Blonde Bombshell- A Kotlc Fanfic (ON HOLD!)

chapter 1

"Aurora! Foxfire starts in 15 minutes, go to the leapmaster!"

She could hear her dads obnoxious voice echoing off the walls of Candleshade- even though she was on the 67th floor of the giant skyscraper. Rori didn't have the mental energy to get herself out of bed. She pulled her blankets up above her head and covered her ears, maybe this way all her unwanted thoughts would go away. It had been almost 2 weeks since Keefe had fled to the Neverseen and somehow every day it seemed more real and even more painful. She was a mess, just thinking about him made her heart ache. She was also angry, so angry.

How could he leave her?

Rori knew her brother loved her and would do anything to protect her, but this didn't seem like the way to do it.

This way it left her questioning everything.

Did she say or do something wrong to make him want to leave? Was this all really her fault?

Every new thought kept dragging her down. She wanted to hide under her blankets forever and never face the world again.

He left her. All alone, with good old daddy dearest. 

Those single thoughts kept surfacing in the front of her mind. He didn't even leave a note, some older brother he was. She loved him but hated him at the same time for leaving. She didn't know what to feel.

What even happened when he left with the black swan? What made Keefe want to join the Neverseen? Was it really undercover or was he gone for good?

Rori had wanted to join the black swan with them but Keefe wouldn't let her; he insisted it was because she was 'too young' but that was probably just to cover up how overprotective he was, well at least he had been before he left her. Or maybe he was already planning to leave.

It made her so frustrated that no one told her anything important, ever. So many questions she would demand answers for -if he ever came back, she shoved that awful thought into the back of her mind to deal with later, she wasn't going to cry about this now, not again.

Yet a few tears slipped down her cheeks anyways, and once they started they couldn't be stopped. Rori was honestly surprised she still had tears left to cry. She couldn't go on like this. She needed to be strong - like Keefe. Then she got a burst of hope as she considered something. Maybe she'd ask Sophie about everything, although it was probably confidential and she most likely wouldn't want to talk about it either - but it was worth a shot. Just then Rori promised herself she'd make it through a full day of school today, instead of ditching and sneaking back into her room to drown in her thoughts. She would go and she would get more out of Sophie, or at least everything she knew.

She deserved to know didn't she?

All anyone had told her is that Keefe had joined the Neverseen to find out information about their plans, she never said why he joined, but Rori was pretty sure it had to do with something he learned about their mom- and whatever it was she wasn't sure if she was ready to hear it. Sophie also mentioned that Keefe was updating her regularly with their daily telepathic check ins, and apparently he wasn't finding out much about the Neverseen and their plans, which honestly wasn't surprising, they were smart. I mean her mom had hid that she was the leader of the Neverseen from them for at least 15 years or more, even with two empaths in the house, so they would definitely be prepared. Though her mom was in an ogre prison at the moment and maybe even dead so... the thought of that made Rori want to vomit. She didn't know why but somehow her mother had always seemed like the better parent, not that she ever showed any sort of love for Rori or anything, but she was better than Lord Cassius, and yet she turned out to be a member of the Neverseen and probably a murderer and her father wasn't. More tears continued to spill as she let the realization sink in once again.

She seriously couldn't believe that none of them had suspected anything or Lady Gisela hadn't accidentally let anything slip.

Or maybe she had?

Her father had been sorting through his own memories a lot recently to see if there were any clues or anything he missed. He even had several telepaths try to find stuff that had been buried or shattered but so far nothing. Gisela was smart.

Footsteps outside her door made her sink even further into her bed and she pulled her covers tighter over her head and closed her eyes tightly. Trying to blink back the rest of her tears and wipe them away before he saw. She couldn't stand anymore conversations. She didn't want to talk. Especially not with him. Rori knew she couldn't ignore him though, no matter how hard she tried, his words still cut deep like knives into her brain.

"Aurora," he didn't even bother knocking; he just made his way into her room. "Get out of bed and get to school, we can't let their betrayal get to us" She was so tired of hearing that.

Is that all he really cared about? The family name.

Well now with Keefe gone she would do everything in her power to rebel against her father and make him proud. If Keefe was strong and hid behind jokes, so could she. So Rori forced her eyes open and sat up to face her Father.

"You can't keep crying about this, that just proves you're weak." Lord Cassius sighed, staring into her bloodshot eyes. "I guess your mother was right." Rori kept her head low and wiped her eyes on her blanket, smudging her mascara she had forgotten to remove the night before. She knew she disappointed her parents, but not by rebelling and ditching like Keefe, by simply just existing. She didn't know the full story but her parents- especially her mother claimed she was a mistake and that she was useless. But they still held out hope that she'd manifest, Rori hadn't yet but she was still only a level two, so she had more time to manifest. Yet that was the least of her worries right now.

"Well, that is not what I came here to say." Lord Cassius continued, "People are already getting suspicious that me or your brother didn't pick up on her emotions and...." 

Lord Cassius kept rambling on but she tuned him out. He sounded slightly pained and lacked his usual oily smile and she could see the slight bit of grief in his eyes, she was sure there was anger too. I mean how can you not know your wife is a murderer and was the leader of some creepy organization? 

Well she hadn't exactly seen that coming either but she didn't really pay much attention to either of her parents. But something about what Lord Cassius said echoed around her mind. The fact that he said 'your brother' instead of Keefe, like it was too much of an embarrassment to his family name that Keefe had run off with the Neverseen. Rori pretended that she heard his nonsense and nodded once he stopped talking. 

Before he turned to leave he added. "And fix your makeup, it's hardly presentable." he pointed to the mascara still smeared under her eyes. 

She hung her head low and pretended the flowers sewn into her carpet were the most fascinating thing ever, for what felt like forever - but was probably only a few minutes and waited until she heard the sound of his footsteps leave the room before her gaze left the floor. Rori walked into her bathroom- which took up a whole floor- and looked in the mirror. 

The girl in the mirror had black smudges down her face. Her bright ice blue eyes were also extremely red and puffy from lack of sleep and very glassy too since she was constantly holding back tears. Her long silky blonde hair was tied back into a loose messy bun that she hadn't taken out in days, so it was a tangled mess. Rori also wore a pale pink wrinkled tunic that she'd slept in for the past few days and lost track of time. But she couldn't do that anymore. Foxfire was starting again, and she had to pretend everything was normal so no one would know about Keefe. The Collective had made up a story so that no one else in the lost cities knew where Keefe was or what he was doing, so that if he ever came back he didn't get exiled or anything. 

So for now, Rori had to do her hair and makeup, get changed into her blue level two uniform and act as if it were a normal day of school- but of course it wasn't, Keefe was with the Neverseen and they were still out there planning who knows what. But Rori knew one thing, she didn't want to sit at home crying and feeling sorry for herself anymore. She wanted to help, make a difference to this world and most of all convince her brother to come home and stop the Neverseen once and for all. 

sorry for taking awhile!! here is chapter 1 lmk what u think in the comments! xx