New World

Chapter Six

"Mom, Savi's ignoring me again," Seri whined.

Savi had locked herself in her bedroom the moment she'd gotten home, and so far, Keefe hadn't barged in to tell her what her punishment was. Whatever. She'd face it when the time came. And the time was probably dinnertime. She wished Edaline had come over. She could have used a fresh batch of baked goodies to cheer herself up, and her grandmother would've kept Seri occupied for her.

Sophie and Keefe hadn't even told Seri that Will had died yet. Savi was sure that news would shut her bratty sister up. Well, if Seri cared about Will at all. But while Seri might be as annoying as younger sisters got, she did have a heart, and Savi knew that she had been reasonably close to Will, given that he was her twin brother. So, she put up with Seri's whines, keeping her door shut as she listened to music from her mother's hand-me-down Ipod. It was apparently the last thing Sophie had from the Forbidden Cities, and it had undergone several tweaks from Dex in order to be able to function here in the Lost Cities.

Seri had been adamant about banging on Savi's door for the past three hours, ever since Savi had gotten home. Seri had not been happy that Sophie and Keefe had been out for most of the day and she'd only had the gnomes for company. Edaline had offered to take Seri over to Havenfield, but the moment Edaline had brought up the term babysitting, Seri was insistent on remaining at Willowtree. But she complained and whined about being alone afterwards, and Savi was pretty sure that Sophie and Keefe were just going to dump her at Havenfield the next time regardless of her complaints.

"Savi, can you just open the door and let your sister in?" Sophie called from downstairs.

"No! I don't want her ruining my bedroom! Fine, you can come in if I get to tie you up and dangle you out the window," Savi called out to Seri.

"No way! Just hurry up and let me in!" Seri whined from outside.

Get out, Savi thundered in Seri's head.

"Mo-om! Savi's messing with my thoughts!" Seri screeched.

"She can't do that, she's not a Telepath," Savi heard Sophie's lazy voice from downstairs.

Well, she totally was. Had just manifested at lunchtime. She remembered the dark blue-eyed boy's shock when he'd first received her memories, not from Will's death but from the fact that she was a Telepath.

In fact, he was the one she wanted to see just then. But he wasn't responding to her hails. Finally, her Imparter lit up with a message from Cerulean. Savi dashed over to it, eagerly scanning through the message.

Argh – Savi, I'm so sorry I didn't respond to your hails. The Council decided this was the perfect day to go and scavenge my house for any 'lost goodies of the Neverseen' that my parents and Marcos might have left behind. So, Granny forced me to show them around and all the secret hiding places (THEY EVEN SEARCHED MY UNDERWEAR DRAWER!!) and it was a total fiasco which resulted in Councilor Clarette with my underpants jammed on her hand (who knew I still had my baby ones deep in that closet?) because she thought it was some sort of treasure, and Councilor Zarina nearly burned my entire house to the ground. So, perfect day, plus my Imparter was buzzing like crazy and Granny was telling me to break it so it was kind of crazy. But I can call now if you want.

Savi quickly wrote back eagerly. Yeah, I do, so, now's a good time?

His response was very fast. Yeah, we should do it now before the Councilors realize they forgot something or Granny wants to search my room AGAIN.