Read Online Neverseen by Shannon Messenger - Free Book Online Page A

elves usually built with. Instead, everything was earthy and natural. Fall-colored leaves had been woven into brightly patterned rugs, which felt softer than dandelion fluff but still made that great crunching soundwhen they walked. Flowering branches lined the walls, filling the air with the scent of spring. The furniture looked like carefully sculpted shrubs, and garlands of bright summer berries draped from the ceiling. But the most breathtaking element had to be the shimmering waterfall in the center. It trickled from the skylight along twisted icicles, dripping into a pool of frost-covered stones.
    Somehow the gnomes had taken the best parts of each season and transformed them into a place that was both elegant and inviting.
    “Everything in our world celebrates beauty,” Della said proudly. “Why surround ourselves with ugliness when there is wonder to showcase?”
    “I guess,” Sophie mumbled, fussing with her sash. No matter how many times she tied it, she couldn’t get the bow even.
    “Here,” Della said, knotting it as perfectly as a Disney princess. “This color really sets off your eyes.”
    “Great,” Sophie mumbled. “Just what I wanted.”
    “Hey, your eyes are what I always hear everyone talking about,” Biana reminded her.
    “Yeah, because they’re calling me a freak.”
    “That’s only Stina and her bratty friends. Everyone else thinks they’re striking and unique.”
    Della sighed when Sophie shrugged off the compliment. “It must’ve been hard growing up as an elf among humans—andI don’t mean because you’re a Telepath, though I know that came with its own challenges. Jealousy is such a powerful force in their lives—and you have so many gifts.”
    “How do you know so much about humans?” Sophie asked.
    “ That is a story for another time. But I’ve walked among them, and the reception I received was less than friendly.”
    “Is that how it was for you?” Biana asked Sophie.
    “Everyone pretty much hated me,” Sophie admitted. “They’d call me the Freakazoid, or Superdork, or the Special Sophieflake. But it didn’t help that I skipped six grades and had a bad habit of reminding teachers to collect our homework.”
    “It’s better here, though, right?” Biana asked.
    “In some ways. But I’m also ‘the human girl.’ And the Girl Who Was Taken. And now everyone looks at me like I’m public enemy number one.”
    “Well, they’re wrong,” Della said. “And someday they’ll see that. In the meantime, please try to remember that there’s a difference between hiding by choice and hiding from fear . You should never be afraid of who you are.”
    Sophie fussed with her perfect Della bow, accidentally messing it up.
    She decided not to fix it.
    “Look—they gave us Prattles!” Biana said, lifting a huge welcome basket she’d discovered. She handed Sophie the silverbox with her name on it, then tore into her own, going straight for the tiny velvet pouch tucked among the nutty candy.
    Every box of Prattles came with a collectible pin, shaped as one of the various animal species on the planet. Prattles limited the amount of each pin to how many of that creature existed, which meant some pins were extremely rare.
    Biana held up her bluish green water-horse. “I’ve been wanting a Prattles’ kelpie forever! What’d you get?”
    Sophie crunched on a piece of the candy as she fished out her pin, nearly choking when she saw the silver bird with long, gleaming feathers.
    “The Prattles’ moonlark,” Biana whispered. “There are less than a hundred of those.”
    And yet somehow the Black Swan had now given Sophie two .
    The last time they gave her one, they’d been trying to convince her to stop the Everblaze. What were they trying to tell her this time?
    She checked for a note and found nothing, but she was sure the pin couldn’t be a coincidence.
    “Do you really trust the Black Swan?” Sophie asked Della, pinning the moonlark through the cord of her