ready now. I want to have that conversation again.”

The list of people I need to thank has grown somewhat! That truly represents how many wonderful people I have met along my journey publishing the Hope Series as it stands thus far. I have to tell you that I love each and every one of you.

My beta readers! My girlies. My sanity-preservers. Mel, Chelsea, Alexia, Gemma and Carmen, you guys rocked the task of providing me with kick ass feedback for Eternal Hope. I’ve loved having you all be a part of Daniel and Farley’s adventure, and I hope you stick around for the next installment. Kellie Bright, your progression to my professional editor was inevitable! Thank you eternally for your firm belief in me and my work. Your encouragement has gotten me through some icky moments, for sure.

Chelsea Starling, another thank you! The cover art you created for Eternal Hope is electric, and I will be forever indebted to you for all your hard work and dedication.

I want to thank the entire blogging community, especially the guys who participated in reading and blogging about Sovereign Hope. Your passion, enthusiasm and involvement has been so awesome. Without your incredible support, my books would never reach the wider reading community.

Nick, your unfailing faith in my ability to achieve anything I set my sights on constantly helps me to push forward. If it wasn’t for you, I’m pretty sure I would have given up a long time ago.

Lastly, thanks to you, the reader, for…well, reading! A story without an audience is no story at all, and the emails and messages I have received over the past few months have filled my heart to bursting. I hope you enjoyed Eternal Hope, and looking forward to reading your reviews!

For more information about Frankie Rose, visit
www.frankierose
w
rites.com
, or join her on facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/TheHopeSeries
.