Sovereign Hope (18 page)

“
Original blueprints?” I frowned. “What does that mean?
Please, I’m tired of riddles. Just be straight with me.”

He looked at me and shrugged again in that easy-going
Isn’t the weather nice?
fashion. “In short, to destroy the Immortals, I would have to
drain every last drop of life force out of you. I would have to
take your soul, and you would have to die.”

I choked on my
mouthful of hot chocolate. Was he serious? Yes. Yes, he was
serious. “You’re right. I don’t like that plan at all.”

He laughed
gruffly and nudged me with the toe of his boot under the table.

“
You see? So it’s a good thing we secured ourselves some time
to dot the i’s and cross the t’s on our other ideas. I’m truly
sorry that we didn’t fill you in on everything. Believe me, I
wanted to, but Elliot’s no idiot. He would have sensed it in two
seconds flat if you were trying to hide something from him. You
couldn’t know.”

Now that I
knew the truth, I had to admit that there was logic to their plan,
but it didn’t change much. I was still angry.

“
Don’t worry, in a couple of days we’ll be able to move on our
backup plan. Hopefully we’ll be successful.”

“
What’s your backup?”

“
Well, the idea is to repair the talisman and go in with the
element of surprise. They’ll be too shocked to react in time. We’ll
deal them a blow they won’t recover from.”

”
What are your odds?”

“
Honestly?” Aldan sucked his teeth. “I’d say about
seventy-thirty.”

“
Seventy-thirty!
Those are terrible
odds! You mean to say
if
you can fix this talisman, then there’s a thirty
percent chance your plan won’t work?” They were insane. To risk
their lives when there was such a huge possibility they would fail
was madness.

“
No, Farley, seventy-thirty
against.”

My jaw
dropped. “You can’t be serious!”

“
Oh, it’s not all that bad. I’ve done the math, and I’m
probably erring on the cautious side.” He cracked me a lopsided
smile and I just stared at him. How could he be so calm?

“
You’re crazy! There’s no way you should take a risk like
that. You’ll all die!”

“
That’s a possibility, but what if we succeed? Wouldn’t that
be a kicker?”

“
So what, you guys are just gonna go in there guns blazing and
hope for the best?”

“
Pretty much.”

“
I’ve got to say that’s the worst plan I’ve ever heard. And
where is the talisman, anyway? Do you even know that it
can
be
fixed?”

“
It’s right here. And I hope it can. It’s going to cost us a
lot, but everything depends on it working. All we can do is have
faith.”

His words
barely penetrated the mass panic that was taking place inside my
head. If their plan didn’t work, then they would all die, and that
included me along with them.

“
I still don’t understand. This talisman better be, like, a
nuclear bomb or something.”

Aldan chuckled. He took a deep swig from his hot chocolate
and grinned at me. “I
have
been told I can be quite explosive,” he said,
winking.

“
Huh?”

“
Yeah. It’s got to work, Farley, because it’s me.
I’m
the
talisman.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Trying to Get In

I was awake,
but Daniel clearly hadn’t realized. Sleeping out in the hangar was
a relief on the really stuffy nights, when the walls of my room
just seemed impossibly close. At least in the hangar, the filtered
air sometimes felt like a kind of breeze, lifting the cloying
dampness from my sleep-sticky skin. And tonight, after learning
Aldan was the key to saving us all, I felt like the night air was
trying to suffocate and drown me in equal parts.

It must have
been the early hours of the morning, or at least I suspected it
was. Some sharp noise had woken me, and obviously alerted Daniel,
too, as he sat crossed-legged on the floor across the other side of
the room. He rested with his back against the coolness of the wall,
his head tilted, as if paused, listening for something far off.

Still. So, so
very still.

It took a
moment for my eyes to adjust in the grey sepia of the muted light
emanating from somewhere out in the hallway. The first thing that
caught my attention were his bare feet, crossed underneath him. It
was oddly intimate, vulnerable perhaps, that he wasn’t wearing any
shoes. And that’s when I noticed he wasn’t wearing a shirt,
either.

Oh, come
on!

It was bad
enough trying to deal with my physical attraction to him with all
his clothes on, but now I was in real trouble. Each and every
muscle that made up his body seemed to have been carved out by some
master sculptor’s hand, a hand that had studied a hundred different
physiques and finally come to create perfection in Daniel’s. It was
almost as though he were too perfect. Not that I was complaining,
as I studied him surreptitiously through half-opened eyes. A black
smudge on the left side of his chest attracted my attention, and I
squinted a little more, trying to make out what it was.

A tattoo? I
had no hope of making out whatever it was in the near dark,
however.

Wow. New levels of freakdom achieved here
, I thought to myself. I was actually perving on him. It was
impossible not to, though. He was the most beautiful thing I’d ever
seen, even if I could hardly see a thing, and even if I’d never
been in the same room as another shirtless guy before. Everyone
else would probably pale in comparison next to him.

What was he doing here? For all I could see, he was watching
me sleep. The thrill of that thought made my palms break into an
embarrassed, longing sweat. But it wasn’t possible that he was
watching me. He could only be watching
over
me, making sure I wasn’t going
to try and escape, or that I wouldn’t manage to somehow get myself
attacked or kidnapped in the safety of the hangar. He lowered his
head and looked straight at me, making me wonder if he could see
that my eyes were slightly open.

“
Did I wake you?”

Yes, he could.
Damn. I hadn’t really decided whether I’d forgiven him enough to
talk to him, but it was too late now.

“
Uh…no,” I said, unsure exactly what had woken me. I had more
pressing things on my mind. Like how I looked. It didn’t matter
that Daniel had already seen me at my absolute, tear-streaked,
bedraggled worst. I still had an overwhelming desire to be pretty
for him, which made me resent myself.

I dragged my
hair out of my face and pushed it over my shoulders so that it
tumbled down to the small of my back in a black, tangled mess, and
pushed myself up to a seated position. Daniel watched me move,
slowly flexing his hands in his lap, like they ached or he needed
something to do with them. A small twist of paper curled around the
tip of his index finger, which he played with absentmindedly.

“
Why aren’t you in your room? Don’t you like it in there?” His
voice held a curious note, one I’d never heard before.

“
No. It’s fine. I just…it’s so small. I have trouble sleeping
in there sometimes. It gets so dark. Heavy.”

He gave a
small chuckle, which again seemed much softer than his usual,
scornful laughter. “It’s dark out here, too. Isn’t the dark the
same wherever you are?”

“
No,” I replied. “Usually the dark’s just an absence of light.
But sometimes it’s made up of velvet, and fills your head. Other
times it presses down on you like it wants to get in.” I cringed.
Why on earth would I tell him that? But it was too late to snatch
back the crazy. The lazy white flash of his teeth was visible from
across the room.

“
And that’s how you felt tonight? Like it was trying to get
in?”

“
No. Tonight it felt empty. It felt like I was the only person
for miles and miles. Like I’d never find another soul alive in all
that black.”
Like the time you found me in
the dark.
I bit my lip. Just. Stop.
Talking.

A small
flicker of light suddenly cut through the shadows, lighting up
Daniel’s face in a blue glow that arced between his fingertips. It
was gone in an instant, but I saw in the second that his face was
illuminated that he looked tired. And worried. And sad?

“
Sorry,” he whispered.

“
What was that?”

“
It just happens sometimes. I can’t seem to…” He sighed.
“Never mind.”

I desperately
wanted to know what he had been going to say, but prying might have
made him angry. It would only take a word and he was so utterly
calm. It seemed silly to chance ruining the ease of our strange
conversation, so instead I folded my legs up beneath me to mirror
his pose.

“
I’m not the only one with a bedroom. Why are you out here?
Are you afraid of the dark, too?” I felt suddenly very foolish that
I had admitted to being afraid of the dark. I wanted him to see me
as strong and capable, not some little child, unable to sleep
without a nightlight.

Yeah, well, you’d be able to sleep a hundred times easier if
he hadn’t let your father traipse into your dreams,
uninvited
, a rankled voice reminded me. It
was true, but I couldn’t help this stupid, overwhelming desire that
grew in me day by day: I wanted him to see me as an adult. I wanted
him to
see
me.

Daniel flexed
his shoulders. “Hmm. The dark doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t really
exist for someone who can turn on the lights whenever they feel
like it.”

All of a sudden my ears were rushing, a loud interruption to
the quietness of our hushed voices, and he was alight. Daniel was
alight. It wasn’t coming from his hands this time, but from
him
. Electric blue,
prickling at my eyes. And so, so beautiful. If he hadn’t looked
like some sort of god before, he certainly did now.

The tattoo over his chest was clearly visible in the light
that flooded from him: a black inked heart encircled by an elegant
filigree crown. A sun, blazing and full, backed the tattoo. Its
rays spread long, glorious fingers out across his
all-too-
chiseled
, outrageously flawless
chest. The light went out, momentarily blinding me with bright
flares burned into my retinas, but I could still see that heart. It
wasn’t some cartoon love-heart. It was real, blood and all, and
exactly above where his own must be.

“
See what I mean?” he said, quiet again now that the rushing
was gone.

“
Not really. I think my eyes might be damaged. Won’t that make
me sick now?”

He laughed
quietly, slowly emerging back into focus as the spots vanished.
“Don’t worry. This thing that I have inside me, it can be
dangerous. But it can just be light when I want it to be, too.
You’ll be fine in a second.”

My vision
was
fine, but I was certainly far from it. I would have paid to
find out what was going on with him—why he was being so cordial
with me, and why he had treated me to that little light display.
He’d never done it before, and he’d never seemed this… well, this
okay.

“
Fine. So the dark’s not a problem,” I said, acting cool, as
though what he’d done hadn’t just blown my mind, “So why aren’t you
sleeping?” I was still intrigued as to why he would be sitting
there in nothing but his loose linen pajama bottoms, all
devilishly, broodingly divine, while I sleep-drooled on the sofa
cushions.

He shifted a
little and ran his hand through his messy, dark hair. Somewhere in
the dark, I saw a hint of those green, green eyes. “I don’t sleep
much,” he said quietly. “I was checking up on a couple of leads.
We’re tracking some of the Reaver’s servants.”

Hmm.
Reaver’s
servants
, instead of
your father’s
. Was he trying to save
me some discomfort? That was entirely out of character, too, given
that he usually enjoyed seeing me squirm. “The Immundus?” I asked,
pushing the thought aside.

“
Yeah. That’s one name for them.”

“
Agatha told me they’re human. Is that true?”

Daniel
breathed out deeply. “They are. Although, they’re more machines
really. Or puppets. They let the Immortals inside their heads. Half
the time they’re themselves, the rest of the time they hand over
the wheel to their masters.” Daniel’s voice was flat as he spoke,
filling the already cool air with a whole new kind of cold.

“
Why would they do that?” I remembered Agatha’s words when
she’d first told me of the Immundus—that the Immortals used them as
their lackeys, but it still didn’t make any sense.

“
The Immundus are addicts.” Daniel paused, weighing his words.
“The Reavers are their dealers. They peddle them a buzz like any
other dealer, except one taste of this particular high is usually
enough to hook a human for life. Make them willing to die for
another fix. It’s quite ingenious, really. The Reavers lose very
little and in return they get to trade off and take some of the
Immundus’ soul. Some of them have been hooked for so long they have
no souls left at all. And on top of everything, the Reavers gain a
devoted, desperate servant, willing to do anything to make them
happy in return.”