After Stellarlune

Chapter Fifteen

The whole room erupted into noise, as everyone practically screamed, "What?"

"I'm going to need you to be quiet first," Mr. Forkle said. "And I'm sure you want to hear this, so I would suggest doing what I asked."

"What is it?" Sophie asked again, after everyone quieted down.

"We have a crisis," Mr. Forkle said. "Has Marella ever mentioned... another sibling?"

Sophie frowned. She had thought Marella was an only child, but... she had never said she was. In fact, she barely knew anything about Marella's family life, except that her mom had gotten a head injury when Marella was three, and was still suffering from the fall.

"A sister?" Biana guessed, looking at Mr. Forkle with wide eyes.

"No," he said. "A brother."

Sophie bit her lip, wishing she was a better friend. How had she not known Marella had a brother? But maybe she wasn't such a bad friend, because Linh looked shocked. And Maruca was raising her eyebrows. And Stina said, "If Marella has a brother, why hasn't she told us about it?"

"It's actually possible she never knew," Mr. Forkle admitted. "He is thirty or forty years older then her."

Sophie crinkled her nose. She was mostly used to the elves infinite life span, but sometimes it still caught her off guard with weird new truths. 

"I don't buy that," Maruca said. "Marella is the queen of gossip. There's no way she wouldn't have found out about it."

"So you'd rather believe your friend has been lying to you as long as you've known her?" Mr. Forkle challenged. 

"Not lying," Linh cut in. "We never asked if she had any siblings."

"However you see it," Mr. Forkle brushed off. "But the most important thing isn't why she withheld this information, or if she knew, it's who her brother is."

"So who is it?" Keefe said. "You've been dragging it out forever, just tell us already." 

"Very well," Mr. Forkle said. "But I'm sure you could guess, based on your recent conversation. Or if you just ask Grady."

And then suddenly Sophie realized who it was. She couldn't believe she hadn't guessed as soon as Mr. Forkle mentioned a brother.

Even though their hair and eye color were different, they were both pyrokenetics. And when Sophie put the two faces together in her mind, she could see similarities in their eyebrows, and their noses. 

"It's Brant," she breathed, when none of her friends said anything.

They all sat there in shock, but with every silent second, Sophie could tell more and more that it was definitely true.

There had been too many big reveals in the last couple days for her to function another one.

"I can't believe she never told us," Linh finally mumbled. 

"She might not have known," Sophie reminded her.

"Oh she definitely knew," Stina said darkly, exchanging glances with Linh and Stina. 

"What makes you think that?" Fitz asked.

"We were practicing, and just talking about random things," Maruca said. "And then we were talking about how lucky Linh was to have such an awesome brother, but it was like Marella got offended or something. Probably because her brother is... you know."

Sophie couldn't tell if she wanted to end the sentence with part of the Neverseen, or not alive.

Probably the latter, because Maruca shuddered.