Read Hope (Book 2, Harvester of Light Trilogy; Young Adult Science Fiction) for Free Online

never did.
    “I don’t have to
explain everything I do to you.  You’re my daughter, not my keeper.”  My
father’s sharp words cut me to the quick.  It was the first time he’d ever used
such a dismissive tone with me. 
    “Dad, what’s
wrong?  Does it have to do with the man at the dance?”
    My father’s eyes
narrowed on me.  “Drop it, Skye.  There are things happening which you simply
don’t need to worry about.  They don’t concern you.”
    He may have been
my father but that didn’t stop my temper from flaring up. 
    “The council is
trading humans on this side of the barrier to Lucena so the people living down
here don’t have to worry about being invaded by the harvesters.  How can you
stand there and tell me we shouldn’t discuss what’s happening?”
    “You don’t know
what you’re talking about,” my father’s temper was quickly matching my own, now
I knew where I got it from.  “Let the matter drop.”
    “No,” I said, not
wanting to go against my dad but feeling the need to make him admit the truth
of what he knew to me.
    “I am your
father.  And what I say goes underneath this roof, young lady.”
    Under any other
circumstances I would have laughed at such a clichéd statement but my father
sounded completely serious.  I had never seen him look so mad before.  Why was
he so scared to tell me the truth?
    “When Lucena sent
you here, was that part of the message you were made to give to the council? 
Was that part of the bargain to keep her from coming through the barrier?”
    My father turned
away from me and looked out the window behind his desk.  I could see his
reflection in the glass against the darkened city outside.
    “Things aren’t
always so cut and dry, Skye.  Sometimes you have to dance with the devil to
keep him, or her in this case, away.”
    A low pitched
whine of a blaring siren broke through our conversation.  It was a civil
defense siren which was a common sound to be heard during the war between the
harvesters and humans.  It usually meant wherever you were living was either
being invaded or a nuclear bomb was on the way.
    A pre-recorded
woman’s voice resounded over the blare of the siren. 
    “You have… fifteen
minutes… to evacuate before detonation of self- destruct.”
    My father whirled
around to face me.
    “What’s going on?”
I asked, as waves of bad memories almost overwhelmed me with the rise and fall
of the siren.
    “I don’t know.” 
My father reached for the phone on his desk and punched a red button located on
the key pad.
    “Jon Blackwell,”
he said to whoever came on the other line.  He paused listening to the person
on the phone.  My father nodded his head, “All right.”  He hung up the receiver
and looked up at me.  “There are trip wires around the perimeter of the city in
case of an invasion.  All fifteen of them have been activated which
automatically sets off the self-destruct.  Go to your room and grab whatever
you can carry in a small bag.  We have to leave now .”
    He walked from
behind the desk and dashed back into his secret room.
    Zoe was stepping
out of her bedroom when I walked back into the living room.
    “What’s going on?”
She asked.
    “Hurry up and grab
a bag of stuff from your room,” I told her.  “We have to leave the city.”
    “ You have…fourteen
minutes…to evacuate before detonation of self-destruct.”
    Zoe and I spent two
minutes, at least according to the automated voice’s rather annoyingly calm
countdown, changing into warm clothing and packing up what we could grab
quickly.  I searched under my pillow and pulled out the one thing I was not
going to leave the city without: the small heart shaped rock Jace gave me.  I
slipped it in the front pocket of my jeans for safe keeping.  When Zoe and I
met my father in the living room, I noticed he was only carrying a small black
bag, not big enough for anything substantial.
    My father banged
on the door of Ash and Kale’s