The End of the Road

Chapter Twenty Three

Death was never a thing that scared me in the human realm. It was nice to know there was an escape if everything got to be too much. Whenever someone would bring up their fear of dying, I wouldn't understand. It was a mercy, wasn't it? When the body isn't able to handle the pain or time, it fades. 

It seemed unfair that as the one with this perspective on death, I was the one who ended up being able to live forever. 

I understood that fear when I came to the lost cities though. After all thoughts of death were banished from my mind because who would be thinking about death when they still had, apparently, hundreds of thousands more years to go? But then I was kidnaped and I understood. It wasn't me I was afraid for, it was the people I cared about. 

It was the unknowing of how everyone would react, how they would handle it, what they would have to go though that drove a spear of fear though me. 

And that's what I felt now. 

For a moment, I thought we were still in the woods and perhaps had actually fallen to our death. I could picture us. Broken and bloody, disfigured and mutilated. I couldn't bear the thought of thinking of Keefe like that. That I had done that to him. 

But then the pain kicked in, and I knew I wasn't gone just yet.

Hands turned me over from where I was laying on the ground and I had to bite my lip to stop a scream from coming from my mouth. 

"Shh, Shh, don't make any noise Foster," Keefe whispered. He looked down at my leg, and griminced. 

"How bad is it?" I asked as quietly as I could though the pain as I tried to sit up to look, but he pushed me back down. 

"Not bad, you'll be fine," he said with a tight smile. I knew he was lying. "We have to move, quickly."

I looked around, my memories finally catching up with me.

Alluveterre. The black swan hideout with the tree houses. We had landed right outside next to one of the trees.

Of course the place I thought of was a black swan hideout, with the people who were out to get me. 

I suddenly saw why Keefe was in such a rush to get going when I caught a glimpse a group walking down the bridge behind the tree.

The Black Swan Collective.

Bile rose in my mouth with the thought of them finding me like this, useless and powerless.

"Keefe," I hissed as my panic rose, "Keefe, I can't move."

"We'll figure something out. We can do this. I-I can do this." He looked around, but I knew he was seeing the same thing I was, absolutely nothing and nowhere to hide.

They were far, but not far enough. We had maybe five minutes to figure out how to completely vanish from sight. 

"Can you levitate?" I asked. 

"What?" He was still looking around as if a carriage and horse were going to appear and save us.

"Levitate. Could you levitate us over them? Or in the tree? Maybe they won't look up."

"That...that could work." Keefe glaces me over and I realize how pathetic I must look, how fragile. "I'm going to have to lift you though."

The thought of moving my leg made me nausous but the thought of facing Mr. Forkle again made the levitation idea seem more doable so I forced my self to swallow and nod.

Keefe takes a deep breath which makes me do that same and starts to fit his hands under my back. As I sat up, I couldn't help but take a peek at my knee and felt dizzy from the condition it was it. A bone was visible where my knee should have been and it looked like my bone under my knee had slid upward.

Keefe tucked my head into his shoulder when he saw me looking at it. 

"I said don't look," He grunted as he prepared to lift my legs up and I prepared for hell.

"Bite down on my should if you feel like you need to scream. You can't make noise." Keefe whispered to me and I nodded into the crook of his neck, adjusting my head so that if I made any noise, it would be muffled into his shirt.

"On three. One, Two-" He didn't wait until three when he took my legs. He had to carry me by my knees, so when I was lifted into the air, they bent with the support. I could barely muffle my scream. The pain was blinding, so I squeezed my eyes shut and gripped onto him.

He began shakily levitating into the air and I took his advice of biting his shoulder. I was shaking. I couldn't feel or think of anything but pain. I wanted to pass out, to not have to feel this. 

And then I realized Keefe's levitation was so shaky because of me. He could also feel this pain.

 It felt like forever until he landed us in one of the trees branches. It took me even longer than that to stop myself from biting his shoulder and even more to lift my head. 

He was looking at me when I did, biting his lip and his brow creased. "Are you okay?"

I almost snorted, but remembered to stay quiet. "Just peachy."

I still had the urge to scream so I put my head back into his shoulder. A minute later I could hear them. 

"...let this happen. It was completely careless," A voice said. I think I could recognize it as Mr. Forkle's voice, but he sounded a bit different.

"We'll figure it out. For now, all we can do is continue to track the Moonlark and Mr. Sencen."

I untucked my head and looked down to see if I could identify any of them. 

The group walked out from the bridge. they were right under us, one look up and we were done for. They all had hoods on so I couldn't see anyone's face, but I could count four of them.

"We meet here again in two days, same time. Someone better have something by then." The figure took out something from their pocket and with a flash of light, they were gone.

Another one left without a farewell, but the last two stood there for a moment. 

"Do you think she's okay?" One of them asked and I strained my hearing to try and match their voice to a face.

"She's the Moonlark, of course she's okay." I could hear they were both female, but nothing beyond that. 

The first figure muttered something I couldn't quite hear and looked around as if looking for someone.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing. I just thought I felt... never mind. I'll see you in two days."

The second person light leaped away like the first two but the other kept looking around. It was if...

"Shit," I muttered.

Keefe looked at me, puzzled by what the woman was doing and by my reaction.

"Empath. She can feel my emotions."

As if she could hear me, the woman looked up. Even as I made eye contact with her, I begged anyone who would listen that she didn't see us, but then she gave a startled gasp.

Plan. We need a plan. She can't have seen us here. She can't contact the Black Swan. She can't know that I'm hurt and at a disadvantage.

My mind scrambled for something to do but the woman reached up to her hood and pulled it off.

"Sophie?"

hehe, i love cliffhangers. this chapter was actually going to be way longer but this seemed like too perfect of a place to stop. i should stop writing since i have a spanish quiz, an english test and a paper due in history but there's no greater motivation than procrastination sooo.... thenk you all for all the comments, votes and 12K READS?!?!?  i thought i read it wrong when i saw that, but after my third time seeing it i came around to believing it. i hope you enjoyed the chapter! bye loves <333