Secrets

Eleven

Her friends looked at her, stunned. 

The minutes ticked by. 

"Now wait just a moment, Foster," Keefe exclaimed, finally getting over his shock. He directed his words to the Councillors next, "Wait, please let us talk to her before you say yes."

Bronte nodded at him, allowing him to continue.

Keefe gazed into Sophie's brown eyes. "Foster, you're forgetting that we always are standing by your side, no matter what." He smirked, "And what's more is that I don't care if I'm separated from my dad- I don't care about him. What I care about is you, and your safety."

Sophie grinned. "That sounds like something Sandor would say."

Sandor shot Keefe a glare across the room. "And keeping Sophie safe is my job."

Keefe rolled his eyes. "Well sometimes you're not here Gigantor."

Sandor blinked. "Excuse me?"

Sophie covered a smile behind her hand.

Keefe sighed, his face shifting into a dramatic scene of annoyance as he rolled his eyes epically once more. "Gigantor... Gigantor.. Gigantor... How about the time when you fell off a cliff?"  

Narrowing his eyes, Sandor exclaimed, his tone filled with annoyance, "How about the time when you got stabbed in the stomach. By the ogre king." 

Ro stepped forward. "Now wait just a moment." 

She opened her mouth again to retort when Oralie stepped forward. "Now is not the time to discuss such things. Now we are discussing Sophie's fate." 

Sophie faced her friends. "I am not going to let you guys face the chance of getting exiled too." 

"Sophie." It was Dex. 

Sophie looked at him; he had her attention. 

"Take the deal. No matter what, we are your friends, and we won't let you and your family get separated from the elvin world. Ever."

His voice was filled with determination, conviction, and sincerity.

Sophie sighed. She hoped that she wouldn't regret the decision she was making. 

Tugging out a loose eyelash, she locked eyes with Oralie. "I will take the deal." 

--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_

"So," Keefe started once the Councillors had leaped away. "When do we get started?" 

Sophie tugged out another eyelash. "The question is where." 

Closing her eyes, she stretched out her conscious and tried to search for any clue, any hint of where Silveny had gone. But she knew it was no use, Ruy had the alicorn trapped within a force field. So when she opened her eyes, she was not unsurprised that she had not gotten anything. 

No hint.

No clue.

Nothing. 

Fitz squeezed Sophie's hand. "Sophie, how about we start with your dreams. What was Silveny surrounded by?" 

Sophie let her mind drift, reluctantly recalling the horrible scenes from the night before. 

They appeared, crystal clear like glass in her mind. "She was in a clearing of some sort. And it was surrounded by a forest. Kind of like a meadow, but with trees all around."  

"And..."

"And that's all there was." 

"Well," Fitz exclaimed, trying to stay on the bright side, "We will start looking for places that fit the description of what you just said." 

--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_

"THIS IS AMAZING!" Keefe screamed as they hurtled to the ominous rocks that came closer and closer. 

The harsh wind whipped around Sophie's head, making her blond hair slap across her pink-tinged face as they plummeted toward the ocean. Salt water sprayed into Sophie's eyes, clouding up her vision.

Limbs flailed, bodies shook, and Keefe bubbled over with laughter as Sophie tried to concentrate to accomplish her daunting task. 

"Will you guys STOP SCREAMING?!" Sophie yelled over the rushing wind. 

Fitz looked at her, his teal eyes wide with fear. "WHAT?!" 

"I SAID TO STOP- ugh, never mind." 

Keefe laughed even more as everyone else screamed louder; they were only twenty feet away from going SPLAT.  

"Don't worry, Foster's got this." He looked at her, his eyes full of trust- and something else. Sophie tried not to dwell on it as she focused on that trust, pushing the adrenaline racing in her veins out and into the open. 

--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--

Suffocating nothingness pressed on them from all sides. 

Blackness was everywhere. 

Darkness coated everything.

It pushed on their faces, rubbed against their skin, and diminished their line of sight.  

Sophie broke the ongoing silence. "So... where do you guys want to go first?"

The words echoed throughout the black void. 

A place where the past did not exist. 

Nor did the present. 

Or the future.

"Let's try Wildwood." Linh's sweet voice rang into the blackness.

As soon as the place registered in Sophie's mind, white light cracked the darkness, and they went rushing out of the void.