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Chapter 31 - Sophie

The day of Keefe's planting had finally come.

Sophie had been dreading it all week, shoving it to the back of her mind whenever she thought about it. But there was no avoiding it now.

Edaline had come to wake her up half an hour ago, but Sophie stayed buried in her sheets. Maybe if she didn't think about the whole thing, it wouldn't happen.

"Sophie?" Edaline's voice was thick with worry as she gently pulled back the blankets Sophie was hiding under. "We're going to be late if you don't start getting ready."

Sophie didn't say anything, just stared blankly ahead.

Edaline sighed. "You don't have to go," she said gently.

Sophie shook her head. She didn't want to go—and she was not going to say goodbye. But she knew she had to.

Edaline helped her out of bed, but Sophie only half paid attention as she went through the motions of getting ready. Combing her hair, brushing her teeth, getting dressed...

When she looked in the mirror a few minutes later, Sophie had to do a double-take at her reflection.

She wasn't wearing a fancy gown, which Sophie was glad for. There was no way she was going to wear something shiny and outrageously lavish to a planting for Keefe. Instead what she had on was a simple emerald dress that stopped right above her ankles, the smallest of diamonds sprinkled throughout the skirt. The sleeves were slightly too long, and she watched expressionlessly as Edaline cuffed the ends so they wouldn't hang back over her hands, then as her mother took a ribbon to pull back a part of Sophie's hair. Her heart clenched painfully when she saw the ribbon was ice blue.

There was nothing they could do about the shadows under her eyes or how red her face was from crying. Edaline tried to touch it up with makeup, but Sophie shooed it away.

Edaline looked as elegant as always, her dress the colour of jade and laced with twinkling pearls that sparkled in the sunlight.

Much sooner than Sophie would have liked, they were gathering under the Leapmaster, waiting for Grady to join them. Sophie would have been just fine leaving without him. They still weren't on speaking terms after she'd found out he'd let Keefe leave the Lost Cities.

Grady joined them shortly though, dressed in an intricately embroidered jerkin and gold-trimmed cape. "You look beautiful," he said.

Sophie didn't know if he was talking to her or Edaline, but she turned her head away. Her chest tightened into a million knots as the command for the Wanderling Woods was given, and the light whisked them away.

✿✿✿

Sophie wasn't sure how many elves she expected to come to a planting for Keefe Sencen, but there were more there than she ever could have imagined. Not as many as Alden's planting, but enough for a large crowd to take up almost all the space in the Wanderling Woods.

Sophie separated herself from Grady and Edaline when they arrived, pushing her way through people to try and find space to breathe. She hoped she could just hide and avoid the whole thing altogether.

An eerie, unnatural silence seemed to swallow all sound, hushed conversations and sniffles muted among the Wanderlings.

She wasn't sure if the Council was going to show up. The only two plantings she'd been to were for Alden and Kenric, both prominent and well-known elves in the Lost Cities. But for a teenage boy? She had no idea if the Council would think it was worth their time.

Anger boiled inside Sophie's chest, and it was all she could do to keep it down, clenching her fists hard enough to leave little crescents embedded in her palms.