*Chapter Thirteen*

SARAH DARTED HER head up to the trees. Three cloaked figures were gracefully climbing down.

They tossed their hoods back, one by one.

Lady Gisela, with her hair swept up into a slick bun and her sharp eyes.

And two other elves that Sarah just didn't recognize. One was... well, Sarah just couldn't put her finger on, and the other was a blonde elf with a slightly disfigured face. She didn't know who they were. But Keefe did. "Fintan," he breathed, narrowing his eyes at the blonde one.

Fintan? "Who's that?" Sarah whispered to her brother.

"Bad guy," was all that Keefe said on the subject. He jumped to his feet and grabbed some throwing stars from his tunic's pockets, swiftly aiming them, and then with a whoosh, they each landed on the tree trunk behind the Neverseen members, just narrowly missing them.

"You missed," smirked the one beside Fintan.

He seemed pretty cocky.

"No, I didn't, Ruy," Keefe muttered.

One of the throwing stars returned like a boomerang, flying through the air and with a very painful thwack, it sliced into Ruy's left arm. He visibly winced.

Keefe smiled in satisfaction at the thin line of red showing through Ruy's cloak, although Sarah thought she saw a little disgust in Keefe's eyes and in the way he slightly cringed.

"See what happens when you mess with the Keefster?" Keefe declared, winking.

"Ah, but we were prepared as well," the guy named Fintan said, smiling grotesquely.

"What did we miss?" Sarah shot back, trying not to look at Fintan's slightly misshapen features.

Keefe seemed to notice Sarah's discomfort. "It happened in an Everblaze incident years back," he whispered.

Ruy was still angry with Keefe for slicing his arm.

"Your pathetic little friends are about to learn what happens when-" Ruy yelped as the pain returned to his arm. "Owww! Anyways, when they mess with the Neverseen!" he finished, smiling wryly.

"I think you just learned what happens when you mess with the Black Swan," Keefe countered, twirling another throwing star around on his hip, the jagged edges just barely touching his tunic.

Sarah was bemused.

What did Ruy mean by that?

Her friends were safe-and-sound back at Everglen.

Right?


"Come on! This way!" Sophie led Fitz, Linh, Tam, and Dex through the Amazon rainforest. "KEEFE?" she yelled.

Only the occasional chatter of a monkey and the squawking of a toucan met her cry.

"Keefe?" Fitz said uncertainly, echoing Sophie's voice. He kept tightening his grip on Sophie's hand.

"Seriously, we're not playing hide-and-seek here, Keefe," Sophie said firmly, her eyes darting around to any possible hiding spots.

"Ah, but we are."

"What was that? Were you speaking, Dex?" Fitz asked suddenly.

"Nooo," Dex shook his head.

"Was that you, Linh?" Sophie asked quickly. Her breathing had been glacial a moment before, but now it was heavy and rapid.

"It wasn't," Linh replied solemnly. "Tam?"

"It definitely was not," Tam shook his head, nervously casting a thin shadow over himself and Linh.

"Oh, don't bother hiding. We know you're here." And stepping out from behind a tree was Lady Gisela.


"Where did she go?" Sarah muttered to Keefe, chagrined.

They had taken their eyes off her for a second, and she disappeared.

"We have to assume the worst," Keefe sighed. "She's probably off making Everblaze fires to burn down the world's most precious rainforests."

"Yeah, probably," agreed Sarah grimly.

"It's none of your business where Lady Gisela has gone. But it is your business to pay for what you've done to my arm!" Ruy howled and he charged towards Sarah and Keefe, his arms out.

"What's he doing?" Sarah whispered.

But Keefe didn't answer; he shoved Sarah to the side and before long, Keefe was slammed against a hard tree. "Telekinesis," he mumbled as he shook his head, trying to ease away the dizziness.

Sarah hissed in anger and slowly stepped towards Ruy.

In just a second, she had him by the scruff. "You. Don't. Hurt. My. Brother," she spat, throwing him against another tree.

Keefe held up his hand for a high-five.

Sarah slapped it. Then she turned to Fintan, her eyes widening.

"Do I seem familiar?" he sneered.

Sarah's jaw went slack. "W-w-w..."

"I trained you when you were just a baby," he said with a thin smile. "You are a talented girl."

Sarah flushed at the praise, but then growled. "I don't belong to the Neverseen anymore."

"Are you sure about that?" Fintan smiled wryly. "You will always be part of the Neverseen. You can't escape your destiny, Sarah."

She swung up her arms and then whispered, "Come to me." A blaze of fire burst from her palm, and it flickered red and yellow.

Fintan seemed mildly impressed. "You will be a valuable asset to us one day."

"Oh, yeah?"

Sarah tossed the fireball to him, but Fintan nimbly caught it, unfazed. His smile was weathered and papery. "Yes, indeed."

"How?" Sarah shot back. "You can't make me!" She smiled as she pinned her still-very-pink hair up into a swishy ponytail.

"We have our ways," Fintan simpered. "Like... taking your brother hostage, per se."

Sarah gasped. She swiveled around, her ponytail whirling onto her left shoulder.

She saw a gleam of light flash briefly, and two figures vanish into it. Fintan had been distracting her so they could kidnap Keefe!

"How...how could you?!" she sputtered.

Fintan calmly studied his nails. "We do what it takes to reach our goal."

Sarah was speechless. For a minute, at least. "You are so EVIL!" Her anger fueled the fire in her heart, and it poured out of her body, over the grass, and onto the trees. Setting the Amazon rainforest on fire.

A surge of shame put herself on static.

She just helped the Neverseen accomplish their mission.

A/N: Hey! I am so excited to write the next chapter, but first, I want to say something. TODAY IS THE THIRD-WEEK ANNIVERSARY FOR THIS FANFIC! *parades around, shoving a large piece of mallowmelt into mouth* Yay!