Flashback ( PDFDrive )

Sophie had no doubt of that.
It’s fine! she promised the guilty alicorn. Whatever this is, we’ll figure
it out.
Out loud, she asked, “What do you want?”
Lady Gisela reached up to smooth a strand of her blond hair into
her beaded headpiece—which she’d probably worn to block Sophie’s
abilities—and it took Sophie a second to realize why that gesture felt
so significant. For months and months, ever since Fintan had tortured
her and locked her away in an ogre prison, Keefe’s mom had hidden
her face behind the hood of her black cloak. But now she stood boldly
uncovered before them. And there was no sign of the brutal scars that
Sophie had been imagining. Instead, her pale skin looked sort of . . .
stretched—like the human women Sophie sometimes saw growing up
who’d had too much plastic surgery.
“You all look as tired as I feel,” Lady Gisela said, her ice blue eyes
lingering on her son. “So let’s get right down to this, shall we?”
“Yes, let’s,” Ro agreed, whipping a dagger at Lady Gisela’s head.
Keefe’s mom sighed, looking gloriously bored as she reached up
and snatched the dagger out of the air, mere inches from the tip of her
nose. “Guess that means it’s my turn,” she said, raising her other hand,
which held a familiar silver-nozzled weapon.
She aimed for Greyfell’s face, pulling the trigger in the same
smooth motion and shooting the male alicorn right between the eyes.
Whinnies and screams pierced Sophie’s eardrums, and her knees
threatened to give out as she imagined bullets and blood—but some
tiny part of her brain reminded her that she’d seen that weapon
before. And when she managed to focus, she found that the splatter