Sofia: Phoenix Rising - Fire and Water Book 2
Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

We stand dumbfounded, our gazes to the sky as we watch Charlie fly off with Sofia in her grasp. Moments later Donovan shouts out; “Damn it, Charlie! You trader!” and then he shifts into his eagle form, flapping his wings hard, he screeches an earsplitting sound and flies off into the greying skies above. Ashley snaps her fingers and is gone too leaving just Blake standing here looking at us baffled, at a loss for words.

My panther wants nothing more than to attack and I rush up to Blake, grab the lapels of his jacket, bunching them up within my clenched fists. “Where did they take her? What have they done with Sofia?” Snarling, I shove him backwards away from me and begin to pace as I wait for his answer. By now Lori, Sofia’s parents, Diana and Jacob have come to stand near us, waiting for his answer as well.

“I-I, I don’t know. I didn’t even want to come here. My father forced me to or be banished from the flock. I would never want anyone hurting Sofia. As for Charlie, I don’t know what that was all about but if you will listen to me, I have some thoughts to share with you guys.” Even though the growl that escapes my lips sounds angry, I’m not angry with Blake, not really, more than anything, I am frustrated at the turn of events, but Blake doesn’t need to know this.

“How about we head back to the house, I’ll brew some tea and hot chocolate for everyone, and we can sort out what to do next,” Diana suggests as we all begin to feel the extremely frigid air seep into our clothing. Everyone unanimously says yes, and we all make our way back to the boat so Jacob can get us back to their dock and to the warmth of their house.

Walking into Diana’s kitchen, I take a seat at the table and watch as everyone else files into the room too. Anna and Marco take the two seats set directly across the table from me and Lori takes a seat at the foot of the table. I watch as Jacob grabs a bar stool from the breakfast nook and drag it across the fake wooden floorboards, placing it next to Lori before he sits on it. That leaves two open chairs left, the one next to me and the one at the head of the table. Grumbling my disapproval, I hear Blake sit down next to me and then as if by magic, Diana joins us at the head of the table, placing a tray with steaming mugs of hot chocolate and tea in front of us to take as we please.

Releasing the air from her lungs, Anna looks at the group of people before her. “Eh, hem,” she clears her throat and waits for everyone to look at her. “Would anyone care to explain to Marco and I, what in the world is going on? Why did Charlie fly off with Sofia?”

“Well-” I begin but before I can say anything beyond that, Blake jumps in causing me to promptly clamp my mouth shut and try patiently to wait for him to finish speaking.

“Mr. And Mrs. Einan, first I would like to introduce myself. I don’t think we were ever properly introduced to each other. My name is Blake Tama, my father was after Sofia because he wanted to obtain her powers. However, unbeknownst to all of us, I think Charlie has been the one in charge of this whole scheme and she had been pitting my father and I against all of you guys. I am sure not one of you knew that she had been chirping often in my father’s ear telling him how he should coerce Sofia to join his flock, encouraged him to kidnap you two. She is the puppet master and we all have been her puppets! Tugging at our strings as she sees fit. I just don’t know what her end plan is or why she is doing this in the first place.

I shift my eyes to Blake as he says this and so many things begin to make sense. Strange things that Charlie would say to me. The many times Sofia seemed to fall ill after having consumed tea that she had made. Constantly checking in with me to see if Sofia and her phoenix had united. How she knew why Donovan seemed to want Sofia so badly. Buy why? What reason would she have to want to manipulate any of us the way that she has?

I look over at Anna and Marco, “didn’t you tell Sofia that Charlie is an old friend of the family? Can you think of anything that may have caused Charlie to want to hurt Sofia?”

Both Mr. And Mrs. Einan shake their heads no before Anna says, “we are at a loss for words. Charlie has only ever been there for us. She was the one to advise us to have Sofia checked out by a Tenebrae pediatrician when Sofia hadn’t started to show signs of shifter abilities as a baby. She was the one who suggested we move into the human world and raise Sofia as human so as to keep her out of harm’s way from Tenebrosity folk.” As I stare at Anna, I see a few tears escape the corners of her eyes, trailing down her cheeks. Marco leans over and wraps his arm around her, trying to comfort her. His eyes lock on mine and I see a pleading in them.

“We have to figure out where Charlie took our baby girl to,” Marco states determinedly, “Blake, would you be willing to speak with your father and replace out what Charlie has been telling him? Maybe it could lead to some insight as to what she is really up to.”

Blake stands up abruptly from his seat causing me to jump slightly at the unexpectedness of his movement. “Yes, of course I can do that.” He reaches across the table and shakes Marco’s hand. “We will get her back, I swear it!” Seconds later we hear Diana’s front door open and close and then can only assume he has flown off to go and question his father.

“Would you four like to stay in my guest rooms for the night?” Diana offers with a smile. “It’s such a long drive back and I’m sure you could all do with a little bit of sleep before you begin your travels.” Anna and Marco nod their heads vigorously yes. I definitely won’t say no to the thought of some sleep before the two-hour drive back home. Glancing over at Lori, I see her face light up at the prospect of staying for a while longer and then looking at Jacob’s face, I can’t help but think some type of love connection or something is occurring between the two. I can’t wait to ask Sofia and see if she has noticed their connection as well... the whimsical thought falls quickly from my mind as I quickly remember that she isn’t here. Suddenly the thought of climbing into that bed crushes my very being. Sofia will not be in that bed snuggling up to me tonight. Overwhelming sadness takes hold of me because I have no idea when I will be able to hold her in my arms again!

“What in the hell happened father?” Blake gives Donovan a death stare. “Did you know Charlie was going to do that? You do realize she used you, right? And because of your blind obsession for power, you let a little old owl make you look like the fool that you truly are!” CRACK! Blakes face abruptly flies sideways to the left as his father steps back from having just backhanded him across his right cheek. Wincing at the pain, Blake takes a step back and stares, seething hatred towards his father.

“How dare you disrespect me! Don’t you dare EVER speak to me that way again.” Donovan paces the cream-colored carpet as he tries to grasp onto one of the many thoughts racing through his head at that moment.

A thought pops into Blake’s head and he suddenly turns his eyes to look at Ashely; “who told you that Sofia is the one that caused your mother’s accident?” Ashely peers back at him confused for a second before understanding settles in her eyes.

“It was Charlie. I should have known that Sofia couldn’t have caused the accident. She doesn’t know anything about magic. She wouldn’t have been able to disrupt a spell to cause such injury to anyone.” Ashely shakes her head for having been so easily manipulated. “I’m going to kill Charlie for hurting my mother!”

“Did she ever say anything to you that would give you a clue to where she may be now?” Blake looks hopeful for a moment, but it is quickly replaced with despair as Ashely shakes her head no. “Damn it! I am going to make a suggestion right now and you can laugh at me if you wish for making it but, I think we should work with Ash, Lori, and Sofia’s parents to help them get Sofia back. And then maybe, we can have revenge upon Charlie...”

Ashely snickers and Donovan scoffs but Blake could see that they were thinking about his idea and that at the moment is all he can hope for.

Groaning, I place my hands against the sides of my head as the pounding inside it is making me feel nauseous. Wherever I am, the room is very dark. I can see faint light from the rising sun pouring through one window, but the light is fleeting as clouds in shades of dark grey and black, roll in front of the sun. At the current moment I feel like I am swaying and cannot tell if it’s due to the headache I am experiencing.

Phoenix? Can you hear me? What happened? Phoenix? She isn’t responding to me. In fact, I can’t feel her within me at all! I begin to panic. I have never felt more alone in my life. The thumping in my head has started to lessen and wobblily I get to my feet and make my way over to what appears to be a door. Locating the knob, I place a hand upon the cold metal and twist. Locked, I knew in the back of my mind that it would be but was hoping that I was wrong. ‘Argh,’ I sigh out and then run my hands along the wall near the door trying to replace a light switch. “Thank the stars,” I whisper to myself. Light spills forth from a naked bulb hanging from the center of the ceiling.

The brightness of it causes me to blink rapidly a couple of times until my eyes have adjusted to there being light in the room and then I scan my surroundings. Quickly I assess that I am in a small bedroom. A twin-size bed sits in a corner with a flimsy pale green blanket draped over it. Looking about the rest of the room I see boxes piled around the room as though up until recently, it had only been used for storage. Flopping onto the little bed, I feel as though something is clamped around each of my wrists. Lifting my arms to investigate, I see that wrapped around each of my wrists is an opal-colored bracelet and they seem to vibrate with an energy or magic.

Frustrated I shout out, “Hello? Is anyone there? Charlie?” The silence hangs in the air and it is maddening. “Answer me!”

Suddenly I hear Charlie near the door, “Sofia dear, are you awake?” I can hear a clinking, a click, and then the door swings inward creaking eerily as it does so. Light spills in from the hallway, casting a shadow down around her as she stands in the door frame, the look on her face causes my body to shiver in fear. I have never seen someone’s smile look so menacing before. The phrase ‘Evil incarnate’ pops into my thoughts as I gaze at her. Giddily she claps her hands together like a five-year-old, “Oh good. You are awake. Now we can have some fun...”