Stellarlune - KotLC Book 9

Chapter 5 - Sophie

Enjoy!- Frenchie

Love, Keefe

The note flitted away from her hands.

Sophie collapsed onto the ground.

No.

No.

No!

He couldn't be gone. He just couldn't. She had just talked to him a few days ago, and he had seemed fine. He still sounded like Keefe...

But he's great at masking his emotions, Sophie remembered. And I couldn't exactly see his face when I transmitted to him, so he must've looked so much more miserable in person.

A sob bubbled at the base of her throat, and her fists crumpled handfuls of petals from her carpet. The carpet that, as she now noticed with a pang, had faint imprints of footsteps. 

She closed her eyes as the pain settled into her heart and bit her lip, a metallic taste filling her mouth. 

And then...

the dam broke.

Her tears spilled out like rivers, and her sobs burst out in a very un-ladylike manner.

Sandor burst into the room. "DON'T TOUCH- wait...Miss Foster, are you okay?"

Sophie buried her face in her hands.

"Did someone come? What happened?" Sophie peeked through a crack in her fingers: Sandor genuinely looked worried.

And Sophie genuinely was in no shape to talk at that second. There was a slight rustling and then what sounded like footfalls on the stairs, and Sophie assumed that Sandor had understood that she needed Grady and Edaline. 

Or maybe Flori understood and she had called them, since she was the more understanding bodyguard.

It's hard to tell which bodyguard called your parents when you're in hysterics and you're eyes are covered.

Arms wrapped around her and she was slightly shifted so that she could cry into someone's tunic. She felt weak. 

Broken.

Shattered.  

"Shhhh Sophie. You're okay. You're fine."

Soft, calming strokes.

"You'll be okay."

A deep breath.

"You'll be fine."

A last heave, marking the end of her tirade of sobs.

She stayed like that for a moment before pulling away and looking up at her adoptive parents.

"What happened Sophie?" Edaline's tone was quiet. Soft. Comforting. Exactly what Sophie needed at the time.

"K-K-Keefe," she hiccuped.

Grady grabbed Ella, her emotional support animal (which she very much needed at the moment) and handed it to Sophie. "Keefe what, Sophie?"

It took Sophie a moment to register the fact that Grady hadn't called Keefe "That Boy", but she'd have to ponder over that phenomenon later. Right now she needed to find a way to learn how to do the severely exhausting task of speaking proper sentences again.

"He-he-he-" 

Sophie took a deep breath. Inhale...exhale, just like how that one random yoga video that she had seen on YouTube back when she was living in the Forbidden Cities.

Where Kee-

Nope.

She couldn't even say his name without triggering a fresh batch of raw emotions.

That Sencen boy. 

Yup.

She could work with that.

Where that Sencen boy was living now.

"Go on, Sophie; What happened to Keefe?"

"He..." She looked down at her hands. "He left."

There was a humongous pause in which Sophie took the time to wipe away the remaining traces of her tears, but new ones just kept on taking their place.

"He...left...to Elwin's. Remember Sophie?"

Well duh, but that was before he somehow broke into my room, turned my imp into a mermaid, left this stupid note and then sashayed away to the Forbidden Cities to "keep everyone safe" and eat some more E.L Fudges, she wanted to say.

Instead, she just pointed to the paper on the ground.

For some reason, Grady tensed at that, but his eyes went to her and instantly his expression changed and his body relaxed, but she could still see a faint hint of worry lingering in his eyes.

Edaline reached over and grabbed the note, unfolding it and angling it so that both she and Grady could read it. And when they were done, they looked at each other, and then at the note, and then at Sophie.

"I..." Edaline blinked. "I don't know what to sa-"

Suddenly, there was a ogre in the room.

"FUNKYHAIR! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE, YOU LITTLE- oh hey Blondie. Have you seen your little Legacy Bo- wait, is this a bad time?" Ro asked, looking at Sophie tear-stained face.

Sophie shook her head. "No, it's fine." She got up and handed the note to Ro. "And this paper will probably answer your questions."

Ro looked over the note and her face went blank.

"He left?"

Grady and Edaline quietly slipped out of the room.

Sophie would've too, had the Ogre Princess not have been looking straight at her. 

"Yeah...?"

"Well then." Ro said.

And then she promptly collapsed.