Chapter Thirty-One: Hello, Sister

After my lovely cliffhangers, I'm back! There won't be an Author's Note at the edn of this chapter because it will probably be my biggest cliffhanger yet and I don't want to ruin it with an Author's Note. So, I'm just gonna say please review and tell me what you think of this chapter! It's kind of short, but I figured that after I posted two chapters on Thursday you wouldn't mind.

When the boys arrived at the room, Amanda was pacing and everyone was watching her.

"What's wrong?" Michel asked, panting. "All Zoe did was send us a group chat that said, Emergency at Raven and Apple's room. Come quick."

They all turned to Zoe, who shrugged.

"Amanda said she had something to tell us, and said to get you guys," Cerise said. They all turned to Amanda, who asked something that surprised them all.

"In the three and a half months we've been here, have any of you seen a mysterious shadow figure?"

All sixteen of them nodded and she looked very panicked. "That was what I was afraid of. Listen, there's no time to explain, but I need someone to turn off the lights, and all of you take my hands."

Curious, the Ever Afters obeyed. The demigods already knew what she was doing, but didn't say anything.

A moment later, Amanda spun them into the shadows the moonlight created. She knew it was uncomfortable for the Ever Afters, but didn't care. This was too important.

When they got out of shadow travel, the demigods looked around in confusion.

"Amanda...why are we on Olympus?" Alex asked, giving his girlfriend a confused look.

"This is Olympus?" Raven said in amazement.

"It's beautiful," Dexter agreed, looking around at the nature, white marble, and stars in the sky. "I can't believe you guys grew up here,"

Amanda didn't answer."Follow me," she said.

To everyone's surprise, Amanda led them into the forest. The demigods had gone in here hundreds of times, and expected Amanda to have them stop walking soon.

But she didn't. She led them deeper in than they had ever gone before.

Still, they followed her without hesitation. The demigods had known Amanda their whole lives, and trusted her completely. But they were still confused. Why would Amanda be taking them into the forest?

There was a certain tension in the air as they walked, one that they all ignored but still felt. It was between Darling, Apple, Cerise, and Daring. Cerise, Darling, and Daring were fine with each other, but all of them had a tension with Apple.

Luckily, after half an hour of walking in silence, they finally stopped.

They looked around, searching for whatever Amanda had led them to, but couldn't see anything. Then, she cleared her throat.

They turned to see her motioning to the big oak tree by her, and saw that it had boards of wood attached to it, painted the same color as the tree. Amanda started up them and, after exchanging confused looks, the others followed.

When they reached the top of the latter, they saw that it led to a tree house. When they entered it, they were surprised by the sight.

Amanda stood in the middle of the tree house, which had seemingly random positions that looked like they belonged to a little kid scattered around it. They could see an old pink and blue sparkly microphone. There was also a small brown bear with a black nose sitting on a white shelf. There was a blue dress with little black flowers on it and a million other things.

Amanda picked up the little bear and traced one finger over it's nose.

"Amanda?" Alex asked gently, putting a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "What's happening? Why are we here?"

Those words seemed to snap Amanda back to reality. She set the bear down on the shelf and turned towards the shadows draped against the wall.

In a commanding voice, she spoke the millionth strange sentence of that night.

"Cedric, come here right now."

And even more to their surprise, a boy Amanda's age did in fact appear. He appeared out of the shadows.

The boy had longish black hair and pale skin. He had a square jawline and blue eyes that peeked out from behind his hair.

Alex frowned. He couldn't place it, but something about the boy seemed to be familiar.

"Hello, Amanda," the boy said.

Amanda glared at him.

"What? Angry at me?" the boy asked innocently.

"Angry?" Amanda asked in disbelief, her voice more full of anger than the others had ever heard. "Yeah, Cedric, that's one word for it."

"Now, Ammy-"

"Don't call me Ammy!" she snapped. "Eight years, Ced, eight years. That's how long it's been since we lost her and you disappeared."

"Ammy- Amanda, you know why I left," he said, his voice emotionless.

"Yes, I do. You're a coward! You leave without a word literally a week after we lose her, leaving me, Daniel, Aiden, and Jax to deal with not only her death, but your disappearance! We thought you were dead, Cedric! And now, after eight years you decide it's time to come back and decide to have a bit of fun with my friends for a while instead of just coming and facing me!"

"Well, there is a bit of a choosing process," he said coldly.

Amanda seemed to calm down enough to show her confusion.

"Choosing process?" she asked, her tone matching the boy's.

"Yes, the Mistress had to decide who was worthy after all," he said.

Amanda looked like she was about to say something, but Darling asked, "Okay, I'm sorry to interrupt, but who are you?"

Suddenly, Alex realized what seemed familiar about the boy - his eyes. His eyes were the same dark, deep blue as Amanda's.

"Excuse my manners," the boy said. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Cedric - Amanda's twin brother."