REMATCH~ a KOTLC book 9 fanfic (waiting for unlocked)

Chapter Two

"No." Sophie wasn't sure who said the word, but she definitely felt it. She stumbled back, her heart beating crazy fast as she grew numb from the shock. "No." She said it this time, and she meant them with every fiber of her being. She knew, or at least she thought she did. But just like Keefe had discovered from the photo of his mom in London, knowing is different than knowing. She had a guess, and was certain her theory was correct. But when she actually saw it was Jolie under the cloak, it changed everything. "You're dead," Dex said. "You're supposed to be dead." That was a major understatement. Jolie had been dead for sixteen years. She was Grady and Edaline's only daughter before she tragically perished in a fire set by Brant, her fiancee who was a member of the Neverseen. And yet she stood in front of them, turquoise eyes brimming with tears. "I'm sorry." Jolie told them. Sophie was shocked that yet another mystery identity was someone she should like. And yet again, she never could. "NO!" Sophie yelled. "YOU LIED TO THEM!" She grew increasingly angry as she realized how huge the ramifications were. "FOR SIXTEEN YEARS! THEY WENT THROUGH SO MUCH GRIEF AND YOU WERE ALIVE THIS ENTIRE TIME! HOW COULD YOU LEAVE THEM TO SUFFER?!" Her rage boiled over bubbling and rising, rimming her vision with red until it all surged together, a power that blasted out of her mind in a frenzy toward the one person she was feeling this rage for. Jolie collapsed on the ground thrashing and screaming. After a few seconds, she fell still. Keefe grabbed her hands and sent her blue breezes. Dex just shook his head. "What?!" He asked. "But you can't be..." He looked at Jolie on the ground then to Sophie. "She can't be..." He sat down on the grass in a daze. Jolie was his cousin. Of course this had to be huge for him. It explained why Tam said she thought Dex deserved to know. Tam. Sophie turned to him. "You knew!" She yelled, realizing that he chose to keep this hidden. "How could you hide this?!" Tam looked tired as he told her, "Look, Sophie. If I told you, would you believe me? And she held off telling you because of this," he said, gesturing towards where Glimmer- no, Jolie was still twitching on the ground. "I don't care," Sophie told him, ignoring the fact that he made valid points. Although maybe she did care a little. "Grady and Edaline were never the same. They still aren't. And if they have to find out that she was alive all this time? I think it would be better for her to actually be dead." Unfortunately, that was the moment Jolie woke up. "You don't understand," Jolie said in between shaky breaths. "I wanted to tell them. But it was the only way." "The only way for what? To be able to run around with crazy murderers and not get caught?" Sophie asked angrily. "No," Jolie told her. "The only way I could keep Brant alive." Now, she had their attention. "He had been taking secret pyrokinesis lessons with Fintan. But the need for fire consumed him. He was practicing in the Forbidden Cities when he caught an entire town on fire. He was too new to the training. Too dazed to stop the fire. And when he finally did, it was too late. So many humans died- and it was all Brant's fault. But it wouldn't have happened if he could have trained with a stable mentor in a prepared area. And he was shocked by so much death. When the Council found out, of course they wanted to Exile him. And when they found out I knew... and supported it... and didn't tell them, they wanted to Exile me, too. I had already been with the Black Swan, working as a double agent. But the Neverseen told me they could save Brant. So I joined the Neverseen for real. The Black Swan offered me no solutions. But they did train me to lie well. So I wrote a fake journal." Sophie gasped, remembering the Reflections journal she had painstakingly translated. "I did leave truth in it, though, in case nobody ever found out what really happened, and to fit the pieces together. I pretended to go to Brant's house one last time to fake my death. Only, the Council knew that Brant had set the fire. And even though he pretended to be broken by grief, they still ordered a memory break. So Gethen washed his mind. He made him think that I really WAS dead. When the council wanted to do the memory break, Kenric tried to convince them to do a probe instead." At that point, Sophie sucked in a breath. "He knew you were with the black swan?" she asked, feeling a pang. Yet another person who had kept secrets. "He did." Jolie agreed. "He pointed out that since Brant wasn't a Telepath, and wasn't ancient either, he wouldn't have a good way of preventing them from finding the information they wanted. So if they did not find it with the probe, they could do a memory break. But it didn't matter. They couldn't be convinced. They broke his mind!" She stopped, sobbing. They used a weaker Telepath for the probe. But as they kept pushing, and forcing Brant to relive the tragedy, he broke from grief- and guilt because he had set the fire. But he wasn't broken completely. They declared him guilty. They were all ready to send him to Exile. But Grady and Edaline bartered for his freedom. The council erased it from their minds, and our parent's minds too. But they couldn't risk any of their Telepaths erasing it from Brant's. He still worked with the Neverseen, but he couldn't know I was alive. No one could. No one did, except a select few members. Maybe if Brant did, he wouldn't have kidnapped two innocent children. Maybe he would still be alive. Maybe he wouldn't be broken." Jolie's voice choked off. She swallowed. "but we couldn't risk that his partially cracked sanity would compromise us when he got his annual visit from my parents. And we couldn't risk Gethen's mind by having him wash and trigger memories ever year, especially from a broken mind. So we kept him in the dark. But it was probably a mistake. When I found out what Brant had done..." She shook her head. "I shook it off, saying that it was his sanity. The person I was working with ensured me that Brant and Fintan did not represent the Neverseen's cause. She had a plan, and I listened. I agreed with her plan completely. But that was before I knew what it would entail. Her plan was to find out why humans could commit violent actions. But she didn't tell me she was planning to use this information to commit them herself. I figured she wanted to fix the violence amongst humans." "Wait..." Sophie said, confused. "Wasn't this right after I was kidnapped? Vespera was still in Lumenaria then." "She was." Jolie said. "Why?" "Because that was Vespera's plan." But Sophie's stomach dropped as she realized there was someone else who wanted that plan. Keefe said it for her. "My mom." Jolie nodded. "I had no idea Lady Gisela wanted a numb Empath to torture innocent humans, and I had no idea that she was experimenting with her son until it was too late. I let Tam free, but I had already done so much harm with those cuffs." Jolie sighed. "I never wanted this." No one knew what to say. "I am sorry I didn't trust you. They didn't me the details of Brant's death. Only that Mr. Forkle killed him. And Gethen got revenge for him. I didn't know that Mr. Forkle pushed him away just as a boulder fell. I pictured murder, when really it was an accident. I had no idea it happened while Mr. Forkle stopped Gethen from killing Oralie. And I didn't know that Gethen stabbed Mr. Forkle. When Tam told me... I realized I should reveal myself. Before anything else happens." She met Sophie's eyes, and surveyed the rest of their reactions. "Whoa," Keefe said. "Talk about info overload. You're saying you faked your own death! And you stayed with the Neverseen because of my mom? You clearly never heard the wise saying 'Don't trust Keefe's mom." "Of course I haven't," Jolie told them. "It doesn't exist." "Eh, I'm sure Foster has thought it a million times." Sophie's cheeks flushed when she realized she had. "And suddenly that's the qualification for 'wise saying?'" Dex asked. Then he turned to Jolie. "You're my cousin," he said. He looked like he wanted to say more, but it seemed like it was all he could manage. She nodded. "It could have been so nice having a younger cousin," She said through a sigh. "Do you think I should tell the rest of your friends next? Or the collective? Or... mom and dad?" The way Jolie said 'mom and dad' gave Sophie a feeling of warmth but also a pang that maybe, if they had Jolie back, they wouldn't want her anymore. Or she'd be their second favorite now. "I think you should tell Grady and Edaline," Sophie told her. "They deserve to know way more than we do." "I agree," said Jolie. "I don't think I can bear to keep it from them much longer. But I also think you should be there. Maybe you can help them understand." "Okay," Sophie agreed. "I'm sorry for inflicting on you, by the way." "It's okay," Jolie assured her. "I'm just glad you heard me out." "Me too." Sophie's heart felt lighter with the confession, and she wondered if she and Jolie might ever feel like sisters. But she couldn't help worrying about how Grady and Edaline would react.