Hidden Hope (Hidden Saga Book 3) (22 page)

An elevator took us up through the center of the tower to the top. The doors opened on the eerie sound of the night wind whipping the brightly hued flags of the world. It was the only sound way up here, far above the crowd.

I imagined Mom making that elevator ride alone, walking out onto the tiny walkway that lined the scaffolding, completely at the mercy of Davis’s mind control. The image terrified me too much, so I put it out of my head and forced myself to focus on the circumstances at hand.

Which were also pretty terrifying. We were so high above the Olympic Stadium that the people below seemed like a mass of indistinct color.

We stepped out of the elevator onto a fairly wide platform then walked around it until we reached the side where the flame burned at nearly eye level. A blast of heat hit my face as it came into view. Just to the side of a narrow walkway intended for specialized construction workers, hung a sign.

DANGER: NO TRESPASSING.

Beyond that sign, which flapped in the strong breeze, stood Mom. She was far out on the walkway, nearly at its end. Her expression was blank, her eyes empty. She didn’t register our presence—didn’t seem to see me there at all. I wasn’t sure she even knew where she was.

Or maybe she saw everything, felt everything, and was so strapped by Davis’s mind domination she was unable to express her terror.

Terror was exactly what I felt as I watched her rail-thin body sway in the wind so close to going over the edge I thought I might vomit. My main focus was getting her away from that deadly drop-off—and the flaming death below.

I shot a quick side-glance at Davis. If I could kill him, his control over her mind would be released. But could I manage to do it before he had an opportunity to make her jump? I had no weapon. He was much larger and stronger than me. And even if I had the physical strength, could I do it at all?
I
wasn’t a killer. I didn’t want to be a chip off the beastly block.

I tried reaching out to her in the Elven way
. Mom? Can you hear me? Mom, look at me.

No response. As far as I knew, she had never communicated mind-to-mind. But she
was
susceptible to glamour—I’d seen it first with Nox and then Davis. If only she’d look in my direction, maybe I could catch her eye and speak the words aloud. I might be able to influence her to step back out of the danger zone.

“Mom, it’s Ryann. I’m here. I’m going to get you out of here,” I said.

“Not quite yet—and
don’t
try anything tricky.” Davis motioned to the video crew who’d ridden the elevator with us. “You have a job to do before there can be any ‘happy reunion.’”

Reaching toward the woman, who held two stick microphones, Davis said, “Give one to her. Then tell Federic in the booth to be ready to switch to us live within the stadium and for broadcast.”

He took one of the mics from the woman, and she immediately obeyed his order, stepping forward and handing me the other then speaking into her headset to Federic, who I assumed was in charge of the broadcast. Once again, Olympics viewers were about to get an unscheduled event in their coverage.

Davis was smart. What
we
were about to broadcast would definitely stand out as bizarre. So bizarre in fact, it would probably be rebroadcast for the next few days on newscasts worldwide, in case any un-glamoured human being out there happened to miss it. 

The producers of the Olympics coverage would probably claim some lunatic had taken control of the airwaves temporarily—and they’d be right—but none of them could know just
how
devastating the aftereffects of our live and recorded messages might be.

Davis was convinced our combined glamours would be irresistible. What if he was right? I’d come here to
stop
the worldwide takeover. I couldn’t let myself be used as an instrument to
cause
it to occur after all.

Looking at the heavy microphone in my hand, I evaluated its usefulness as a weapon. Could I knock Davis out with it? In a moment of hysteria, I imagined a light saber type battle with microphones, and him saying in a deep, iconic movie voice, “I am your father, Ryann.”

And then my eyes wandered up the chest and shoulders and neck of my very large and thoroughly Elven father, and any hysterical visions vanished instantly. This wasn’t a movie. This was real life. It was life and death.

Two hundred and fifty years old or not... Davis was more than a match for me physically. And he could order Mom to jump before I’d be able to get in one blow. No—I’d have to find another way to stop the broadcast.

“Tell her to come in first,” I demanded.

Davis eyed me with something that resembled boredom. “I think not.”

“Do it—or I won’t say a word when those camera lights come on. Or maybe I’ll sing Nox’s song again...”

“Fine,” he snapped. “Maria, darling, please step away from the edge. Not too far. One more step toward me—good—yes. Right there will be fine.”

She was so close now I could almost touch her, but I didn’t dare.

Davis
could
touch her. His hand caressed her shoulder, the gentle touch an ugly lie. Because he didn’t love her. Any man who loved a woman would never put her in danger. That’s what I’d come to understand about the decision Lad had made to send me away. Though I was what he’d wanted most in the world, he chose to let me go—for my sake. To protect me. That was love.

This was evil.

Davis and I stood on the central platform, but Mom’s feet were still on the precarious walkway. She was no longer teetering on the edge, but he could easily shove her right over if he wanted to.

Her vacant expression never changed as she stared at her toes. We were both in the greatest danger of our lives, and though they didn’t know it, so was the rest of the human race.

Davis tossed a contemptuous glance at me. “Now—no more stalling. When the on-air light comes on, I will begin, and
you
will repeat my words—and
mean
them. Remember—I’ve seen your Sway in action now. I’ll know if you’re not using it.”

He nodded toward the camera crew and raised one finger.

“One minute,” the woman said into her headset to Federic or whomever was on the other end.

One minute. One final minute of freedom. That was all the human population of our planet had left. 

My eyes darted up and down, left to right. What could I do? How could I prevent this catastrophe? The robotic cameraman and audio woman were obviously not going to do anything to help. I’d read their emotions—they were completely under Davis’s control.

“Thirty seconds.”

My pulse exploded. This was happening. It wasn’t just Mom and me—not just Lad, and Nox, and Vancia down below. This was everyone. This was all the people back in Deep River and my friends in the fan pods, and Daddy, and Grandma Neena. All the kids in my high school, all the benevolent Light Elves, and the innocent Dark Elves who didn’t even know what their nefarious “leader” was up to.

If I went along with this and did nothing to stop him, I’d be no better than the most vile of the Dark Elves, no better than this man who called himself my father.

But I am better than that.
The thought flashed through my mind, and its rightness burned in my gut.

Yes, I had more Dark Elven blood in me than Light, but as Nox had once said, just because you’re born a certain way—it doesn’t mean that’s who you
are.
I had a choice. I could
choose
who I wanted to be, how I wanted to live.

Even if it meant dying for that right.

Was I afraid? Oh yes. But everything I wanted—life, love—was on the other side of that fear.

I gripped my microphone tighter. Just as the red camera light clicked on, I made a grab for Davis’s mic. I must have really surprised him because it came right out of his hand. In one jerky motion, I threw it with all my strength, sending it careening over the edge and down to the sidewalk on the outside of the Olympic Stadium. 

As Davis lunged forward and grabbed at the empty air in an attempt to recover it, I locked my grip around Mom’s wrist and pulled her to me, spinning so she stumbled off the walkway and onto the platform.

Her dazed eyes locked with mine. “Ryann.”

I had just enough time to scream, “Run to the elevator,” before Davis recovered and turned to face us, his face red with rage.

“No. Stay right where you are Maria.” His enraged voice was filled with malevolent and powerful Sway.

He made a move toward Mom, whose nose started gushing blood, but I backed up to the edge of the platform and held the one remaining mic over the drop-off. “Let her go. Leave her alone, or I’ll drop it. You’ll have a hard time broadcasting your message with no audio.”

Davis froze in place, gritting his teeth and clenching and unclenching his hands as Mom made her way to the elevator and pushed the button. Clearly he wanted to choke the life from me. Knowing that would leave him without a microphone, he settled for a ferocious command.

“Give it to me.”

I shifted the mic even further from his grasp. “Your glamour doesn’t work on me,
Father.
One of the lovely ‘gifts’ you’ve given me. I believe I’ll hold onto this until Mom is safely on her way.”

“And then you’ll go on television with me and fix this mess you’ve created?”

“I’ll go on. But I won’t say what you want me to. If you put me on camera, I’ll tell the viewers the truth—that you’re a corrupt senator and not worthy of their trust. Then not only will your plan have failed, you’ll be disgraced and probably out of a job.”

His face erupted in fury. “You
cannot
do this to me. You are my daughter. If you won’t join me, your Elven heritage will be wasted. You really
will
be human.” His tone said he did
not
mean that as a compliment.

“Thank you,” I said, taking it that way anyway. “I
am
human
and
Elven. And I choose to be the best of both.”

Instead of exploding in rage or trying to wrestle the microphone from me as I expected, Davis wilted. His broad shoulders drooped. His head hung down. “Very well.”

I froze, unsure of what was happening. “Very well what?”

“That’s it, I suppose. There is no point in continuing to fight. It all means nothing if I have no family—no one to leave my throne to.”

“It’s not
your
throne,” I reminded him quietly.

Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. It was looking like he was going to just give up and go away at this point, which was more than I could ever have expected. And he looked so defeated, there was no point in rubbing it in.

For a moment Davis stared at me, sad eyes cataloguing my face, perhaps because this was likely to be the last time we ever saw each other. For the same reason, I stared back, memorizing his face, the features strangely reminiscent of my own.

Then I extended my emotional E.Q. toward him, so I could not only see and hear him, but feel what he was feeling. This final snapshot would be all I’d ever have of my biological father, and I wanted it to be vivid and complete. It wasn’t sentimentality. I wanted to make sure I’d never forget what great power without compassion looked like.

Hatred and vengeance flashed through my brain in a bright burning path—not mine for him—but his for me.

Breathless and jolted from its power, I doubled over and dove to the side just as Davis lunged toward me and made a grab for the remaining microphone. He succeeded in stripping it from my fingers. But he must have underestimated the distance to the edge of the platform.

Or maybe he had meant to push me over.

Instead, he was the one who slid over the side, disappearing from view with a shout and the scrabble of fingertips as he tried desperately to cling to the platform edge. For a few seconds it was quiet, and then the screams began.

I scooted to the edge, unable to stop myself from peering over. The cameraman and audio tech, as if suddenly freed from a spell, broke position and ran to the edge as well.

“Careful,” I cautioned them.

After that, there were no more words as we stared at the unfolding horror. Davis had fallen directly into the brazier holding the eternal flame, a spectacular, searing conclusion to his own eternal life, his immortality terminating in agony and fire.

“Oh my God,” the cameraman breathed.

“Um, we’re live,” said the sound tech. The confusion in her voice and the clarity in her eyes told me the glamour over her had completely lifted the moment Davis died.

So sick I could barely speak, I said, “Tell them to turn it off. There’s nothing to see up here.”

The halls of Altum had never been so brightly lit. Candles and colored stones glowed in every direction, held aloft by the Elven people who filled the cavernous valley of the underground kingdom, Dark and Light standing side by side.

Missing were the popping flashes of the paparazzi, though one of the world’s biggest music stars was here today.

The song Nox had written for the We Are One singers had immediately vaulted to the top of the music charts, although the Boston Olympics had inexplicably turned out to be the most poorly watched Olympic Games since the advent of television coverage. TV in general had a horrible ratings week, which experts could only blame on a bizarre summer slump.

There were some other strange stories on the evening news, such as the mysterious disappearance of venerated Georgia Senator Davis Hart, who according to witnesses, had attended the Opening Ceremonies and hadn’t been seen since.

And the extreme downturn in cell phone usage for one week across the globe following the Games’ first night.

Since Hart’s disappearance, the aggressive cell tower expansion legislation he’d been pushing had suddenly lost support and failed to pass a Senate vote. The box office saw an unprecedented number of flops as A-list stars failed to draw audiences the way they had before. NFL quarterback Reggie Dillon had abruptly retired and left the country, claiming he needed to “find himself,” and would be going on a walkabout in Australia for the next few years.

And entertainment news venues were shocked by a surprise announcement from iconic Hollywood agent Alfred Frey regarding the disbanding of fan pods for all his clients.

“It was a good idea that had its day. It’s run its course now,” he’d been quoted in one Los Angeles newspaper.

A certain small beverage manufacturing company in North Mississippi was enjoying phenomenal success, though, driven to hire hundreds of new employees to meet worldwide demand. Its owner pledged to donate all proceeds to a new charity set up to help families reconnect and reunite with missing children who’d joined fan pods and disappeared over the past few years.

Enchanting Elven music played as the bride moved slowly through Altum with her bridesmaids, the procession crossing a flower-strewn bridge over its central crystalline river toward the wedding shrine, which was raised so that all would have a view of the graceful and ancient ceremony.

Atop the shrine waited the King of Altum, dressed all in white... waiting to officiate the event.

Beside him, the beaming groom waited, watching his bride approach with love shining in his hazel eyes. To his other side stood a tall, beautiful raven-haired woman. Her resemblance to her son was unmistakable. Nox leaned down and kissed his mother’s cheek then looked over at his brother, his ally.

For the first time in centuries, the rulers of the Dark and the Light courts stood together. In peace. In total agreement on their approach to the human race. Live and let live.

I watched the ceremony with Lad’s mother and my family—Grandma Neena, her sister and her parents. Mom was at home recovering, with Daddy as her devoted nurse. She had very little memory of the events in Los Angeles or Boston, and in my opinion, that was for the best.

He looks the part, doesn’t he?
I said to Lad’s mom Mya.

She nodded, her lovely face glowing with pride.
I only wish his father were here to see this.

I hugged her, and her happiness flowed around me in a warm glow. She had her son
and
her sister now. When Alfred had disbanded the fan pods, he sent representatives to check the properties of all his clients. Sophie Jerrick had been discovered in a tiny soundproof cell in Reggie’s basement. It was possible Nox and I had been right next door to her when we’d been held prisoner there ourselves.

The ceremony was breathtaking. And yes—I cried. Not just from the beauty of it and certainly not from envy. It was the overwhelming sense of joy surrounding me. My emotional glamour receptors were filled to capacity and beyond from the gathering of all these thankful and contented hearts.

There might still have been a few bad apples like Audun in the Dark Elven court, but for the most part, the Elven people wanted peace. They wanted to love their families and live their lives.

After the vows were said and the happy couple had shared a very passionate kiss, the crowd began to stir and eventually, to make their way to the royal residence for what promised to be one heck of a reception.

I waited beside the river to give my congratulations to Nox and Vancia. When she saw me, she actually picked up the hem of her dress and ran to hug me.

“Oh, wow. Hi. Congratulations. It was beautiful.
You
look beautiful,” I told her, and I meant it.

“Thank you, Ryann. Thank you so much for everything you did.” The words bubbled from her mouth. “I’m so happy.”

“You two belong together,” I said, watching Nox approach as he caught up to his vibrant bride.

I stretched out a hand to shake his, but he ignored it and swept me off my feet in one of his patented bear hugs. “There she is. If we were doing this at
my
place, you would’ve been standing up there as my best man, you know.” He laughed and set me down, leaning down for a loud stage-whisper. “These Light Elves are kind of uptight about all the
rules.
We’re gonna have to loosen them up.”

We laughed, and Lad joined us, slapping his brother on the back. “Well, now that we’re ruling jointly, we’ll certainly consider some policy changes.”

Happy as I was, my heart sank a little at that statement. I knew what one of those policy changes would be—now that Lad had an ally and friend to share responsibility, he would want to travel, to leave Altum—and Mississippi—and see the vast world his father had forbidden him to explore.

No doubt he was jealous of Nox and Vancia’s upcoming honeymoon, which would double as The Hidden’s world tour. In addition to the homes and the bank accounts, she’d inherited her father’s two airplanes, so they’d be traveling in style.

“You must be excited about your trip,” I said to her.

“Oh yes.” She beamed. “I’ve already got my art supplies packed. I’m ready to capture the world on canvas.” 

Nox gave Lad a conspiratorial grin. “She thinks she’s actually going to
leave
the hotel room.”

Lad laughed softly, then blushed as his eyes drifted over to meet mine.

The subject of bonding was one we hadn’t really discussed since returning to Mississippi. Like Nox and Vancia, Lad was eighteen. I knew it was getting more difficult every day for him to wait. Heck, it was hard for
me
, and I was only a partial Elf. Kissing Lad and being close to him made it seem like a better idea all the time.

But I had a year of high school left. I couldn’t just leave and wander the world. Besides, my family and friends, my life, were here.

“Have a good trip, brother.” Lad shook Nox’s hand. “I have no doubt you will. You, too.” He leaned over to kiss Vancia’s cheek.

“And I have no doubt you’ll do a fine job running things while we’re away,” Nox said. “Don’t change the place too much. I kind of like it here.”

The newlyweds moved off together, drawn away from us by other well-wishers toward the entrance of the royal mansion.

I folded my arm through Lad’s as we slowly strolled together, taking our time, enjoying the music and the beautiful river reflecting the wedding flowers. “So—
are
you going to make any changes? Or try to do what your father would have wanted you to do?”

“You know what?” He looked down at me with a nostalgic smile. “I think he would have wanted me to have my own leadership style… as long as my priority is our people’s well-being. I will change a few things, ease up on the rule prohibiting Light Elves from venturing out of Altum, for instance.”

“Your people have no experience with the human world. Won’t they be afraid?”

“Probably, but I think a good leader encourages his subjects to move beyond their fear. You can meet some pretty amazing people that way.” He winked at me and stopped walking, pulling me to face him. “And I’ll make sure they’re prepared before sending them out into the world.”

I looked down at his chest, the V of smooth tanned skin visible where his shirt parted, then brought my eyes up to meet his again. “What about you? You must be eager to get out there yourself—finally see all those things you’ve missed.”

He smiled. “There’s only one thing I’d
ever
miss if I didn’t get to have it. And she’s right here. This is where I’m going to be—as long as you are.” He kissed me again, this time a little longer. A little deeper. Then he pulled back, wearing a mischievous grin. “Not that it isn’t good to get away from time to time. For special occasions, you know. Like a honeymoon?”

I looked around and realized we were on the bridge leading to the wedding shrine. “Honeymoon,” I repeated. And then I got it. “You mean…”

Yes, I do. Will you? When you’re ready of course.

I stretched up on my toes and brought my lips to his, returning all that love I felt flowing from his heart.
Oh yes. Yes I will.

“After all,” I said, pulling back to look into those unearthly beautiful green eyes. “We are one.”

THE END