a dangerous combination [discontinued]

~ F I V E ~

This was an ambush.

Sophie repeated the sentence to her crew. One of the gnomes gasped. "How could they have known?"

Grizel drew her sword. "That doesn't matter right now. What matters is getting out of here alive."

Sophie silently agreed, pulling out her own sword and taking a fighting stance. 'We know you're there. Quit cowering behind your shadows and fight." she called into the darkness.

"Ah, cocky, aren't we?" a lady stepped out of the shadows. She had blonde hair tied up into a tight bun. Her ice-blue eyes scanned their team before she smiled, although it made her look no less scary. "I see many familiar faces! What a nice reunion. Hello, Sandor and Grizel."

Sandor scowled.

"I see Dex, and Flori, and Tulip. But this is a new face," she said examining Sophie as though she were an interesting specimen."Who might you be, my dear?"

When Sophie didn't answer, the lady sighed. "It's sad that so many are wasting their potential working with he Black Swan."

"We're not wasting potential!" Sophie blurted. She might not like some decisions the Black Swan made, but she knew that all of them were for good. The Neverseen, on the other hand, had intricate, yet corrupt plans that almost always ended in tragedy for the Lost Cities.

"She speaks!" the lady smiled creepily again.

"Stop with your mind games, Gisela. You're alone and powerless; do you really think we can't fight you?"

"Oh, but I'm not alone!" the lady -- Gisela said, raising her arms. Other members of the Neverseen stepped into the light. They all wore cloaks, and covered their faces with hoods and masks.

Sophie and her friends were surrounded. There was no way there were getting out of this without a fight.

Sandor must have come to the same conclusion. because he surged forward, shouting "ATTAAAAAACKK!"

Now, there were many flaws in this plan, which seemed obvious to Sophie later, but at the time being, she followed along. Launching herself at one of the Neverseen members, she kicked him in the face and, once he fell the the ground, knocked him unconscious. For all her efforts though, she was rewarded when another cloaked figure wrapped an arm around her and pressed a knife to her neck. Sophie struggled against him, hearing a particularly loud "mmph" when she elbowed him in the ribs. He held her tighter, pinning her arms at her sides.

Sophie squeezed her eyes shut, and imagined pushing him away with her mental energy, and before she knew it, she had used telekinesis on her captor. He was thrown off her, landing a few feet away on the grass.

During this time, his hood fell off, and she saw his tousled blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. Once he got up, the corners of his eyes crinkled, and he actually grinned at Sophie. Before she could ponder what had made him so happy, he was back on top of her, trying to pin her down again. Sophie rolled to the side, picked up her fallen sword, and attempted to deflect his blade. Sword fighting had never been her strong suit, and only now she realized how bad she was at it. For every strike the boy made, Sophie felt herself getting more and more tired as she continued to deflect. He finally managed to cut a gash on her, and pain exploded in her side.

Teeth gritted, she gathered all the emotions she was feeling and flung them at the boy. He fell to his knees writhing in pain. Sophie had never realized just how powerful and painful her inflicting could be until that moment.

Standing up while pressing a fist to her side, Sophie found that the fight was no longer happening here. Glancing at the boy who was still in obvious pain, she tied him up and stood to search for the others.

~~~

THIS IS the longest chapter I've wrote so far!

**way too proud of myself**

Okay hope you liked the chapter I think this is my favorite one yet, just cuz I added in Keefe!

(I swear, Keefe is my favorite character of the whole KOTLC series. The only character that even BEGINS to share part of his awesomeness is Ro cuz she's totally team Keephie.

I also want to see what revenge she'll give Keefe.

bye now <3

-riya

Chapter written 4/1/20