a dangerous combination [discontinued]

~ T W E N T Y~

A loud, piercing cry for help echoed throughout the clearing. It sounded like Biana. The Neverseen probably set off their first explosion, the phase one of Misson "Let's Destroy The Black Swan!"

Lady Gisela had explained everything, in detail,(which was two hours of Keefe's life he'd never get back), about what was going to happen when the Neverseen arrived at Exillium. She'd told him to suggest enough information to prove valuable to the Black Swan, but not too much so that they would be suspicious as to how he knew it. She told Keefe what he was supposed to say  (which he abosulutley did not remember) and how they were going attack.

According to his mom, the Moonlark had many, many secrets that would be helpful to their side. Their Telepath, Gethen, wanted to probe her mind.The real mission was to kidnap Sophie, not to recruit any of the Waywards.

They were going to light leap with Sophie and  take her to one of their hideouts, to probe her mind. Keefe would stay behind, the Black Swan shouldn't know that Keefe was a spy. They had more schemes they needed to pull, and the Neverseen needed Keefe to tip them off.

The plan was simple, but Keefe didn't like it very much, he didn't want Sophie to get hurt. Not because he liked her, because that wasn't true at ALL, whatsoever, but because he didn't particularly like kidnapping people. (*riya coughs* yeah, riiiight)

Hearing the scream and the explosion jolted him back to the present.

"Oh no, that's Biana..." muttered Sophie, her eyebrows creasing and her eyes narrowing.

The two of them hurried back inside, but there was no sign of a struggle. Everything looked the same as when they'd been hiding here.

Sophie closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she took off for the left wing, with Keefe in close pursuit. Keefe didn't even have the mental energy to ask her what the heck she was doing.

They reached the top of a staircase, breathing heavily and looking around warily. Sophie took out some throwing stars and looked for a target to hit. "They should be here!" she hissed.

"Uh, don't get mad at me for asking this, but.....how would you know?"

She looked at him like he was the biggest idiot she'd ever seen. "I tracked their minds. They are here."

Keefe glanced at the floor, looking for clues, when he saw the shadows moving around him. Of course. They were using their Shade to hide from her. They probably didn't want a repeat of last time when Sophie had inflicted.

Sophie seemed to notice what he was looking at, and gasped. So much for the Neverseen's hiding skills.

Keefe heard the two bodyguards running up the stairs. He didn't see Biana, but he knew she was a Vanisher and could be in the room at this very moment. 

And that was the moment a Neverseen member stepped out of the shadows and tried to grab Sophie. Keefe bit back a scream.

But Sophie was too fast for him. She slammed the flat side of her dagger against his head (whether on purpose or accidental, Keefe couldn't tell), and he crumpled unconscious.

Keefe tried his best to distract Sandor, but he failed miserably, Sandor was too foucused on Sophie, and took off, running to her side to help her. Keefe couldn't blame him, she was kinda cu--what? Why was he even thinking about this? He had a task that he needed to complete.

He needed to prove to his mother that he wasn't totally worthless.

Keefe rushed toward Grizel, hoping that he would be more succesful this time. Just as he was about to talk to her, he saw a shadow of two people behind her, standing at the bottom of the spiral staircase. It was unusual. There was not even a glimpse of the sun, yet there were two shadows. Keefe started to approach the figures, but, just then, he felt a icy sensation upon him.

~~~

**WORD COUNT: 784**

This chapter was a WORK of LOVEEE.

And it's our longest chapter!

BONUS!

So, as you know, the two of us are horrible at writing war scenes, so we combined our terrible skills to make ONE semi-terrible piece of writing.

CELEBRATION MALLOWMELT FOR EVERYONE! YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!

So, hoped you liked our little chapter baby, which we poured our love, time and affection in.

(Actually we just poured in our terrible war expertise, but same thing right?)

Thanks for reading <3

***riay steals throne from navya, making her now a poor lady in the dungeons.

****navya plans her revenge to overthrow the new queen

- Queen riya and nav the Peasant :)

Chapter written 4/22/20