Book Two: KOTLC One-shots and More

Ability Restrictor (Keefe POV)

Watching Magnate Leto become the new headmaster of Foxfire was not quite the thrill for Keefe that the Council seemed to expect it to be for everyone.

He supposed he was mostly alone in that, though. People seemed happy that Dame Alina was now Councillor Alina, but Keefe didn't see it as a good thing.

He wasn't exactly a fan of hers.

Though...after meeting his parents for the first time, she hadn't sent quite as many notes home to his parents when he got caught ditching or pulling pranks at school.

Which really just meant that even someone as awful as Alina had been able to pick up on how his dad was a whole new level of awful.

And nothing, not even Magnate Leto's inauguration, was enough to distract Keefe from the fact that he was stuck sitting between his parents, hiding the biggest secret he'd ever had to hide in his life.

His dad was evil.

His dad was part of the organization that had kidnapped Sophie and Dex.

His dad had known Sophie was alive when he'd grieved over her. Had mocked him for being weak enough to cry over it.

Keefe found that his mind kept wandering. Ever since he'd found out the truth about his dad, he found it hard to focus. He'd known his dad was a jerk. But there was a huge difference between being an unkind person and being an evil, rebellious, child-abducting murderer.

It wasn't until Councillor Emery started giving a worrisome speech that Keefe began to pay more attention.

The Council was clearly building up to Sophie's punishment.

He wished he could see her from where he was sitting. He'd seen her arrive--Gigantor made it pretty easy to pinpoint exactly where she was, since he was so much taller than all the elves in the room--and knew her family had been seated right in front of the stage. He and his parents were several rows back, so he couldn't see her, but he knew she was there, waiting to hear the verdict, and probably panicking in the way that only Sophie Foster could.

Still...something about what Emery was saying did sound kind of foreboding. Words like insubordination didn't instill much hope.

Then, Keefe got his wish, and almost wished he hadn't.

He could see her now, because the Council had called her up on stage.

She didn't seem surprised to have been called up to the stage, but Keefe swore he could feel her humiliation and vomit-worthy worry even from so far back.

And he wanted to punch Councillor Emery in the face when he glibly announced, "we must remember, Sophie Foster is not normal."

No. Sophie was not normal. She was extraordinary.

But Emery said it like it was a bad thing. Like she was an embarrassment, or a problem that needed to be fixed. He saw as she closed her eyes, and knew it had caused her pain.

Keefe hated it.

But things just went from bad to worse as Emery shifted to talking about the Black Swan, and announced that they were going to track down the entire organization and punish them.

"Seriously?!" Keefe yelled, sitting up straighter, on the edge of his seat now. He wasn't the only one reacting--almost everyone had audibly reacted to that news. Keefe saw Alden and Grady both jump to their feet, and knew their voices had joined the din. Alden was even making his way toward the stage.

But it made no difference. Emery called the crowd to order, and Keefe was forced to watch in mute horror as Emery pulled a silver circlet out of a box and placed it over Sophie's head, two of the bodyguards holding her captive as though they expected her to put up a fight.