Sokeefe AU: The Farmer's Daughter

Part Nine

"What?"

Sophie didn't know who said it. It might've been Grady, who looked so absolutely shocked he might've been having a heart attack, if elves could have them, which they couldn't.

Or Edaline, who had her hand covering her mouth while she shook her head over and over.

It might've even been Sophie, because how else was her brain supposed to comprehend what was happening other than to question it? How?

But she knew it had to have been Keefe.

For a moment, he simply stared at his father, like he hadn't heard the words.

Your mother and I are applying for a match-fail.

Keefe snapped out of it and stumbled back, shaking his head as the color drained from his face. He was so close to Aleca's pen that Sophie knew he would've freaked if he realized, but he didn't, because everything around him was shattering, and what was a huge animal compared to this?

Lord Cassius watched this reaction without any sort of emotion. No remorse, no sadness, not anything except the dead glint in his eyes and the rigid posture of his back and the way his hands were twitching, twitching, twitching.

"No," Keefe muttered, covering his ears like he could block something he'd already heard. "No. No, no, no, no, no."

He was shaking. Sophie could tell that from where she was standing.

Lord Cassius shook his head, and Sophie wasn't entirely sure why, but hate filled her so much in that moment that she could hardly stand it. It wasn't her place to say something, this was obviously personal, but one glance at Keefe and she was already opening her mouth, ready to tear the lord apart.

But Lord Cassius beat her to it. "You need to find somewhere to stay tonight," he was saying to his son, who obviously wasn't hearing him. "Your mother and I aren't going to be home until late."

Keefe was shaking his head again, tears filling his eyes. "Please," he choked out, desperation filling his voice. He was breaking down.

"Don't," Lord Cassius snapped, and Sophie and her family subconsciously took a step back from the sharpness in his tone. He turned on his son, leaning right down by his face, and growled, "You knew this was coming. Stop acting like a three year old and pull yourself together. Don't come home tonight."

He raised his pathfinder to the light and glittered away without so much as a goodbye.

Though, Sophie supposed, there wasn't anything good about this.

He left behind silence, and Sophie felt so out of touch with the situation that she wondered if she should flee, too, back to her room where she should've been in that moment, back to safety from something she didn't know how to deal with.

She absolutely could not stand to believe that Lord Cassius could say something so cruel to his son, especially after dropping life changing news on him, and then leave.

Edaline was the first to snap out of the shock. She slowly walked over to Keefe, who was trying to do what his father had said and "pull himself together." It wasn't really working. He was still crying, but silently, like he didn't want anyone to hear or know, and he was still shaking, his face white with disbelief and shock and maybe a little bit of fear, but Sophie couldn't tell from this far away.

Or maybe she didn't want to know.

Edaline didn't say anything. She just wrapped him up in a hug.

Keefe crumbled into it, burying his head in her shoulder and squeezing, like the hug was the only thing keeping him together.