New World

Chapter Twenty-seven

"Okay. Sav, we have a slight problem," Cerulean said. He'd recovered slightly during the night, and he was still paler than normal, but he'd recovered his strength.

"Yes," Savi said. "You slept on my sofa." She didn't add in the part that she'd stayed with him. She'd woken up earlier than him and had gone back to her bedroom and messed up her bed to keep up the pretense.

"What's wrong with that?" he asked oddly, and while she tried to splutter her reply, he went on, "And the problem is we both just openly defied the Neverseen."

"Oh, that." Savi waved her hand airily. "I'll deal with Gisela."

"Sav, a thing like this could lead to banishment from the Neverseen. We may never be allowed back," Cerulean said. His voice had the slightest hint of panic in it.

"And what do you suggest we do?" Savi snapped.

Cerulean took in a deep breath. "I suggest you go back to Sophie and Keefe."

Her eyes flashed immediately, and darkened until they looked like she was planning a brutal murder. Her ice blue eyes - they'd changed back to ice blue during the night - darkened to a deep midnight blue.

Cerulean jumped backwards, nearly toppling off the sofa. "What happened to your eyes?" he demanded.

She flinched. It was happening again. "Nothing," she whispered, and her eyes paled back to ice blue. "The blood loss must be making you hallucinate."

"Sav..." Cerulean murmured.

"I don't know what happened to my eyes," she said, "and I don't intend to find out."

And so it went. They camped in Savi's room for weeks, and weeks turned to months. The Neverseen never bothered them, leaving them to their own devices. And before she knew it, Savi's twelfth birthday passed. She didn't mention it to Cerulean, but she was twelve.

So young. And yet so... Stupid.

He tried convincing her every day to go back. But she said no, each and every time.

"What do you think will happen?" Savi demanded irritably. "I'm sure Sophie wants nothing to do with me, and do you really think Theodora is going to take you back?"

"We have to try," Cerulean insisted, and the earnest look in his eyes crushed her.

"You can't be so trusting," she murmured, turning her back on him. Every day, they had the same argument.

"I'm going to go back to Falcon Cove," he said unexpectedly.

"How?" she asked.

He raised a home crystal to her face.

Falcon Cove.

His home.

Away from her.

She cursed softly under her breath and pulled away from him, her eyes turning several shades darker, and moved to the back of the room.

"You can go," she whispered. "I know you belong with them. I've told you so many times..." She shivered despite herself, her body paling to blend in with the wall. "It's fine."

"You're not going to come with me?" he asked quietly.

She looked him in the eye, her eyes hollow and sad. "The Neverseen is my home now."

"Sav-"

"Cerulean, we'll be sent to Exillium if we're not Exiled," Savi said flatly. She didn't point out the fact that he'd go the same way as his parents and brother.

But he evidently didn't need the pointing out. He flinched.

"Look, this isn't a ploy to go to my parents," he began.

"I know you're not," she cut him off. "You're just... Good, in a way. I meant what I said, that you belong there. Not... Not with me. You're not supposed to be with the outcasts."

"I am an outcast." He was stepping closer to her.

She held up a hand to stop him. "I'm not going to stop you," she said calmly. "But it might be smarter to just go straight to Exillium. We can start over, there. Exillium is a prison, Cerulean. The coaches changed and the Council got their torture chamber back. So we'll be similar to all the other prisoners and outcasts there."

His expression was downcast. "Sav..."

"I'm never going to go back," she whispered fiercely. "My parents and my sister... Are gloriously stupid. The world is far from their Dreamland."

"Come with me, please," Cerulean held out his hand again.

"Exillium or nothing," she said, without moving a muscle.

"Exillium," he promised. "We can get to the Neutral Territories."

Then she took his hand.

𝐂𝐞𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕

Cerulean held onto Savi's hand. It was cold and flickering from beige to green. She didn't usually lose control of her strange new ability, which they had called Chameleon, unless her emotions were strong. And green was apprehension and fear.

He took out his yellow crystal and glanced at her. She wasn't even looking at him, her eyes focused on the ground.

Then he saw what she was looking out. A tuft of orangey-red fur on the ground pinned to a letter.

"What have they done to her?" Sophie whispered.

Cerulean understood 'her' to mean Savi's pet fox thing. She claimed it was a red panda, but it looked like a fox to him.

Her hands were shaking when she reached for the letter. He grabbed it instead, opening it and showing her.

It was a short note written in unknown handwriting.

𝘕𝘰 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.

But Savi recognized the handwriting and shredded the paper, letting the remains fall to the ground.

"She'll pay," Savi hissed.

"Who?" Cerulean asked. "Gisela?"

"Not Gisela," Savi hissed, "my mother."

"How would she get here?" Cerulean demanded wildly.

"Unless... It wasn't her," Savi said, bewildered. "Seri's handwriting looks just like Sophie's, but she's seven, that wouldn't make sense..."

"Or someone else copied their handwriting," Cerulean pointed out mildly. He was pretty sure Savi was making a mountain out of a molehill. Her pet might be dead, which was sad, yes, but at least she wasn't dead.

"Why did they kill her?" Savi whispered. She instinctively backed to the wall, to be alone, because she'd been alone for far too long.

Cerulean stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her to help her through the pain like she'd done for him so many months ago, and she buried her head in his chest, sobs racking her body.

"We have to leave soon," he murmured, and her crying subsided. She stood up, tear tracks glistening on her face but a look of utter determination on her face.

"Let's try our luck with Exillium."

"Actually, why do you want to go to Exillium so badly?" Cerulean asked. "We can always go to Fal-"

"No," she said. "We can't. And Exillium because we need to complete our education somewhere, and we can't go to Foxfire."

"I suppose that's true," Cerulean said. "Well, to the Neutral Territories we go, then."

"Don't look back," Savi said, gripping his arm as he raised the yellow crystal to the light.

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟏𝟎𝟕𝟑

𝐎𝐡... 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫! 𝐔𝐦, 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬, 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐬!