Well here it is! It's quite long so there probably won't be another chapter for long :'( But other than that, Enjoy! Oh and just a word of advice, it has been a while since my last update so if I reference something in this chapter you don't understand you might want to go back and read a bit. Sorry, all the love. xx
Brant looked so innocent, a fooling appearance really. When he woke up there was that all too familiar hardness in his eyes. That same hardness had been in his eyes at the hospital. His face was as pale as ever and his forehead was covered in a sickly sweat. He gazed at Sophie with a look that lacked any emotion. It scared her more than if he had just looked angry. Alden cut across the room to him and pulled him up by his hair. "What is the meaning of all of this?" Alden shouted.
"I beg your pardon?" Brant said with a mocking accent. Alden pulled his hair tighter. Brant didn't wince. Sophie walked up to him hesitantly. "Why were you in the hospital?" She willed her voice not to shake as she went on, "How did you know I was there?" "Oh sweetie, I knew were you were long before the hospital." Sophie's breath caught in her throat. "Wh-what?" "It's very simple really. You see I had a friend who joined the black swan. This friend earned the black swan's trust entirely. This friend also trusted me entirely. So you see it was quite easy. But very stupid on their part I suppose." He stopped and looked into space apparently reliving the memory. "A black swan traitor? How?" asked Sophie. Brant turned his gaze back to her. "Well she didn't really think she was betraying them. Like I said before, she trusted me. She told me everything that was going on, well most of it anyway. As time went on she learned to become suspicious of me." "Her?" Sophie whispered.
It was beginning to come together now. All the pieces felt like they were clicking in. "Yes, her. Jolie." Alden lost his grip on Brant's hair. Sophie immediately put her hands out. If he was willing to betray a young girl who was in love with him, she doubted he would mind killing her. "You lied to the girl who loved you?" "Sure, why not? I got what I wanted." He twisted his face, and his eyes dilated as looked any where but her face. He does love her, thought Sophie. He was just trying to make himself forget. She remained silent though. Alden made a sudden movement. "You sick filthy-" Sophie put her hand out and stopped him. "Okay so she told you the black swan was making me or whatever they did." The words felt weird on Sophie's tongue, but she continued. "And so you waited for the right time and tried to kill me in the hospital?" "No not necessarily kill you… I couldn't do what I wanted to do because of Mr. Forkle. Sophie watched Brant's jaw muscles contract as he gritted his teeth. Mr. Forkle? It didn't surprise her. He had always been there to protect her, but somehow it always shocked her that her elf life was already being built for her even when she hadn't known it existed.
"S-so when you were at the hospital nothing happened to me right? You couldn't do anything right? Cause of Mr. Forkle?" Brant remained silent. "Right?" Sophie persisted. "Right?!" she was screaming now. "I'm not talking with these chains around my wrists." Brant retorted. Sophie looked at Alden pleadingly. Her face felt hot and her body felt tingly. "Hey Sophie, you don't look so good." Said a voice from behind her. Alden turned his head in surprise. "Fitz? Who let you in here? Keefe?" he added as a blond head came into view.
"Yeah, yeah dad. Stop worrying." Fitz made his way over to Sophie. "Does she look alright to you dad?" Alden hesitated. "Uh-she does look a bit flustered." He kept glancing over at Brant. Clearly his mind was a mess of things. "No, seriously." Fitz put his hand up to Sophie's forehead. "No, stop!" Sophie said as his emotions coursed through her body. "Please, don't touch me. I don't—," her eyes flicked around wildly. "I don't wanna hurt anyone." "Hey it's okay. I'm not gonna touch you. Hey Sophie. Look at me." "Huh?" Sophie said. Her heart was racing, not to mention her head was spinning. His voice sounded like it was coming to her through a tunnel. "Sophie look at me. Relax. I think you're having a panic attack. Calm down. Keep your eyes on me."
Sophie stopped looking around wildly and focused on his eyes. Her head continued to spin and her body felt charged with electricity. She broke eye contact hurriedly despite the fact that it felt like she might explode any minute. She didn't have time for some boy's prediction of a panic attack. "Brant tell me what you did." She said sternly. "Get. Me. Out. Of. These. Chains." Brant answered not even glancing her way. He kept his eyes on Alden. "Alden please! I need to know." Sophie pleaded. The handsome man ran his fingers through his hair keeping his own teal blue eyes, which were so much like his son's, trained on Brant. "I will let you out but only for 5 minutes. You better answer her questions and you better not try anything."
Alden reached over to unlock the chains. It was obvious he wasn't being gentle by the way Brant's jaw clenched in pain. Finally he was free. He rubbed his wrists and sighed. Sophie stared. "Oh, you want me to talk now?" asked Brant feigning stupidity. Alden kicked the chair. "Don't play stupid." He snarled. "Calm down princess." Said Brant glaring at Alden. The reason you have all those powers is because of me." "You?" asked Sophie trying to clench her hands to keep them from shaking. "I wanted to make you a super-elf robot kind of thing. I wanted to give you all the powers and train you. Only when I started to do it, that Forkle friend of yours got in the way. I thought my plan had died. Failed. But obviously some part of it worked cause look at you now." "What?" said Sophie now feeling very cold inside. "The black swan had been experimenting on making powers. Not being born with them, actually making them. I stole their plans and made some myself. I was going to test it all out on you, but I never got to finish. I thought it hadn't worked but something in your fall triggered it. I knew you were never going to be trained now, so I tried to link us together with an old concoction of mine. Transfer your being into my being. That was what happened when you touched me, but love got in the way."
Brant spit at Alden's feet. "I'd gladly give you my powers! I don't want them. Take them back. Now!" Sophie was screaming again though she didn't know why. "Trust me I would, but I don't know how." Brant answered.
"You what?" Sophie felt on fire now. It was hard to walk and move and think. She felt someone's arms around her waist. "Sophie listen to me. Sit down, now. You're not well."