Chapter 15

After a night that perhaps I should've spent more responsibly, but old habits die hard and I had lied in bed for a long time simply staring at the ceiling with anxious thoughts swarming my brain and tears leaking down the side of my cheeks, swirling around my skin as I continued to fight the worrisome onslaught of dangerous depth, hitting my mind squarely from every side and attacking me.

Ensuring that I couldn't get a restful night, as per usual. I had to fight these thoughts, every single goddamn night.

It was something that just automatically programmed itself into my schedule, like an extra time for a computer to load before it finally turns on.

It had felt like the second I had closed my eyes and allowed myself to fully surrender to slumber, I had been waken once again and yet another ongoing threat had stabbed me in the chest while vulnerable, this time with an even more powerful weapon.

The delivery of bad news.

My Imparter buzzed with urgency from underneath my pillow. I wasn't sure where other elves stored them, but my old habit of keeping my phone there still remained from my life in the Forbidden Cities. The vibration of the device through the thin material of the pillow covering stirred me awake.

I grumble, blowing lumpy tangled knots of my hair off my eyes and blindly fumbling for my Imparter. The thin device slid into my hands as I quickly accepted the summon.

Biana's face surfaced onto the screen, lighting up a small corner of the darkness that swallowed most of my bedroom.

"What do you want at-" I check the time quickly and glance sleepily back at the screen, "5 in the morning?" I rub my eyes, blinking back at her fully conscious face that stared back at my sleepless baggy eyes.

She was even wearing makeup. At 5 in the freaking morning. "What the hell are you doing all ready now?" I ask through a yawn, my head crashing back onto the pillow. My hair gathered in clumpy waves around my face.

Biana chewed on her glossy red lip, shrugging.

"Early riser. Can't relate," I mumble, my eyes already drifting shut.

"Sophie." Biana snapped her fingers and I shake my head, sitting upright.

"Sorry. What is it that you need anyways?" I ask.

Biana tucked a luscious strand of her creamy chocolate brown hair behind her ear and continued to eye the legs she had folded in her lap so evenly. "I hate to be the one to tell you this but—"

"But what?" I immediately felt blood rush to my cheeks, flowing around my head swiftly and circulating my body, jerking me to life once more. I was no longer as eager to sleep as I had been just moments ago.

Suddenly, a flurry of concerns imploded in the front of my mind.

Was it news regarding Keefe?

I didn't have to wait long for an answer, and when I received one, it was not too far off from what I had been thinking.

"They took Tam," Biana said bluntly.

In what may have been the most fast preparation I had ever done in my life, I pulled my pajamas off my body and grabbed some random clothing from my wardrobe, not caring how mismatched and unorthodox they may have been.

All I was focusing on was getting out of Havenfield and to Everglen as fast as I possibly could.

I tugged on my jacket and burst into my room again, ripping a slip of paper out of my notes binder and quickly bent over the table to scrawl down a short note for Grady and Edaline.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sandor's squeaky voice confronted me.

I took the pencil out of my teeth and finished writing, clutching the note in my sweaty hands. "Tam's been taken," I tell him simply, despite my heart that was smashing into the rib cage that pounded against my skin with trepidation. "You can come with me," I add, not having the energy to argue with him right now about security and all that he was concerned with. With speed that could've been compared to that of The Flash, I set the note down on my pillow for Edaline or Grady to find in the later morning if I didn't come back in time and beeline for the hall outside my bedroom, turning every hallway with as much power tunneling to my legs as I could.

"Fine," Sandor sighed in resignation, and stomped after me.

I practically threw my body into the Leapmaster, despair pouring throughout my insides and overtaking me. How could it have happened? First Keefe, now Tam. With as much strength as I could muster in the moment, I shouted out, "Everglen!"

The warm light encircled me and Sandor, pulling us up with the ray that traveled over the dark land and transported us to Everglen.

a/n: yall ain't even prepared ahshsnsjjssnjsnsnssn