Sovereign Hope by Frankie Rose Page B

the old man?” he asked gruffly, his voice flat. He
looked up at Agatha. She didn’t return his gaze.
    “ Don’t know. You tell me,” she replied, her words clipped and
a little too loud.
    He stared at
her a moment longer before sighing, placing both hands on the edge
of the desk. He leaned forward to stare down at his feet.
Uncertainty wasn’t something I associated with Daniel; he always
seemed so self-assured, but right then he was anything but. A long
time passed before he stood straight and picked up his jacket. I
pulled in a deep breath and held it in my chest, anticipating
fireworks. Instead, a cold steel flashed in his eyes when he looked
at me.
    “ Are you okay?” He said each word carefully, his eyes searching my
face. I opened my mouth to speak but my vocal chords seemed to have
been cut. I nodded instead. He accepted my overzealous head
movements without another word and turned, exiting the room more
hurriedly than he came in.
    “ See,” Agatha said, once he was gone. “That wasn’t so
bad.”
     
     

CHAPTER TWELVE
    Space Cadet
     
     
    Agatha forgot
about the whole ‘accident.’ She went about her work and cooked when
the mood took her. She hummed as usual when she moved from room to
room. Sometimes she even came to sit on the sofa with me when I
watched a movie. She laughed loudly and told me more stories about
her childhood growing up in the First Quarter.
    Daniel, on the
other hand, had not forgotten. He was giving me the silent
treatment. It was kind of peaceful, really. I almost relaxed in his
presence, enjoying the way he stalked from room to room without
even acknowledging my existence. It was far better than being
pinned under his fierce glare. The silence that penetrated the room
whenever we were alone was almost tangible, though. My skin
blistered every time he walked past.
    I was so
accustomed to his disregard that I almost had a heart attack when
he finally did talk to me, breaking my concentration as I surveyed
some of the terrible pictures of me they still had tacked up on the
wall.
    “ He wants to see you.”
    “ P… Pardon?” I spun around. He stood two feet away, smelling
of the engine grease that oiled his hands. He was wearing my
favorite color—a bright green t-shirt that matched his eyes
exactly. The effect was overwhelming. The whole world fell away;
there was nothing but Daniel. Nothing but the way he was staring at
me, like he could see right inside me. Could read me like an open
book.
    “ Who? Who wants to see me?”
    He sighed, apparently impatient that I was lagging behind in
the conversation. “Aldan wants to see you.” He scrubbed his hands on his
filthy jeans. Up this close, his wavy mess of hair looked
unbearably soft. I had a perverse desire to run my fingers through
the thickness of it.
    Freak . Who
goes around touching people’s hair? I
pulled him into focus, ignoring the strange urge. “What? He’s
awake?”
    “ No.”
    I stared at him. He stared back. Why did he never make sense?
I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean, then, he wants to see me ?”
    “ Just come with me. And don’t touch him until I tell you to,” he replied,
apparently losing patience with me altogether. He turned to walk
out of the hangar but paused when he realized I wasn’t following
him.
    “ What?”
    “ There’s no way I’m going back in there,” I said. The mere
thought of going back into that room set my heart thumping in my
chest. Daniel rolled his eyes.
    “ There’s no point getting angry with me, either,” I told him,
surprised I sounded so firm considering how terrified I was. “You
told me he was different , that he didn’t want to
hurt me, but look how that turned out.” I waved my arm in the air,
bound up in a fresh sling.
    “ That’s because you don’t listen!” The exasperation in his
voice cut a little, and I bristled. He took a few steps back toward
me. “You’re right. I’m not going to get mad at you. I know that
won’t help, because