"Wha....?" Sophie's mind was blown. I mean, it's not every day that you find out that your foster dad is also the leader of the Black Swan. "But why didn't you tell me sooner? You hate Keefe, but Mr. Forkle doesn't, does he? Does Edaline know?"

"You weren't ready, I try to keep my fatherly instincts out of my job, and no, your mother doesn't know. Any other questions?"

"Wait- you're a telepath... and a mesmer?" He nodded slowly. "So that would make you..." "The most powerful elf ever. No wonder you keep it a secret. Does the Council know?"

"Yes. It's kind of hard to keep that a secret. Oftentimes, my 'assignments' were excuses to do stuff for the Black Swan."

"You do realize this kind of ruins the whole 'family' thing, right?"

"I thought you needed to know," he said simply. "But onto business. Sophie, Tam was keeping files on all of the Neverseen's hideouts- why we don't know. But we found their main base, and we're taking it at midnight."

Keefe poped in. "Fork-dad, don't you mean Nightfall?"

Sophie massaged her temples. "Keefe, not that again."

"Fine. But I just wanted to tell you that the new guy's here. And he's awesome!"

"What new guy?" Sophie asked.

"His name's Zane. C'mon!"

He walked in, and Sophie had to force herself not to turn her face away. He had straight, short blond hair, Fitz's hairdo with Keefe's color. His eyes were deep purple, darker than anyone's she had ever seen.

He shook her hand. "I'm Zane." He smiled at her with a huge grin that would've looked dorkish on anyone else but looked extremely hot on him.

She pinched herself. Stop that, Sophie, she told herself. "Um... I'm Sophie. Hi." Smooth.

"So I've heard. The moonlark."

She blushed, even more. "You don't need to mention that."

"Ooh, are we playing 'make Foster blush'? I love that game!"

He snorted and muttered to Sophie, "Some people are so immature."

"Um."

"I don't know about you all, but I am so feeling the Zanephie right now!"

Their reactions were exactly how anyone could've predicted: Sophie blushed, Keefe smirked, Fitz grew hot with jealousy (er... temperature hot, that is), and Zane rolled his eyes.

"Okay," Grady/Mr. Forkle said, "We've got to leave soon. Star, you can come if you can take care of yourself."

She nodded. "I took self-defense classes when I was younger."

"Okay, everyone needs to prepare. By this time tomorrow, the Neverseen should be abolished- if everything goes according to plan."

"And if not?" Zane asked.

Grady/Mr. Forkle shrugged. "It might be bad."

And on that note, he left.