Shades of Starlight (Hiatus)

Chapter Twelve

"STOP!" I shouted. The Guster paused and looked down at me.

"TAKE THIS AIRPLANE TO CAIRO AND LAND IT SAFELY, WITHOUT HARMING ANYONE ON BOARD," I told them as sweetly as possible while still hollering as loudly as I could. To everyone else on board, I'd just screamed at absolutely nothing, since the cloaked figures held obscurers. Seconds later, the plane came to a halt and leveled out. The Guster pushed their arms forward, and the airplane shot off like a rocket. Mayhem ensued.

"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" A boy of about fifteen shouted. The woman next to us was screaming. Sophie was holding on to the armrests of her chair like she was glued to them. I realized I was somehow still standing, and sat down. The rest of our capturers, I noticed, were standing stock-still. They must be following my first order-to stop. I was grateful I didn't have to yell at them like a crazy person anymore.

"Are you some kinda witch or something?" The woman sitting next to Sophie asked me, apparently done with screaming. I smiled. She must have thought I had magical powers, since it seemed like the wind had listened to me. In a way, it had.

"Or something," I replied. Sophie giggled. She must have been remembering a time when she too thought the elvin way was magical.

"How long do you think it'll take to get to Egypt?" Sophie wondered.

"Not long, I don't think," I answered. We were going so fast, I wouldn't be surprised if we reached our destination in a matter of minutes. To pass the time, I showed Sophie the portrait I'd drawn of her, careful not to let it blow away. The colored pencils I used matched the real-life hues perfectly. She marveled at my attention to detail and artistic skill. My parents had never appreciated mine and Keefe's affinity for art. Not too long ago, Keefe had made Mom a beautiful necklace with handmade beads decorated with intricate flowers. I didn't think I'd seen her wear it even once.

My favorite kind of art to do was portrait art. Drawings of people and animals. I'd painted Mom, Father, Alden, Della, Alvar, Fitz, Biana, Maruca, Keefe, Grady, Edaline, and Verdi. I wanted to do Iggy next. Sophie had never posed for a portrait either. I'd never asked her to. Dex and Marella, Sophie's other best friend, weren't among my masterpieces either. I didn't feel comfortable enough to ask them yet.

"Cassia." Sophie was shaking my arm. I looked around and noticed that we were descending. In only a minute, we had landed on a runway in the Cairo airport. People started running out and heading for the main building. I put my portrait into Sophie's purse and we walked out of the plane to meet our kidnappers. They had all touched down on the ground outside the plane. I decided to make one of them give us a pathfinder so that we could leap to Foxfire. Now that we were so much closer, it would be an easy leap there, and neither of us would fade.

"Give me your pathfinders," I intoned, reaching out a hand. One of them stepped forward, stretched out their hand, and in a fluid movement, grabbed my arm and pulled me back, securing me with an iron grip. I screamed. Click. The person holding me pressed a melder to my head. Sophie stood paralyzed in front of me, as still as a statue. The leader stepped forward and spoke.

"You thought you could run from us, did you? Rest assured, you won't get away from us again. Come quietly and your little friend here will live to see another day." He took several long, thick silvery cords out of his cloak.

"What's it going to be?"

"Don't do it, Sophie!" I blurted. As Sophie stared back at me, terrified, the woman we'd been on the plane with was walking over to us.

"Are you all right, hon?" She said to Sophie. "Where's your friend?" I realized that Sophie must be standing outside of the range of our kidnapper's obscurer. The woman could only see Sophie, not me or our kidnappers.

"Um... I'm... " But before Sophie could respond, the man holding me pointed the melder at the woman. She went down without a sound. The man made a triumphant grunt, holding the melder loosely. I took his distraction as an opportunity. Kicking my attacker in the kneecap, I snatched the loosely held melder and darted to Sophie's side.

"Sophie, check on her," I said, referring to the woman. She dropped to the ground and took the woman's pulse. After a few seconds, she nodded at me. I breathed a sigh of relief. The lady wasn't dead because of us. She would be just fine. Sophie stood up, dusting herself off and raising her fists.

"What do you want with us?" She shouted at our kidnappers. Several of them laughed.

"That's none of your business," The leader told us. He pointed a melder at the unconscious woman on the ground.

"Come quietly, or she dies," he threatened. I gasped. He knew that we could never let her die. What could we do? We'd have to go with them. I couldn't live with myself if it became my fault the woman died.

Click. The unmistakable sound of another melder came from behind the group of kidnappers. A man of about twenty-five stood with one in hand, aiming at the leader of the group. I recognized him as the lady's son, the one who had lent me their colored pencils.

Crack! The woman who'd been shot with the melder was on her feet with her arms outstretched. Ice was spreading over all five of our capturers. She was a Froster! Both she and her son were elves... how did we not notice before?

The woman pressed a pathfinder into Sophie's hands.

"Get out of here, now. We'll take care of them," she told us. I shook my head and blasted the leader with the melder I held. Sophie grabbed my hand.

"We have to go, Cass!" I looked at her with wild eyes.

"No! We have to help-AAH!" The goon that had held me somehow had his hand free and blasted me with another melder, right at the start of my hairline. I collapsed. Sophie screamed. The young elvin man glanced over at us.

"LEAVE!" He shouted. Sophie nodded. But something was odd. Everything was... somehow off. Spinning, kind of. I watched the woman shoot two goons, the man yelling orders I didn't understand. Sophie raised the pathfinder, and the Cairo airport vanished in a rainbow of blinding lights.

Seconds later, I felt cool grass beneath me. Looking up, I saw blurs of hazy color-blue sky, brown and green trees. And Sophie, a pale white-and-red smear, screaming unintelligibly. A figure ran out of an enormous glass pyramid. I knew both them and the building, but my mind couldn't place them. The pain was almost unbearable-it wanted to take me away. Sophie... did she need me? Did she need my help?

"Sophie... ?" I whispered. I didn't have the strength to speak. The world was shifting, spiraling into a deafeningly silent wheel of colors and sounds. And just like that, it snapped, and I descended into darkness.