Elysian Kotlc

"That's not possible."

Sophie was sitting in the cafeteria, staring at her uneaten tray of food, as all her friends chimed in with their loud opinions of what had just happened with Forkle.

"Keep your voice down, will you?" Fitz growled, aggravated. He was sitting in the seat farthest from Sophie.

"Sorry," Dex said, with a quick, sheepish glance between Sophie and Fitz. "It's just- I don't understand. Bottling moonlight supposedly impossible."

Sophie have a short laugh. "Four years ago, I would've called you insane for telling me dinosaurs had feathers. Besides, Mr. Forkle said 'Moonstrike' might even be a forgotten secret. I can see the council spreading lies to cover up the truth."

Her friends muttered their quiet agreement. "But you know what this means, don't you?" Came Fitz's same aggravated voice. "It's not just secrets and lies and truth. If you really can bottle moonlight..." He trailed off for a second, and a slight amount of sulkiness fell from his face as his eyes slid from the table straight to Sophie's face, "What else could you bottle?"

"Hey, sweetie, good day at school?" Grady called when he saw her leap into the pastures.

"Fine," Sophie replied unconvincingly.

Grady watched her, not saying anything.

"Anything on Sandor, or Keefe?" She asked.

He sighed. "Nothing."

Sophie bit her lip, considering telling him everything she'd found out. But thinking he'd freak out, she didn't, just watching the ground.

"Do you think Sandor could be..." She started.

"No," said Grady firmly. "They wouldn't get rid of something that could easily manipulate us. You need to be careful, Sophie. You never know when they'll turn up again."

Sophie said nothing.

"Sophie." She looked up. "I need to talk to you."

"About?" She wasn't sure what could be so bad that he wanted to talk about, but she didn't like his tone.

"The Neverseen are more powerful than they've ever been-" He started, but Sophie cut him off.

"So I need to be extra careful, not runoff, stay by an adult or bodyguard at all times- I know, I know." She said grumpily.

"No, Sophie. Well, yes- but that not what I wanted to talk about. As I was saying, the Neverseen are more powerful than ever. They've taken Sandor, and my guess is, they're going to try and bribe you using him. There's no telling what else they've done. It's going to be hard to trust-" his eyes glinted slightly, "Anyone these days. So be careful who you rely information to."

"I-" Sophie didn't know what to say. Her mind flashed to her table full of friends, and their faces as she'd explained everything Forkle had said. The public setting, the silence from some of them. But no. She could trust her friends- they'd been through so much together.

"Okay." She said.

"Good." Grady kissed her cheek. For a moment, everything felt okay- or better. The sun was setting over the pastures, and the animals were more quiet than Sophie had eve heard them be.

But, of course, the peaceful moments never last.

A large, gray shape came barreling over the cliffs, stumbling on the grass, with spots of red all along him.

With a shock, Sophie realized who it was.

"Sandor?" Grady called in disbelief.

Her bodyguard took larger steadying breaths, and, without replying, he croaked, "You have to go. You and Sophie and Edaline- you have to go. Gis- Gisela's shards- they're..." His breath faltered, he staggered over, and Sophie and Grady looked at each other in confusion and fear.

"...They're coming."

Sorry its been so long since I've updated! The month of March has overall been super stressful academically, but things are slowing down now. Hopefully I'll be able to update more- but I'm going on a three week vacation soon, so I won't be able to update then, but after that, school will be out so I'll be able to update a lot more often. Anyways. Happy Easter! Thanks for reading! ❤️❤️