Kaylessa got home and immediately ripped off her cloak. The hem was crusted with dried blood and some other wetness she didn't want to know about. She threw it in the back of her closet and pulled out a fresh new cloak that she never wore. She switched out the pendant and bracelet from her old cloak into her new one.

Kaylessa shuddered and decided to take a nice, long cold shower. After the cold swept away the remaining chills, she dropped on her bed and fell asleep.

In the morning, for the first time ever, she used her Neverseen tracker to contact the others. She summoned all important members to the guest house, making sure her dad was still sleeping and she didn't reveal this is where she lived. She bleeped Raven and Ruy their secret code for them to get there earlier.

Kaylessa donned her new cloak and plopped on a chair to wait for the others. Raven and Ruy got there first, both crammed through the doorway shoving each other playfully.

"What's up, Flare?" Raven asked looking around. "And why did you ask to meet here?"

Kaylessa shrugged, "Nice house though, the occupants are so grief-torn they don't notice when I pop by." She didn't really care what she was saying as long as it sounded like Flare, a mask she used to make sure no one ever really saw her.

"They don't notice? Not even when you call a meeting to the notoriously evil group ruining the world?" Ruy asked.

"They're loners. Plus, this is the guest house," Kaylessa said, dodging the evil part of the question. She wasn't evil, was she? She had only called the meeting to Ambercrest because she was afraid to leave her dad. He seemed put out last night, and who knows how worse it got overnight.

Raven shrugged and sat down next to her. Lady Gisela soon leaped onto the property, strutting into the guest house like she owned the place. Kaylessa gritted her teeth trying not to curl her fingers into a fist. Vespera and Gethen soon followed with Trix only a few minutes behind them.

"Why did you call this meeting, Flare?" Vespera asked, cocking a delicate, angled head. Her headdress was perched precariously on her head. She smoothed her elegant ball gown and sat down, perched like a queen. Kaylessa rolled her eyes. Vespera always dressed up and was the only one not wearing a cloak.

"Yeah, why?" Trix's gruff voice asked.

"Alden Vacker is dead," Kaylessa said, putting on a mask of indifference. "I found him last night on the Vacker property." She watched all the fidgeting go still. She said the words so casually, but she felt like the death was deserved. Alden hadn't stood up for Islaria after her death, saying it wasn't the council's fault, but her own for provoking the ogres. Kaylessa's hated the Vacker's ever since.

"Dead? As in dead, dead? Not broken-dead?" Gethen asked.

"Dead, dead," Kaylessa nodded.

"How?" Gisela asked, eyes narrowing.

"Stabbed in the gut," Kaylessa said. Just like Alina, she mentally added. She tried to keep her thoughts from straying towards the dead body in the grass. The blood . . . Kaylessa visibly shuddered. Gisela cringed slightly.

"That is a mental picture I never want to see," Gethen said with his eyes wide, no doubt imagining it in his own mind. "Ew."

"Like Alina," Raven said, contributing to the conversation. Kaylessa nodded.

"So, it's the same killer," Trix concluded. "Who wants Alina and Alden dead?" Everyone once again paused to think.

"Well, Alina's in the council, so they would have to be a council-hater. Alden's an Emissary, so they would also have a reason to hate him," Kaylessa said, trying to sound as confident as Viessa in her conclusions.

"Yeah, but who? Everyone hates the council these days," Ruy asked.

"Not the pesky Black Swan," Kaylessa grumbled. There were some mumbles of agreement with some occasional glare of pure hatred.

"Who do y—" Gisela started but cut off after she heard a loud beep from her imparter. She glanced around the room and quickly answered the hail.

"L-lady Gisela!" a man stuttered from the other side. "The Black Swan. They're planning to infiltrate Alluveterre. They heard about Alden's death and—" Gisela shut off the call quickly and stuffed the imparter back into her bag.

"How did they know?" Gisela demanded. Who was that? Kaylessa mouthed to Raven hitching up her hood so she could see her mouth. Spy, Raven mouthed back. Kaylessa nodded and tipped her hood back down.

"Della, Biana, and Fitz are part of the Black Swan," Trix said. Gisela thoughtfully started pacing.

"And why are they infiltrating their old lair?" she asked, pausing her pacing to stare each member there directly in the eye.

Ruy averted her gaze and said, "Maybe they thought we did something about Alden. We do hate them after all." Gisela started her pacing back up.

"But why Alluveterre?" she asked, staring at Ruy as if begging him to speak up so she could give him a tongue-lashing.

"That's the place they know where one of us would be," Raven supplied, breaking the sudden tension in the room. "They probably know we station a member there to watch over it." Gisela broke her staring contest with Ruy to stare Raven down.

"Fine. I need a team to go there and stop the Black Swan," Gisela commanded. They think it's our fault. Kaylessa thought back to Alden's broken, mangled body and Gethen cringed. She ignored his snooping. They think we did it. To him. To Alden.

Kaylessa clenched her hands into a fist. They're calling us murderers. Calling me a murderer. Calling Raven and Ruy murderers. When we didn't do anything. Does Essa know that? Does she think I did it? I was there after all.

Kaylessa felt a spark of anger deep in her, but she quickly smothered it before it became a full-out blaze. They think we did it.

Before she knew what she was doing, Kaylessa stood up and said, "I'll do it. I'll go." Gisela, Gethen, Trix, Vespera, Raven, and Ruy all looked at her. That inner flame was once again stoked after thinking about why she joined the Neverseen in the first place. All of this was for Islaria Salvaxe.

"I'm going," Kaylessa repeated, but more forcefully this time.

Raven nodded, "Me too."

"Me three," Ruy added. They both got up and took my clenched hands. There was a faint hint of a smile on Vespera's face. That was hope on her face, Kaylessa realized. So she would hope too. Why Vespera was suddenly hopeful, Kaylessa didn't know, but she knew why she was.

Raven and Ruy were always by her side.

"Me too," Gethen said, standing up. Raven, Ruy, and Kaylessa all gaped at him. "You guys need me."

"Um, not really, I mea—" Raven started, but Gethen took Ruy's free hand and gripped Raven's other hand.

"You guys need me," he repeated. Oh geez . . . Ruy laughed and shook Gethen's hand. Raven giggled a little too and Kaylessa had no other choice but to chuckle along.

"I guess we do need you," Ruy said in between laughs. Kaylessa rolled her eyes at the sentiment even though she was just thanking Raven and Ruy a few moments before.

"Totally," Raven howled. The laughter was contagious, and in no time, Trix, Vespera, and Gisela were laughing nervously. Raven pounded her left knee as she tried to stand up and not laugh. Her face was contemplative, but suddenly she dropped to the ground and rolled around laughing her head off.

Raven looked so ridiculous that Kaylessa started to laugh as well and soon joined her on the floor with Ruy and Gethen.

"Um—" Vespera glanced at them nervously. "Do they need help?" Raven wiped a tear from her eye.

"No, we're just mentally insane," she said, calming down. Kaylessa laughed again. She grinned at all the Neverseen family members, and for the first time, it didn't seem like a group of people, it felt like family.

Hiiiiiii readers!!! This chapter was written by the amazing @-EverlastingFanGirl-. Hope you liked it! Do you guys have any ideas of what's going to happen next?  

Mysterious Miss S out ->