Happy Thanksgiving y'all! Here's the next chapter! Please enjoy, and leave a review if you like it.

Sofia carefully picked up the box and stepped down in front of Royal Prep. It was cloudy, so they had brought the covered coach just in case it rained. Amber gracefully dismounted, James following a moment later. The king and queen of Enchancia were coming in another coach, and Cedric was riding his own flying horse; it had taken time to get him on one, but he had come to love flying, especially on Storm.

"Sofia!" June exclaimed, hurrying over to bow.

Sofia smiled and curtseyed back. "June, good to see you."

"Amber's over there showing off her dress. Let's go."

"Not right now, June. I have to go find Trenton the Trite. Cedric made some special potions for him, and I have to make sure he gets these safely. I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay, Sofia! Bye!"

Sofia walked to a back room, setting the box down then grabbed a chair and sat down. Trenton should be there in a few minutes, then she could go and join her friends. As she waited, something seemed off. The fireplace was dim and the smoke seemed too thick. She glanced around, frowning.

~Cedric? Are you okay?~

The man looked up from the bottle he'd just placed back on the shelf. ~Of course, my dear. I'm just finishing up. I should be there soon. Why?~

~I don't know…Something feels…~

~Wrong?~ Cedric guessed; Sofia often had the feeling that something wasn't right before him, but this time he didn't feel anything wrong. That didn't mean she wasn't telling the truth, though.

~Yeah.~

~What is it?~

Sofia suddenly felt something slam in between them. It actually cut her mind so deep that it hurt, and she gave a little scream of pain. She looked around in bewilderment, trying to find something, anything to acknowledge what just happened, even if blood was spewing out of her ears. There was nothing. For the first time since she was eleven, she was completely left alone with her thoughts. And it scared her.

"C-Cedric?" she asked aloud as her thoughts screamed his name. "Cedric? CEDRIC!"

She ran to the door, needing to be close to somebody, but it was locked. Her heart was beating frantically against her ribcage, and she ran around to try to find some semblance of normal. She couldn't feel her magic! She couldn't think properly! She couldn't feel Cedric! She filled her lungs to start screaming, but something moved in the corner.

"T-Trenton?! Trenton, help! Help me! I can't…" she trailed off mid-scream, staring in fear as dark purple eyes glared at her from a mass of shadows.

She backed against the table, her hand groping for something to defend herself. She found a wand and pointed it at the beast.

"Your magic will not work, little girl," a voice said. She expected it to be deep and loud. Instead, it was almost nasal and very, very quiet, almost like a whisper in her mind. "I have sucked the power out of the wands. Their cores are useless now. No more channeling magic for any of the wands here in this place. You are all mine."

"Who are you?" Sofia asked, her voice hoarse with terror as her body quaked, but she still managed to get the question out.

"You ask me who? Very few ever ask me who. They ask me what. What am I? But you know the answer to both. I shall answer you anyway. I am Thorn, the Great Shadow. And what you have in that box has helped me to find you. But it is your magic I am interested in, not those potions."

Sofia swallowed, unable to do anything. She was alone, well and truly alone, for the first time in so many years. She had forgotten how quiet things were with just her own thoughts and emotions. There was no warm presence on the other end to soothe her fears, no kind prods to tell her to wake up from this terrible nightmare. It was all too real, and she knew she would probably die. Very few had ever escaped from Thorn, and those that did had gone mad from fearing his return. There was so little information on him, but the insanity he produced was well-documented by magic users everywhere.

Thorn shifted into an upright form, and it seemed as if he glided across the floor as he approached.

"I have seen you, girl, walking around my lands. You and that friend of yours." He spat out the word as if it left a foul taste in his mouth. "You come and go, always appearing somewhere else, always leaving before I can get to that delectable power inside of you. But I cannot allow that to happen any longer. So, I came here, where you cannot just disappear. You were easy to track, especially when Trenton asked for that rare potion."

Sofia swallowed, her hand closing around the handle of the box as she groped behind her. It was a heavy box, and it had protective spells, so she could swing it and conceivably cause some damage, but what the creature said gave her pause.

"Trenton? He'll be here any minute! He's a powerful sorcerer! And…" the girl trailed off again when a soft, grating laugh came from Thorn.

"That fool is not powerful," he said calmly, his eyes appraising her thin form. "He uses wands to focus his magic. Thousands of years ago, the magic from the Isles was so potent, so thick in the blood that wands were never used. Not by witches, sorcerers, or even fairies. They were simple children's toys until the true power could be grasped. But the magic dwindled in their kinds until wands were mandatory. Using his weakness to force him to order this particular potion was my idea, and he will be disposed of shortly."

The beast leaned over her and met her eyes. "Wands are mere trinkets to me, and ones that I do not care for in the slightest. The real power," he growled, his voice doing things to the word that made her fear for more than her life, "is in you and that sorcerer. Oh, that is so divine. It is rich and potent. I have never seen a more powerful pair in all my millennia of living! Shoving down his power for so long made that man, one who produced so much raw magic to begin with, so deliciously fierce! And he shared it with a girl! A child! Even with all my siphoning of his power when he practically lived in the Isles, it did nothing to diminish the flow! It only increased it!"

Sofia was still trembling, but the longer he talked, the more nerve she gathered. She was starting to formulate a plan.

"Cedric is powerful," she admitted. "And he did share it with me. But not by choice. The magic spoke to us when it connected us. It chose me, not him."

Thorn narrowed his eyes. "Magic is there to be submitted to the will, not roam free."

"Then why are the Mystic Isles so free?" the girl challenged, shifting her grip on the box.

The creature snarled, getting close to her face; though he had no facial features, she could sense teeth poised to strike. She knew the chances of her getting out without a scratch were slim, but she had to get out and warn the others.

When Thorn spoke again, his voice caressed her like a hand across her entire body, making her think of dirty things that sickened her and made her shake. "With your power, I will force the Isles to submit to me. I will capture you and that other fool and use you. I will use you and let the magic fill you again and again until I am more powerful than any being has ever been. And maybe I'll let my little beasties have a bit of fun…"

Sofia shrieked an obscenity and told him what he could do to himself as she slammed the box across his face. There was a crack, and the box split as the protective spells were overwhelmed with evil magic. There was a flash of movement and then pain. The worst pain she had ever felt! But the beast stumbled back, and she she sprinted away, slamming into the door full force and splintering the wood, screaming as loudly as she could. She clutched onto her sanity, running through familiar hallways, but recognizing nothing. Curses leapt to her lips, and she barely bit them back as she slammed headfirst into Miss Flora.

Looking up, she saw horrified faces all around her, and people started to scream for a doctor, a sorcerer, anyone to stop the bleeding! She felt something leaking down her side, but she didn't dare look. She knew it was black, not red, which meant poison. Screaming, she tried to bolt again, but the three headmistresses grasped her and told her to calm down.

"No!" she bellowed. "Thorn's going to kill me! He's going to use me! Help! Help! I can't hear Cedric! I can't feel him! Cedric! Cedric, help! HELP ME!"

Hysterical, unable to breathe properly, she tore from their grasp and ran past her frightened siblings and friends, past the terrified parents, including her own, and past the bewildered guests who had come to see a show. She needed Cedric. Spells were being shouted so that the sorcerers and fairies could force her to calm down, but there were no effects. Panic started setting in with all the sorcerers, and even the fairies began to fear.

The knowledge that something was wrong was only accentuated by the girl screaming and slamming her closed fists against the large, ornate doors that opened inside so that she couldn't just push them to get out. She couldn't break them, and they refused to hear her pleas. Her magic started fritzing as the poison sunk its teeth into her core, just as Thorn had with her side. She screamed, fighting the hands that tried to help, tried to pry her away as she beat the door so hard that her skin split.

She heard herself shrieking for Cedric, begging for her friend to help her, but she was still alone.

All.

Alone.

And so she screamed louder as Thorn laughed in her mind where Cedric should be.