Reversed

vii. seven

Keefe's lips parted and he sucked in a breath. "Sophie."

Her stomach twisted, mind going blank.

Beside Keefe, Biana had also stopped moving. She shook her hood off, teal eyes bright and jagged in the moonlight, like shards of glass. "It's really you," she whispered.

Sophie just blinked. She was... she was...

She was really angry.

They had no right to the emotion in their eyes right now.

After all, they were the ones who had tricked her.

She was so tired of their acts.

"Shut up," she hissed. But not with nearly as much force as she'd wanted.

Biana flinched, and Keefe's brow furrowed.

"What have they done to you?" he murmured.

"They didn't do anything." Sophie tightened her grip on her daggers, spinning them again. "They showed me who you guys really were. Are."

Why did Keefe ask her the same thing that Tam did? It was probably another mind game they were playing; trying to get her to think that the Neverseen were the bad guys.

Mr. Forkle's bonds slithered to the ground. Sophie seethed. While Keefe and Biana were distracting her, Mr. Forkle had broken the "impenetrable" bonds.

"Looks like the old man still has a few tricks up his sleeves," she gritted out. "Too bad that will have been your last."

"I can assure you, Miss Foster, this night's surprises are far from over."

Sophie snatched the abandoned bonds, pulling them back towards her. She had no idea if they would still work, but she would use them to her advantage. She wrapped one end from each piece around her knuckles.

She whipped the cords towards Mr. Forkle, catching his legs. Sophie yanked, sending him to the ground. He didn't even resist. Weird.

What had he said before—that the night's surprises were far from over?

To the left, Sophie spotted a place where Calla had once opened up the ground hastily so she and her old friends could escape and never closed it. She remembered it led into a tunnel that they had used to travel, but before that, there was a hole that dropped into a cavern underground that was wet and stony and cold. Sophie and her old friends hadn't even been able to see the bottom.

Sophie rallied her strength and pulled Mr. Forkle towards the hole. Her added telekinesis propelled him all the way to the edge. She let go of the binds, and Mr. Forkle grunted as slid down into the cavern. 

"Unfortunately, it seems the surprises have been cut short." She dusted off her hands and turned back to Biana and Keefe.

They were still staring at her as if she had two heads.

"Shoot, you even say classic villain lines," Keefe said.

She shot him a glare she'd learned to master in the past seven months. "Don't worry, I'll make quick work out of you two." She prowled forward, drinking in the fear that flashed across their faces—

"Sophie, look out!" Ruy's shout came just in time. Sophie spun around and ducked, barely avoiding two flying blurs of blue that hurled over her head. Sophie snapped her gaze up to who had flung them. Dex. Somehow he had wriggled out of Ruy's reach.

Huh. Guess she'd underestimated him.

A sizzling sound from behind Sophie caught her attention. Dex's gadgets were melting the binds. She cursed in frustration.

She expected Keefe and Biana to make a break for Dex, but they didn't. Instead, they ran towards the hole Sophie had thrown Mr. Forkle into and... jumped into it.

Dex flashed a pale, moony orb over his head. "Ciya!" he blinked out of sight.

Moments later, a piece of earth dislodged itself from the edge of the hole and dropped down, like someone had disturbed it.

Sophie shared a suspicious glance with Ruy. "Coincidence?" she asked.

"Could be," he replied. "A very well-timed, crazy coincidence."

His hood had also been thrown back in the fight, and he pushed a few dark strands of hair off his forehead. Sophie's eyes caught onto the thin scar on the side of his neck, just under his ear that he'd earned from a goblin throwing star three months ago. It glinted white in the moonlight and looked nearly healed. Sophie had a matching one on her left temple. They'd earned them in the same skirmish during Sophie's first mission for the Neverseen. 

They exchanged a glance, thinking in sync.

Ruy gestured up to the roof, indicating for Sophie to transmit to Trix and Oman to come down from the catwalk. 

Above the hole, the group of four held weapons at the ready and crept towards the opening. They dropped down one at a time. Sophie went first, her feet landing on the damp earth right before the drop-off into the deep cavern.

Ruy, Oman, and Trix landed with a thump beside her.

"Where did they go?" Trix asked.

Everyone gripped their weapons tighter.

Sophie spotted a faint trail of footprints that lead towards the edge of the drop-off before they abruptly stopped.

"They... must have jumped down," she said. "But I don't know how that's possible. It's too deep."

"The cowards must have made a run for it," Trix chuckled. 

"But why would they even do it?" Oman added. She paused for a moment, thinking. "Look. I'm the one with the strongest levitation, so I'll go down there and see if it's possible they survived the fall."

Nobody argued, though Ruy looked like he wanted to.

Oman braced herself and edged towards the drop-off. Then she jumped down.

Everyone held their breath as they waited for a sound. Sophie counted the seconds.

Only fifty-four passed before Oman called up in a confused tone, "It's safe. There's, uh, solid ground right here, not too far down. Just levitate a little."

Everyone exchanged another glance. Something felt off, but they all went down.

There was a stuffy moment of silence before Trix started, "What do—" Something hit him from behind, and he crumpled to the ground.

The moonlight shining through first hole disappeared, and the Neverseen was shrouded in darkness.

It had been a trap.