Keeper of the Lost Cities: Truth or Dare

Chapter 7

  A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger. . . but that was nothing compared to the ending in Lodestar! Hope you enjoy!

  "You," Sophie said, too stunned to say anything else. Standing in front of her was Ruy, Alvar, Fintan, and. . . Brant.

  "B-but you died," Keefe stammered, speaking for everyone who couldn't find their voice.

  Sophie felt weak. Mr. Forkle's death had been for nothing. When he died, the one thing that had stopped Sophie from going into complete despair was the fact that Mr. Forkle had taken an enemy down with him.

  But now...

  Sophie didn't even know what now. She couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't breathe.

  "But how did you survive?" Keefe asked. "Your skull was crushed and we saw your dead body."

  Brant just laughed.

  "How did you get in?" Fitz growled. He had his eyes glued on his brother.

Alvar smirked. "I'm a Vacker. I know this property by heart."

  Fitz clenched his fists. "No, you're a monster."

  Just then Alvar hiy the ground with an "oof!" He made sharp rasping sounds, like it was hard to breathe. Then a figure flickered into view on top af him. Biana had tackled Alvar!

  Alvar blinked in surprise. But he recovered from his shock and flipped up, throwing Biana off him. He grabbed her and pushed her over to where Sophie and her friends were standing.

  "Now, we can do this rhe easy way or the hard way," Ruy warned, as the Neverseen closed in a circle around Sophie and her friends. Meanwhile, Sophie's brain was working overload. She rubbed the knot under her ribs. She could inflict,  but not without taking her friends down in the process. And she was feeling some serious anger right now. She didn't want her friends to feel that.

  "What do you want?" Keefe shouted.

  "First of all, we don't deal with traitors well. And you stole some things that were ours," Ruy said.

  "Actually, only one thing was yours," Keefe corrected. "The other you stole."  

  "And second," Ruy continued, as if Keefe hadn't said anything, "we have something to show Sophie."

  Ruy pulled a silver orb out of his robes. A spyball. He held it up to his lips and whispered something into it. Then he held it out for Sophie to see. Against her better judgement, Sophie stepped forward to see.

  Instantly, Sophie regretted it. What she saw in the spyball made her stumble back a step.

  Her parents. Her human parents. Being dragged through a long, dark hallway by two cloaked figures.

  Sophie didn't know what to say. Her knees felt weak. She hated not knowing wether or not her parents were okay. She didn't know what the Neverseen wanted with her human family, and she was scared what they would do to get what they wanted out of them, like what they did to Wylie.

  "Well, nice talk," Fintan said cheerfully. "We expect to see you soon!" Alvar pulled out his pathfinder. Biana was quicker than Sophie and jumped forward to snag Fintan's cloak just as he was about to leap away.

  She didn't stop him, but something that looked like a stone fell out of his cloak just as they glittered away.

  "It's a starstone!" Fitz breathed as Sophie picked it up.

  "Oh no, I know what you're thinking," Biana said.

  "Yeah, we're coming with you," Keefe added, grabbing her hand. Biana grabbed her other hand, and Fitz held on to Biana.

  "Guys-" Sophie started, but she knew there would be no arguing with them. She sighed. "Here goes nothing." Sophie stepped into the blue glow rhe starstone provided, heading straight into what was probally a death trap.