Moonlark's Love

Seven

THIS CHAPTER HAS NIGHTFALL SPOILERS, and therefore the story from here on will contain Nightfall spoilers. I'm sorry if you haven't read Nightfall yet and wanted to read this story, but it's starting to get hard to avoid spoilers.

"It must be from Amy!" Sophie exclaimed, taking the slip of paper paper to examine the numbers once more. She clapped on her lights, watching the text disappear.

"You don't know for sure it's from her. It could be a trap," Sandor pointed out.

Sophie had to admit that he could be right. As much as she wanted it to be from her sister, there was no indication as to whom it was from.

"Well, it has to be a human or someone who knows enough about humans."

"Yes, and it's perfectly possible that the Neverseen could fall into that category," Sandor agreed.

Again, he had a good point.

Plucking it from her fingers, he announced, "I'll hold onto this until we can show the Collective in the morning."

Although Sandor was being surprisingly rational, Sophie was still frustrated. Just when she finally felt like she was going somewhere, she wasn't allowed to do anything about it.

Sandor left her room, returning to his post outside her door. Sophie slumped against her bed, half-heartedly finishing the homework she didn't get to in study hall. Just as she was putting her textbooks back into her bag, she realized with a grin the one thing Sandor had overlooked.

She had a photographic memory.

She grabbed her iPod, typing in the phone number. (Some iPods can make calls, I think.) She hesitated before calling, understanding the risk. After weighing the pros and cons for a few seconds, she pressed the button and put her iPod to her ear.

It rang twelve times. At first Sophie thought this would be a dead end, but finally someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hello," Sophie forced herself to say. The word caught in her throat.

"Sophie?"

The voice was unmistakable.

"Amy?"

"Yeah! Mom and Dad got me a phone!"

"Cool!" After an awkward pause, Sophie asked, "How did you get the swan in my room?"

"I'm not sure actually. I wanted to get the note to you, but I left it in my room overnight to figure out how to send it in the morning, but it was gone when I woke up. I'm thinking the Black Swan?"

"Huh. Well, Sandor's going to take it to the Black Swan in the morning, so they can confirm that then, I guess."

"Oh! I don't think you should tell the Black Swan. I'm not sure I'm supposed to be in contact with you."

Amy's voice sounded anxious and a little strained.

"If they didn't want you talking to me, why would they give me the note?" Sophie wondered aloud.

"I don't know, just please don't tell them."

"Okay," Sophie conceded. She was so happy to talk to her sister, she didn't mind giving into her questionable judgment. "Wait, why did you make a swan anyway? Couldn't you have just written a note?"

"I didn't know how to get it past Mom and Dad," Amy explained.

Sophie was about to ask why her sister wrote in glow-in-the-dark ink when she suddenly said, "I have to go."

"Is everything all right?"

"Yeah. Mom and Dad are coming."

The connection cut off. Sophie sighed. She had been hoping to talk to her sister longer, but she didn't want to make her parents suspicious. Even though they would never remember her, they still might be concerned if Amy were having frequent long conversations with someone in a mysterious location.

She peeked her head out the door. Sandor glances at her. "Everything okay?"

Sophie couldn't see the paper anywhere. He probably had tucked it into some pocket somewhere. She needed to find a way to get it before the morning, and to make sure Sandor wouldn't say anything to anyone else about it. She knew she could trust Keefe to keep it a secret.

Suddenly, though, she was hit by a wave of exhaustion. It had been a long day and a long week, and she really needed to sleep.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she told Sandor, closing her door behind her and flopping on her bed. She didn't bother changing before she fell asleep.