Keeper of the Lost Cities: Forbidden

Chapter 17

"Well, well, well, look who decided to show up," Lady Gisela said mockingly.

"Sophie, get out of here!" Keefe shouted, waving his hands around wildly.

"Hand over the boy!" Sandor said, brandishing his sword. Lady Gisela sighed and used telekinesis to fling Keefe across the road and into a cluster of trees. Sophie looked at her surroundings. They seemed to be on a very empty moonlit beach. Strange place to hide, I wonder how Silveny found him Sophie thought.

"Silveny!" Sophie yelled.

"It's okay!" Fitz said, grabbing her arm. "She's up there." Fitz pointed up, and Sophie followed his gaze to see Silveny circling high above them. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Someone help Keefe!" Biana cried.

"On it!" Wylie replied, running towards the road.

"Don't let them get to my son!" Lady Gisela commanded as one of the black-cloaked figures raced after Wylie. "In the meantime..." she continued, turning her gaze to Sophie and her friends menacingly. Linh raised her hands and a tsunami-live wave rose up from the ocean.

"A beach is a really bad place to fight a group with a Hydrokinetic." Linh told them, lowering her hands in sync with the waves as the Neverseen scattered around the beach. Lady Gisela growled and looked at one of the figures. Whoever it was waved their arms in a sweeping motion, and Sophie and her friends were knocked over a by a gust of wind.

"Trix," the Neverseen member said to them in a husky voice. "Pleased to meet you."

"You were Umber's buddy, right?" Tam asked him. "Well I'm her replacement." Shadows crept forward and grew darker and darker until Tam had formed an arrow out of them. The Shade launched it at Trix and made him roll out of the way, starting a fight between the two. Marella tapped Sophie on the arm and tapped her temple. Sophie connected them telepathically.

Should I start some flames? Marella thought.

Not yet, Sophie replied. There's a chance the wind might sweep the sparks across the road and into the trees. Now back up because I'm about to inflict. Marella nodded and backed away.

Sophie turned in the direction of Lady Gisela and thought every memory she had seen of Keefe's where she had acted so horrible to him. Every. Single. Thing. Then, she pushed it all out of her mind.

The red light coming out of Sophie's head turned every attention to her and Lady Gisela. When the light hit her, she was knocked back so far, a wave washed over her, though the last part might have been Linh's doing. And then people went right back to fighting. Suddenly, Sophie realized that Fitz was fighting fighting Gethen. And it was not going very well. Fitz had a bloody nose and he had started limping putting less weight on the foot that had been wounded by shadowflux. She rushed over and shoved Gethen back with telekinesis. He just got up again and shoved Fitz to the ground.

"You really thought it would be that easy?" he asked, as he pulled from his belt five goblin throwing stars. He laughed and threw all five of them at once at her. Sophie caught them all with her mind and shoved it right back at him. And so began the most dangerous splotching match of all time. The throwing stars went back and forth and back and forth until Sophie decided to try a different approach. 

"Fitz!" she yelled. Fitz turned his head from where he had been nursing his hurt leg and nose. Sophie connected them telepathically.

Little help here? she asked.

Right, sorry, he transmitted. I think that it might be better if I, like, shoved them sideways into the ocean.

Good idea! Sophie responded.

"Communicating telepathically, are we?" Gethen asked tautingly.

"Trying to eavesdrop on us, are we?" Fitz snapped back before putting his plan into action and throwing the stars into the ocean. Gethen growled and lunged at him right before being trapped in a giant, glowing, force field.

"So you have a Psionipath on your side now huh?" he snarled.

"Yup!" Maruca said from behind them, strengthening her force field. "Where's yours?"

"Ruy will be back on the field in no time," Gethen glared. "And he is much stronger than some teenage girl."

"And the moonlark is much stronger than some common Telepath." Fitz responded.

"Then why does she keep losing to us?" Gethen asked.

"Um, who burned down your storehouse?" Sophie snapped. "And who's team took down your Psionipath? And who has your two caches? And who has your former leader?"

"Fintan is no longer for our cause," A voice said from behind them. "And you think that storehouse was our only one?"

"The only one with your Archetype." Sophie told Lady Gisela.

"We never needed that Archetype, where do you think Keefe gets his photographic memory from?" she replied. "And look around you. You're on the brink of another loss." Sophie looked aroud and realized she was right. Though Gethen was still trapped in his force field, there were plenty of other members of the Neverseen to defeat. Vespera, who's attacks from Biana were gettting weaker and weaker. Trix, who's gusts of wind were blowing Linh's waves and waves of water back. And Sophie hadn't even realized she and Fitz had started leaning on each other.

"Yes, it really is that dire, Sophie," Lady Gisela told her. "And judging from the flashes of light I'm seeing across the road, the fight near my son isn't going all that great either."

Sophie was exhausted. She felt her legs trembling, and wished there was some way her enemies could feel that exhausted. She gasped.

"Fitz, back up." Sophie murmured in his ear. Fitz dropped to the ground and scooted away from her. Sophie stared at the small trail of blood he was leaving on the sand and closed her eyes. She drew every bit of energy she had left at thought about every time that she had finished a long run, every moment right before she had fallen asleep after being sedated and pushed it out of her mind into every single black cloaked figure. Let them know how it feels, she thought let them know how it feels every time after they hurt me.

 When she opened her eyes again, the exhausted member of the Never seen where scattered all over the beach. Sophie rubbed her eyes and then realized what happened. What she needed to do. She scrambled to her feet and took off running across the road. Sophie pushed through the trees, letting them scrape their branches against her skin, but didn't care. Then she heard voices. She followed them to a clearing whose entrance was blocked by a bunch of branches. Sophie took a deep breath and pushed aside a branch to hear a voice she hadn't heard in what seemed like forever.

Keefe looked up at her.

"Hey Foster."

-So sorry because I feel like that was kind of bad. In case you didn't know, this is the last chapter, but never fear! There is a special surprise coming tomorrow, so check back soon!