Moonlark's Love

Six

Biana sat down next to Sophie at the lunch table, her eyes widening when she saw Fitz's newest gift. "Wow. That must be what he was hiding yesterday. After you went home, when he was leaving, he had that box in his hand. He wouldn't tell me what it was."

Fitz had stopped her on her way to the Silver Tower for Linguistics to give her a small gold box. She hadn't had a chance to open it until just now, and she couldn't believe he would give her something so fancy. It was a delicate gold necklace with two small intertwined loops.

Biana leaned in closer to Sophie's ear to whisper, "Have you decided if you're going to go to the Gala with him?"

Sophie sighed. "Enough about me! What about you? Who are you going with?"

"Um, I'm not sure yet," Biana mumbled, her cheeks pink. Her eyes flitted to Tam before focusing back on her hands in her lap. Sophie noticed Dex scowl. She raised her eyebrows at him, but he just looked away. Tam looked anywhere but Biana.

"Sophie, the necklace is beautiful," Linh said, trying to change the subject. Sophie smiled at her. "Thanks."

When Sophie got home from school, she dropped her bag as she came into her room, throwing herself on her bed. Her life was as complicated as ever, between the Neverseen and the drama that surrounded the Winter Gala. She wished for once that her life could be calm.

Finally she got up to start her homework, but she had so much she wasn't finished when Edaline called her down for dinner. Recently her parents had been big on eating dinner as a family, and although she supported it, she was exhausted.

When she returned to her homework, her room was dark. She was about to turn on her light when she froze in her place. There was a light coming from across her room. Her brow furrowed. She couldn't think of anything in her room that glowed.

"Sandor!"

The goblin stepped into the doorway, his gaze, too, caught by the glow. "What is that?" he squeaked.

"I don't know," Sophie conceded, walking towards it.

"Don't touch it!" Sandor cried.

Sophie ignored him, realizing that it looked familiar. She picked it up.

It was a crumpled piece of paper, pink on one side, white on the other. She had almost forgotten about the origami swan she had found the day before. She smoothed out the sheet.

"Glow-in-the-dark ink," she breathed.

Sandor stood over her shoulder, eyes studying the sheet. "Is it some kind of code?" he asked, taking the slip from her.

"I don't think so," Sophie said. True, the string of numbers appeared to be a code of some sort at first glance, but she knew it was something else.

"It's a phone number."