what happened after unlocked

chapter twelve ~ possessed

Keefe was at Havenfield.

With Tam.

When they arrived at Sophie's house, having just leaped there, they were holding hands, but let go as soon as they materialized on the purple grass outside of the Havenfield mansion.

And Sophie was pretty sure she screamed.

She was just in her bedroom, marveling at the fact that Keefe had actually agreed to talk to her in person. She spent a day reading his letter, wondering if he was the same person who wrote it, occasionally speaking with her friends, and then when the next day came, he was in her house.

With Tam!

"What are you two doing here? Together? And I thought we agreed to meet in another," Sophie counted back the hours mentally, "day."

Keefe's lips twitched like he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with them. "This is an emergency."

Tam opened his mouth to speak but Keefe held up his hand to stop him. "We have a lot to explain. But first, tell your parents or the gnomes or something to make sure that the alicorns, all of them, are in some sort of safety enclosure thing."

"Huh?"

Tam gestured for them to move into the lounge room.

Sophie glared at them both expectantly when she sat down.

"Long story short, Alvar was at the hotel we were at and he told us that he heard from an old Neverseen member that my mom is going to kidnap the alicorn twins to use as leverage against you."

Sophie held up her hand and let her eyelids flicker shut. "Can you just go back right to the beginning? Why were you two both staying at the same hotel?"

Tam's cheeks went a little red, and Sophie's eyes narrowed as she read his embarrassed emotions. "Could we please not dwell on that? Lady Gisela could be coming any minute now."

Sophie stood up. "Fine. But don't expect me to leave this alone."

She fast-walked out of the door but before she could completely disappear around the corner she winked at Tam.

He was embarrassed for a reason.

"Mom! Dad!" she called into the pastures, hoping for a loud echo, but the acoustics of the fields weren't super good.

She continued calling, knowing that in the early hours of the day they would either be eating breakfast or trying to wrestle a dinosaur – she'd walked past the kitchen with Keefe and Tam and hadn't seen her parents.

"I'm...just...HERE...Sophie!" Edaline yelled through her teeth, and Sophie turned to see a faraway Edaline pulling on a rope attached to the gorgodon's neck, which was thrashing around in its cage.

Sophie rushed over and grasped the rope to help. "What's going on with this creature? It's never been this fierce. Well, actually, it has, but still!"

"I don't know," Edaline said, gritting her teeth, "but I wonder if you could use your new powers to help with this particularly tricky animal?"

Sophie dropped the rope and sighed. She'd only don't that once and she never wanted to do it again – but wasn't the point of having powers so that you could control them? Maybe hers were different to Keefe's.

"I'll try," she sighed, and summoned as much power as she could in her body.

She focused on the gorgodon's emotions, amazed to find that it felt...threatened.

Scared.

Lonely.

Anxious.

Vulnerable.