The Awakening

You Love Her. Period.

Sophie's POV

"Miss Foster," Mr. Forkle cleared his throat, stepping a bit out of the cluster of the group. "I believe we have some things to discuss."

About fifteen later, after awkwardly and silently making our way to Eveglen, we were all seated at the long dining table with Mr. Forkle at the head.

"As you all know, the Council is hosting another Peace Summit," he started, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "They are inviting all of the leaders, plus a Neverseen leader and Miss Foster."

We all nodded, aware of this already, and looked at him in silence, waiting for him to continue. He let out a huff of frustration, as if he was expecting a completely different reaction than the blank stares he'd received.

"Well, when you were informed of this, did you hear the Black Swan mentioned at all?" Mr. Forkle asked the whole room.

We all were slightly taken aback, shaking our heads in stunned silence. I hadn't heard from Stina anything about the Black Swan being at the Peace Summit, but that hadn't fully registered until now. I guess I'd just assumed that they'd be there.

"That's because we were not invited," he continued, a tired expression on his face.

As expected, the room erupted in chaos of adults arguing and kids yelling.

"How could they do that?!"

"Who's going to make sure Sophie doesn't die?!"

"Why would they invite the Neverseen and not the Black Swan?!"

I was running the possibilities through my head; the Council could have wanted to avoid an argument between the Black Swan and the Neverseen, or maybe the Neverseen requested the Black Swan not be there. I honestly didn't even know if the Neverseen had accepted the proposal of the summit yet, so I couldn't include that reasoning in any of my theories.

"If you would just let me explain-."

"Did you even argue for a place at the summit?!"

"Now, hold on a minute-."

"Is the alliance between the Council and the Black Swan broken?!"

"No, but-."

Alright, I'd had enough of this. I concentrated on pushing the same sentence into everyone's mind: Shut up! and everyone quieted down in their confusion.

"Explain," I smiled sweetly, gesturing for Mr. Forkle to continue.

"Thank you, Miss Foster," he sighed, looking down and starting to play with the food on his plate with his fork. "The Council doesn't want us to be there because the Peace Summit is a trap."

Shocked gasps filled the room, even from me. I honestly never expected the Council to try to pull of something like this, even though it'll probably backfire on them when the real event takes place. The Council could be pretty manipulative when they wanted to be, but I failed to see them possessing the cunningness to outwit the Neverseen.

"The Council only invited suspects of treason and violation of the treaty. They have planned a 'surprise' for the guests that I'm not allowed to reveal," he continued, setting down the utensil he was using to push around his food. Okay, I'm not sure I'm liking the way he said surprise just then.

"But Sophie's a member of the Black Swan. And, even though she's definitely been a suspect of treason, that doesn't seem to apply here. Wouldn't she be in the trap, too?" Biana asked, voicing the question that was running through all of our heads.