*Chapter Five*

SARAH GAVE A GRIM SMILE as she sat down on the bench. That morning, she had just barely been able to make her way through Candleshade. She avowed to Keefe that the place made her feel as though someone was always behind her, ready to leap out and spook her.

She had no idea why she confided in him, but something in Keefe just made it easy for Sarah to trust him. Plus, the map was genuine. It hadn't been a prank. Keefe really did mean to help her. She supposed he had good intentions, then.

Right now Keefe was showing her around Foxfire, the prestigious academy that all of nobility attended. "Once we get everything figured out, Foxfire is the place you'll go to school for," he had said.

This was Keefe's special ditching spot, for whenever he decided on skipping class or study hall. "Sophie is the only other person who knows about it," he said, grinning.

"I'm honored," Sarah snarked. "But, mostly bored."

Keefe raised his eyebrows. "Wanna bring down the rain?"

"It's already thundering," grinned Sarah. Keefe high-fived her.

"Time for you to get a crash course in pranking. From only the best, of course," Keefe bragged.
What Keefe didn't know was that what he said wasn't true. "Uhh, I already know how. I did it, like, all the time back at school in San Diego."

"San Diego? Wasn't that where Sophie lived when she was raised by humans?" Keefe mused to himself. But he grinned. "Good thing you already know how, then. I don't have to waste time explaining stuff to you. We can just jump right into it!"

The two worked silently and rigged a gulon trap. Obviously there weren't gulons in the Forbidden Cities, so Sarah was new to that aspect of pranking, although she kept her pride. But Keefe quickly helped her with that bit and she soon had the ropes.

Presently an unsuspecting student launched the trap. "Who's that?" Sarah asked as the student, a boy with jagged, silver-toned bangs scowled at the gulon that had just latched itself on his forehead. A very nauseous smell soon filled the room.

"Let's go!" Keefe said, ignoring her question. Sarah shrugged. He'll tell me later, she thought.

But as they walked to a class together, Sarah thought she heard Keefe mutter cheerfully under his breath, "Bangs Boy didn't see it coming!"

Who was Bangs Boy? Sarah pondered as Keefe walked her to the cafeteria. Some elf called Lady Alexine had confronted them about Sarah, but Keefe kept his cool. He made up some elaborate excuse stating Magnate Leto allowed her to see the school, since she was enrolling pretty soon. Lady Alexine had been suspicious, especially since Sarah looked well above the starting age. She was sixteen, and usually Foxfire students began at age eleven. So it looked pretty disbelieving, but she let it go. Sarah had been worried that perhaps she'd talk to Magnate Leto, but Keefe acted as if he wanted her to.

"Um, but won't that blow our cover?" Sarah had asked.

Keefe had winked. "Just trust me."

Now she was approaching a long table with Biana, Fitz, Sophie, some young boy with strawberry-blonde hair and periwinkle eyes, a mystically beautiful girl with silver tips to her soft bangs. She had grey eyes that seemed to shimmer. And then next to her sat none other than… Bangs Boy!

Keefe took a seat the farthest possible from Bangs Boy and the ethereal girl, instead choosing a seat beside Fitz, setting his tray down with a loud thud!

Bangs Boy scowled at Keefe. "Maybe he didn't do it, Tam," came the girl's soothing voice, though she made it into a soft murmur that only Bangs Boy, and vaguely Sarah, could hear.

"I'm sure he did, Linh," countered this Tam guy.

They argued back-and-forth quietly and the rest of their friends pretended they didn't hear anything to give them privacy.

Sarah saw how well the group was getting along and faltered.

She wasn't their friend. She put on a sunny smile, waved, and started walking away to an empty table. But Sophie waved her right back, seeming to know what Sarah was experiencing.
"Keefe, you shouldn't have brought me here," she said in a hushed whisper, afraid the other students in the cafeteria would overhear.

Keefe rolled his eyes. "Honestly! And here I thought you weren't afraid to bend a few rules, maybe snap them."

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "Of course I'm not afraid to break rules. But this is a huge one. I'm basically sneaking onto campus and attending without permission!"

"That's exactly what you are doing, but it's fine!" Keefe argued.

Sarah's eyebrows contracted once again. "Oh, really? And you're not afraid of expulsion? Guess what? I was expelled from seven schools until the one I was attending before my kidnapping. And it all happened from breaking a couple of so-called small rules!" Sarah's eyes widened in surprise at what she said. "Wow, I guess I am kind of a stick-in-the-mud." Her shoulders slumped. "Sorry, guys," she muttered.

Sophie smiled. "Don't be sorry. I broke so many rules, especially laws, that I lost track, but it's better to try and follow them unless it's utterly necessary to break them." She raised an eyebrow. "Keefe, for one, breaks rules for fun." Sarah could tell Sophie was dismayed by the number of expulsions she'd received by the slightly petrified expression on Sophie's face when she'd said that.

"Hey! It is fun!" Keefe protested.

Sophie ignored him. "And anyways, kidnapping changes you a ton. Actually, discovering you're an elf can change you plenty as well. I changed a lot, too, after both ordeals."
Sarah's eyes widened again. "Wow. You were kidnapped?"
"Yup. Join the club," the strawberry-blonde boy said, a forced smile on his face. "Oh, and I'm Dex, by the way."

Sarah nodded. From what she'd heard so far, apparently Sophie and her friends faced near-death experiences on a daily basis.

Sophie shared the story with Sarah, and Dex reluctantly chimed in, too.

Sarah found herself smiling as she and her friends ate lunch and talked together. But from the shadows, she thought she saw eyes, dark, treacherous eyes, spying on her as she sat comfortably and chatted animatedly. They were dark blue. The exact shade of blue that Sarah recognized as Alvar's.