UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 8

Magnate Leto spotted them only a split second after Sophie did.  He scrambled over to the podium and yelled through the microphone, "Everyone evacuate through the back doors! This is not a drill!" 

Across the room, prodigies and their families were panicking and tripping over one another in an attempt to evacuate.  Costumes littered the floors, and screams of younger siblings echoed through the hall.  Sophie suspected a lot of them had no idea what they were running from, but an equal amount of elves had also spotted the villains. Someone stumbled over Sophie's toes and rushed off before she could apologize.

Before long, the room was deserted, left to just Sophie and her friends, as the adults had helped get the crowd under control.  Thankfully, the bodyguards stood protectively at their sides. Maybe they weren't completely alone in the fight after all.

"What do you want, Gisela?" Sophie demanded, anger bubbling up.  She was determined not to make the first move, trying to avoid any danger if she could help it.

Of course, with the Neverseen, they were all about danger.

Gisela looked at Tam, her eyes amused. "Look at my little shade pet, all grown up!" She cooed.  

Tam glanced at Linh who shook her head- they stared at each other for a moment longer, looking as if they were having a private conversation.  Without warning, Tam reached out and pulled shadows from the back of the room, shoving it at Keefe's mom. The shadows coiled like a snake and wrapped around Lady Gisela's waist.  Before he could make a move, Vespera jumped out of nowhere, and started wrestling with Tam in a way that reminded Sophie of her old cat, Marty.

Before the bodyguards could make a move, Gethen snapped his fingers and their eyes went white before they collapsed onto the ground.

Great, Sophie thought. Now we have no bodyguards because Gethen knows some magic trick.

From there, it was all over. Linh and Dex charged at Gethen, as Fitz and Biana blocked the exits, and Keefe ran over to help Tam.  Which left Lady Gisela to Sophie.

"What are you even here for?" Sophie repeated, stalling as she let her mental reserves build up. "Keefe's legacy is complete."

"Oh, but it's not.  He hasn't manifested.  Hopefully being in the heat of battle will trigger him."  Sophie hated how she got to use him like that, how she talked about him like he was some sort of object.

From across the room, she heard Linh scream as Vespera knocked her brother against the wall and he crumpled to the floor.  She caught Keefe struggling to fight back against Vespera, who was laughing manically. Thankfully, she didn't have any major abilities and was just an empath- unfortunately, Keefe was too.

She let her anger boil.

Her fear for her friends.

And her love for her family.

And all the fury for Keefe, because he didn't deserve to be treated that way.

And she let it all boil up and up, climbing like a mountain, and she looked at Lady Gisela in the eye.

A bolt of red erupted from her forehead, hitting Lady Gisela like a bolt of lightning.  She collapsed to the ground, giving Sophie one last look of loathing before her eyes snapped shut and she fell unconscious.

As she looked across the room, Sophie saw that her friends had done a good job of fending off the villains- until Gethen saw Lady Gisela unconscious, and Vespera struggling to defend herself against Keefe.

She watched, helpless, as Gethen snapped his fingers and his blue eyes turned white.

The world around Sophie vanished, and suddenly all she was aware of was blinding light, searing into her vision.  She could only hear her pulse, hammering like a hummingbird's wings.

Where was she?

Her consciousness reached around like hands, trying to get her bearings. She heard somebody shout out- someone gloriously familiar as darkness slowly crept into her vision like shadows, and the painful light died away.

Her first guess as she waited for her vision to return was Tam. The shadows had clawed its way into her mind in a way that reminded her of something a Shade would do.

Until she remembered that Tam was unconscious too.  But she was nearly positive that the person who had saved her was a Shade.

She did a mental check: Umber was dead. Tam was unconscious. Lady Zilliah, Tam's Shade mentor, had been bustled out of the room like everyone else.

And as her vision returned, she saw Keefe standing in the middle of it all, his body surrounded by thick, dark shadows.

In a way that reminded her of Tam. Who was a Shade.

And in that moment everything clicked together so perfectly right and so wrong all at the same time.

Keefe was a Shade.