Shades of Starlight (Hiatus)

Book Two: Chapter Twenty-Five

"So, guys, uh... I have some good news and some bad news," Keefe told Sophie and me, petting Silveny's soft head through the bars. She'd clearly missed him. "Neither of you know them already, so which do you want first?"

"Bad news," I said, bending down into a handstand to see if I could levitate in that position. Stormy batted at my face, the bell I'd added to her collar tinkling.

The news couldn't be that bad, Keefe would have already let me know if it was worse than what Sophie was going through at the moment.

"I... I kind of had to tell Dad what we're doing-"

"You what?" I fell down onto the dirt. Stormy made a 'yeep'-ing sound. Sophie looked equally shocked.

"-but before you freak out, don't worry, because I didn't tell him anything important."

"How could you have possibly told Father a believable lie? Wouldn't he have sensed your dishonesty?" I asked, sitting up and brushing myself off. I was always very careful about everything I said around our father, since he was an Empath, like Keefe, and knew our feelings.

"And why did you tell him anything? Aren't you supposed to be good at lying to adults?" Sophie chimed in.

"I'm the king of lying to adults. But yeah, he's an Empath, so I had to give him enough of the truth to hide the lies. He heard Sophie and I talking in Wanderling Woods and confronted me about it to demand he know what we were up to. All I told him was that Sophie needed an Empath to help with Silveny and about how much Glitter Butt loves me," Keefe explained, ignoring Sophie's snort/sigh combination.

"Why didn't you tell me about it, though?" I was slightly hurt and a little frustrated. Stormy bumped my palm with her head, something she did when she wanted me to pet her. My brother grinned.

"Because both of you are adorable when you're panicking." Sophie and I rolled out eyes in unison. "And by the way, he was super excited about this. Probably because Silveny is such a big deal, you know, and he thought it was just Cass helping with Glitter Butt, and I guess he kind of expects this stuff from you, sis... but anyway, later that night he gave me this."

Keefe pointed to the crest pinned on his cape. My jaw dropped. Woah. The crest was a circle, with two hands holding a candle lit with an emerald flame. The Sencen family crest.

"Wow," Sophie said, surprised.

I nervously closed my fingers around my own pin, standing up and letting Stormy climb up to my head. Mom had given it to me years ago, when I'd gotten into Foxfire.

Father had been a little upset with her for gifting it to me 'too early'. But she had smiled and reminded him how the Councillors that tested me had voted unanimously to grant my entrance, saying I was one of, if not the most powerful student they'd ever seen.

You can probably guess that that's not what the Councillors that tested Keefe said about him. Our parents had always said that we had to earn our place in the family. Apparently, Keefe had never done enough to earn his. Until now.

My brother must have sensed my complicated feelings about the situation. He smiled and patted me on the shoulder. Stormy jumped from my head to Keefe's extended arm.

"I don't blame you for me not getting the pin. You deserved it. Dad and Mom are really weird about family stuff, so don't feel bad that I haven't gotten one until now," he told me sincerely. I nodded with a half smile.

"So is that the good news?" Sophie asked.

"Part of it. The real good news is that he told me Cass and I can spend as much time here as we want-so we can see even more of each other!"