Swan Song

Chapter Thirty One

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That being said...

Okay. Oh, man. You guys are going to hate me.

Crowd- I already do.

Me- I know, but the fans don't! Yet.

Crowd- I'm sure they hate you. Who wouldn't?

Me- Um... the fans?

Crowd- WRONG!

But yeah, you guys are going to hate me. More than you've ever hated me before. That includes when I erased Keefe's memory, by the way. Let's just say someone dies. But I'm not telling you who, you'll have to read the chapter. Please do tell me your predictions! --->

It's kind of on the short side, only just over 1,000 words, and it's my first time writing a fight scene, so it's probably not great- but oh well! You guys are going to hate me anyway!

Prepare the tissues, prepare the weapons, prepare the death threats, and enjoy!

Lady Gisela's lips curled into a smile. "Glad to see Keefe is awake. I trust you've already figured out what the stellarlune did to him? Now, we are going to need him very soon. Keefe, if you'll just come with me now, no one has to get hurt."

"No," Sophie almost yelled, instinctively moving in front of him.

Gisela cackled. "It will never fail to amuse me how the moonlark always thinks she can protect everyone, after failing over and over and over."

Sophie refused to admit how much the words stung- she was right, wasn't she? But then again... she hadn't died yet. None of her friends had died yet, despite overwhelming odds- two of them had been with the Neverseen, Biana had nearly bled out in Nightfall, Dex had been kidnapped by her, but all of them were still alive. She had tons of help, yeah, but she had saved all of them. They may not always win, but keeping her friends safe counted as a victory to Sophie. They would all come out of this alive.

They would.

"You're not taking him again," Sophie said, voice much steadier. Keefe sent a wave of ice blue into her head, making her feel stronger. More confident.

They would all come out of this alive.

"Sophie, that's very sweet of you, but why don't we let my son make his choice?" Sending another wave of ice blue, Keefe stepped out from behind Sophie and stood next to her, taking her hand in his. Gisela's smile grew wider. "Keefe, if you come with me, none of your friends will get hurt, I promise. But if you don't... let's just say their deaths will be on you."

Say no, Sophie silently begged, not even daring to transmit it. Please say no.

"If you think I'm actually going to let you kidnap me again, you must be even more insane than I am," Keefe said finally. Sophie let out a noise somewhere between a sigh of relief and a sob, almost attacking him with a hug before remembering they still had to fight. She had to settle for transmitting Thank you.

No problem.

Lady Gisela's eyes narrowed. "Fine."

Without warning, the room caught fire right along the left wall. Linh yelped and extinguished it. Marella was the first to speak. "Fintan?"

"Indeed."

The only logical thing to do was to inflict. So she did, until a scream split the air and her concentration broke. Head throbbing, Sophie realized that a Voiciforator was there. Before she could even finish processing that, electricity crackled through the air. Keefe grabbed the arm of a hooded woman and zapped her until she collapsed.

"Man, I'm loving this new ability," he muttered, before rushing over to where Linh and Marella were fighting Fintan together. Tam, Biana, and Glimmer were all fighting a man who kept flickering in and out of sight. Fitz and Dex were attacking Gisela and two other hooded figures. Sophie tried again to muster up enough anger to inflict on Lady Gisela, before she noticed someone else standing in the corner of the room, not fighting anyone, just watching with scowl on her round face. She was definitely no older than Sophie, and- Oh, Iggy fart, that must be the mesmer, alicorn feces, alicorn feces!

"Freeze," the girl muttered, barely loud enough for Sophie to hear.

Sure enough, when Sophie tried moving her leg, it was stuck. Even simply shifting her weight to the other foot felt like she was pushing against a thousand pound weight. But why would she want to move anyway? It would be much less effort just to stand here and do nothing. She wanted to stay still-

No she didn't! Not when a throwing star was on its way towards her throat!

She tried to move, she tried to scream, she tried, she tried, she tried, but-

She was going to die.

Sophie squeezed her eyes shut.

But then a second passed, and then another, and then another, and she noticed that she was still alive. Slowly, one eye opened. And then she saw in front of her, and snapped her eyelid shut again, trying to force the memory out of her brain. But the image was seared in there.

Sandor.

Crumpled on the ground.

The throwing star lodged in his chest.

A scream escaped her throat, forming Sandor's name, until it didn't mean anything anymore, utnil she was just screaming and screaming and screaming but it wouldn't do anything nothing would do anything because Sandor had died, Sandor had died protecting her, and it was her fault, she should have tried harder, she should have moved, she should have died instead, and all she could do was scream and scream and scream. Distantly, she heard Biana yell her name and Ro yell Sandor's and Keefe whisper "Gigantor," but it didn't matter, nothing mattered, and her vision blurred and she couldn't take all of the emotions anymore so she forced them out of her, inflicting all of her pain and grief and anger on those people who killed Sandor, she had never felt more hate in her entire life than she did right now, they killed him, they killed him, they killed him. They deserved to die, they deserved to suffer and feel all the pain in the world, so much that they would want to die, but no amount of revenge would ever be enough because nothing could make up for losing Sandor, nothing, nothing, nothing...

"Foster. Sophie. Sophie." Ice blue waves in her head did nothing to calm her down, she was still screaming, and only then did she realize she was crying, cold wetness covering her cheeks and the taste of salt in her mouth, but she didn't care-

"Stop! Stop. Just- stop. Please. Don't hurt anyone else," she heard Keefe beg, and more ice blue flooded her mind, and she heard him whisper "Sophie, I'm so sorry," before his volume returned to normal and he said "Fine. I'll- I'll come with you."

I told you that you were going to hate me. But that's okay, because I hate me too for what I did to Sandor!

AHHH it hasn't quite caught up with me yet that I just killed him.

I definitely think he's going to die, though, and hopefully this prepared you for that.

As for what happened to Keefe... you'll have to wait and see!

Please comment. --->