Free Sovereign Hope by Frankie Rose

matter
now, since she’d visibly sunk into a deeper slumber, but the panic
was new and left me feeling worryingly out of control.
    No, I decided.
I should go. I tossed aside the scrap of paper I’d been busying my
hands with and rose, heading for the door.
    “ Hey, bro.”
    The unexpected
voice had me instinctively drawing my fist back, ready to swing in
a heartbeat. I paused when I caught sight of the blond boy in the
doorway. He was leaning against the doorframe with his hands shoved
deep into the pockets of his jeans. There were splatters of paint,
green and blue, smeared up his forearms, and a few perfectly round
flecks of white speckled across his forehead and the bridge of his
nose. I kept my fist raised. Would I get away with hitting him,
claiming the guy had surprised me, now that we’d made eye contact?
Probably not.
    “ What do you want?”
    “ It’s wonderful to see you, too, Daniel.”
    “ Cut the crap. You shouldn’t be here,” I hissed. I let my fist
fall, but my hands remained clenched. A moment ago I had been so
utterly lost in a sea of confusion, yet now here I was, submerged
head to toe in a feeling so familiar I considered it an old
friend.
    “ There’s no need to be so angry,” the other guy pouted,
pulling his hands out of his pockets. He picked absentmindedly at
the paint caked around his fingernails. “I thought you might be
pleased to see me. It’s been a while, after all.”
    “ Kayden, eternity wouldn’t be long enough.”
    “ Ooh. Words hurt.”
    I whispered,
“Not as much as my fist,” and stalked towards the door, shooting a
business-like glance over my shoulder at Farley, still sound asleep
in the tangle of her bed covers. I ushered Kayden out of the room
and pulled the door closed with a gentle click, enclosing us in the
impenetrable gloom of the corridor.
    I could see
the other boy perfectly. My night vision was impeccable, and I knew
Kayden’s would be better. Just one of the benefits of being the
Quorum’s whipping boy. “Why are you here?”
    Kayden blew on
his fingers then fixed a firm look on me. “They want to see
you.”
    “ Now’s not convenient, I’m afraid,” I shot back, but the news
threw me off guard. The Quorum? Why the hell would they be calling
me to see them?
    Kayden’s smile
twisted, like he’d swallowed something bad, but that didn’t change
the fact that the guy looked like a Greek god. Yeah, Kayden was
good looking. Even I could acknowledge that. Kayden didn’t seem to
realize the effect his near-perfection had on others, though. He
made normal people wary, subconsciously suspicious. I’d heard the
whispers too many times to count—genetically modified freak. Super
soldier. The truth was a little more alarming. Kayden smiled that
winning smile that made me want to knock his teeth down his
throat.
    “ Sorry, bro. They didn’t send me out here to wait for your
R.S.V.P. I have to take you back with me.”
    “ I’m not going anywhere with you.”
    “ Fine by me. But they told me if you wouldn’t come, I had to
take her instead.” He gestured to the closed door at our side. My
blood ran cold.
    “ You can’t.”
    Kayden
shrugged his shoulders. “It’s one or the other, bro.”
    “ Damn it, stop calling me that! I am not your brother. Fine. I’ll come
with you. Just leave her alone, okay. She’s not well.”
    Kayden smiled
again. The look would have disarmed anyone else, had many times
before, but I had known him too long. I didn’t trust him for a
second.
    “ Sounds like a plan…” Kayden trailed off, indicating that he
had obliged me in my request not to call him bro , and reached out his index
finger.
    I flinched,
and a hard light glinted in Kayden’s pale blue eyes.
    “ There’s something really interesting in the way you shy away
from virtuous touch,” he said.
    “ I don’t mind the virtue part. It’s you I mind.”
    Kayden gave an
exaggerated sigh and placed his fingertip in the center of my
forehead, filling me with