Keeper of the Lost Cities: Forgetten

Chapter 3

Sophie couldn't stop herself from shaking. Biana had gotten hurt because of her. Her best friend nearly sacrificed herself for her.

After Biana lost consciousness, Sophie was able to hail Elwin and tell him to go to Tam and Linh's house. Tam and Sophie had to levitate Biana's body to ground because Fitz was too horrified to do it himself. Sophie couldn't blame him. After all his older brother and his best friend turned against him and now his younger sister was probably on the verge of death. Sophie understood the feeling of losing people close to her but not as harsh as Fitz had it. She deserved his anger that was clearly showing on his face but when she was finally able to get on the ground, Fitz pulled her into an embrace. She was confused. Shouldn't he be angry at me?, she thought. She hugged him too and Fitz pulled away, tears streaming down his face. He walked to where Biana was and used his levitation to pull her body up and push it towards the house. Everyone else just silently followed. Sophie stayed back and looked at the tree, the blood still dripping from the branch. Something caught her eye. A black piece of cloth was tied to the tree next to it where that branch was connected and on the cloth was a white eye. Sophie gasped, horror filling itself in her mind as the realization hit her.

The Neverseen were here..

Sophie stifled a scream and used her telekinesis to bring the cloth to her. She stuffed it in the pocket that Sandor sewed into all her skirts and ran to catch up with the others, keeping her mind closed as she got closer to Fitz.

"Bullhorn ran up to Biana the second he sensed her and laid on her stomach." Dex covered his face with both hands. Sophie and the others were forced to wait outside the spare bedroom of Tam's and Linh's house since Elwin didn't want anyone to get hurt by Fitz whose anger started to show the second they saw Elwin. Tam led them to the living room and sat there while Elwin checked on Biana. They could all hear stuff crashing and breaking as Fitz screamed. All Sophie could do was listen. She lowered her head down and stared at her basic black flats.

This was all my fault, she thought willing herself not to cry.

My fault.

My fault.

A coldness swept over her body. She shivered a little bit.

You know I can hear you. I may not be a skilled telepath or even an actual telepath but I do know how to get into your mind, Tam said.

Sophie looked down at her shadow and saw his crossing over it. She looked up at Tam's face and saw he was looking over at Linh, who was deathly pale.

"Linh, are you ok?" Tam kept looking at his twin.

Linh jumped up a little and looked at him. "Yeah I'm fine." Tam smirked at her. "No you're not. You look like father after I melted my registry pendant." Linh covered her mouth and it seemed like she was stifling a laugh. Tam actually smiled. He put his arms around Linh and kissed the top of her forehead. "Who knew the Shade had a warm side?" Dex whispered into Sophie's ear. Sophie laughed and Dex joined. "The Shade can hear, you know?" Tam said and glared at the both of them. Even though his glare was cold, Sophie couldn't stop the warm feeling in herself as she laughed.

A loud crash came from the spare bedroom and Sophie watched as Fitz stormed out of the room, walk over to the living room and plop onto the empty chair on the other side of the room. Everyone stared at him. There was a huge gash on his arm and he was breathing heavily. He ran his hands through his hair in a rushed manner probably giving himself a major headache so he could block the hideous thoughts going through his mind that even a talentless could tell just by looking. Linh looked at Tam and pulled away from him. She sat next to Fitz and started to put her hand on his back. Sophie saw as Fitz flinched at the touch then slowly start to compose himself again. Tam looked over to the two of them then got up and walked over to Sophie. She was surprised when Tam held out his hand and helped her up out of her chair.

"Follow me", he whispered into her ear. Sophie started to follow Tam but Fitz got up suddenly and grabbed Tam's shoulder. "Where do you think you're going?" He said deadly calm. "Just taking Sophie for a walk. She needs her exercise." Tam smirked and Sophie glared at him. Sure, Sophie wasn't as healthy as the other elves because of her human upbringing and near death experiences but she was still more healthy than the average 14-year-old human girl. Fitz looked at the both of them and his grip seemed to tighten around Tam's shoulder. Tam didn't even look like he felt anything. Fitz sighed and released his grip. "Back here. Twenty minutes. Or else." Fitz shot one more glare at Tam then went over to sit with Linh again.

Tam leaned against the same tree that Sophie and Fitz used as their base. He rubbed his shoulder as if Fitz actually hurt him. Sophie stood in the sunlight and waited for Tam to say something. They already wasted ten minutes. Sophie rubbed her hands which were still tinted with red from Biana's blood. She looked at the tree's leaves to the patterns of dots to Tam's cold face. She started to count the number of silver flecks she saw in his eyes when Tam cleared his throat. Sophie noticed that Tam had his arms crossed and was standing in a impatient manner.

"What's in your pocket?" He pointed towards the right side of Sophie's skirt where the black clock was sticking out of her pocket. She reached over to tuck it back in but Tam was too fast. He used his telekinesis to bring the cloth to him and paled. "Why do you have this?" He said in a disgusted tone. "I found it attached to the tree where the branch was connected." Sophie said in a rush. Tam paled even more and Sophie saw as the realization hit him too. His shock turned into rage then back to a look of fear. Sophie was about to ask him what's wrong when he disappeared in front of her.

"Tam! Tam!" Sophie looked around the area "Ta--" The air was knocked out of her. Sophie found herself being pushed back against a tree by an invisible force. She wanted to scream but no sound came out. She started to panic. Did the Neverseen decide to strike? Was Alvar holding her, waiting for Fintan or Brant to burn her alive? She started to kick and thrash as coldness started to inch its way through her body.

Shhhh..

It's me, Tam.

Don't make a sound.

Don't fight.

Just stay still.

Sophie did as Tam told her and watched as four white blobs came into view in front of her. One of them was only an outline of a human figure. Another one seemed to have spheres circling around him or her and one that had an outline on a shield in front of them. And the last one seemed to glow brighter then the rest of them. All had black eyes on their sleeves. Sophie covered her mouth so she wouldn't scream. She watched as the figures ran back into the forest and disappear from sight. The coldness in her body vanished, leaving her shaking. She would have fell to her knees if a figure hadn't caught her in time. She looked up and saw it was Tam, his jaw locked. She looked back to where the figures were standing and repeated the scene in her head. She came to a conclusion.

The Neverseen is here.