Unlocked

Seventeen - Keefe

Keefe stared at the small blue crystal, dazed. He rubbed his eyes, sure he was hallucinating. But it was still there. Sophie stared with the same expression, looking tongue-tied for a moment. Her eyes narrowed at her bodyguards, then said, "What's that?"

She stalked across the room and tried to take the crystal from Sandor, but he held it out of her reach. "It was on your bed, Miss Foster."

"Anything else?" She asked hopefully.

Sandor sighed, then held his hand out to Bo, waiting for him to give him something. Bo glanced between the three of them, then begrudgingly handed Sandor a small slip of paper.

Sophie quickly snatched it from his grasp. Her eyes clouded as she read it, and Keefe leaned in to see what it said. It read:

Bring Keefe.

-L.G.

Keefe read it over and over, thinking he must've missed something. He took it from Sophie and flipped it over, hoping for more. There was nothing—just a piece of parchment with two words. And a signature—from his mother.

Keefe's hands curled into fists.

Sandor and Bo eyed the two teenagers, waiting for one of them to speak. Sophie looked to Keefe. He whispered, "I have to go."

She took his hand. "We have to go."

He looked into her eyes. "I can't let you come."

A look of alarm spread across her face. "I'm not letting you go alone."

Keefe started to speak, but Sandor cut him off. "Neither of you are going."

Sophie and Keefe jerked their heads up in sync. Sophie again tried to grab the crystal from Sandor, but he jerked it away from her.

They all turned at the sound of her door creaking. Edaline stood in the door, eyes darting between the four of them. Her eyes widened as they settled on the cobalt crystal in Sandor's palm. Sandor muttered under his breath and shifted his feet.

Edaline's turquoise eyes looked so jaded, Keefe felt the need to reach out and hug her again.

Sophie's eyes were glued on the slip of paper, searching frantically for any hidden message, anything she could've missed. But as Edaline reached out and plucked the paper from her fingertips, Sophie didn't resist—her eyes just dropped to the floor.

Edaline read it, then sunk onto Sophie's bed, looking purely exhausted. Keefe watched her cautiously, waiting for a reaction.

Then suddenly her head snapped up, looking straight at her daughter with a strange expression. Keefe glanced at Sophie to see her eyes fixed intensely on Edaline. He saw Edaline give the slightest nod, so small he thought he must've imagined it.

He felt Sophie lace her fingers around his own, and he finally understood—she was transmitting to Edaline. And whatever she said must've convinced her, because faster than the blink of an eye, Sophie's mother snapped her fingers.

The tiny blue crystal disappeared from Sandor's palm and appeared in Edaline's outstretched hand as she locked eyes with Keefe. She quickly tossed it to him and he caught it, wrapping his hands tighter around Sophie's. He waited for the fading daylight to hit the facet and led Sophie with him into the light, letting the cool feathers pull them away.

The last thing he saw was Sandor's murderous expression.