Shades of Starlight (Hiatus)

Book Two: Chapter Thirty-One

I turned my disappointed gaze back to Sophie's pale, greenish face. She looked so much worse than I'd expected. Cautiously, I reached for my power.

"Sophie. Wake up." Sophie's brow furrowed as if she was concentrating, and one of her eyes cracked open, shutting almost immediately. "Soph!" I cried, relieved.

She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to talk, but all that came out was a hacking cough. I waited a second before trying to explain anything to her.

"You-you almost died," I said in a small voice.

Sophie winced, coughing again before speaking in a weak, raspy voice: "Sorry."

I laughed in disbelief. "Don't apologize. You're probably in a lot of pain right now-" Sophie hacked again, proving my point. "-but I got to meet your Mr. Forkle, and he said that you can't have any medicine for twenty-four hours. He also said he almost lost you, two times, should we really be trusting him?" Before she could reply, I waved my own question away. "He seems fine, even though he didn't give me any real answers. Anyway, he said he thinks you're okay now."

"Good."

"Yeah, but I don't really agree with him. You've got this greenish sweaty look, and your-and your hand..." I trailed off, staring at the purple-blue star-shaped splotch on her hand.

Sophie forced her eyes open to see what I was talking about. After a minute of gawking at her enormous bruise, she cleared her throat and moved her head away from the slightly horrific sight.

"I'm fine. Mr. Forkle told you they had to give me limbium, right?" She waited for me to nod. "Well, they had to give me a shot of some human medicine to stop my allergic reaction."

"Oh. I'm sorry, that... that looks so painful."

Sophie grimaced. "Yep, it's awesome to be me." She glanced over at Silveny quickly, and I guessed that the excited alicorn was happy to see her best friend again. "Did Mr. Forkle give you any other instructions?"

I pointed at a scroll Mr. Forkle must have dropped for us when he left. I hadn't immediately noticed it, but the white was a stark contrast from the dim, bluish-black cavern floor. Reaching forward, I noticed that it was only addressed to Grady and Edaline. I put it in my bag along with the snacks I'd decimated earlier. It took a while to figure out a way to fit it in without it getting squashed, and when I turned back, Sophie had curled into a shivering ball.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked, instantly at her side. I was no Empath, but it was obvious she was miserable.

Instead of an answer, a sob was her only reply. My face instantly softened. I scooted closer as she cried, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"S-sorry," she mumbled after a few minutes, sniffling and wiping at her nose and eyes with her sleeve.

"What for?"

"I-I should be braver than this," she said, a single tear trailing down to her chin. I wiped it off and looked into her beautiful brown eyes.

"You are the bravest person I know. By far. It is literally insane, the kind of things that have happened to you. So if anyone deserves to freak out or cry, especially right now, it's you."

"Th-thanks."

I waited a couple more minutes as she took deep, shaking breaths, flinching at the pain each must have brought. It was obvious that she'd been brought back from the brink this time. The agony she was going through right now seemed so unbearable to me. She really was amazing.

"I want to go home," she whispered, the tiny phrase echoing throughout the cave.

"Are you up for that?" I asked cautiously. "I don't think you should light leap, and it's such a long flight home."

"I'm hoping that Silveny will be able to teleport us back. We know where we're going, so I think we should be able to take the shortcut this time around."

"Ooh, that sounds fun. But do you need to rest any longer? We can wait."

Sophie shook her head, sitting up. Instantly, she clutched at her chest.

"Are y-" I started. She raised a hand, inhaling sharply several times before nodding. I stood and offered her my own hand to help her stand up. Her legs were steadier than I'd expected, and we hobbled over to where Silveny was watching us, her sparkly horse eyes full of curiosity.

The alicorn knelt, and I lifted Sophie onto Silveny's back. Sophie grabbed the alicorn's glittering neck to hold herself up. I slipped on behind her and wrapped my arms around her stomach for extra support.

"Am I holding too tight?" I asked as she winced.

"No, I'm just really sore." We both glanced around the enclosed cavern. "How do we get out of here?" Sophie asked.

"You ask us to remove the cloaking," a dwarf said as they popped straight out of the rocky ground. Sophie stiffened in surprise. The hairy creature flicked an invisible switch on the wall and the cloaking vanished, revealing the night sky once again.

"Thank you," I called to the dwarf as Sophie nudged Silveny so that the alicorn stepped out onto the ledge. The fresh ocean air was cold and salty, so much better than the dank, damp cave air. Sophie took a breath, ready to give Silveny the command when the horse's fur bristled under us.

"It's okay," I told the uneasy alicorn. No sooner had the words escaped my lips when a series of clanks broke the peace of the silent night. A black net fell from the cliff above our ledge, covering us completely.

I yelled, reaching for a weapon as Silveny reared back, but the edges of the net were weighed down by shiny metal spheres, pinning us to the ground as five cloaked figures dropped from above, surrounding us. 

A/N: OH MY GOD I'M SORRY. I literally took a month to update, and I know that nobody asked or cared except for me, but I guess I let me down, which is JUST AS BAD. I'm going to set a goal to update at least every Friday, so thanks to everyone who didn't seem to care that I didn't update because that would have put a lot of unnecessary pressure on me. Hope you enjoyed and see you next week!