Sovereign Hope (32 page)

“
Is that normal?”

I pulled a
face. “For him? Yes.”

“
I vote we abandon Scrabble and find somewhere else to be,”
Oliver said. He was already on his feet. Somewhere else to be was
an entertaining thought. Between the hangar and our bedrooms, there
really wasn’t anywhere else. A sad, profound feeling worked its way
up my chest. If Aldan were alive, we could have gone and visited
him. We could have gone anywhere in the world provided the old man
had been there before at some point. Not for the first time, I felt
the overwhelming gravity of loss over Aldan’s death. He had
provided comfort and escape whenever I really needed it, and I’d
cared for him more than I’d realized. Until it was too late,
anyway. He’d been a father to Daniel nearly his whole life. If I
felt this bad, having only known him for a matter of a few short
weeks, then how must he be feeling right now? Agatha,
too.

Agatha was
coping, at least. Organizing. Researching. Cooking. Reading through
dusty old books. She was never still. I suspected that if she sat
down for just a moment, her stoic veneer would crack and crumble
into a thousand tiny pieces and there would be no putting her back
together again. It was better that she had purpose.

Daniel was
obviously doing the same thing, but he wasn’t the organizing or
researching type. He was probably out killing things. I bit my lip
and got to my feet.

“
Why don’t you two hang out together? I kinda just…”
want to be alone.
The
words were left unspoken, but they were understood all the same.
Tess gave me a quick hug and I left them to clean up the board
game. They would probably be playing
X-rated
Scrabble
in Tess’ room for the rest of the day knowing my friend. There were
only so many three- and four-letter words I knew related to
that
topic, and the idea
of being present for that game was too hideous to
contemplate.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Not Afraid of You

Cliff’s lesson
was supposedly about body language, but I suspected it was more
likely he wanted to demonstrate how utterly pathetic I was. He’d
run me through the mill, and all under the guise of teaching me the
importance of observing my opponent, studying their body language
and watching their technique. Nine times out of ten I failed to
guess which way he would lunge, or to keep my eye on his blade. I
lost count of how many times he thrust the hard heel of it into my
shoulder or my stomach, loudly proclaiming each time that I was
dead.

I truly pitied
Cliff’s enemies. If he was this hard on someone he professed to
like (Agatha assured me this was the case), then they stood no
chance whatsoever.

“
Come on, Cliff! It’s my turn to embarrass the girl!” Beatty
arrived to seal my absolute humiliation. I groaned and rolled my
eyes when Cliff gave me a curt nod, abandoning me to the giant.
Apparently there was no such thing as a five minute
break.

“
What’s the matter, Highness?” Beatty taunted. “You think
Immundus line up to fight skinny girls one at a time? You think
they stand around having tea and cake until Princesses have caught
their breath?” he chuckled mercilessly, and I gritted my
teeth.

There was only
so much I could take. I spun on the spot and lashed out hard in a
back kick that landed with a satisfying thud, square in his chest.
He stumbled back and fell to the ground with his eyes wide, staring
at me as I had a small laugh of me own.

“
What’s the matter, Beatty? You think skinny girls wait
politely while big hairy men take time out to laugh at their own
bad jokes?”

That was twice
I’d managed to put him down now. He took my jibe as well as he
could, given the amount of people standing around watching, all of
whom were unable to suppress their laughter, but it was obvious he
was embarrassed that a girl had landed a proper strike on him.

The rest of
the day consisted of ‘enforced slave labor’ as Tess called it. It
was funny that as soon as any real work needed doing, all of our
guests suddenly had other places to be. The hangar slowly emptied
in the early part of the morning as they went to regroup with their
other friends and families, promising to return in a few days’
time.

Beatty and his
family, along with Cliff, were the only people who remained. Otis
had been to the city. When he returned, everyone was strong-armed
into helping lug supplies from the service hatch down through the
corridors to find suitable homes for the gallon containers of
water, sacks of rice, blankets and other miscellaneous items that
were constantly unloaded.

I was actually
glad of the work. It was great to be in the fresh air, even if it
was just moving stuff from the back of the truck to the hatch. The
few minutes of sunlight on my face were well worth the pain in my
back and the aching in my arms.

And so it was
no surprise that come eight p.m. I was falling asleep on the couch.
I dragged myself to my room so I could slide underneath the cool
sheets and let my exhaustion overcome me.

******

I wasn’t in
the maze. I was in a large circular room, kneeling on the smooth,
cold marble floor. There were no windows. Seven or eight large
torches lit the room, each bearing a different animal’s head carved
in stone at its base. A lion, eagle, elephant, fox, snake, were all
in my line of sight. The others at my back remained a mystery. I
was too scared to tear my eyes off the three heavy wrought-iron
chairs aligned on the dais in front of me to turn and look at
them.

The first
person I recognized was the cold, hard figure of my immaculately
dressed father seated on the chair to the far left. He wore yet
another black suit, coupled with black shirt and tie. His hair was
swept back away from his face, which was grave and etched in
shadows. His eyes wandered around the room, agitated and
uncomfortable.

On the far
right-hand side sat another, younger looking man, who bore a
striking resemblance to Elliot. His face was longer and more
effeminate, but he was still incredibly handsome. He studied me
with cool eyes. They were sky blue and piercing, and held a
curious, calculating intelligence. He cleared his throat and moved
on to look around the room, apparently bored, observing nothing in
me to capture his interest.

It was the man
in the middle who was most intriguing, though. This man was much
older than the other two. He gave off an air of authority that
commanded respect. His dark hair was shot with a steel grey at his
temples and his face was lined and worn. His expression was fixed
in a permanent sneer that pulled his mouth down at the corners,
giving him a sharp, angular look. Narrowed eyes scrutinized me. Not
blue this time, but brown—so dark they were almost black.

The silence in
the room echoed from the high ceiling, and I swallowed hard, trying
to calm my heartbeat. They must have heard it hammering in my
chest. The man in the center finally spoke.

“
This is the girl who took your son?” He obviously wasn’t
speaking to me.

Elliot shifted awkwardly, fixing me with a hateful stare.
“Not this pathetic creature. Her friends. The ones that have
troubled
all of us
for years.”

The man
remained silent for some time. Elliot eventually lowered his eyes
from mine to give him a swift sidelong glance. If the man noticed,
then he didn’t register the fact. He watched me intently. The
pressure of his eyes on my skin felt as though he were stripping me
bare before all three of them. He addressed me with a look of mild
distaste, like he were talking with someone sullied or dirty, and
certainly not worthy of his direct attention.

“
Do you know who I am, child?”

I couldn’t
have responded even if I wanted to.

“
I am Tobin. This is Jacob. He was the one before me.” He
gestured to the bored man on his right, who tossed me a cursory
glance and then continued to gaze into space. “And this is Elliot.
He came after me. I assume you know who
he
is?”

So this was
Elliot’s father. That kind of made him my grandfather. I was still
immobile, pinned to the floor and unable to make a sound. Inside,
however, I twisted with anger. I wanted to use the blade that Cliff
had given me, to sink it into his belly. I wanted to twist it
savagely; I wanted it to hurt.

“
You might be wondering why we’re talking here tonight,” Tobin
said, smirking as if he knew from the look in my eye that I was
wishing him a thousand times dead. “We’re here because you have
something of ours. Oliver is very precious to us. All our family
members are precious to us, Farley. You might have learned that if
you had given us a chance. Things could have been so very
different.”

Yeah, right
, I thought.
You mean I could have delivered myself to you on
a platter. You wouldn’t have broken a sweat in killing
me.

Another
caustic smirk. “At any rate, that opportunity is long gone. Now, we
just want Oliver back.”

Ha! Good luck with that. He’s not going anywhere with
you,
I snarled inside my head.

“
We’re having this conversation because I want to make you an
offer. It’s a very simple offer, and you may feel like you’re not
getting much out of it, but I want you to hear me out. Can you do
that?”

My eyes twitched imperceptibly, but they were
screaming:
Go Directly To Hell.

Tobin grinned
and turned to Elliot. “Are you sure this one is yours? Her
fortitude would have me believe otherwise.” Elliot gave him a
withering look and clenched his jaw.

So, he thought I was brave for trying to stare him
down?
Let me go and you’ll see how brave I
am.
His smug smile would slip right off
his face if only I could get free long enough to drive my knife
into him. It suddenly occurred to me that I probably didn’t have my
knife in this dream. That didn’t matter, though. I’d wrap my hands
around his neck and throttle the life out of him if I got half a
chance.

“
Sorry, where was I? Oh, that’s right. Give us back Elliot’s
son. In return, we will do you a kindness and kill you
quickly.”

What was it
he’d said? I wouldn’t think I was getting much out of the deal? He
was definitely right there.

“
Otherwise, we will come and take Oliver, and you and your
friends will all die a very different death. We have some
very…
interesting
friends, friends who take pleasure in toying with their prey.
They can make the process of dying last days instead of the seconds
I’m promising you.”

I’m not afraid of you,
I
thought, doing my best to convince myself it was
true.

Tobin paused
and looked me in the eye. “Well, you should be.” His words were as
cold as ice. A tidal wave of adrenaline crashed through me, and
Tobin threw back his head and laughed. “What? You thought you were
all alone in there, girl? It’s been very interesting snooping
around while we’ve been having this conversation.”

Whatever
, I shot at him.
It doesn’t matter. You can do whatever you like
to me. They’re never going to hand Oliver over. You don’t even know
where we are.

As soon as I
formed that last thought, my stomach dropped through the floor.
Tobin studied my face as realization washed through me. I suddenly
felt sick. His eyes shone with pleasure.

“
Yes… yes, that’s right. We
do
know where you are. We know, because you just
told us. All you had to do was think it. Well done, Farley. Thank
you. See you in half an hour.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Big Bang

I woke up
screaming. Agatha was bent over me, shaking me by the shoulders.
She looked petrified. Tess was leaning against the door, chewing on
her nails anxiously. Oliver was behind her, trying to peer into the
room.

“
What is it, Farley? You were screaming.” Agatha’s voice was
high pitched. She knew it wasn’t an ordinary nightmare.

I dragged in a
deep gasp and fought to breathe. I needed air in my lungs. My
throat was dry and stinging—proof that I’d been screaming.

“
It was him. It was him,” I rushed out. “They’re… they’re
coming.”

Beatty’s
booming voice approached from down the hallway, cursing as he came.
Tess and Oliver moved aside to allow him access through the narrow
doorway. He charged into the room with Brynn and Otis following
right behind. I tried to get to my feet but Agatha pushed me back
down.

“
What’s going on?” Beatty blazed, his eyes flitting around the
room. “Well?”

“
Lord, be quiet, man!” Agatha hissed. “We’re trying to find
that out. What happened, Farley? Who’s coming?”

“
They were there in my dreams. They said—”

“
Who
said?”

“
Tobin was there when I fell asleep. They were waiting—Tobin,
my father, and some other man, Jacob. I thought they would never be
able to get back in!”

“
They weren’t supposed to be able to. Aldan said once he’d
closed the door…” Agatha trailed off and frowned. “Unless he was
keeping it closed. Maybe now that he’s dead…”