Mirrored Conflicts (a Sokeefe story)

Chapter 12: The Warning

"I can't tell what the craziest part of the proceedings was," Biana said incredulously. "I thought it was going to be the mandatory attendance requested by the Council by every family."

"And then I thought it was going to be the Council sending everybody to Exillium was going to be the craziest thing I heard all year," Dex added.

"But then Lady Cadence hits us with the 'I'm interrupting your proceedings because you refuse to schedule a meeting with me' which is a crazy response—"

"—because she wants to talk about the ogres," Dex completed, "and then Councillor Emery was like—"

"—I guess I should put your minds at ease, right? King Dimitar agreed to a Peace Summit!" Biana finished. "Wayyy too many curveballs. This is, like, weeks worth of gossip material."

"Lady Cadence's emergency ring idea was pretty awesome," Dex admitted. "If I had leaping crystals to make them with, I'd start making some immediately."

"Of course, as far as gossip material goes, if I wanted to start some gossip, I absolutely could," Biana said with a sly glance in Sophie's direction.

Sophie blinked. "Huh?"

She and Dex were wearing identical smirks, and Sophie did not like it. "Come on," Biana prodded. "We covered for you, cause we're awesome like that, but spill."

"I... don't know what you're talking about." Sophie was starting to freak out though. Surely they couldn't know that she'd snuck out last night. And if they found out she'd been with a boy they were going to take it so the wrong way...

She'd been careful, too. She'd only gone on one ride with Keefe, and sure, she'd let him talk her into getting cotton candy with him and walking on the beach, but she'd made sure she got home before Grady or Edaline was even awake! So Biana and Dex had to be talking about something else...

"Grady had already assumed you were going to sleep through the night when you finally let yourself rest. Heck, we assumed that," Dex explained. "But when he went to check on you and make sure you weren't spending your valuable resting time worrying and panicking and chasing clues, he and Sandor realized you weren't there."

"At first we panicked, but then I realized Fitz wasn't home either," Biana said with a triumphant smirk on her face. "And don't worry! I covered for you. Said you'd eventually woken up and leapt to Everglen, and we were relaxing and not doing anything strenuous or worrying. But I want every detail."

Oh.

They thought...

"Biana, I wasn't with Fitz," Sophie said quickly—a little too quickly.

"Sophie, it's fine," Dex said. "You can tell us things!"

"I was not with Fitz! Seriously! I don't know where he was! Maybe you should be looking for him!" Sophie insisted.

"So then who were you with?" Biana asked, grinning like she'd caught her in a trap.

And... she had.

But not in the way she thought.

Because Sophie couldn't deny it now, even though she did have a truthful answer to that question, it wasn't one she could say out loud. Especially since Biana was already on the completely wrong path to figuring out where she'd been last night, and clarifying that the boy she'd been with was actually her archenemy was not going to help anything about the situation.

Sophie sighed. "Look. I was with Fitz." She'd have to talk to Fitz later about where he really was so they could coordinate stories. "But not like what you're thinking!"