Agent Moonlark

Chapter Thirty

Sophie

Gisela didn't move. Her expressionless mask faltered, and for a second, Sophie thought she saw hurt. It was so human an emotion that Sophie was momentarily confused. From what she'd seen so far of Keefe's mother, she was a heartless monster. It was so hard to believe that she and Keefe were even related.

But then the feeling, the sign that Agent Gisela, leader of the Neverseen, had a heart, left as soon as it came. And what remained was indifference with a tinge of disappointment.

"Then so be it." There was something hard about those words, like she was trying to convey the message the Keefe had made a terrible mistake. It almost made Sophie want to take a step back, but she did not move from her defiant stand.

Agent Gisela snapped her fingers, the snap reverberating through the air. And that was when chaos broke out.

The Neverseen moved so quickly that if Sophie hadn't been a trained spy, she wouldn't have seen them. But she saw them advancing on the Black Swan, while some, almost unnoticed, hung back, taking out long range weapons. It was obviously a practiced formation. And it was terrifying.

Then they leaped. Like shadows, onto the Black Swan.

All of a sudden, everyone was fighting.

A weight pinned down Sophie, talking her by surprise. She wasted no time in reaching inside her boot for her trusty dagger. A sting burned her left cheek, the pain gradually increasing by the second. She got her dagger out just in time to stab the person on top of her in the shoulder. The person did not scream, or even recoil. Instead, they took their hood off, showing fiery blue eyes and blond hair. He pulled out the knife like it was nothing, and smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Moonlark," he hissed. It was then that Sophie saw the weapon in his hand. It wasn't a sword, or a knife, or any of the standard weapons of the Neverseen. It was a lighter.

Before she knew it, her wrists were on fire. Inside, she was screaming in pain. She was writhing, kicking. But the only indication on the outside that she was affected was her eyes. They say the eyes are the window to the soul. Well, her eyes must have been showing her anger, her worry, her pain. Everything.

Sophie adjusted the Sucker punch Dex had made her, and punched him square in his pale face. His head snapped backwards, and Sophie used that opportunity to kick him off her. He tumbled away, but quickly got to his feet.

He smiled, his bloody teeth showing. "I would have thought you'd be harder to beat, Moonlark."

Sophie swept her foot under him, a trick she had found useful more than once. Unfortunately, he anticipated it and jumped over her foot. He landed in front of her.

Trying her best to channel her inner Biana, who was good at seemingly disappearing, she moved so fast that he went cross-eyed looking at her. She reappeared behind him, ready to stab his shoulder. But a hot hand grabbed her wrist, which was already tender from the burn.

"Not so fast, Moonlark." Burning blue eyes held hers, before she felt that flaring pain she had felt in her wrists just a few seconds ago. Except this time she felt it all over her left arm. And this time, she could see the flames licking at her, coming from the second figure's lighter.

"Nice job, Brant," the first person, the blond one, congratulated who must have been Brant. It disgusted Sophie how sadistic they were.

The pain made her whole body feel like Jello, but she knew she had to move. If she were anyone else, she would have been on the ground by now, huddled in a shuddering ball. But she was Sophie Foster, Agent Moonlark. She was determined to be harder to beat.