UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 72

The next moments happened so fast that Sophie could barely keep track of what happened and what was happening...

Because Lady Gisela didn't account for one very crucial thing.

If she was mesmerizing Sophie, who was controlling Maruca?

In the flicker of her vision before she landed in the flames, she saw Maruca snap off her bonds and blink around, trying to get her bearings. Her eyes landed from Oralie, to Lady Gisela, and then to Sophie...

And right before she was about to hit the fire she- stopped. Her hand was grabbing on to a ledge on the wall of the cave and her feet her dangling right by the Everblaze...

"Maruca," Lady Gisela said, gritting her teeth in frustration. "Get. Back. Now. Or I drop the moonlark in the fire and watch her burn."

"I have an idea," Maruca told her instead. "You get her right back here or I keep you in that force field forever."

Keefe's mom looked around and realized that she was now alone in Maruca's little bubble.

"You can't keep this up forever!" 

"Yes I can," Maruca said proudly. "It's really not that hard. Just a snap-" the force field fizzled to the ground and Lady Gisela sprinted to get out... "-and a snap."

A new one appeared where she'd ran.

Sophie's fingers were slipping on the edge, the rock she was holding onto was slowly crumbling and falling into the flames...

Lady Gisela turned around to see Sophie sliding. "Fine. Keep me in here for as long as you want. It won't take that much longer for our little moonlark to slip-slide into the Everblaze all by herself, will it? And I'm the only one who can mesmerize her into escaping from that horrible little place she's gotten herself into. But I can't mesmerize through this force field, so if you want your moonlark to live, I suggest you take it down......"

"Never," Maruca told her coldly, though Sophie could sense the hesitation in her voice.

Keep her distracted, Sophie transmitted, readjusting herself on the ledge to get a better grip on the rocks.

Maruca gave a tiny nod and continued taunting Keefe's mom. "It's kind of sad you know. I've heard the whole story- your own organization betrayed you! They laughed. In. Your. Face! Because they trusted Adela. And because Adela learned to love."

Maruca glared at her stonily. "You can mesmerize anybody you want, but it's too bad you can't mesmerize yourself into-"

Sophie spaced out from then. She gathered up every ounce of mental energy that she could muster- imagined her mind igniting like the Everblaze below her -and let the energy spark and flicker until she could finally shape it into a flame....

".... and you can't even do that!" Maruca was saying. Gisela's glare was completely on her, clenching her fists in anger.

And Sophie let the flame burning in her head shoot across the air like a row of fire. Maruca snapped her fingers and the force field fell... Lady Gisela turned around just in time to be hit head on with Sophie's inflicting.

Maruca sprinted over to Sophie and helped her down. "You okay?"

"Yes," Sophie lied. "We need to get out of here. The cavern is collapsing and-" her voice cracked but she shook the thickness from her throat "-we have to check if... if they're still alive in the other cave."

"I'm sorry," Oralie murmured in her ear as they hurried out of the crumbling cavern. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you. I was just... us Councillors... I never realized how much everyone has to face while we sit up on our thrones, watching you. And how we get to pretend that none of it is happening for the 'good of our people.'"

Sophie bit back a snarky remark and told her, "Thank you."

She breathed in the fresh air. "Everyone okay?"

"I'll live," Maruca offered, grimacing. They were all sufficiently burnt thanks to Lady Gisela's kind helping of Everblaze.

Sophie felt herself getting light-headed as she saw the enterance to the cave completely covered in boulders. "We'll have to use telekinesis." 

Thanks to Keefe's trick- and the Foster Foot Energy Triumph, as he'd called it -the process was relatively fast. But every second counted- and it didn't help that she'd gotten the helpful method from the very person she feared most was dead.

The cave was singed like a burnt piece of toast. Sophie looked around- for somebody, anybody...

And at least they weren't dead.

But this might've been worse.

They were gone.