what happened after unlocked

chapter fourteen ~ the unexpected conversation

Grady never answered Sophie's question.

Even after she'd spent at least fifteen minutes pestering him, he didn't reveal a thing, and when she finally left to go to bed she heard her parents continue talking, like they were afraid that if they didn't discuss whatever they were discussing the world would end.

Sophie didn't sleep well that night. With Keefe having just left, and still not being able to figure out why he'd hurt Alvar like he did, added to the fact that Lady Gisela had kidnapped the baby alicorns, Edaline was forced into helping her, and Sophie still had no idea what to do next - she woke up the next day with dark rings under her eyes and trudged down the stairs with no energy left to give.

To be fair, she'd never really had a good sleep in her life, but this was taking it too far. She needed Flori...where was Flori, anyway?

When Sophie finally made it down the stairs to the source of the quiet noises of elves mingling, Sophie's feet were burning in her boots and she slumped down on the bottom step next to Biana and Tam.

Biana had a look of immense guilt plastered onto her face and Tam looked so downcast Sophie was surprised that a permanent rain cloud hadn't started hovering over his head.

"Are you guys okay?" she asked them, her voice soft and tired. She'd almost forgotten about Biana kissing Tam's cheek as a farewell yesterday evening, but so she didn't really mind scooting between them on the step.

Biana gave a half-hearted shrug and Tam tried to smile but he just ended up with his head in his hands. 

Everyone stopped talking when they realized he was crying - actually crying - and in front of them, nonetheless. "I messed everything up!" he said between sniffs, shoulders shaking. Biana and Sophie leaned into him and Linh joined the threesome. His emotional outburst didn't seem to surprise her.

"Tam, you didn't do anything wrong," she whispered to him, massaging his back. "You don't have to blame yourself for any of this."

"But I do!" Tam said. "If I hadn't spent two weeks searching for Keefe then he would have been happier, he never would have hurt Alvar, you would have met up with him yesterday, Sophie, and then he wouldn't have ran off after I apologized to him..."

"It was a noble thing that you did, Tam," Biana said. "Staying with him for days, telling him you were sorry after all these years; if you hadn't have done those things then Keefe might have still been guilty! His mind might have even broken from the guilt of...well, you did a good, brave thing, Tam."

Tam looked up at them all. 

A/N: I will complete this chapter tomorrow, but my mum is really strict about screen usage so I'm not allowed to use my laptop after five (sucks to be me) so, look out for you notifications and I think the autumn break will give me loads of time to write. Weekdays are just hard though, because I have school, really short breaks, and strict parents. But I'll do my best! I'm hoping to finish this by July or August - also, I take back what I said about this story being 60-70 chapters long; it'll probably be around 100. Eeek.

CONTINUED CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

Tam looked up at them all. "I know you're right, Biana...but I also know that things would have been very different if I hadn't gone after him. I should have waited a little longer to find him..."

None of them missed the blush on his cheeks.

A silence stretched through the whole group, but Dex was the one to break it. "You know, every big organization has a data base - that means that any talented Technopath could break into it. What if the Neverseen had one of those? Have we ever though of that before?"