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Even though Everglen was an ancient property, somehow, Sophie felt older as they walked the exterior.

She knew she wasn’t actually

old

—elves lived practically a lick away from immortality (nor did they physically age)—but being the first elvin property she visited at twelve and now eighteen, her body felt more like an artifact for display on their lawn than anything sentient.

Becoming legally an adult didn’t feel any different. She still felt seventeen. Or, maybe she still felt fifteen. Either way, some past version of her was prying at the bars of its enclosure within her, trying to take the front seat of her mind.

Would she always feel younger, she wondered? Always feel so out of control?

The glittering lake came into view. It was where the Moonlarks Alden had been temporarily studying used to flock and flutter their graceful moon-white wings for preening.

They had once been fluffy, awkward, arguably ugly babies with no real understanding of the world. They couldn’t even keep their balance. Time passed and they, too, had grown and matured and become a beautiful, wise version of themself. But Sophie wondered, were they also tractable to the curse of gaining experience but never really escaping who they were a year ago? Or two? Maybe more?

Sometimes when Sophie looked in the mirror, she expected to see who she heard in her head when she talked to herself. The image didn’t fit and Vertina in the corner always decided to make a comment about how tall she was or how long her hair had grown or how the makeup she wore now really suited her.

Would she ever not feel haunted by her own past?

Sophie skidded to a stop to avoid bumping into Linh in front of her. “Sorry,” she apologized and Dex laughed.

Sophie blushed as she looked around, and various versions of blue eyes were all focused on her. Clearly, she had been the only one not paying attention.

Fitz cocked his head to the side, curiosity shining in his eyes. His lips battled a smile. “Were you even listening?”

“...Yes.”

Keefe gasped, mouth slightly agape. “No!” he exclaimed. He shot his eyebrows up on his forehead, laying a hand across his chest as he leaned in a cinch. “I couldn’t even tell.”

Tam butted in when the rest of the group giggled in tandem. “You weren’t actually missing anything. Keefe has just been trying to pitch something for the past three minutes.”

“I only keep pushing because you won’t even let me get word in!” he defended. “Seems we could solve you being grumpy real quick if you’d let me speak. Then I wouldn’t have to interrupt.”

“Or you could just…” Tam bounced his shoulders in the air. “Not be a jackass.”

“

Okay

guys,” Fitz drawled at the same time Dex interjected, “How about we move on?”

“Just say what you want to say Keefe,” Biana said, arms crossed over her torso.

“Seriously?”

He looked around the group to make sure everyone had an eye on him.

Biana tapped her fingers rhythmically on her arm while he waited for attention. Tam waved his hand.

“Okay! Hear me out,” Keefe said as he ushered the group into a circle-shape. Fitz and Sophie shared a glance, smiling a little. “We have nothing else to do for the day except a really boring picnic later on, which if we’re being honest is probably going to be a

lot

of “when are you moving out” and “what do you want to do with your life” from the parents. Am I right?”

Biana shuddered. Sophie almost shared it. Edaline and Grady didn’t explicitly

want

her to move out, but once she was done with school (which was coming up faster than she ever wanted to admit), what more was there left for her to do? With an infinite birth fund and access to any career she wanted, she could have a forever home built in two years near the Bahamas if she really desired.

If the elves knew what that was.

For Tam, Linh and Keefe, the age wasn’t a concern, but more of a freedom card. But as she looked around the circle, she couldn’t even begin to imagine how Fitz was feeling. He was in a similar spot to her with the loving parents, but a bigger number when it came to age. His clock for “figure out what’s next” was definitely ticking a lot faster and higher-pitched. Especially when he came from a family like the Vackers.

“So,” Keefe enunciated, “what about a good old-fashioned game of Base Quest?”

Tam’s quip was almost too quick for Sophie to form a thought. “I think that would kill one of us.”

“Oh, come on, Tammy Boy,” Keefe urged. “It’s not gonna be that bad. We’ve been through worse.”

Biana shrugged, fanning out her hand to glance down at it. “I just got my nails done with Linh, I doubt either of us want to risk breaking a literal nail off for your middle grade fantasy.”

“Seriously?” Keefe darted his head around at them. “For old time’s sake. You guys are making it out like I’m torturing you.” Keefe approached Fitz, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “Don’t you think it would be a

little

cool to see how much we’ve improved? We’re not the same kids we were at twelve”—he pointed to Sophie—“and thirteen,” he gestured to Fitz and himself.

Fitz winced. His widened eyes held the shock of his realization. “It’s been that long.”

“It

has

been that long,” Dex shuddered.

Tam shoved his hands in his pockets, puffing them out with his shrug. “Listen, dude, you’ve tried to explain this game to us before and it just didn’t work.”

Keefe smirked in Tam’s direction. “I dunno…” he cooed, his voice going sing-song. “Maybe you’re just whining cause you lost.”

His hands flew up. “It was my first time playing!”

“Sounds like an excuse to me!”

“No, he’s right. It wouldn’t be a fair test of skills unless each of us are on separate teams,” Linh said, waving her finger between her and her twin. “You’d need to balance us out with the experienced players.”

Keefe grinned. “So… what I’m hearing is we’re on?”

“They’re

considering

it,” Sophie adjusted. His gleaming face was full of pride as he taunted their friends and deep down, Sophie knew they really were about to give in to his demands.

Then again, maybe it was just what they needed.

Beneath Fitz’s hardened, mature exterior, Sophie could tell by the corners of his mouth that flittered whenever Keefe made certain comments, Fitz was reminiscing about how simple it used to be. She, too, was getting tangled in the thoughts.

How their biggest concerns were once Midterm grades and the Opening Ceremonies and Base Quest. Back when their homes were safe havens and nothing horrendous had yet to graze them.

Everglen was one of the many places scarred by their involvement. The property was previously protected by an enormous glowing gate and the towering bars that absorbed light (to prevent anyone from leaping inside without permission) were removed by the Council after the illegal troll hive was discovered on the property. Needless to say, that entire conundrum had torn up the Vackers backyard.

“You know… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad,” Fitz muttered, meeting Sophie’s eyes.

“Three yeses,” Keefe drew out. pointing his finger around the circle as his other hand blazoned the number three for everyone to see. “Anyone else?”

Biana blew out her breath, puffing a strand of hair out of her face. She tapped her foot on the grass, huffing out another exaggerated sigh. “Winners get what?” she mumbled.

“Now we’re talking!” Keefe clapped.

Dex chimed in, “It has to be something everyone agrees on,” before Keefe got too carried away.

“Actually, since you roped us all into this, why don’t the

rest

of us vote on a prize?” Linh offered, her smile sparkling.

“I’m down for that,” Tam caved.

“Oh, anything to dogpile on me, as always.”

“Don’t get too butthurt,” Fitz teased, nudging Keefe’s ribs with his elbow.

“Okay, focus!” Biana called. “We only have so long before the family picnic. What do we want to reward to the winning team?”

The group began throwing out numerous options, all of which received some sort of rebuttal from at least one other person. Their voices began to layer over each other to the point where Sophie was unable to discern who was shouting what.

Sophie folded her arms and chewed on the fleshy inside of her cheek. Everything suggested was getting shot down and for fair reason. Money had no real value, since elve’s funds were infinite and secured from birth, which knocked off a great many ideas. But…

“We could always give the winning team the right to make the losing team do whatever they choose?”

The flurry of voices switched off. They blinked and peered at Sophie, warmth returning to their faces as her suggestion settled in and they all gave momentary eye contact to gauge the overall vibe.

Keefe snapped his fingers, making Dex jump. “Humiliation ritual! I like it.”

“Doesn’t

have

to be humiliation,” Linh edged.

Sophie nodded, a pink tint on her cheeks as everyone focused on her. “She’s right, could be anything. We could force them to host and plan an entire hangout for us, down to cooking. Could even rope them into doing your laundry if that’s a big concern.”

“Open-ended. Gives me time to scheme.” Keefe rubbed his hands together before springing one into the air. “I vote for Foster’s.”

“Your scheming won’t do

shit

when you eat my dust,” Biana jeered. “I’m with Sophie.”

More agreements piled in until they had enough votes out of the seven of them to continue. There was no choice but to divide the teams unevenly, so Biana and Fitz (arguably the most experienced players) took one side with Tam and Linh (the least experienced), and Sophie, Keefe, and Dex made up the smaller team.

“Who’s to say Keefe isn’t going to just cheat his way around this?” Tam checked.

Keefe made a dramatic effort to slap his palm against his chest. “I’m hurt.”

Fitz shook his head while Dex snickered. “Don’t worry, we had to make rules to counteract him a long time ago.” He gestured with his hand to the circle. “Let’s all split up and choose a base. Sophie and I can keep in contact to determine who chooses their base first and from there, we’ll start. Team that chooses their base first has to quest first.”

Biana placed her palm on Linh’s shoulder. “I’ll run you guys down on the rules again as we’re looking,” she promised, probably noticing the twinge of regret in Linh’s features.

Fitz held out his palms. “Ready?” The circle all swapped eye contact. “Go.”

The teams spun tail and marched off in their separate directions to find and claim a base.

“We’re totally winning this thing, right?” Dex asked.

“Duh,” Keefe said, “We’ve got Foster.”

Sophie puffed. “I wouldn’t rely too heavily on me. I’m not scared to lose.” She took a good long look at him. “Unlike you.”

“Ah, but that’s the thing! You’re just too

good

to lose.”

Sophie rolled her eyes. This was going to be a long game.

“This… isn’t really different from any other tree around here.”

Dex and Sophie tilted their heads almost in-sync to observe Keefe’s pick at a base. Outwardly, Dex was right – it really had no clear difference compared to the hundreds of trees that surrounded it. It uncannily resembled each of them to a T.

“That’s the point! We don’t need anything special when we’re on the Dream Team. Quick, Foster, tell Fitzer we’ve got our pick of the land.”

Sophie exchanged a look with Dex, smiling when he shrugged. Sophie unclasped and shrugged off her cape, discarding it against the trunk of their tree before she momentarily fluttered her eyes closed to locate her cognate, opening again when she secured the connection like a telephone wire across the forest.

Chose our base!

That was quick

, Fitz marveled.

Were you just trying to choose anything so you could quest first?

Sophie wondered if her shrug carried through the telepathic conversation.

Sorry, I can’t fraternize with the enemy. Top secret plans, according to my boss.

Sophie could hear Fitz’s snort through the mental waves.

Your boss has some shaping up to do. I’ll go easy on you, though.

What a shame,

Sophie teased,

I wasn’t planning on showing you any mercy.

She sent him an image of the tree. His mocking tsk spread a smile on Sophie’s lips.

You’re going to regret that, Sophie.

“Gauging by the blush and cute little grin on Foster, I’d say our plans have been relayed.”

Sophie gave his shoulder a good shove.
Dex stifled his laugh.
“Anyways,” Sophie announced, “they’re still choosing their base. Once they’re ready, I can project the image Fitz shares with me. But right now, we need to decide who’s going where.”
Keefe tossed his pointer finger between the two of them. “When it’s their turn to quest, I was thinking you and I scout it out, while Dex guards home base.”

Dex snorted. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the bark of the tree. “Of course you say that.”

Sophie’s cheeks flamed with red, but thankfully Keefe was so busy defending his decision that he either didn’t notice or elected to ignore that detail as he drove his proposal home. “With our memories, Foster and I have an exact layout of the grounds. We’ll be able to sneak up on them without even thinking. And with that fancy brain push trick Foster has up her sleeve, no one’s going to be able to catch up to her. We’re guaranteed quite a few tags.

“And you are more agile than you look. Our last line of defense at base has to be someone strong who knows how to use their skills. No, don’t shake your head at me—I saw you in Exillium.”

“I don’t know, Keefe…” Sophie dug the toe of her boot in the grass. “I haven’t used a brain push in awhile.”

Keefe lifted his shoulders. “And? You used it just fine the second you showed up here. I told you, this is like a cool little test of our skills we’ve built up over the years! If you sent yourself

and

Fitz flying during your first splotching match, I

promise

you’ll be able to harbor that energy into your Foster Legs today.”

Dex shook his head, sighing. “You’re so…”

“Awesome? I know. Now,” he clapped, “let’s do this!”

Keefe started to march off into the woods on his own, so Sophie stole a glance back at Dex, shaking her head in disbelief. ‘So much energy!’ she mouthed.

Dex laughed at her spooked eyes. ‘Always!’

With the image of Fitz’ team’s base projected into her teammates minds and the official go ahead given, it was time for Sophie’s team to pursue their opponents. Dex took the far left, Keefe took the middle, and Sophie went to her far right.

Questing first had advantages, according to Keefe, but all Sophie could think of was that it was three against four.

Fitz, Biana, Tam and Linh had chosen the skinniest tree alive in the overgrown forest, which made Sophie realize how much more difficult it was going to be to touch it. Sophie opened a channel between their three minds as she bound through the trees, wondering if this was really the same Everglen she’d traversed when she was so-much shorter. Everything seemed so unruly and cartoonishly large, when she’d expected to maybe feel a

little

-less intimidated by the ancient forest this time. After all, she had grown a few inches since she’d last played. Surely that had to mean something?

The trees and foliage didn’t seem to care. They’d about doubled in size.

Sophie snagged her foot on a bush and she yelped.

When was the last time they thought to manage this?

Just be thankful we’re wearing boots,

was Dex’s response.

She was definitely something of the sort. Sophie would have been scratched up to her knees by now if she wasn’t wearing her leggings and boots. As they traversed onwards, Sophie’s clothes peppered with her beads of sweat.

Probably the point

, she thought. Fitz’s team had chosen a far-enough away base that they’d get tired just travelling there before the real work had even begun.

Exactly the point

, Keefe piped, making Sophie remember that she had opened her channel to all three of them.

You guys see anyone yet?

No

, came Sophie and Dex’s simultaneous answer.

You’d think they’d have defen–

Keefe’s line cut out. Sophie scraped to a stop, moss kicking up from the earth as she panted.

Keefe?

No answer. Sophie couldn’t even feel him.

Great,

Dex muttered.

Spinning around, she tried to reconnect her channel to Keefe. She scanned the trees, keeping an eye out for anyone trying to sneak up as she pushed her mind out in the forest, sifting around for Keefe’s missing wire.

Dex was blaring in her ear, asking if she saw anybody, found anything, but Sophie was stretching out just to bounce back to her own bubble.

Sophie blew out breath, trying to calm her pattering heart.

Just a game,

she reminded herself and when Dex offered his sweet encouragement, Sophie closed her eyes.

She envisioned the forest like a thermal scan, spreading out her mental hands until she would find the bright red dot indicating Keefe’s consciousness. Somewhere he was last seen, felt. Somewhere nearby, somewhere far away, somewhere–

Sophie flinched as her mind touched warmth. She hesitantly poked at the wall again, relishing in the familiar, toasty sensation. It couldn’t have been Keefe, she realized. This didn’t feel like his mind. And the wall was almost… inviting. Sure enough, the harder she pushed, the more she recognized how the space enveloped her. This was barely a wall… More like a “welcome home” doormat and entrance than a mental fortress she’d have to break.

She envisioned a doorknob, which appeared in a heartbeat, and turned to enter.

Sophie’s line immediately ruptured with Dex. With barely the time for a blink, Sophie was able to gather where she’d been sucked into. Or, rather, who she was now talking to.

You pulled Keefe into your line

.

Sophie’s accusation hung in the echoing chamber before Fitz’s catty response reverberated back to her.

What?

he gasped

. I’d never do such a thing.

He did too! Tell him to get out of my head, Foster. Or I’ll report you to the Council! They wouldn’t take this lightly, now, would they?!

Fitz’s mental eye roll had Sophie biting her lip to hold back a chuckle.

Oh, please, it’s a game

.

To you! I have way too many brilliant ideas to risk you stealing!

Sophie jumped in before he had the chance to bicker any further.

Thanks for kidnapping my teammate, but we’ve got it from here.

So do we.

Fitz’s grin sparkled in the inner corners of her mind.

I see where you two are.

Sophie severed the connection.

Being whirlpooled back into their own mental arena took a moment of adjusting, but once the shock of the slam settled into Sophie’s bones and she was able to open her eyes again, she knew the link was clear.

Dex’s gripe was the first thing they heard.

Welcome back. You two gave me a heart attack.

So did the Fitzer,

Keefe huffed.

Fitz saw where we are,

Sophie concurred.

So I’m sure it doesn’t take a lot of brains to gather approximately where you are, Dex.

He sighed.

Yeah, you know, there’s only so many ways you can split up with the three of us… What’s the plan, then?

I don’t know,

Sophie said,

ask the guy who roped us into this mess.

Hey!

Sophie shook off her smile and made time for a long, steady exhale before marching off in the direction of their opponent’s base again, doing her best to ignore the fact that her rough path might lead her straight towards whoever Fitz had sent to scope out her tail. Or maybe it was Fitz himself she’d meet. All she knew for certain was that she had to get as far away from her last known location as possible so that she could avoid getting tagged.

Best bet we’ve got is moving forward as fast as we can

, Sophie transmitted.

As long as one of us touches that tree, it’s over.

Now we’re talking. Last one to the tree’s a rotten muskog!

The smile that sprang to her face made her cheeks sore. Sophie struggled to pull her muscles back into neutrality. So simple, so stupid, so… Keefe. Given that it elicited a groan out of Dex, she knew it was on.

Lucky for Sophie, her channeling didn’t fail her. She pushed her jog to a sprint and light as the breeze whipping her hair, her feet carried her. The energy she channeled into her legs thrummed with her speed and within seconds, Sophie was zipping her way through the trees. The thump of her feet against the aging ground became a chant of freedom, a physical test. An attentive reaction to her body’s victories over the year. The scars carried her this far, pushed her to become something greater, stronger, faster.

Sophie Foster was more than an elf. She was a force.

The blood pumped through her veins, pounding in her legs and heart as she embraced the crisp air that filled her lungs, fueling her capability and pushing more, more, more–

TAM!

Sophie squeaked, halting at Keefe’s voice.

Tam?!

HELP. ME.

On it!

Sophie shouted as Dex yelled,

Coming!

No, keep going forward!

Sophie ordered, already heading farther into the tree line to seek out Keefe.

That way we’re not all in one place! I’ve got this.

The last part was mostly a reminder to herself.

As she ran in his direction, Sophie scoured Keefe’s recent memories, tracking his final steps from the tree he passed with the knots that looked like eyes leering back and the patch of moss that kicked up where Keefe tripped on it and the buzz of insects as he hurtled over a fallen log.

She started seeing the familiar landmarks and soon Sophie was quickly retracing exactly where he’d stepped.

She gasped when she flew by Tam’s side. Skidding to an abrupt stop and whipping back around to face him, Tam stood casually with arms crossed over his middle as he gave his undivided attention to Sophie’s adrenaline-pumped form.

Keefe, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen.

Sophie examined the space around them as she panted, finding no indication that another person had ever been there.

“Where–” Sophie blew out a breath, hoping Tam wouldn’t mention the light wheeze laced in her throat. “Where is Keefe?”

“Ah, yeah,” Tam said, snapping his fingers as he pointed. “Your boyfriend is hiding in a tree.”

Sophie scrunched up her face. Tree? She squinted as she gazed upwards. The bright sun scattered through the leaves and pinched stinging tears from her eyes, but there was enough cover when she raised a shielding hand to make out a blue and gray blob against the green. Sure enough, to her right, nestled between the thick branches of the tree was Keefe.

Sophie planted her hands on her hips, trying to catch her breath as she shook her head. “He’s not my boyfriend,” Sophie muttered, exasperated, at the same time Keefe shouted, “Hiding is not the same as strategizing!”

“That’s why I didn’t say strategizing,” Tam quipped.

Sophie’s eyes crossed paths with Tam’s again as he surveyed her and the area around. “But, I suppose, since I already have you down here–”

“Hang on!” Sophie squealed when he moved, lifting up her hands defensively. She was still battling for her lungs to stop burning with every inhale. “Hang on, please. Let me… catch my breath.” She swiveled to peer up at Keefe, who was tucked along the length of a larger branch. “And Keefe, get down. You can’t camp out in a tree all day.” Sophie could barely make out his face through all the leaves, so she motioned with her arm for him to follow.

“Thank you!” Tam exclaimed, which let Sophie know that debate had already been well-waged.

Keefe didn’t fight or sigh. He came levitating down from the branches without his usual rebuttal. That was, until he aimed his sight at Tam.

“Easy, Tim-Tam,” Keefe encouraged, raising a sly eyebrow. “It’s only a game.”

“And

you’re

the dipshit who started it!”

“Wait!” Sophie blurted, making Tam freeze before he could charge at them again.

She couldn’t stall forever. She was shocked he hadn’t already mowed the two down.

Sophie knew couldn’t put a barrier between them like a Psionipath could. Levitating would only get her so far; she’d seen how Tam had honed his skills in Exillium (and was frankly stunned he hadn't already knocked Keefe out of his parrot perch by the time she’d gotten there). She was incapable of knocking him off his feet with a gust of wind.

Sophie’s arms tingled with goosebumps. Actually, she didn’t necessarily need to be a Guster to knock him off his feet. That was

all

they needed to get a head start on him. As it was, if they turned on their heels to try and dash away, Tam would have the advantage, given he was already facing them. But if she could get him off balance, even for a second…

Sophie inched back a step when he moved his foot, nervously glancing at Keefe beside her.

Tam raised his arms, letting them slap down at his sides as he coaxed, “What are you going to do?”

“I… don’t actually know,” Sophie lied.

But she was already busy working. Outward channeling was a skill she’d learned from the coaches of Exillium. It was so powerful that Gethen had used it to break out of Lumenaria. Sophie didn’t need sheer power to win this. Just a little bit of force…

Keep him talking

, she whispered down Keefe’s channel.

His back straightened when her voice filled his mind. In true Keefe style, he snapped into character in a millisecond, complete with a popping hand on his hip. He cocked his head to the side. “And what are you going to do Bangs Boy? Blind me with your DIY silver hair?”

TALK. Not rile up!

Keefe winced. “...Sorry,” he coughed. “That was.” Keefe sucked in his lower lip with his top, letting it pop out with his final word. “Rude.”

Tam’s eyebrows mashed together. Standing up straighter, no longer in the proper position to dash at them, his confusion likely muddled the air for Keefe. “Did you just… insult and then immediately apologize to me?”

Better

, Sophie praised.

As he spoke, Sophie focused on the plot of ground, pretending to plant a seed. Right beneath Tam’s feet, on the little plot of land he rested upon. He’d have to kick his toes off of it to start sprinting at them, but little did he know, it was a ticking time bomb. Keefe’s words would only hold him in one spot for so long before he tried to continue the game and tag the two of them, but that ground, too, would only support him for so long.

She watered it, watching her seed grow and expand until it would finally…

burst

.

Tam yelped—a sound she wasn’t sure she’d ever had the pleasure of witnessing erupt from him—as the grass he’d been standing on exploded underneath his feet.

He slammed on his back with a thud and Sophie whipped around.

“Run!”

Sophie hurtled her body in the opposite direction of Tam, barreling through the woods without so much as a peek back. Despite her start being sooner, Keefe reached her side and pace within a manner of seconds while they both sped to put as much distance between them and Tam as they could. If he ever caught up, Tam’s revenge would be merciless. There would be zero hesitation.

Especially not when beating Keefe Sencen was involved.

Keefe was laughing—

giggling

—as they darted through the woods. Ducking under vines and dodging roots and Sophie couldn’t find half the mind to laugh, unless she wanted to risk her face being slapped with a leaf or slamming forwards onto the ground.

“This is not funny!”

“Of course it is! Did you see how he-he–” Another fit of out-of-breath, choked laughter made its violent way out of Keefe. He coughed a bit, exhaling his final word. “

Flew

?”

“I’m the one who launched him, so yeah!”

They started side-glancing each other every few seconds as they sprinted. Keefe spit out his laughter again, clutching his stomach as they ran and before she could hold it back, a similar laugh sputtered out of Sophie.

Maybe it

was

funny.

Sophie and Keefe were giggling in tandem at the shared memory of how limp Tam had gone from the blast. It had put him a few decent inches off the ground and if that mental ragdoll-physics replay wasn’t enough, somehow, Keefe’s

incessant

sniggering was making Sophie’s ten times worse. It was the way he didn’t stop, couldn’t gain control over himself, that was making Sophie howl harder.

The laughter would only build and take away more breath until they both sounded so high-pitched she could rival Sandor.

“Stop!” Sophie begged, holding her stomach as her sprint began to slow to a jog.

“The way h-his-his body

flew

.”

“

Stop

,” Sophie cried, bouncing from foot to foot until she slowed. “You-You have to stop it,” she wheezed, bending over and putting her hands on her knees. She braced herself in a half-bent-over position, smiling to the earth beneath her head as her guffawing turned to a manageable string of chuckles.

“Oh wow,” Keefe said, swiping the tears from his eyes. “That was wonderful.”

“It wasn’t even that funny,” Sophie said in between softer laughter, finally peeling herself up. She swayed her head in disbelief. “

You

just made me keep going.” The smile on her face mirrored Keefe’s as she rubbed her ribcage, sore from all the use.

His smile stretched into his smirk. “Your little snorts

were

pretty hilarious.”

“And you were practically hooting!”

“The running didn’t help.”

Sophie laughed, wincing when it burned her abdomen. “Unfortunately true.”

Sophie propped all her weight on one leg, leaning into her propped hip as she rubbed the little space between her lower ribs. The muscle retaliated in its soreness, so Sophie silently worked her knuckle into it, giving herself a minute to really drink in the ambience that the forest graced them with. If she hadn’t just been running from an opponent, she wouldn’t have believed they were in the middle of a high-stakes, sweaty game of Base Quest. In fact, she felt no sense of a threat as she let her ears take in the breeze creaking the branches above and the leaves mimicking the sloshy sound of waves rolling onto a sandy shore.

It was so quiet. And by quiet, she meant peaceful. She didn’t hear shouting or footsteps or anything. No ruckus to indicate a game afoot.

She stole a glance at Keefe from her peripheral. He was standing in silence with her. Now it was stretching into ‘It’s been too long–should I say something?’ territory.

Sophie decided it was best not to pretend he wasn’t there, so she fully looked over to him, not expecting Keefe to already be watching her. Her body stiffened.

How long had he been staring? He seemed to have come out of a daze, from how he blinked when she’d turned his way. Still, that didn’t deter him from maintaining eye contact.

All that time she’d spent admiring the forest, had he been aimed her way? Had his eyes ever left her since the second they’d arrived? And how had she not noticed to the point where she had so many of these questions?

“Hey, Foster?”
Sophie’s stomach fluttered. “Yeah?”
Keefe swallowed. The bubbly sound scuttled in the space between them. Sophie couldn’t break away from his eyes. The thought alone felt like willingly inviting a curse, but she needed a way to maintain her cool. Or whatever was left of it.
She settled for twisting her own fingers. The fidgeting made an outlet for her to banish some of the sillier worries nagging in her head, but it did give Keefe an extra indicator that she was really feeling the nerves.

“I…”

Sophie bit her lip. His eyes followed her fingers as they reached up to pluck an eyelash out.

Keefe cleared his throat. He dashed his eyes away from hers, breaking whatever trance had seemed to lock the two of them to one another.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and Sophie couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed when he fanned his hand between the two of them, as though he was whisking away her overwhelming feelings.

“We should teleport.”

Sophie leaned forward. “What?”

“We’re never going to make it back in time. We got turned around,” Keefe said, tipping his chin up and down when she parroted her previous question. “Tam was pursuing us from their base,” he explained. “We ran the opposite way from him. Which leads us–”

Sophie groaned. “Right back where we started,” she griped, closing her eyes and curling her lips inward in disappointment. She sighed through her nose.

Keefe rubbed the back of his neck, scanning the clearing around them. “Yyyyeah.” Sensing her increasing levels of frustration, Keefe tried to fan the flames with his logic. “It’s the only way we won’t run into another one of them. Fitz is connected with Tam like you’re connected to Dex and I. Tam probably told them to bring backup this way. And if we’re surrounded it’s Dex all alone.”

“I–I don’t know, Keefe,” Sophie murmured, massaging her forehead with her fingers. “Isn’t me doing a brain-push kind of… Cheating?”

“Cheating? Pshhh.” Keefe chuckled, settling his palms on his hips. “Nooo.”

Sophie’s eyebrow rose. “And why not?” She turned her fingers towards her chest. “No one else can do it except me. Doesn’t that give us an unfair advantage?”

Keefe gave a sassy jump of his shoulders. “This is coming from the girl who blew up the Neverseen’s storage house.”

“Okay,” Sophie defended, raising a finger, “when you say ‘blew up’ you make it sound far more violent than it actually was. I–”

“Set it on fire.”

“Well…” Sophie cleared her throat. Her cheeks prickled with pink. “Yes,” she admitted.

“And that’s why we love you, Foster,” Keefe said, with a hint of something too-sweet that Sophie had to bite the inside of her tongue to gain some semblance of control over her fiery blush. He leaned forward, only making it worse. “So give us that good old ‘I’ll do anything to win’ attitude and we can claim our victory.”

“Fine,” Sophie blurted once she regained her ability to breathe. “But

don’t

,” Sophie swatted at the fist he started pumping, “brag about it to anyone. We got there fair and square, channeling and nothing else.”

“Oh, I promise, Foster. My lips?” He puckered them in a faux kiss. “

Sealed

.”

She doubted that. Keefe had a way of puffing his feathers when someone challenged him. Especially Tam. And frankly, Fitz.
“Get on and let’s get this over with,” Sophie said, squatting down slightly to allow him the space to hop on her back.
“Aww, you aren’t going to carry me like your princess again?”
Sophie narrowed her eyes. She was tempted to mention that if she hadn’t carried him in her arms and then slung him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes down the King’s Path, he likely wouldn’t have made it to see the sunshine today. Deep down, she knew he was already well aware.

She settled with a curt, “Train is leaving, get on or get lost.”

“Noted!”

Keefe went behind her and climbed on, earning himself an “oof” from Sophie. He apologized for his weight, but Sophie brushed him off, pushing her knees up to reach her full height.

She blew out a steady exhale. Sophie readjusted her weight to better carry him, allowing herself a couple of seconds to adjust to his mass and channel more energy into her limbs, and his body started to feel lighter and lighter as the seconds ticked by, so she imagined him hovering above her back, barely touching and managing the weight on his own.

She’d learned in Exillium that half of her fight was the mental game. If Sophie could imagine the job done, she could boost her strength. Besides, she’d done it before, under duress no less, so she could certainly do it again for a game of Base Quest.

Still, that didn’t deter her from giving a petty remark. “Now I understand how Silveny feels.”

Sophie did her best to ignore Keefe’s breath on her hair and the warmth of his entire body along hers. “But she’s half as glamorous as I am.”

“Beg to differ,” she grunted. “She’s a sparkly horse with wings.” Sophie stepped one foot back, angling her body in the position to propel herself forward. She would need to sprint and crack open the void in front of them—all while not hitting a tree.

“You’ve got a clear shot right there,” Keefe aided, pointing.

She promised, “I’m not going to splat us.”

“Oh, I know.” He actually sounded genuine. Even the littlest expression of trust made her heart skip a beat.

Unexpectedly, Sophie’s muscles flinched when she heard a twig snap somewhere behind them. She couldn’t turn around to see what the noise had come from. Or who had made it.

Sophie felt Keefe’s torso spin. “Uhh, you can teleport,” Keefe said, poking her shoulder. “Preferably now.”

Got it.

Feeling eyes on her, whether real or imagined, Sophie wasted not another second, blasting forward.

Aiming for the forest ahead, Sophie ripped a seam in the center of the two trees, flinging their bodies into the portal as the thunderous crack of dry lightning boomed in their ears. She expected to feel the familiar stomach drop as she fell into the void, but instead, like a rubber band being stretched as thin as she could go, her consciousness—perhaps even her physical form, from how taut she felt—pulled as it jumped between space and

finally

, just when she felt about ready to break, Sophie snapped back into form as they shot out of the other end. Sophie didn’t have a moment to even look at where they’d landed before her foot snagged on a branch and they smashed onto the grass. Sophie was pretty sure she got a teethful of dirt as her and Keefe screamed and tangled into some messy elf-yarn-ball as they rolled and came to a stop on the lawn.

Neither of them moved for a second.

“Ow

ww

,” Keefe groaned.

Sophie’s back shocked her full of pins and needles. She grit her teeth as she dug her elbows into the earth, pushing her torso up and pulling her legs out from Keefe’s in their pretzel-knot mess. Once she’d dragged herself up to sit, she rubbed the back of her head. To her surprise, she didn’t feel a bump, but she had a feeling she’d be visiting Elwin after the picnic.

Maybe before, based on how hard her skull was pounding to be freed from her head.

Keefe made a few disgruntled grunts and moans as he brought himself to an upright position, spitting out some brown saliva onto the grass. Dirt or blood, Sophie didn’t know.

“Well,” he sucked his teeth, exhaling. “You sure know how to bring a guy to his knees.”

Sophie chucked the conveniently-placed branch at him.

Keefe’s chuckle was gentle as he made his way off the ground. Sophie watched his shaky ascent, feeling a pang of embarrassment at getting them into the situation, when Keefe offered a hand. Sophie silently accepted his assistance.

Sliding their clammy palms together, allowing him to drag her from the grass, the green stained her knees brighter than radioactive slime. She had all intentions of swiping off the dewy mess when she stood, except for when she finally became vertical, dizziness swirled her vision and Sophie’s ears whined with a high-pitched shriek.

“Whoa,” said Keefe, who shared her grimace with their interlocked hands. “That’s a lot of stabbing in my skull.”

Right. He could feel her pain.

She apologized, “Sorry,” while going to tug her hand away. Keefe wouldn’t let her.

“No,” he argued, “it’s fine. I don’t want you falling over. I can handle a little bit of pain, just take a second.”

With Keefe being determined to have her take a minute to recuperate (and his obnoxious ability to call her bluff), Sophie rested her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes, permitting her brain some time to stop pulsing. She might as well have stabbed the stick she tripped over into her head from how heinously razor-like its incessant pounding was.

Once the dizziness began to yield and the thud behind her eyes dulled, Sophie fluttered her eyes open once again to be met by the afternoon sunlight. She lifted her head off of Keefe’s shoulder and glanced at him to gauge what was on his mind after the peaceful silence, but his eyebrows were crunched up on his forehead and his lips were pursed to the side.

Sophie followed his eyes over in the distance, finally able to use her moment of clarity for good.

She’d expected with all of the open land surrounding them that she had teleported into a clearing in Everglen’s forest, or maybe even the groomed, parklike lawn itself, but instead of the castle-style manor overlooking a lake, Sophie was met with a shimmering gold-and-glass house overlooking the ocean.

Without knowing why, Sophie’s stomach dropped.

Havenfield

.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Why are we at Havenfield?” Sophie asked.

Keefe rubbed the back of his neck. “I was going to ask you.”

“I…” Sophie’s eyebrows threaded together in a line of brown. She shook her head back and forth. “I wasn’t thinking of Havenfield.”

Yet there it was before her in all of its twinkling glory. With its towering four stories, lush grove  for the gnomes, and the ambience of the recovering animals in the rolling pastures, it was undeniably her family home.

The silence stretched between them.

After a few beats, Keefe suggested, “The brain push might’ve jumbled it? I figured it would make us move faster through your little void-teleporty-hole, but it looks like it randomized our destination.”

In spite of Keefe’s swift protests claiming he could still tell she clung to some dizziness and should take a breath, Sophie disconnected with him.

“I don’t understand,” she breathed, taking a step forward.

Keefe shoved his hands in his pockets and made a point of clearing his throat loudly. “It’s not that big of a deal, right? If you’re not up for the running-teleporting again we could go over to the cliffs and do the good-ole’ diving-teleporting. Or we could head inside and use the Leapmaster. Grady and Edaline love me, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me popping in.”

His weak attempts at distracting her were not working like he hoped. Sophie knew her anxiety was shuttering off of her in slicing waves and he was picking up on every high and low, every minute diversion and path she let her emotions follow like a rabbit, but she couldn’t begin to wrap her mind around any logic that would dispel the tornado of bewilderment.

Sophie heard Keefe’s breath hitch behind her, indicating he was about to add something, but he cut himself off when they spotted a figure in the distance. Even though they were short enough, they weren’t a gnome; that much was clear from the shiny blond hair and elvin cape that swished as they barreled around the corner of Havenfield.

Whoever they were, they were an elf that neither Sophie or Keefe recognized, from how the two shared a perplexed glance.

Sophie was the first to voice their mystery. “Who is that?”

She already knew his answer. Keefe had no clue, either.

Suddenly, a second person appeared. Smaller than the first, but somehow managing to keep up with the elf who was visibly older than them, the second followed them like a leader. Sophie took a step back in disbelief and Keefe put an arm on her bicep.

As though when Sophie and the stranger made eye contact from across the pasture, they beelined her way.

“Do Edaline and Grady know–”

“I don’t know.”

In her six years living with the Ruewens, they’d rarely received guests. Much less children. Her own

cousins

rarely visited.

Sophie folded her arms under her ribcage and shifted on her feet, waiting until the two elves would reach her. It was all she could do to get answers. Plus, she didn’t want to let whoever the pair was out of her sight.

The closer the elves got, the more Sophie could make out who they were—or, what they looked like, at least. The eldest was a little girl, not much older than eight, with a sheet of shiny, warm blond hair and thick brows. The younger one had a wide nose that you were instantly drawn to, golden hair, and ice-blue eyes that framed her face with dark, full lashes.

But there was one thing Sophie couldn’t sweep past with the eldest.

She jogged to a stop in front of Sophie, panting from the run. “It’s been five minutes,” the girl announced.

She had spoken to her, but the initial comment flew past Sophie’s head. She couldn’t even rely on her photographic memory to detail it for her. Whatever she had said was lost to time because Sophie had been too distracted by the one spotlight feature of her face.

Brown

eyes.

“Who are you?” Sophie asked, hushed.

The girl blinked. Her eyes darted between Sophie and Keefe. “What?”

The tiny one’s lip trembled as her gaze whizzed in a similar pattern. Sophie, Keefe, Sophie, Keefe, and on it went.

Keefe stepped forward. “Sorry, I think Foster means… What’s your name? Where are your parents?”

Sophie shook her head, feeling dizzy. He couldn’t make this normal. Couldn’t explain this away. Her chest might as well have collapsed from how tightly it had squeezed in on itself.

Keefe grasped for her hand as soon as the idea of fleeing formed in her head. He anchored her there and without even peering her way, Keefe was, without a doubt, the only thing keeping Sophie’s sanity hanging by a thread.

“Here,” the girl answered.

Sophie licked her lips, bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet. “Okay,” Sophie prodded, “who are they? Can you tell us their names so we can get you home?”

“You said we weren’t going home until later,” the smaller one pouted.

“Yeah, you promised, like, sunset,” the first testified.

“Oh! Here come your parents,” Keefe announced, patting Sophie on the back. She followed his finger to the two waltzing across the pasture to them and Sophie’s heart gave her a second of relief before the crushing weight returned to it. If the rollercoaster of her nervous system kept it up, she was going to pass out before she unraveled this mystery.

“They can help sort this all out,” Keefe continued, knowing her every feeling like he knew how to breathe. “It’ll be okay.”

Sophie called out for Edaline once she got close enough, triggering a smile to her mother’s face. She waved the hand that wasn’t laced with Grady’s, despite it being full. Sophie cocked her head to the side.

She was holding Ella.

“Hey kiddo,” Grady greeted as they stopped beside the children. “Five minutes are up.”

“Who are–” She couldn’t get the words out before Edaline bent over and handed the elephant to the youngest.

Keefe made a tiny, indiscernible sound and the lines on Sophie’s face only deepened.

What?

I have literally no idea

.

Sophie flinched as his voice tickled inside her head. She hadn’t been aware she’d pushed the thought so hard it had reached Keefe.

The shorter kid tenderly readjusted the buttons on Ella’s Hawaiian shirt and Sophie’s hands started itching to reach over and snatch it from her. If she weren’t such a tiny child, she probably would’ve.

Noticing her clenching and unclenching the fist at her side, Edaline queried, “Are you okay?”

“No,” Sophie practically snapped. “I’m not, this is… How do you know them?”

Sophie pointed at the two. Grady and Edaline seemed utterly baffled Sophie would even utter the sentence.

“

What

?” Grady asked.

“What? What,” Sophie repeated, even more confused. It felt like her brain was about to explode from the fog. Why were they pretending this was normal? Who were these strangers? Could they have been distant relatives she’d somehow tuned out?

Her mind screamed a sturdy ‘no!’. Of course they weren’t. That girl had

brown eyes

.

Every effort to tear her sight out of the older girl’s gaze was futile. Sophie was swimming in a sea of honey that reflected her own and she kept swirling down, down,

down

, until her stomach twisted like it was going to upchuck all of this morning’s breakfast.

Keefe put an arm around her as she began to sway.

“Sophie,” Edaline said, rushing forward. A hand to her forehead in an instant, she patted around her to search for any sign of a fever, but her mother’s agitation was only succeeding in amping up Sophie’s. Her head spun faster than a carousel as she wobbled on her feet and she wasn’t sure anymore if she was seeing straight when Grady picked up the youngest and slid her on his hip as she worriedly whispered in his ear.

“You look so pale,” Edaline breathed.

Keefe exhaled long and slow. “Wow,” he puffed, fanning the air. “You two are kind of making

me

dizzy.”

“Sorry,” Sophie and Edaline apologized.

She retracted her fishing hands, looking at Sophie relentlessly with that searching hawk-face her mother tended to administer. It was like she was trying to manifest becoming a Telepath on the spot so she could dig inside Sophie and understand

exactly

what it was she was going through. Sophie had seen it many times from Edaline, but in the past it had normally come during life-altering events and battles and major tests. This was…

With reluctance glazing her eyes, Edaline bit her lower lip and returned to her husband’s side, never taking her sight off of her daughter.

Grady bounced the kid on his hip as he found Keefe. “I’d, uh, tell you to come back to the kitchen and continue helping me with lunch, but… It seems you might need to take a few more minutes.”

Keefe pointed to his chest.

Grady nodded.

“...I cook?” Keefe asked. “I was cooking? Uh–”

His grin seemed half-hearted. “Well we can’t let Sophie within a mile of the kitchen.”

The eldest kid spat out a laugh, then the younger joined in with giggling, going so far as to cover her mouth with her flattened fingers while her blue eyes sparkled. Grady chuckled with them and Keefe pursed his lips, bobbing his head gently.

“That's… actually the most sensible thing you’ve said all day.”

It took Sophie a second to register what he’d said. Through the haze, she knocked his ankle with the side of her boot.

The kids laughed harder and Edaline let out a few of her own, audibly laced with her nervousness. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and made sure to look around equally at everyone as the silence stretched.

“Well,” Grady coughed, giving a wide-eyed look to his wife before gesturing his head towards the house, “we’ll… leave you to it. Come in when you’re ready, lunch is almost done.”

Keefe mustered a nod and everyone paused for a moment to allow Sophie her own reaction. She did nothing but stare at the grass.

Grady and Edaline ushered the kids forward. Just when Sophie thought they were a far enough distance away that she could start hyperventilating and whizzing out without fear of judgement, Grady swiveled and called out, “And hey! Remember what I said: keep your wife happy!”

Sophie and Keefe physically flinched at the word.

They disappeared back to the house.

Sophie’s body shivered with her numbing nerves, the anxiety stabbed little needles into her stomach and she gripped her arms as tight around her torso as she could. “I’m gonna throw up,” she whined.

“You’re not going to throw up,” Keefe soothed, grimacing at their shared sensations. “I can feel everything running through you, your stomach will be fine. But you might

seriously

pass out if you don’t take a breath or two.”

Sophie sucked in and shuddered with her exhale. “I can’t do this, Keefe,” she warned, tears springing to her eyes. “What is going on?”

“Okay, okay, I get it. I…” He cringed, recoiling the hand he had started to reach towards her. “Foster, this is going to sound insane.”

A whimper escaped her at the name. The severity of the situation stung the back of her throat with bile as Sophie buried her face in one of her hands.

Sophie could hear his lips part and the air escaped him as he began to speak. Whatever he had planned to say morphed into something else as he drew out the first syllable, then rerouted. “Alright, whatever is happening over… here… They think that we’re married.”

A shiver wracked Sophie’s spine. She pushed her face harder into her hand, so more light disappeared from the rim of her closed eyelids. She wished if she could only make it black enough, she’d disappear.

“Keefe.” Any attempt to flatten her tone had failed. She’d sounded more meek and lost than she had in a long time. Desperation tugged at her insides. Against her will, she trembled. “Those

kids

.”

Her quivering went unnoticed for a still minute. Then, his palm placed itself over her shoulder.

Keefe said nothing. Sophie didn’t need him to.

A gust of air whooshed across Havenfield’s sprawling acres, chilling the wet line a tear made as it travelled down Sophie’s face. She sniffled and removed her hands from over her eyes, swiping it away and dabbing at any more that threatened to fall and as the air whistled, the breeze carried a sweet scent on its waves, filling Sophie’s nose with fresh-cut flowers.

In the distance, bearing a stark resemblance to a willow tree, Calla’s panakes  swayed in the wind. As though the tree were shifting colors as the branches danced, blue morphed into purple and melted into pink, again and again. The blossoms scurried and zipped in the wind, like they were in a race for the fluffy grass below.

“Holy shit.”

Everything was as picture-perfect as Sophie remembered it… minus the size. The sheer height of the tree had increased beyond comprehension, towering in the sky so high that it rivaled a building.

Only age could hold so much power.

The rim of Sophie’s eyes blurred with water.

“Keefe, I… I think we time traveled. Through the void.”

The smell of food was nauseating. Sophie hadn’t figured out how Keefe was able to survive over in the kitchen.

Sophie and Keefe had both agreed they needed to feel out whatever phenomenon they were trapped in before they would be able to calculate what was required to undo it, so they’d reserved themselves to the fact that their only remaining option was to follow the group inside. The minute they’d stepped into Havenfield, they’d been met with a wall of scent. Spices and some elvin spice that reminded her of garlic wafted from the kitchen. Without even needing an announcement, the kids seemed to know the second they’d entered.

The youngest had run up to them and was a flurry of sound and questions and hands and it was all too much for Sophie to handle. She recoiled on some sort of half-baked instinct whenever the child reached for her or got too close. Sophie could barely find it in herself to care when she would react with a frown or a scrunchy-face. Was it supposed to tug on her heart? A stranger?

Keefe had been the one to usher the girl back into the dining room so that she wasn’t overwhelming Sophie too much, but distracting one of them didn’t even begin to address the elephant in the room.

Sophie wondered how Keefe wasn’t dry-heaving from the unease she was surely pelting him with as he hunched over dishes in the kitchen, helping Grady to prepare and serve lunch. He must’ve had a stomach of steel.

Disregarding how Keefe’s stomach fared the second he stepped foot on a boat, of course.

Across from Edaline, who was sandwiched in between the kids, Sophie was able to learn some key information about the girls. The youngest was named Alessandra, while the eldest was Alora. Edaline made zero small talk about school, so Sophie gathered, alongside her round cheeks, that Alora wasn’t yet old enough to even be a Level One.

And Alessandra was

incredibly

attached to Ella. She treated the elephant like a baby doll, pruning its ears and pretending to feed her imaginary spoonfuls of cake and kiss her forehead when she got a tummy-ache from too many sweets.

“Sophie?” Edaline tapped the table with her nail.

Sophie was tugged out of her daze. Three pairs of eyes settled on her. She swallowed the sour feeling on her tongue. “Yeah?”

“I’ve been, um, meaning to ask you…” Edaline trailed up and down her form. “What are you wearing?”

Puzzlement prickled her. Sophie peeked at her clothes. “What?” Sophie self-consciously fidgeted with her sleeves.

“It’s none of my business, if you found some of your old clothes and they fit, you should get a use out of them, for sure, but I was wondering… Where did you find your old crest?”

Subconsciously, Sophie reached for where the clasp would normally lay across her sternum. She nearly forgot she’d taken off her cape and hung it by the door. “My crest?”

Edaline delicately cleared her throat, refocusing on Alessandra next to her when the girl began to fuss. Edaline comforted her as she whined about how hungry she was, assuring her that the food was coming and that, so long as she ate a little bit of everything on the plate, they’d play a game when they were wrapped up.

Alessandra happily agreed.

“Yes,” Edaline continued, swiping a hair out of her face. She glanced at Keefe in the kitchen and lowered her voice. “I did… notice neither of you are wearing your family crest.”

Alora bounced her eyes from Sophie to Edaline. Sophie didn’t need to see her hands under the table to know she was fiddling with them.

Oh.

Sophie scratched her fingers along her grey leggings. Her nails left light lines in the material wherever she scraped. “Uh… Yeah, well–”

Sophie was hit with a wall of savory aroma when Grady rounded the corner. “Okay, kids, who’s hungry?”

Alessandra shot her hand up and Sophie blew out her breath and sunk into her seat.

While Grady passed out the plates (which were piled with steaming brattails and sliced, purple dawnlings arranged in a neat order), Keefe came around and handed out silverware and napkins and Sophie had to make the effort to avoid eye contact. Sophie sucked in sharp under her breath when they accidentally brushed as he passed her.

Something akin to shame brewed in her gut at the thought of Keefe leering into her with such sensitivity. He could already feel everything she was, knowing her inside and out without an on or off switch, but it wasn’t only the broadcasting of her feelings, it was her being. Her existence as a whole. Sophie’s emotions

made

Sophie—and right now she didn’t feel like having an open-house to her soul.

Keefe took his seat, everyone began eating, and Sophie dissociated within the wrinkles of the tablecloth.

These kids thought they were hers and by proxy, thought she was their mother. And it didn’t appear they were wrong, which made Sophie wonder how she knew she was still eighteen. How she had come from the void and only fifteen minutes ago she was at Everglen reminiscing about when she’d been younger.

Only to get a lot older

really

quick.

How had this all started with a game of Base Quest?

Grady’s voice interrupted her. “After lunch, I was thinking, if you’re going to already be out with the animals, you could pay a visit and share some of the fluffcreams with the gnomes.”

Sophie lifted her head. “The fluffcreams?”. Examining the spread further, there wasn’t any dessert in sight.

“Oh, they’re still in the kitchen.”

“Grandma and I made them this morning,” Alora filled-in, ripping into the juicy tuber.

“Hey! Me too!” Alessandra pouted.

“Yes, we all helped,” Edaline concurred, muffling the issue before it had a chance to burn any brighter.

Keefe stabbed his fork into the tuber.

Sophie peeked over at him before returning to the tablecloth. The design wasn’t half-bad, but it was new and more flimsy than what Sophie remembered from earlier this morning. Or, years ago, more accurately.

Alicorns resembling Silveny, Greyfell, and their sparkling twins danced in a swirling pattern, one after the other, like a conga line. Peppered in between the blank spaces were panakes blossoms. Sophie pinched the edge between her fingers, rubbing it between to feel the plastic-like material. Edaline and Grady had likely put it up today for the girls to visit. Temporary, so spills wouldn’t really matter.

It reminded her of when she was younger and would visit her human grandparents. They had a checkered red-and-white vinyl tablecloth that they draped over the polished wooden dining table everytime she and Amy would spend the afternoon. Like clockwork, they served the two warm chicken noodle soup inside of special Campbells cups with rose-cheeked faces and salty crackers to pair. Amy and Sophie would always crush them up into the soup and the crumbs (and a few droplets of broth) would always get

everywhere

.

Sophie observed Alora and Alessandra fiddle with their food. Aside from some spare dawnlings that had migrated off their forks and plates, they were fairly organized. Not nearly as messy as she and Amy were.

“Mom?”

She sort of wondered what it would be like to raise such neat children. How did they come to be? What had their first words to her been?

“Mom?”

This was insanity. Time travel being real was more believable than the concept that Sophie could control it. Or have access to it, like some ability. Or a skill. As accessible as her telekinesis.

“Sophie.”

Sophie perked up from her lap.

Grady flicked his finger. “Alora is wanting your attention.”

Oh. She was talking to

her

.

Taking a moment to compose herself, Sophie held her eyes in silence for probably too long. “Yeah? What’s up?”

“Do we have more plans?”

Okay, this could either be a simple answer or something that fucked-up more of her story. She might have wanted to high-tail it out of here as quick as possible, but that didn’t mean she wanted to make everything seem weirder than it already was. What she didn’t need were more suspects on her. Like her mom.

“No,” Sophie decided, peeking at Keefe.

Alora’s face brightened. “Maybe we can sleepover.”

Sophie tapped the fork on her plate. “Um… sure,” she agreed. “If Edaline and Grady are okay with it.”

A sleepover. In her own home. Sophie felt like she’d been evicted within a matter of hours. Somehow Havenfield, while looking exactly the same as the day she’d met it, was feeling more and more foreign as the clock ticked by.

Besides, where would she fit two kids, herself, and Keefe? Her bed was big, but not that big. Somehow an Imp managed to take up seventy-five percent of the space.

Wait.

Sophie froze. Her

room

. If she was married with a husband, if she had children, Sophie surely wouldn’t–

“What about my room?” Sophie blurted.

The kitchen zipped into instant silence for five thunderous heartbeats. Edaline had been engaging in small-talk to execute the plans with Alora, but now it had been punched to a pause.

“Your room?” Edaline repeated carefully. The words seemed foreign on her tongue, like she could understand what Sophie had said, but had zero idea what she could have meant. “Honey…”

“Can I go see it?” She pushed out her chair with a harsh squeak and stood without waiting for her response. “I’m going to go see it.”

“Sophie–”

Sophie ignored him, even though he’d used her first name, and marched up the stairs to the third floor. The stairs met her feet with urgency as she climbed and by the time she was at the door to her room, Sophie’s heart was pounding in the base of her neck like a migraine.

Sophie pushed open the door.

Formerly Havenfield’s receptional hall, Sophie’s room took up the entire grand third floor. One footstep followed by another travelled Sophie.

The star-shaped crystals on glittery cords no longer dangled from her ceiling. Her bed was still there, but the giant canopy was gone. The bookshelves remained stocked full of brightly colored volumes, lining the walls, however the spots where her tiny knickknacks and paintings were once framed and propped no longer existed. The room had reverted back to its once-barren self, before she had ever interacted with it. In fact, it looked more empty than the day she’d been introduced to the space. Now it was a lonely husk of what it once was.

A guest bedroom, she recognized.

As Sophie ambled in deeper, the trails her feet left in her flowered carpet kicked up blue and purple petals, spreading their sweet, floral scent through the vacant room. A hollow shell.

This wasn’t her home anymore. This room, which was once her sanctuary, had been converted to someone else’s temporary night’s rest. Was this how it had felt for Grady and Edaline to seal Jolie’s room in time? She understood why they couldn’t bear to touch it.

Even if she was being a tad dramatic, Sophie was allowed to grieve, wasn’t she? What she had owned this morning was no longer hers.Everything she had understood upon seeing the sunrise was now the opposite.

Sophie barely responded when a curt knock echoed on her doorframe. She hadn’t even heard anyone ascend the stairs, too consumed by her own mental narrative. She wouldn’t be surprised if she was the reason for her own downfall, one of these days.

“Thought I should, uh, excuse myself to check on Little Miss I’m-Gonna-Vomit-Any-Second.”

Keefe. Not just her friend, her husband.

Goosebumps bubbled on her arms.

He spoke again when he got no indication he had been heard. “Foster.”

“You married me.”

This time, Keefe didn’t respond. Sophie didn’t quite blame him. She wasn’t even certain what it was she had expected him to say to make it all better, help her make it make sense. Still, Sophie might as well have been talking to a ghost.

To make it real, she spun around and drank in his features.

Still the same boy she’d greeted this morning on Everglen’s lawn. Still the same boy who’d challenged her to a game of Base Quest, not knowing where in time it would land them.

They were in the future. And in this however-distant but unavoidable future, Sophie Foster and Keefe Sencen were married.

No

, her mind corrected,

Sophie and Keefe

Foster. There was no multiverse where Keefe would take his last name, not with the sour legacy linked to its utterance. Or the reminder of his father and mother.

“Yeah,” Keefe responded. “I evidently did.”

The hair raising on Sophie’s arms did nothing to shield her from the onslaught of shivering her body had decided to attack her with. She plucked out an eyelash.

Keefe was acting cool—

too

cool about this. “Is that not insane to you?”

Keefe’s shoulders levitated slowly as his eyebrows sewed themselves together. “...Nnoo?” He made a “kch” sound in the back of his throat and prodded, “Am I supposed to be grossed out or what?”

Sophie gave an exaggerated sigh. “

No

,” she said. “This is what I mean: I’m Unmatchable. Anyone who chooses me is automatically a bad match. We have

two

kids. You married

me

.”

Sophie stared off at the empty room in loose-jawed awe, waving her hands around the space before letting them smack down against her thighs.

Nothing but the hum of the air conditioning was heard for a spell. Eventually, Keefe’s shoulders bounced. “You married me,” he said softly.

Sophie spun around. Keefe stood there in the center of her once-colorful room, hands in his pockets like it was the most normal thing in the world, to be in the middle of a gutted guest bedroom in the future with his friend. To have it revealed to him that his entire future was set in stone by one stray teleportation accident. To

know

that he would one day be her husband.

She had

, Sophie suddenly grasped. She had married him.

Marriage wasn’t an abduction. Whoever she was in this place, Sophie had taken Keefe’s hand. She had

chosen

that.

Sophie lifted her hands above her head, walking around with them folded on her crown. Her head swayed back and forth as she paced. “This has got to be some weird dream.”

Keefe shattered her last remaining thread of hope. “No, I’m pretty sure I have free will. I’m not a part of

your

dream.”

“Then a shared hallucination? Maybe the brain push did something.” She dropped her hands with a hefty huff of annoyance, rubbing her eyes like it would wake her up from the onslaught of emotional and psychological torture that this day was gifting her with. “I told you I hadn’t done one in so long that it wasn’t a good idea. I might’ve… I don’t know, knocked us out? Flung our bodies against the trees so hard that this is all just… Some loopy… Nonsense!”

“Foster,” Keefe called.

“What? It’s possible. I’ve had some really freaky things happen before.

You

of all people understand that. So, maybe… Maybe I altered something in our heads. Memories could be mixing into some freaky daydream. We could be awake in the real world and just seeing things. We could be trapped in our own minds. We might still be at Everglen, for all we–”

“

Sophie

,” Keefe snapped.

“What?” Sophie barked, skirting to a stop in her tracks. Sophie was suddenly hyper-aware of her crazed her eyes must look when he stared at her for so long that she retreated back to her original, relaxed composure. Or, semi-relaxed, which was the best she could really do in a situation such as this,

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “What is it?”

The room didn’t echo with his voice for another painfully long seven seconds. “Is it… really that horrible?”

Sophie’s mind repeated the phrase. Really that horrible?

Really

that horrible?

Sophie couldn’t help but laugh. Keefe couldn’t be

serious

.

“Well, I don’t know. First of all, the implication of this being reality at all signifies I can

time travel

.” She flailed her hands wildly, as though that said enough. “Which means Silveny and the twins could be capable of it. Not to mention, can I go back or only forwards? Can I replicate it again or was this a perfectly timed miracle? Does it depend on external circumstances? Or is it all within my power? Can I corrupt the present by changing something here? How do we get back?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Sophie made a scoff-like sound on the back of her tongue. “Then what?”

Keefe shrugged and his fingers puffed out inside his pockets. “Seems like you…” He exhaled, examining the room with a slow look-over. “Hate the thought of all this.”

A tap of her foot dusted some petals around. Sophie pinched the bridge of her nose, massaging it with her thumb. “Keefe, I–I can’t even begin to guess whatever it is you’re getting at.”

“Fine,” he said, taking a few steps closer towards her. He leaned in when he pursued, “Is the thought of being married to me

really

that awful?”

“...

What

?” she asked. “I–” Sophie scoffed. “No!” She flailed her hands around as she spoke, coming to a pause when he didn’t respond. “Well–” Sophie blew an air raspberry. “I mean–”

Keefe bobbed his head and sucked his tongue until it clicked. “Alright.”

Sophie groaned, whipping her hands up in defeat. “Keefe, come on,” she growled. “That’s not what I meant.”

“No, no. Seems like you’ve really made your mind up about all of this.”

“We’re in the fucking

future

!” she bit, throwing careful volume to the wind. “Can you not grace me with a moment to adjust? I don’t even–” Sophie laughed, teetering on the edge of maniacal as she raked her hand through her hair. “I don’t even want kids. I don’t want them. I don’t… I

don’t

understand how I would ever change my mind, I’ve felt this for a very long time.”

Or maybe an accident. But twice? In such swift succession? Did she have no other options?

Sophie prattled on.

“What happens when they manifest? If they manifest? Have they already?” Sophie enveloped herself in her own arms, as though the pseudo self-comfort would be enough to wipe out the dizzying nausea brewing in her gut.

That seemed to catch Keefe off guard. Maybe he’d been so caught up in some blissful fantasy that he hadn’t actually considered it, maybe he had been doing all he could to ignore it, or, for the benefit of the doubt, maybe he, too, was just too overwhelmed with the fact that they had shot through literal

time

in the void that he hadn’t had the opportunity to pause and think, but now his face was twitching in places like he was having to battle to keep it neutral and his eyes were ever-so wider than before. He clenched and unclenched a fist at his side.

“Didn’t think of that, did you?”

“No,” he murmured.

“Exactly,” Sophie whispered. “I do not want to pass on…” She gestured her hands around herself. “

Any

of this.”

“Foster.”

“I don’t need a pick-me-up, Keefe. I’m not self-deprecating, I am just…” She buried her face in her hands, taking a deep breath. She slid them down, pausing with folded hands over her mouth. Sophie blinked and stared at a disturbed spot on her carpet, focusing on how the crushed petals had fluttered around the cavity like an explosion.

“I wanted it to end with me. I was tampered with. And you were, too.” She held his eyes. “It is your choice whether or not in the future you want to have kids with someone, but me? Now? I know if I were given the chance in a

heartbeat

I would say no. I don’t want someone to live like I did.” She dropped her hands down, wrapping protective arms around her middle. Her voice grew haunted as she uttered her words. “It’s not natural. I don’t want to pass all of my struggles onto someone smaller than me.”

Keefe licked his lips, bobbing his head. “Yeah, well, that’s now. Like you said, if you—

current

you—were given the chance, you’d say no.” He lifted his hands to the ceiling. “Look at all of this. This isn’t us. This isn’t

now

, but it

will be

.”

Sophie shook her head again. “No.” She took a step back, then resumed her frenzied pacing. “No.”

“Foster. Please don’t start this again.”

Sophie ripped out an eyelash, ignoring him. Moving faster. “I can’t.”

Keefe hissed out a long, piqued exhale through his nostrils. “You do, apparently.”

“I can’t,” she said, rubbing her arms. It did little to console her racing mind as she paced.

Keefe shoved his hands in his pockets. Clearly, he couldn’t stop her because Sophie was too distracted to even notice the concern threading his eyebrows together as he observed her. Back, forth, back, forth, she went across the room.

She

knew

he was trying to approach it delicately, but no matter what angle Keefe took, Sophie was also aware it wouldn’t make a difference.

How was one supposed to react when they slingshotted themselves into the future? How were they meant to respond when their future looked nothing like they would have imagined?

No one was dead and she wasn’t fatally injured and her life wasn’t altered to the point of no horrific return, but it was a stance she’d been so

firm

on…

“You don’t know it’ll be the same for them,” Keefe spoke. “They might not even manifest. And if they do carry even a fraction of what we have, we know how to deal with it now.”

He waited in silence until Sophie paused for a step, trailing her eyes over into his. When he said his next few words, they sounded warmer than mallowmelt. “They won’t be in the dark like you and I were.”

His volume was sweeter than sugar and his eyes sought hers like they made the whole world turn around, but there was something about the severity of their reality that made her disconnect from his efforts. His delicacy, his empathy, it all meant nothing when she couldn’t come to accept that what was even happening had indeed… happened.

The door creaked and Sophie and Keefe snapped their attention to it. While the still-squeaking hinges sounded, the youngest—Alessandra—poked her head through.

Keefe straightened. “Hey… kiddo.” He covered the brief cringe on his face with a smile. At least he didn’t seem to be fully immersed in this.

Alessandra pushed through the door with a growing grin and waddled her short legs to Keefe. “Up!”

“Yes! Up,” Keefe agreed as he awkwardly bent over and fumbled her around in his arms. After rotating her so many times like one of those rotisserie chickens on a stick (Alessandra was giggling the entire time), he managed to get her into the proper position, mounting the little girl on his hip.

“Wow! Fun, right?” Keefe looked at Sophie for approval. “I meant to do that.”

The corner of Sophie’s mouth twinged. She rubbed her arm.

Alessandra jammed a finger into her mouth and Keefe groaned, uttering (as mildly as he could) “gross, don’t” before he corrected himself. “Let’s… Let’s keep our hands out of our mouth. We don’t know where they’ve been, there are a lot of animals around.”

“Animals!” Alora shrieked, giggling as she fervently bounced in her dad’s arms.

Sophie's throat felt a little too much like a food runway when she really thought about that.

“We’re going to have our date,” Alessandra continued, totally unaware of how unnerved Sophie was. Like she could sense it, her blue eyes settled on Sophie. “And Mommy is going with Adora.”

“Alora,” Keefe corrected, nodding. “Yes… Fos–Sophie–Uh…” Keefe screwed his eyes shut and sucked in his lips. She knew if she entered his mind in that instant he’d be mentally kicking himself for the slip-ups.

“Yes,” he decided, “she’s going with your sister.” Keefe clicked his tongue and grunted as he readjusted Alessandra to his opposite hip, puffing her hair out of her face when it covered her eyes. The kid shrieked with joy at the sensation again, going to stick another finger in her mouth. “Ah-ah!” Keefe barely caught it with his hand, pulling her fingers away from her lips. “Let’s keep those monsters where we can see them.”

“Is someone sucking their thumb again?”

Everyone watched as Edaline peeked in through the door, waltzing in like this was normal. She knew it wasn’t, though. Something was wrong.

Her

Sophie probably wouldn’t dip out of an afternoon with the kids at their grandparents to change into her teenage clothes and swap to her pre-marriage family crests with her husband. Edaline’s Sophie wouldn’t refuse to hold her kid’s hand or look unnerved whenever they addressed her as ‘Mom’. Future Edaline’s Sophie would not be befuddled over her bedroom being a guest bedroom that had probably already been a guest bedroom for years.

Because she moved out. She got married. She had her own house, somewhere. She had kids, here, now.

From the strained look on Keefe’s face, Sophie was glad Edaline was not also an Empath. She didn’t need two people reading her every emotion.

“How’s it going?”

“Fine,” Sophie blurted at the same time Keefe babbled, “Good.”

Sophie didn’t look his way, holding the prying eyes of her mother. “Right,” Edaline said, still staring like it was a contest. Sophie didn’t break away.

Edaline gave in. Her smile broadened her eyes and inspired Alessandra to mirror it. “I think you two should get started on your date,” she suggested. “The fluffcreams are getting cold.”

“So I’ve heard,” Keefe nodded, “but, uh, remind me what date it is this time?”

Alessandra shook Ella in her hand. “You promised to show me the Grove. So we can visit the gnomes.”

“Flori is very excited,” Edaline concurred, making Sophie’s heart a tad lighter.

Alessandra’s eyes sparkled. “And Alora gets to feed the animals with Mom.”

“Yes, they do. The umber roots are waiting outside.”

“Can I feed the animals today too?”

“We talked about this,” Edaline said.

Alessandra pouted and Edaline reached out to administer a reassuring squeeze to the girl’s hand between her fingers. “When you’re Alessandra’s age you can. Your Mom didn’t get to until she was twelve! You and Alora are very lucky to do it so young.”

She rested her head on Keefe’s shoulder. “Okayyy.”

Edaline smiled. “The gnomes will tell you all about it, though.”

“I guess that’s fair,” she chirped. A smirk rose on her thin lips, slow as quicksand. “And then next time I get the food.”

“Yes, you do.”

Edaline folded her hands across the front of her dress and gestured with her head towards the door. Keefe took his cue, sending Sophie a final pressed smile for encouragement before he dipped out the door. Sophie could hear Alessandra chattering all the way down to the first floor.

When the last sound was audible, Edaline only waited two seconds to begin her lecture. “What is going on?”

“What?”

Edaline gave her a telling look. “We know better than to lie to each other, Sophie. I’ve told you before, I’ll tell you again: my role now that you’re moved out is not to be your mother. I have little left to teach and I can’t be there in the night when you wake up from a bad dream.

But

I am a friend. And I know more about you than most adults in your life do.”

Sophie wasn’t sure what to say.

Edaline continued, “I’ve also been where you’ve been. Not in every aspect, but enough.”

Choosing to sew her lips together in silence wasn’t as easy as she was likely making it seem.

Edaline’s eyes beheld understanding. One like none other. “I can see it when you look at him,” she urged softly. “You can tell me, honestly. I really thought we were having a good day, but ever since you asked to step out and come and get you after five minutes…”

Sophie was transported back to when she’d first arrived on Havenfield’s lawn, nearly an hour ago now.

“It’s been five minutes,”

Alora had said, jogging up to them.

Grady had also mused about a similar time. Apparently, she and future Keefe had dismissed themself outside at the perfect time.

The more she thought about it, if it wasn’t a dream and she really was where she thought she was, future Sophie and Keefe knew what was about to happen. And they’d replaced the two of them.

Sophie peeked down at her hands. They’d replaced their doubles. Temporarily or permanently, Sophie didn’t know. But there were no copies of them in this timeline, which meant one could only exist at a time.

Without a Sophie and Keefe back during the game of Base Quest, what was happening? Though it might seem strange, Sophie thought, for all she knew there was nothing happening. If what she presumed was true, that only one copy could exist in one time

at

a time, then Sophie and Keefe travelling out of their expanse had likely caused everything to freeze. Like someone had picked up the tv remote and sealed the story in space.

Sophie tried to wrap her head around the image.

“What happened?”
She was wrenched from her spiral. “Nothing,” she lied.
“Honey.”

I can’t tell you

.

Sophie’s throat bobbed with her swallow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Keefe and I stepped outside to talk about…” A million possibilities ran through her mind, but none of them were safe enough to bet. If she even suggested Keefe and her were having problems, Edaline would jump to divorce and Sophie would bet on it that riling up this timeline’s version of her parents was not a good idea. If she wasn’t careful and said something wrong about the kids, Sophie might come off as regretful, which would spark panic.

Seeing that her daughter wasn’t going to willingly start the conversation, Edaline took a seat on the edge of Sophie’s old bed. She patted the spot beside her.

An invitation.

Without much of another sound, or another choice, Sophie walked over and sat down.

The bed squeaked under her weight and the shift nearly made Sophie and Edaline’s thighs touch.

“When Alora was born,” she started, “you told me that everything you said about yourself was wrong.”

Sophie stared very hard at the carpet.

“When you adopted Alessandra, I swear I’d only seen you as happy when you held Alora for the first time.”

Sophie’s eyes popped wider.

“The day you signed Alessandra’s papers, I saw another part of you come alive.”

She tried her hardest to listen without fleeting attention—something about Alora again—however she couldn’t quite get over the fact that Alessandra was adopted.

She looked so similar to Keefe it was almost like she’d been carbon-copied. From her golden hair to her icy eyes, it was hard to imagine she’d come from anyone else, but then again, Sophie had striking similarities to both Edaline and Grady that many had originally mistook her for Jolie. Even she had to admit she looked alike.

“You cannot forget that you

love

these girls,” Edaline practically begged, placing her hands over Sophie’s. She squeezed it tight. “I can’t get in your head, Sophie. You need to tell me what’s going on. Or at least Keefe. And if you don’t want to, then you can figure it out on your own, but you can’t restrict the kids of their mother; Alora is old enough to recognize there’s something going on, even if she doesn’t know what. You’re lucky she isn’t old enough to

investigate

. And Alessandra is too young to ask questions. She’ll just be hurt.”

Sophie envisioned Alessandra’s meek, innocent face curdling itself with sorrow.

Even if she didn’t know the kid in and out, Sophie had enough empathy to feel shame at the thought of making someone so small so sad at her own hand. The more she considered it, the more the adoption made sense.

The Ruewens had single-handedly saved Sophie with her adoption. She’d never felt so loved.

Edaline grabbed Sophie’s hand. “Marriage is hard. I get that. You don’t know what your Dad and I have gone through.” She had a little laugh to herself and her eyes were somewhere else. Somewhere Sophie couldn’t follow, even if she teleported. “We have had so many rough patches in our marriage that I forgot to count; when we were young, when I was pregnant with Jolie, when Jolie passed.”

Edaline’s swallow was thick. Sophie and Edaline took the silence as a bubble of respect.

Finally, Edaline spoke. “Spend quality time with Alora today. Don’t forget where you started. Wherever you end up, I will be here, but… Anger and fear have a way of keeping us from the ones who truly love us. Don’t let it blind you.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

How do you bond with someone you’ve never met, but they’ve known you since their first breath? Sophie sure as hell wasn’t sure.

As they walked the grounds, Sophie tried to remain as present in the moment as she possibly could, but her mind had a way of wandering to all of her current fixations and brooding on her unresolved worries. It was funny, how even her own child couldn’t wrench her brain away from being sucked into an anxiety vortex.

Alora seemed unphased by the silence, at least outwardly.

Maybe she was good at hiding it, like Keefe

. She was, after all, half of him.

Half of her friend, half of her—Sophie knew it was simple math, but nothing about her situation felt so easily solvable.

Alora didn’t need much coaching in feeding the animals, except when it came to Verdi. It seemed even in the distant future, Verdi was still refusing a vegetarian diet: the neon green dinosaur roared and whined, fluffing up her feathers when Alora tried to deposit some umber leaves into her trough.

Sophie had to smile. She would understand the struggle if all of the elven plants she’d tried didn’t taste like meat.

“Is she always this picky?” Alora asked when Verdi sniffed the leaves and dramatically huffed.

Sophie nodded. The dinosaur clomped to the other side of her pen. “That’s Verdi for you.”

Alora merely shrugged, moving towards the next pen. She did the same motion over and over for every animal they passed, pulling umber leaves out of her handheld basket and depositing them in the trough or (occasionally) the animal’s mouth if Sophie gave her the green light.

Alora giggled as a stegosaurus licked off her hand to get every last shredded piece of the leaf.

Without much thought, Sophie smiled down at her and they continued towards the next pen over. Confusion pecked at Sophie’s head when she noticed the emptiness within the fence.

Alora passed over it like it was nothing. Sophie paused, staring into the vacant bubble. There was no longer a little bed or a trough or the scratch marks around her makeshift nest where she sharpened her talons.

Alora stopped when she noticed Sophie wasn’t following. Her eyes darted from the enclosure to Sophie and back.

“Gildie’s gone,” Sophie hushed. She supposed it made sense. Not every animal was going to remain there forever. But Gildie had been there for nearly the entire time she’d lived at Havenfield, so she’d never really imagine her pen without her.

“Who’s Gildie?”

Sophie didn’t remove her gaze from the cage where the fluffy, golden bird once resided. But she did wet her lips. “Gildie was a flareadon. She was mostly staying here because her wings were scorched by everblaze.” Sophie purposefully left out how the pterodactyl-like creature had come into contact with the forever flame. She wasn’t sure if Alora was yet aware of all of Sophie’s adventures and she was

not

positive she wanted to tackle that today.

Sophie needed to seize this as a break. She supposed she could brainstorm, as long as Alora didn’t ask too many questions.

No. She wouldn’t be able to stay focused with her nearby. Sophie’s best bet was to feel out how much of her life had changed, if anything—without grilling a child for information.

Or making it too obvious that she had no idea how this timeline was structured.

“Let’s, uh, keep going. There aren’t that many left.”

Coaxing her onward, they repeated the necessary feeding steps while Sophie awkwardly dug around.

Alora was seven, she learned. In their house, they did celebrate birthdays, unlike other elves. When asking about her favorite memory, Alora recounted a time when Alessandra had spilled her baby food and Iggy had skittered to clean it all up off the floor, which meant Alessandra had been adopted when she was near infancy and Iggy was still alive.

And from what little Sophie could gather from her limited knowledge on social cues, Alora wasn’t nearly as nervous for starting Level One in a few years as Sophie feared. She’d tried dodging the obvious question for as long as she could, but when Alora looked her straight in the eyes and asked what she was meaning, Sophie knew she shouldn’t hide.

“No one… has said anything about your eye color?”

Alora shrugged. “No.” She swung the basket higher on her arm when it started sliding down as she trotted towards the next cage. “Except Elcine, but I already told you about that.”

Sophie pretended to know who Elcine was and settled on nodding and muttering her agreement.

Sophie was busy wondering whether or not this ‘Elcine’ was more of a friend or frenemy—like Stina was to her—that she was barely able to stop Alora from reaching arguably the one cage she was not supposed to.

Sophie reached out for her arm and recoiled in the same motion. “We’re not supposed to feed that one,” she blurted when she reached the vine bars.

Alora peeked back. “Why not?”

“The Gnomes usually handle it. They’re a lot… quicker.”

Alora gazed up into the sky at the towering, braided vines that captured the creature. Then they dropped right back down to the burly thing in the center of its cage. It seemed to be shrieking over something, though it didn’t appear injured. Maybe it really was hungry.

“What is that?” the child–hers–Alora asked.

Sophie stared at the creature between the bars.

The Gorgodons were a hybrid of four different animals that Lady Gisela created to guard her Nightfall. The deformed animal featured Flareadons for fire resistance, Gorgonops for their fangs, Argentavises for their wingspans and Eurypterids for a stinging tail. Melted together, the creature was a menacing picture.

As genetics were inherently complex, they ended up much more deadly than Lady Gisela had expected. It resulted in them having venomous fangs, wings

and

talons. Not to mention the spikes on their tail, the ability to fly, breathe underwater, scale walls, and the ability to camouflage themselves.

But who was keeping track, anyways?

“That,” Sophie said, “is a Gorgodon.”

Alora cocked her head to the side, watching as he paced his enclosure. The slits of his nose rumbled while he trudged his massive body and Sophie became absolutely sure if she were a gnome, she would be able to hear the roots underground shrieking as his massive feet shook them.

She’d have to ask Flori sometime, whenever she saw her next.

“Where’s his family?” Alora queried.

Sophie’s fingers fiddled nervously in her coat as she replayed all the damage his bunch had caused. Still, the nagging thought that he didn’t deserve to be alone in a cage anyways lingered. “He, uh, doesn’t have any,” she said, choosing her words wisely. “He’s the last of his kind. Like how Silveny and Greyfell used to be.”

Alora cocked her head. “Then why didn’t Grandma and Grandpa marry them like they did with Silveny and Greyfell? So they can have more kids?”

“The Council prohibited it.”

Alora turned her watery eyes to Sophie. “They said no?” She returned to the howling creature, who seemed to be throwing his own tantrum at the reminder. “Why? They’ll go extract.”

Sophie rotated her head to the side. “Extract?” she asked.

“Yeah. Y’know, Grandma and Grandpa always talk about the Timeline to Extraction. With the alicorn twins you fixed it.”

Ahh

.

“Extinction,” Sophie corrected gently, feeling the wisps of a smile claiming her lips. “You mean the Timeline to Extinction.”

Alora glanced from her mom to the cage and back to her mom again. “Oh,” she said, puzzled. Her face had jumbled itself, with her eyebrows creating a familiar crease between them as they tried to meet in the center. Sophie was struck with the uncanniness of it.

It was just like what Keefe loved to tease her about. Her worry wrinkle between her eyes.

Sophie reached up and rubbed the spot tenderly with her middle finger, letting her mind linger on the simplicity of it all.

How alike one could be with their daughter, in even the tiniest of details. Had she picked it up from Sophie over the years? Or did she naturally have the urge to squish her face together every time something was confusing or disheartening?

Yes, Sophie realized. She would have, regardless of whose home she’d grown up in. But the face. Her nose, her lips, her tiny rosy cheeks and her deep, dark eyes—

that

was what made it ‘Sophie’. Every feature she’d hated for nearly two decades was painted in the face of a child before her, echoing her lifelong behaviors and habits on a miniature canvas. Like she’d stepped

backwards

in time instead of forward.

An innocent, beautiful girl.

Sophie’s stomach twisted.

“I know,” Sophie muttered, wrenching her head away from Alora’s gaze as quickly as she could. She might’ve drowned in those eyes if she’d allowed herself to look a second longer. “I don’t like it either. I’m not sure it’s fair.”

The Gorgodons didn’t mean to exist. That was Gisela’s fault. It had been Gisela’s choice to play with nature and jam a bunch of “superior genes” into one experimental victim.

Which, if she worded it slightly to the left, was sounding grossly similar to her.

And Keefe.

“Maybe they just need to see he’s friendly.”

“Maybe,” Sophie mumbled, only half paying attention. Her eyes unfocused, drifting along the river of thoughts, Sophie pondered to the grass blades if the animal felt as she always had: different, that they never really belonged. Even since birth. She wondered how it had learned to cope with its differences, the abnormality of its very breath in the circle of life, like she and Keefe had. That would have been challenging, behind the bars of a prison. Gisela would never let them roam free, see the light of day, experience other life.

Did they even know of their divergence from nature? Could they feel it in their blood, or was it all they ever knew, and therefore, it simply

was

?

Keefe had not known. It only “had been” until the day it formed. Hiding like a tricky implant under his skin, waiting for the day it could release what it needed into his system. He became aware much later in life.

Sophie, meanwhile, had always known. Compared to Keefe’s rude awakening, Sophie had sensed her difference since the day she became conscious. The continual questions from peers about why she didn’t look like her parents, the doubt and confusion she had to carry home on the bus, the never-quite-right assurance from her brunette, blue-eyed family. Like an itch you could never scratch just right, she poked and prodded until she bled and could never really find that all-encompassing relief she’d prayed for.

“See? He’s just hungry.”

Sophie’s daydream was abruptly interrupted by Alora’s giggle. She barely had half of “what” out from her mouth before her vision corrected itself just in time to see that the Gorgodon had gotten a

hell

of a lot closer and Alora was reaching her tiny hand inside the cage, through the vines and towards its mouth with a fistful of umber leaves–

“Stop!” Sophie yelled, jerking Alora’s arm out of the way right as the Gorgodon’s teeth came chomping down and the force ripped them both off balance. The ground came faster and harder than Sophie would have liked. Alora probably felt the same, from how she cried out as the impact made her lungs squawk with escaping air.

“I’m sorry!” Sophie pushed out of the dirt on her elbows. “I’m sorry, are you okay?” She crawled closer to the little girl, wiping the dirt off her face, hoping none of it would turn red. She checked her hands, turning them over and over, the possibility of the situation flashing before her eyes. Somewhere else, in a universe less than kind—

Alora’s face was flushed. “Was he gonna eat my arm?”

Sophie sputtered. “I-I don’t…” Her shaky breath punctured the air. “I don’t know, I thought so.”

Sophie and Alora shared a look at the Gorgodon, who was angrily crunching on the leaves Alora had managed to get into his mouth and bending down to pick up the remaining feathered on the ground from when she’d been pulled back like a ripcord. He huffed away.

Alora regained eye contact with Sophie. “That’s mean.”

Mean

.

Sophie had to laugh. How

couldn’t

she? Her daughter from the future whom she had time traveled to accidentally had almost gotten her arm bitten clean off from trying to feed a genetically enhanced animal who had a clear distaste for the vegetarian diet.

So, Sophie laughed. She laughed until her ribs hurt from where she’d hit them perfectly on the rock solid ground. “It is mean!” she supported.

Alora joined in her laughter. Perhaps she didn’t understand why her mother was laughing so hard at something so simple, but it didn’t really matter. She was young and her mom was laughing.

“It’s so mean,” Sophie said, pushing herself off the ground and extending a hand to her daughter. She didn’t take the time to let her mind overthink the touch, but it was the first time she had physical contact with Alora. Her palm, though smaller, was warmer against Sophie’s skin and her smile was just as bright.

“What’s so mean?”

Like he was there on standby, waiting for his cue, Sophie turned towards the voice and met Keefe’s eyes without resistance. They slid into each other like water and for one of the scarce times that day, Sophie was filled with warmth. Familiarity.

Velcroed to his ankle was Alessandra, like a koala, hair flipping around as he stepped forward and she flew along with him. It was clear that she struggled to hang on from how full her hands were with a certain bright blue elephant, yet she chuckled from her belly as he ambled and made a show out of dramatically rolling off of his calf when he came to a stop.

Keefe focused on Sophie. “I saw your permanent resident is still here.”

The quirk of a smile tickled a corner of her mouth. “Did we really think Verdi would ever leave?” Sophie asked, lighthearted.

“No,” Keefe said. “She’d have a Grady-snack if she could.”

Sophie scoffed. “Ah, well,

speaking

of eating,” Sophie peeked over at Alora, “I think the Gorgodon is hungry. And I should probably let Mom and Dad know.”

Keefe blinked. “Oh?”

“He tried to eat me,” Alora said matter-of-factly. “Through the cage.”

Keefe’s mouth gaped open. “Oh!” He looked back at Sophie. “Wow!” He nodded, licking his lips. “A-are you okay?”

“I’m fine!”

Keefe seemed unconvinced. He looked at Sophie for reassurance, as though he couldn’t simply reach out, take Alora’s hand, and read her emotions like a book. Something about him seeking out her for the truth in a crowd made her cheeks warm.

Not only that, but Keefe uneasy at the mention of Alora being in danger made Sophie’s stomach feel sparkly. It was a new level of endearing. Of course she’d had the pleasure of witnessing his empathy over the years, but this was new.

In the midst, Alessandra sprung from her spot on the ground, lunged forward, poked Alora in the chest, and sprinted in the opposite direction towards the open field. “Slumberberry!” she shouted.

“

Alessandra

!” Alora groaned. “We’re not playing that game!” Alora still took off after her.

They sped after one another faster than dragonflies and just as Sophie was beginning to get a loose grasp on whatever elvin tag game they were playing, Keefe spoke.

“You think you gave her Ella?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Sophie peeked at him, then shrugged. “How else would she get her?”

Keefe slipped his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know,” he shrugged, “maybe she adopted her. Decided Ella was hers one day and you just went along with it.”

Sophie raised an eyebrow. “I doubt I’d just let her have Ella.”

“I don’t know,” Keefe singsonged. “You’d do a lot for someone if they so much as asked. Even if they didn’t ask.” From his nervous glance to the side, Sophie was willing to bet he was praying his swallow went unnoticed. He muttered, “Even if they don’t deserve it.”

Sophie shifted on her feet. Across the way, Alessandra let Alora wield the elephant back at her. “I have a feeling she deserved it.”

Keefe’s mouth twisted to the side, cocking his head lightly as he watched the girls race around. He puffed out a tiny laugh, smiling. “Yeah. You, uh, made any progress on how we’re getting out of here?”

The stark reality of remembering they had to get home and that, yes, even though it might have looked like it, this was not home (at least not yet) made Sophie’s heart drop.

“Uh, no. Actually.” She dropped her head. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have to say sorry,” he assured. “I’m not, like, being tortured.” Keefe elbowed Sophie in the ribs, gesturing to the kids. Alora was busy trying to haul Alessandra into a piggy-back. “Our little Foster Fam is pretty cute.”

His grin fell once he seemed to absorb what had fallen out of his mouth,

Sophie saved his worry. “Alora is pretty sweet.”

His smile slid back onto his lips, relief warming his features. He looked adorably ready to gush. “Oh, Alessandra is… have you

tried

to have a conversation with that kid?”

“I can’t say I have,” Sophie admitted.

“She looks like the most innocent thing until you get her talking. I think she runs the house, Foster. Don’t laugh, I’m serious! We have a big problem if I’m getting my ass handed to me by a four year old.”

Keefe waved his hand at the girl in the field as she launched her toy at Alora’s head.

Sophie giggled as he sighed and shook his head. “Reminds me of Glitter Butt.”

Her smile burned her cheeks. “Silveny? That kid reminds you of a horse?”

“Well, someone else reminds me a little bit more of a horse–”

Sophie’s eyes widened as he spoke.

“Oh, sorry, bad joke? I didn’t mean it serious–”

Sophie whipped her head to look at him. “

Silveny

,” she gasped. “Silveny.”

“Silveny?” came his repetition. Keefe’s eyes exploded into saucers. “Wait, do you think–”

Sophie was already three steps ahead of him. Sophie closed her eyes and broadened her mental horizons, feeling across the globe for the alicorn.

This could really work

, she thought as her heart hammered in her chest.

Silveny!

Her transmission rippled like a wave across the landscape, spreading out far beyond the ocean on the other side of Havenfield’s cliffs. Sophie knew if she pushed hard enough, Silveny would her her on the other side of the world.

Silveny! We need your help!

Painful seconds stretched into even more painfully long minutes with no response. A part of her brain was nagging at her to set off the alarm bells in her own nervous system, but she kept her cool, screaming as vast as her abilities would let her.

Keefe is here!

When nothing came back again, Sophie turned around to Keefe, flinging up her shoulders in her readying for defeat, when a burst of light brighter than a flash grenade set off behind her and the ominous peal of thunder collided with her eardrum.

Sophie looked just in time to see four alicorns floating down from the clouds. Silveny was the first to touch and she wasted no time beelining to Keefe, nearly mowing him over.

Sophie’s head was bombarded with high-pitched alicorn thoughts.

SOPHIE! KEEFE! HI!

Sophie wished there were some way to hit the volume button on Silveny’s remote, cringing with her smile as she tenderly rubbed her ears (despite knowing the audio barrage was not coming from outside).

“Heyy Glitter Butt!” Keefe called as he drowned in kisses from her coarse purple tongue.

Here Silveny had come swooping in with her entire family under two minutes once Sophie had mentioned Keefe and she’d gone straight to him when she hit the ground. A part of Sophie had never wanted to kick an alicorn more.

She refrained.

Greyfell nudged Sophie from behind while his wife kissed her practically-second-husband and Sophie turned to stroke him on the nose when she noticed the twins.

Sophie’s eyes widened at the same time Keefe gasped behind her.

“Dude!” he exclaimed, chuckling. “You’re all big!”

Of course, the one he named came trotting over like a faithful dog. Wynn and Luna towered over Sophie and Keefe, rivalling their own parents. Sophie couldn’t help the beam that overtook her face as she ran her fingers through Luna’s silky mane, eyes drinking her in with awe.

“They’re so…”

“

Big

,” Keefe finished.

The last time she had seen Luna and Wynn, they certainly hadn’t been babies, but they’d managed to hit a second growth spurt in late adulthood, it seemed.

When Silveny had wrapped up smothering Keefe, she trotted over to Sophie, sniffing her up and down like a curious dog would after a trip to the grocery store.

“Hello to you too,” Sophie greeted.

FLY?,

came Silveny’s instant request.

Sophie switched to transmissions.

No

, Sophie said, her blonde hair swishing with her head.

I called you here because I need you to do something important. Really important. I need you to teleport, but… Different.

Her big brown eyes bore into Sophie’s.

DIFFERENT?

Different!

Sophie solidified.

Silveny cocked her head to the side and her lashes, as big as butterflies, flittered with her spreading hesitation.

WHY?

Sophie glanced at Keefe for help, even though he couldn’t hear their conversation going on. How were you supposed to explain to a flying horse that you’d time traveled to her?

Keefe and I got into some trouble,

she began.

We were playing and we went into the void.

VOID! VOID! VOID!

Wait!

Sophie yelped, jumping in front of her to keep her from pistoning off.

We didn’t just teleport. We went through the void when we were young. Little. When Luna and Wynn were sorta-babies.

BABY

, Silveny huffed, her wet nose misting Sophie.

Her mind flashed images of Luna and Wynn during their birth, during their first wobbly steps and various memories of them diving and playing and licking each other with love. Not only that, but she displayed pictures Sophie had never before seen. Memories of Alora and Alessandra when they were little, cuddled up in a pile of panakes leaves, like how Sophie used to gather fallen autumn leaves in her human parent’s front yard with Amy. Alessandra falling asleep with the twins on a beach, not caring about the salt-whipped wind in their hair or the sand on her knees. Alora feeding Silveny and Greyfell swizzlespice sticks.

SOPHIE BABY

.

Yes

, Sophie agreed, trying to gain control over her thundering heart.

Keefe studied the two of them and it was highly likely he was extremely puzzled from the emotions radiating off the two of them.

Keefe and I were young

, she explained, transmitting images of them earlier in the day, walking the grounds of Everglen, wearing the same clothes as they were now.

We teleported here

.

Silveny stamped her hoof.

FAR?

Silveny asked.

Very far,

Sophie concluded.

I need to see if you can go far. Can you teleport far?

TELEPORT! FAR!

Sophie didn’t have the opportunity to explain further or give her any semblance of advice. Silveny dashed forward and leapt into the air, the powerful beat of her wings sending a gust of air so strong that it nearly toppled Sophie and Keefe over. Alora and Alessandra’s excited observations could be heard as an ear-bursting crack of thunder boomed, followed by a bright flash as Silveny dove and disappeared into the sky.

Keefe folded his arms, nodding at nothing. Luna and Wynn clopped their way over to the girls and began licking them up and down like popsicles, chasing them down when they screamed with their laughter and ran.

“Well,” he clicked, “that seemed easy.”

“It was,” Sophie said.

With both of their eyes pointed towards the last spot in the sky Silveny had been seen, Keefe grabbed Sophie’s hand. Sophie didn’t fight it, gripping him harder than she probably should have.

Keefe tilted his head towards her. “If she can figure this out, we seriously owe her some swizzlespice.”

Sophie laughed to the best of her ability, not enjoying the lingering feeling of sickness in her gut. Her last message was a plea to the sky as she squeezed Keefe’s hand. “I hope she can.”
 
Precious hours ticked by on Sophie’s imaginary watch as the sun ran its course across the dome of cloudy sky watching over Havenfield. Like a sped-up training montage in a movie (minus the inspirational backtrack), Silveny ran the route over and over until you could hear the wheezes in her alicorn breath as she trotted her way around. The thunder that crackled dry in the sky like an explosion became duller the longer it repeated and soon, to Sophie’s probably-damaged eardrums, now managed to remind her of nothing but a whip.

Sophie advised her to sit with the twins or visit with Alora and Alessandra (who were creating fake borders for their imaginary territories that they supposedly ruled across Havenfield), but she seemed defeated in an aggressive way, stomping around without purpose.

TELEPORT WASN’T DIFFERENT

.

“That’s okay,” Sophe said aloud. “You tried.”

Sensing her emotions and gathering her words, Keefe stepped forward to add, “You tried

hard

, Glitter Butt. Foster’s smart, she’ll figure it out.”

HOME!

“We’ll find our way home,” Sophie promised, both to Silveny and Keefe, but more to herself. She extended a hand to Silveny, cutting her off in her doom pacing to gently cup her snout in the clasp of her palms. “You answered a really good question for me. I think I know what to do now. You just…” Sophie bumped her head in the direction of the kids. “Go say hello.” What she really wanted was for Silveny to get her heart rate down. Something told her if they brought her into the Healing Center, Bullhorn would have been pacing alongside the horse.

Silveny snorted a wet mist cloud of protest at Sophie, who stumbled back a step and swiped at the air between them with a grin before the mother alicorn gave in to Sophie’s demand and made her way to the twins and girls.

“You think you know a way home?’

Keefe’s voice nearly made her jump. Sophie swivelled. “Yes,” she said, bobbing her chin. “Well—I’m thinking.”

Keefe’s face held nothing but warmth, which was commendable given the circumstances. “Only good things come from Foster Thoughts. Lay it on me.”

If Sophie were an Empath, she would’ve likely picked up on his true emotions, but she knew that was also, in all likelihood, a gift. She didn’t need another ability.

Sophie’s brow-pucker returned. She wondered if this was considered an ability. By elven standards, she was shocked that her Teleportation alone counted, given it was artificially constructed and not possible for anyone else. If anything, she’d have expected them to label it a skill.

Was this a skill or its own separate ability? Or would it technically be called an extension of her Teleportation?

Sophie licked her lips, regaining focus. “Silveny wasn’t able to replicate the time travel like I was and I’m pretty sure I know why. We have the same ability, so logically, she would’ve been able to figure it out, but diving and running got her nowhere, so that leaves us to figure out what’s different between us.” Sophie waited for Keefe to nod to say, “The brain push.”

Keefe blinked. “You think so?”

Sophie wrung her hands. “Silveny can’t do that.

Obviously

. Even most elves can’t, except the Ancients. I’ve never used a brain push when teleporting and you know, mental energy is different from physical…”

Sophie could imagine the tangled web of thoughts Keefe was beginning to unravel in his head as his nose scrunch. “That might explain it,” he agreed. “Do you think if you envision Everglen and use a brain push we’d end up back there?”

“I hope so.” Sophie swallowed. “I can only hope.”

Sensing her skepticism, Keefe offered her a half-smile for reassurance. “Hope goes a long way, Foster. Don’t underestimate it.”

She was trying. Sophie had been for the better half of her life.

Now, with nothing else to say and nowhere else to look, Sophie observed the alicorns, Alessandra, and Alora with a careful eye. Knowing their next step was leaving this place had her heart tugging in a million different ways. She was excited to go home, more than anything. She missed her friends, her routine, the normality and safety of it all. But she couldn’t unsee everything she had been a witness to today.

Time and time again, it was as though life itself was determined to prove to Sophie that a day could, in fact, change everything.

Keefe’s voice entered the scene, warm but shallow. “Can I be honest?”

Sophie didn’t need to consider. “Always.”

Neither of them took their eyes off the children, but Sophie’s peripheral revealed Keefe’s nervous fiddling.

Little could have prepared her for what he began explaining.

“Before we go back to everyday life and our friends and the picnic and everything, I really feel I should spit it out. I know it’s going to come up eventually—

obviously

—so–”

Keefe dug the toe of his boot into the grass. His exhale was rough and low and hard as he scrunched his eyes shut, like he was trying to pretend maybe she wasn’t really there to witness whatever it was that he was attempting to get out of his mouth.

“I never wanted to push you,” he assured. “You know, when we were younger, you had so much going on, it just–it just wasn’t fair. To you.” Keefe ran a hand through his hair. In the distance, Alessandra appeared to be teaching Luna and Wynn how to play tag.

When Sophie returned back to looking at Keefe, she caught the side of his mouth twisted with a smile. He cleared his throat, shoving his fidgeting hand in a pocket.  “I’m frankly shocked it didn’t come up in any of your Cognate sessions. Fitz…” Keefe lifted a fist to cover his mouth as he cleared his throat forcefully. “You know, he’s a geek. I mean that as a compliment! He’s a good guy and he’s really, uh…” Another forced ‘hem’ sound squeezed out of his throat as he cleared it.

This seemed like it was killing him. Slowly.

And hey, maybe it was killing her, too!

Unfortunately for Sophie, she was smart enough to know what he was edging towards and if she was

truly

honest with herself, it sort of… Scared her? She’d known terror in her life like a childhood friend, so she was aware this wasn’t the couch-gripping, nail-biting—or in her case eyelash-plucking—fear, but it was still a subject she’d spent so long avoiding.

She was stupid, sure, but she was also clever: Keefe and Fitz could detect her emotions and read her inner monologue all they wanted, but they rightfully knew the decision and any action came down to her.

“Keefe,” she murmured, “we don’t have to talk about this.”

“No, Sophie, I–I really think we do.” He raised his hand to scuff up his hair. “And if I’m being honest, this is probably the universe’s petty way of telling me to suck it up and stop hiding. And I want to stop hiding. So, please?” His words were a plea that shone in the ocean of his gaze as he stared at her, unbarred. He extended his hand. “Can we…?”

The blue of his eyes drew Sophie in and led her to some internal door. Not Keefe’s, she realized, but her own. A room in the dark corner of her mind that she’d tried her best to bottle up, shoving boxes of memories and feelings and files in the way of its path so she’d never have to look back and swallow the key.

But Sophie had never gotten rid of the key—and that was on her. Her own fault was standing before her because everytime she caught him gazing at her for too long in the middle of lunch or brushing her shoulder when they sat next to each other on a bench on the hallways between classes, Keefe forced her an inch closer to that door and the truth she didn’t have the time to face.

Sophie had to pull her eyes out of his to breathe, looking to the girls for some distraction or comfort. Maybe, she thought, this was the universe’s petty way of displaying her cowardice and the reality of the situation. They

did

have the time. Time was the least of their concern and Alora and Alessandra were living proof of it.

Sophie dared a peek back at him. “What about the kids?”

“They’ve been outside all day. Wouldn’t be terrible to go inside for a few minutes and bother Eda–” He coughed. “Grandma and Grandpa.”

Sophie nodded. An itty squeak escaped with the word on its way out. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Keefe checked. He searched her for any sign of regret, fear, or mistrust.

“Okay,” Sophie completed, nodding faster to solidify her acceptance. There was no backing out. No shying away. She’d been running all day.

So, she sewed her haphazard composure together as Keefe had said his goodbyes to the alicorns and rounded the children towards the house while Sophie saw Silveny and her family off before taking her seat beneath Calla’s towering trunk. The setting sun and gentle breeze tickling strands of hair across her cheeks did little to calm the heart-bursting pounding in her chest.

She tried to assure herself that realistically, not much could change the trajectory of her life, given she saw and intimately knew the future she held, but it remained true that taking the active steps to reach it had her stomach feeling gurgly.

Keefe returned all-too-soon. Sophie figured his trek across the lawn would give her time to prepare her breathing to not be so noisy and shaky, but it hadn’t improved by the time he was close enough to knock her boot with his. Keefe settled down in the plush grass beside her, tilting his head back against Calla’s trunk and closing his eyes to inhale the sweet blossoms that were already catching in his lap and hair.

When his eyes opened, Sophie’s stomach tingled with something familiar.

“I don’t even know if I’m sure what I’m meant to say to you right now,” he spoke, staring off in the distance.

Sophie stared ahead, too. She shrugged and the bark bit into her back. “I’m not sure, either. I mean what

I’m

supposed to say.”

“I don’t expect anything of you, Foster. I just… with today, I need to get it off my chest. And I want to know how you’re feeling. Which is silly to say, I know, cause I’m the Empath, but.” He exhaled and straightened up, wiggling into a position facing her. “Just… humor me, okay?”

Her heart raced. “Humoring,” Sophie promised, though her voice shook as they held eyes.

“I like you,” Keefe all-but-blurted. “I have since I saw you in that hallway. And I also knew you liked my best friend, so I made it my mission to let my feelings be my own and whatever happened would happen. I’ve known you inside and out for years. It’s hard to keep something like that to myself when I feel you all around,

literally

, basically wherever I go. I share your pain, I feel your sadness, I’ve been pin pricked by your fears for

six years

.” He took a shuddering breath. “And frankly, Foster?” He shook his head. “I don’t want to give it up without saying I tried.”

Sophie quivered, her sweaty palms clamming up. To distract, she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, her fingers tugging nervously at the fabric as she struggled to find the right words.

What was she meant to say? Why was it so painful to conjure something from her own mouth? All she would probably be able to manage was a few squeaks from the vice-like grip her throat had positioned itself in.

Keefe graciously filled in the gap. “Your future is yours to choose, Sophie. But I do want you to know that no matter what way it goes… I did enjoy my time here. I liked what I saw.”

The pressure in Sophie’s lungs released.

She’d

known

, but she hadn’t known. Without the absolute undeniable evidence from himself, Sophie’s brain had been doing its own version of mental gymnastics to convince her that she was seeing things. That all of his flirtatious jokes held no real value, his lingering touches and admiration didn’t extend beyond the surface, his gifts and humor and assistance was all the services of

just a helpful friend

.

But this was confirmation. All those sleepless nights, all of the flustered interactions, all of the effort driven into burying it as deep as it could go had led to this.

And maybe, one day, it was going to lead to this reality. This future they’d slingshot themself into.

Beside her, Keefe was reading her like a book.

He propped an eyebrow in the air. “Wanna tell me what those emotions are about?”

Sophie shook her head shyly.

Keefe’s smirk tickled his full mouth. “No?”

Sophie’s head swayed again as she gazed at him, feeling her heart thump up her throat. “No,” she breathed.

He could tell she wasn’t uncomfortable. He knew she wasn't drawing back from him, from this moment. No, she was just

nervous

.

And how else was she supposed to respond when her crush admitted he

liked

her?

Without a word, Keefe scooped her hands off of her lap and into the space between them. Sophie tried to train her face into neutrality as he fanned out her fingers in the air and laced their hands together. She felt beads of sweat forming on her spine, betraying her calm facade as her heart raced and when they connected, holding clammy palms, it felt as though a rush of fresh air entered her lungs. She knew Keefe could send her calming breezes and she almost didn’t half doubt he had right then, from how her anxious shuddering subsided and her head was wiped clear.

“I feel you,” he said.

Sophie took the moment to

really

look at the boy in front of her. Then, she responded, even though her voice became meek, “I feel you.”

She did. Without being an Empath, Sophie Foster could feel Keefe Sencen.

Inwardly, despite the fact she’d just spoken, Sophie knew she shouldn’t be done. She owed Keefe that much, after he’d just poured his own heart out onto her sleeve. Anyone who’d just declared their adoration would feel a little self conscious, even if they were the most confident person in the world, right?

“Keefe,” she said, half a hair away from a whisper.

“Yes?”

“I… like what I saw today, too.” Sophie swallowed, seeing the relief flood his face and melt it into something softer than the ice cream cones she’d had with Amy in San Diego Zoo. They’d always ended up looking around too much, so the sweet treat dribbled in a sticky mess down their hands.

Sophie actually had similar feelings when it came to whatever this triangle was between her and some of her best friends. A sticky, yet sweet situation.

Sophie pulled a hand out of his to place it over her pattering heartbeat. “You know what I’m feeling right now.”

“I do,” he said and he uttered the words as though he were in a dream, trying to convince himself he was really awake.

“You always have. And I have too and I…” Sophie temporarily closed her eyes. “Think I owe you an apology.”

“Apology?” Keefe sputtered.

“Yes,” Sophie continued, opening her eyes to his again, “because I

did

bottle it up for

six

years. I didn’t give either of you closure or an answer or whatever you’d like to call it because

honestly

? I thought it was better leaving it unopened than choosing and hurting someone I love.” Sophie pulled her lip in. “Because I do love you two. In different ways and ones that I don’t think either of you really get. So, potentially losing that…”

Her head swayed like the branches in the wind. “I’m sorry that I left you hanging. What I saw today made me realize I can’t wait forever. There isn’t forever. And I…

really

like what this looks like.”

The hand still intertwined with his was shaking and Sophie was pretty certain her blush had become a supernova by that point.

Keefe didn’t seem to care. In fact, he seemed

thrilled

. Thrilled that her face was on fire, that her hands were tingly numb from his touch, that he had the privilege of tears brimming the corners of his eyes at her words.

Sophie’s chest swelled at the sight.

With his free hand, Keefe swiped the hair behind Sophie’s shoulder, letting his touch linger with sparks across her skin. “I didn’t think I’d ever hear you say that.”

Their hands lowered into their laps, where Keefe and Sophie were so close their knees were touching. She wasn’t sure how exactly they’d twisted and migrated closer to one another, but the transition had been so clean she hadn't noticed.

Keefe’s eyes made a path the opposite of stealthy towards her parted lips. They traced the outline before capturing her sight again.

Sophie’s face flushed hotter, now acutely aware of how he continued to steal looks at the pink of her mouth. “I don’t say a lot of what I think.”

The fingers teasing along her shoulder brushed her neck. Sophie stiffened, then relaxed into the touch.

“Well…” She felt his hot breath fan against her cheeks. Her pulse was thumping in the side of her neck as Keefe traveled over it, his palm sliding into a perfect cupping fit against her jaw.

“

I

think you should say what you think.”

They were getting closer. Sophie wondered how many inches it would take to–

His voice feathered across her lips. “You can tell me anything.”

She could, she knew that. At the same time, her head was spinning too fast to form a thought. “I know.”

“So, tell me.”

“I want to kiss you.”

Too fast to form reasoning, either, it seemed. She hadn’t meant for the desire to slip out, but once it clicked in her head what she had just spoken to him, her eyes widened. “I’m–”

Didn’t matter. His mouth slid over hers like honey, sweet and supple, and the warmth was enough to burn up all of the butterflies that exploded in her stomach. Her cheeks were red-hot under his hands that made their way to her face, framing her like a portrait on a wall.

This was different than her first kiss—in a good way. No awkward, chapped lips and no scrunched-up eyes. It wasn’t even an overwhelming explosion.

Keefe’s kiss felt… normal. Like coming home after a long day and finally being able to rest in your cozy bed. Or embracing your loved one after not seeing them for months. It wasn’t anxious or trivial. It was second-nature.

Parting did make her realize how the kisses managed to make her head feel a little sparkly.

Sophie and Keefe only blinked. Keefe’s thumb swirled on her cheek, nipping at the baby hairs by her ear as he smiled. It was gentler than most of his other smiles. Still, something mischievous sparked in his eyes. A twinkle and a crease.

“Who would’ve guessed we’d have our kids before our first kiss?”

Sophie pushed his shoulder. Then, while he was busy laughing heartily, Sophie leaned forward and turned her face into the crook of Keefe’s neck and tried not to notice the way his breath hitched.

The pulse in his neck was going wild. He hesitated only briefly before placing his hand on the back of her head, lightly drawing his fingers through her golden hair. She could feel as he plucked out a stray petal from Calla’s tree and his chest bounced with a chuckle. “This is crazy.”

Sophie almost felt dizzy. “It is,” she murmured. “Do you know how much this is going to change when we’re back?”

If we get back

.

Sophie scrunched her eyes shut.

“Not much,” Keefe said, swapping to tracing delicate circles across her shoulder blades. “And, hey, just because we kissed doesn’t mean we have to do anything yet. If you want to wait until you’re two-hundred-and-three, count me in. Just let me know.”

Sophie’s snort burst through as a smile overcame her. ‘I don’t think we need to wait that long.”

“Ah, you’re right, we probably only need, like, six more years.”

Sophie lifted her head off of him, ready to give him another shove worth his words, when she witnessed his in-time wince as he looked in the direction of the house. Sophie turned to see Edaline walking from the house with one of the girls propped on her hip. She was already halfway there, which meant she’d been walking for a little before they noticed, which also meant—

“Do you, uh,” Keefe chuckled, itching the hairline on his forehead, “think she saw?”

Sophie didn’t know, but she didn’t want Edaline or the girl on her hip to mention anything about it to both her

and

Keefe if she could help it.

“I’ll go on ahead.” She popped up from the ground as swift as she could and started going towards them.

Sophie knew it shouldn’t have been anything weird in this timeline—they had kids together, after all—but something about the feeling of him lingering on her lips made her entire face tingle and flash with heat as she approached her mother, praying she hadn’t just witnessed their first kiss.

Thankfully, when they met at a stop, Edaline didn’t mention it. At least, not at first. “Alora would like your help making dessert before you go.”

Sophie could rationalize that ‘before you go’ was referring to heading back home in

this

timeline, but it was almost a perfect transition because she knew she and Keefe had to

really

try and get home now. To theirs.

Alessandra was the one on Edaline’s hip, which made sense, given how small she was compared to her seven year old sister, but Sophie still wondered why she’d been carried out in the first place.

Unluckily for Sophie, Edaline seemed determined to have her mother-daughter-relationship heart-to-heart despite Alessandra being there (though, what harm would it really cause her?).

“And again, before you come in, none of my business, but I couldn’t help but notice things seem to be going a little more… smooth.”

Sophie twiddled her fingers against her sides.

Please don’t mention it.

She was an adult in her time and here she was even older and married, but it still felt weird to have the possibility of her mother bringing up a kiss.

Thankfully, she didn’t. Alessandra rested her head against Edaline’s shoulder, clearly tired from all that running around she’d done, but Edaline kept her eyes trained on her daughter. “Do you feel any better?”

Sophie exhaled. “I…. actually do, yeah. We talked.”

Edaline smiled, equal parts genuine and relieved. “I don’t know what it is you two had going on, but… I’m glad you worked it out. Marriage is hard, even when you choose the right person. But you know you’ve chosen the right someone when they stay through the tough days.”

Sophie was tempted to steal a glance back at Keefe when Edaline smiled his way over Sophie’s shoulder, but she resisted, focusing instead on the drowsy bundle in her mother’s arms. Alessandra, through her haze, reached out with her fist towards Sophie.

“Hug?” she queried, clenching and unclenching the fist in a grabbing motion.

Edaline leaned her closer to Sophie, who blabbered soft little “oh, uh, oh”’s as her daughter latched onto her upper half, her legs still tight around Edaline like she was scaling a tree.

Sophie’s eyes widened ever so slightly. She hugged her back, rubbing her hand along the small of her as she asked Edaline, “Is this all she came out for?”

“Mhm,” Alessandra hummed near her ear and then pulled back into Edaline’s arms. She made a sort of makeshift pillow with Ella and snuggled back in as best she could, closing her eyes.

Edaline’s mouth twitched. “She did,” she all-but-mouthed.

Sophie’s chest warmed. She turned around to look at Keefe and then her mother again, telling her, “We’ll be inside. Just… give me one more minute?”

“Alright,” Edaline said, bouncing Alessandra higher on her hip when she started to slip and receiving a grunt and moan in response from the girl, all before she collapsed back into her hazy nap on her grandmother’s bony shoulder. “You going to be okay?”

Sophie didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Edaline nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Come in when you’re ready.”

“I love you,” Sophie blurted as she swiveled and began to walk away. Edaline paused and regained her daughter’s sights. “I love you,” she replied, her smile wider than before. She continued and Sophie watched her walk and walk until she disappeared far around the bend.

Soon, Keefe took her place. Sophie heard his boots crush the grass as he walked to her side and together they stared at the place where Edaline had gone for a minute in silence.

Keefe finally looked at her. Sophie turned her head, too, taking him in.

“Ready?” he asked.

Yes

.

Sophie took the hand he outstretched. “You don’t even know.”

They had long since surpassed their minute, but Sophie and Keefe went farther into the pastures of Havenfield, where they had arrived earlier in the day. Sophie’s stomach was tingling with the sparking start of fireworks as Keefe climbed on her back again and she hailed in her breaths, focusing on the bigger picture.

She envisioned Everglen in her mind, in all its castle-like glory, with its whirling vines and sprawling acres of overgrown forest. She thought of the game that morning and the innocent huddle that started it all. Sophie imagined the friends that were more than that—family—and how far they’d gotten her in life.

Home

.

The kick-off sprint felt like it was taking her home. She willed it as she channeled energy into her legs and burst forward, lasering a keyhole ahead of her in the fabric of time. The portal zapped as she approached it and she could’ve sworn the rim singed some of her hair off as she launched her and Keefe through the hot belt and into the void. The bottled up energy in a bank within her mind was pulsing with its mass as she pushed it out through her forehead, into the space before her. The nerves felt as though they were tugging her in every which way, towards a million different directions and possibilities, but she ignored them, reaching for the one thread of time she knew would bring her home.

Another channel ripped open and this time, instead of the momentum keeping Sophie sprinting out the other side, she fell out of the portal, face-first onto dewy blades.

Sophie yelped as Keefe’s weight crushed on top of her and he released his own wheeze-shriek with the impact. “

Holy

—“

“Fuck,” Sophie groaned, trying to push up off the ground.

Keefe scrambled off of her, breathing heavily as she winced and tried to get her bearings.

“Was it just me or did you go faster that time?”

She had. She’d felt faster than those stupid rollercoasters Amy loved for the stomach-drop-feeling.

But she didn’t care. Sophie didn’t really care because as she sat up and spun around, she was met with the same spot they’d disappeared in earlier.

Nothing looked changed. It was as though the forest held its breath awaiting their return, making sure not to move a root or leaf in their wake.

Sophie stared at Keefe. He got up first and neither of them said a word. Keefe seemed as taken by the sight as she did, even though it was a picture of nothing new and when he helped Sophie get to her feet and they relished the touch of their hands in their own silent ways, the wind blew in the branches and through their hair.

Along the way, a twig snapped and footsteps sounded. Before long, they were surrounded and tagged, but they remained dazed. Perhaps, too, they didn’t care.

So, neither responded. Not to Biana and Tam's jeering, not to Fitz's concerned comments, and not even to Linh's intentional hand-wringing. Some mutual agreement without words came to be, so Sophie and Keefe didn’t mention their travel.

Dex wasn’t happy Keefe had lost the game he’d wagered and the other team was ecstatic to claim their prize of whatever it was they might choose, but Sophie and Keefe didn’t mind.

Clearly, whatever was to come, whatever would be thrown their way, would stand the test of time.