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Chapter 14 - Sophie

"Blondie come on!"

Ro's shouting jolted Sophie back to the reality of their situation. Sophie was still staring at the spot where Lady Gisela had been only moments before.

She was gone.

And so was Gethen.

Arguably the two most important members of the Neverseen had slipped from their grasp again. One of them was even unconscious.

At least they had Trix. There had to be some important information buried in his mind.

"Sophie! We need to go, now!" Ro yelled again, reminding her of their current circumstance.

She turned and saw the ogre limping over to the still knocked out Trix, and hefting him over her shoulder. Ro pulled the syringe out of his arm, examined it, then let out a string of what sounded like ogre curse words.

Sophie rushed over to Biana, who was just starting to come around. Her face was deathly pale. She picked up Biana in her arms then sprinted to meet Ro.

"We need to levitate so I can teleport us! There's not enough room to run!"

She took Ro's hand, realizing only now how deep the dagger had cut into her arm. Blue blood was still spilling freely from the wound. She felt insanely guilty as she levitated the four of them into the air, higher and higher above the square.

This was all her fault.

Biana being shot by that melder.

Ro's injury.

Lady Gisela escaping again.

And somehow Sophie was the only one who hadn't gotten hurt.

Sophie struggled to keep the four of them hovering in the air, being the only conscious one who could levitate. She gritted her teeth from the strain but continued to bring them higher into the skyline. She figured she would have to gain more altitude than usual, due to the extra weight and her shaky concentration.

On the sidewalk below, huge crowds of humans were starting to gather, watching them shoot up into the sky. Sophie heard a chorus of gasps and shouts, pointing at their strange foursome.

Beads of sweat started trickling down her forehead, but Sophie persevered, mustering all the strength she could manage into keeping everyone alive.

Finally, they were high enough to drop from a safe height, if dropping from the sky was ever considered safe. In the office buildings surrounding them, people had rushed over to the windows and were staring at Sophie and her friends. Ro made eye contact with a businessman who then fainted a moment later. Sophie realized there were probably hundreds of cameras out right now, filming the scene.

She took a deep breath. "Ready?"

"Get us out of here!" The ogre replied hastily.

"Here goes nothing."

Sophie broke her levitating and the four of them plummeted down towards Times Square. Humans started screaming as they dropped, running around wildly the way a kid would command toy cars, pointing at them in disbelief.

Air rushed past Sophie's face, whistling in her ears. Reflections from the glass buildings blurred in the corner of her eye, but she kept her gaze locked on a single point on the ground. The familiar tugging sensation appeared in the back of her mind, and she scrunched her eyebrows together to try and concentrate.

But she must have been more exhausted than she thought.

Because right when the void should have cracked open it didn't.

Sophie started to panic.

This had never happened before.

She was always able to teleport.

Yet the ground was rushing at them faster and faster, and she had no idea what to do.

Sophie's life literally flashed before her eyes.

Every happy moment with her friends; laughing in the halls of Foxfire, running around Everglen's massive property, smiling at the Aurenflare. The cheerful memories slowly started to fade into bitter ones. Kenric's planting, watching as Mr. Forkle died, erasing her family's memories, reading Keefe's letter—

Keefe.

The name created a ripple effect in her mind. Memories with him surged to the top, the dismal and joyful. Meeting Keefe for the first time, riding across the ocean on Silveny, comforting each other in Alluveterre, times when they were so close, it was almost like...

Sophie's chest started to grow warm, energy pulsing through her entire body. She wouldn't let her friends down, not after she'd almost gotten them killed. She had to keep going. For them, for Keefe.

Sophie was vaguely aware of Ro's high-pitched screaming as she concentrated on the one person who always kept her balanced in life.

Keefe's face was still in the front of her mind when the void finally split open, and they tumbled into the darkness. 

A/N: sorry I know this one is shorter, and this was originally going to be a part of the next chapter but I'm not done chapter 15 yet and this was where it made the most sense to split it in half lol

Updated: 5/31/2021