Sovereign Hope

by Frankie Rose

The computer monitor let out a hiss of black smoke, stinking of acrid burning plastic, before it teetered and toppled to the floor. The screen had already smashed before it hit the ground, but the noise of breaking glass still filled the hangar. Agatha flinched and turned to give me a tired look. “You know, this is why I can’t get insurance anymore.”

  “Sorry.” I didn’t really sound sorry, but then I didn’t really care. I wasn’t sorry. It was better I smoked a computer than went out looking for Kayden again. “I’ll buy you a new one.”

  Agatha laughed. “Don’t apologize to me. That one was yours.”

  It had been, too. “Whatever,” I told her. I still didn’t care. I’d probably used it twice in the last six months.

  “So are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

  I raked my hand through my hair and then scrubbed at my face, trying to rub away all the anxiety and stress that was probably going to end up permanently carved there. “It’s the Quorum. They’re concerned about Farley being here. They think she should be with them.”

  Agatha’s deep brown eyes widened. “Daniel! Wouldn’t that be a good thing? I mean, if she was with them, they could train her. They could—”

  “NO!” My voice rang around the hollow of the room, sounding angrier with each repetition. My insides knotted, making me sick to my stomach. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “You don’t understand. They want to keep Farley under lock and key. They consider her a tool, a means to an end, not a human being. They think the same thing that we do—utilizing Farley as part of the prophecy will kill her. But the difference between us and them is that they’re okay with that outcome.”

  The color drained from Agatha’s face. She pulled at a loose thread on the pocket of her jeans. It eventually snapped under the tension of her delicate fingers. It was a while before she said anything, and I was beginning to wonder what she was thinking. Her youthful features usually gave her a clear, open way about her, but right now she looked decidedly closed. She couldn’t be thinking that they were right, surely?

  After a drawn-out moment with my heart palpitating in my chest, Agatha finally looked up. “Are you sure Kayden’s not just trying to upset you? If they really felt like that, then why wouldn’t they have just taken her by now?”

  I shook my head. “For once, this isn’t Kayden being a jerk. He was just passing on the message.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “Because I am. Just trust me, okay? They think killing Farley to combine the energy of her soul with the talisman would be a justifiable sacrifice. Emissary Nevoi called her collateral damage.”

  “That’s ridiculous! There’s no way she would say that. There’s got to be some mistake. We should take Farley to see them and talk this through.”

  A chord pulled tight inside me, making it hard to breathe. I didn’t want to tell her. I didn’t want to tell any of them anything, but she wasn’t leaving me any other choice. There was no way she would believe the Quorum would act so radically unless I told her the truth. I took a deep breath, rubbing my knuckles into my eyes. “It is true. I know it is because I made a deal with them.”

  “A deal? What do you mean, a deal? The Quorum doesn’t bargain with people.”

  “Well, they did with me. You have to see the flaw to the whole prophecy, Agatha. You have to see the glaringly big hole in their plan to destroy the Reavers?”

  A blank look formed on her face, and a little of the optimism she spoke with a moment ago vanished. She didn’t speak.

  “Come on, Agatha! The prophecy can only work when the talisman and Farley’s soul are found in unity. Aldan is the talisman, and he’s in a coma. Don’t you see the problem that poses?”

  Agatha’s lips were deathly white. Her freckles looked like blood splatter across her lovely, bleached face. “I thought… I just assumed that the Quorum would grant him a recovery. They owe him…”

  “Now you’re dreaming! They don’t think they owe him anything. You said the Quorum doesn’t bargain with people. Usually you’d be right on that count, but in this case they’ve had to make an exception. They can’t heal Aldan. There’s only one way to accomplish that. You know what that is as well as I do.” I took another deep breath, but it felt as though my lungs were riddled with holes and the air wouldn’t fully inflate them. I sank down onto the sofa next to the battered copy of Farley’s half-read, half-destroyed book.

  “For the prophecy to be fulfilled, the talisman must be whole. And right now Aldan only has half the talisman, because I…” I couldn’t find the words to continue. I didn’t need to. Agatha said them for me.

  “Because you have the other half.”

  I stared down at my hands. They were bridged together as though I were praying, but I’d given up praying a long time ago. I couldn’t bear to look at Agatha and see the terrible realization in her eyes. “Yes. I have the other half. I made a bargain with them. They let Farley stay here with us, and they promised they would research another way around the prophecy. In return I had to swear I wouldn’t get close to her. Kayden came last night to warn me that I was on the brink of breaking that oath. They sent him to tell me to back off, otherwise they would come and take her.”

  “That’s not all of it, though, is it?” she said. Her voice was strained, with a tremulous waver to it. She was on the verge of crying. She took my hands in her tiny ones and squeezed them fiercely. I still couldn’t look at her. I shook my head. My hair fell into my eyes, blocking out everything but her worn boots. It was easier to just focus on her boots.

  “No. If they let her stay here, if they let her live, then I swore I would let them have it. That I would persuade Aldan to take it back. Make the talisman whole.”

  Agatha choked back a gasp. “I knew it! Ever since you got angry with me the night Elliot went into Farley’s mind. You said I needn’t worry about you acting recklessly because Aldan would be back up on his feet soon. I knew what you were planning. I just didn’t know why.” She crouched down in front of me, pushing my head up so she could look me in the eye. “You’re not doing it. I won’t let you.”

  I felt like a monster saying it, after all the years she’d cared for me like a mother, like my own blood, but I had to. “You will. You can’t stop me.”

  Agatha dropped her hands from my face, shocked, but an instant later a look of relief softened her pained expression. “That’s true,” she said, “I can’t stop you. But you aren’t a Reaver, Daniel. You can’t just give your life away. Aldan would have to take it, and I know that old man. He would never do it. I’ll make him see how stupid all of this is.”

  I picked up her hands again, trying to be steady. Trying to be strong. I gave her a cracked, sorry smile. “It’s too late, Aggie,” I said. “He’s already agreed.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Silly Romantic Notions