𝓟𝐫𝗼𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝓢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐞

Chapter #40 - Sophie

Chapter #40 - Sophie

Pain and fear and fury shot through Sophie's limbs— the enhancing making it far more intense than anything Bronte had done to her— causing her to instinctively tumble towards the ground.

So. Much. Negativity.

Though as it slowly began to wash away... the pain subsiding...

"Sophie?"

A childish voice (though far more mature at this point) that she knew from experience sounded awful during karaoke.

Amy.

Sophie's eyelashes fluttered open, and she quickly tore one out, arm aching at the motion. "You're..." She came to her feet, pulling her sister into a hug. She also ripped off the Enhancer gadget, hating that it had completely backfired, and sent the tingling sensation down her fingers to make sure her enhancing was off. "Did Keefe..."

Amy shook her head within the embrace, "No. I guess when they did the Inflictor thing on everybody, it counterbalanced the numbing. At least... I think." She felt icy to the touch— her thoughts a jumbled mess, before Sophie blocked off her Telepathy too— but neither of those things mattered in that minute.

Wow. Sophie's sister really had become a Froster.

She'd known it was true, but to actually see it— to feel it...

"That would actually make a lot of sense. But wait— does that mean the others are also—"

She pulled away, ending up slamming right into Sandor. She felt a sense of relief at seeing him, but she didn't hear anything he might've said, too busy gaping at the scene.

Every human who had been a mindless part of the army now appeared... well, certainly full of emotions. Yet what really shocked her was that they seemed to be aiming their abilities at Lady Gisela. Who was still disgustingly smug, but obviously weak.

Only the humans weren't weak at the moment, though.

Sophie scrunched up her eyebrows.

"Amy, did you get them to do that?"

The youngest Foster nodded.

The older one smiled bittersweetly, "That's... really amazing, Amy. I'm not sure I could've done that."

"Finally," she smiled, also bittersweet, "you admit that I'm a genius."

They chuckled, though it quickly phased out. And the joke, which had clearly been to ease the tension, reminded Sophie of something. Someone.

She peered around, each recent revelation swishing distractedly around her mind. The Neverseen had reallybeen able to convince Tinker to take the caches and change that gadget— mysterious, cryptic Tinker? Well, mysterious, cryptic Tinker who was terrified of fire.

Finally, Keefe came into view. The thoughts all snapped away like something being conjured off by Edaline.

He immediately averted his gaze.

Before she could react, Gisela announced, "I have no idea when you got the chance to undo it, Keefe, but you need to freeze the humans again. Or, well, I had the human inflict for a reason. The ethertine and magsidian will cause even more pain when your body is weak like this."

Ethertine and magsidian? Was that what she was threatening him with?

"Funny thing is... I never actually un-numbed them," Keefe retorted, "Now, mind telling us more about how you rigged that enhance-y device? You seemed very braggy about it before, y'know, you made us all go through the writhing pain of Inflictor rage." Sophie cringed, recognizing his ever-familiar tendency to mask fear with humor. Though... it was infinitely better than the hopeless, depressed Keefe she'd seen before he ran away.

And, this time, it was almost like he was stalling.

A wave of sloppily-controlled water— so controlled by a human, she guessed— about a foot high somewhat literally drowned out his mom's answer. But Sophie didn't dare to be hopeful, not when she'd seen the look on Lady Gisela's face. She knew the humans would tire eventually, or do something so dangerous with their abilities they'll stop attacking, out of fear. Then she'd do whatever convincing it took to get Keefe to command them.

Keefe seized the moment to run, unexpectedly, up to Sophie. His eyes were full of pure pleading, his normally artfully disheveled hair a pure mess.

But he was finally— finally— looking at her.

Keefe likes you, her mind flashed back to, despite herself. Like, really likes you. And has for a long time.

"I think... I might have a plan. To get control over this ability."

***

"...What is it?" was all Sophie could manage.

Even though it didn't match all the words buzzing on the tip of her tongue.

Explanations.

Questions.

Accusations.

No single sentence could match those.

Keefe stumbled back, possibly from feeling her emotions— though, he stabled himself surprisingly well. The time in the Forbidden Cities must've helped him get more used to more intense emotions that came with his stronger Empathy.

Not that Sophie would ever have wished he ran off.

Not when it had caused everything still around them to happen, potentially to the Lost Cities if they didn't stop it. Not when he had put her through—

Keefe looked down, clearly with as many conflicting thoughts as her, "Basically... Mommy Dearest— ugh, it's not even funny to call her that anymore— let it slip that I can only numb a person if I'll feel guilty for it. So I wondered if maybe I could reverse that; that way I can only use the ability on those I want to numb. I wasn't sure how, until Gisela was talking about your Enhancing, and I remembered that thing you did so you could turn it on and off. With Councillor Oralie, right?" He took a deep breath, calming himself after the ramble. "So I thought maybe... maybe there was a way I could do whatever exercise you did with her, and be able to reverse my ability."

"So..." Sophie clarified slowly, "you want to do a countdown exercise, that way you can switch to only numbing those you won't feel guilty about freezing." Her mind raced on how they would do that.

He nodded tentatively, finally meeting her eyes. "If that's what it's called, then... yeah."

"That's... a really good idea."

Keefe looked down again. Words lingered in the silence between them, and Sophie waited to see who would break it.

Keefe inhaled, "I'm really, really sorry."

An eyelash was ripped out.

"Seriously. This... it's ALL my fault, Foster."

Sophie shook her head, "You were an idiot for leaving— you have no idea how much that letter hurt— but it's obviously not your fault." She gave a grim smile. "And for the record... I don't hate you."

Their gazes met, and she took a step closer...

...wrapping him up in a giant bear hug.

It wasn't long— they didn't have time for that— but it was enough. To help her make a decision.

"Amy helped give the humans a choice," she muttered, feeling both their pulses beat, "and I'm gonna do the same for you, Keefe."