KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

Missing: Keefe POV

Keefe was sitting in his room at Candleshade, taking stock of his prank elixir inventory and avoiding thinking about Sophie.

The overwhelming Foster Feels she'd hit him with as they were leaving school had been very concerning.

It was a tangled web of every negative emotion he could think of, but Keefe was already starting to be more in tune with her and her emotions. He felt pretty confident that he had picked up on each thread.

Anger. Hurt. Betrayal. Despair. Crushing sadness. Loneliness.

Hopelessness.

Sophie dealt with some insecurity, and worried way too much for someone her age, but was otherwise a fairly happy person. So for her to be feeling that number of awful things--and feeling them so strongly that they nearly dragged Keefe under--that couldn't be good.

He still wasn't sure he shouldn't have insisted he accompany her to Havenfield and make her tell him what was wrong.

But he wasn't sure they were good enough friends yet for him to get away with that.

But even so...he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd made the wrong decision in going home.

Wasn't convinced even now that he shouldn't hail her and try to make her tell him what was wrong.

He finally caved, but she didn't answer his hails. But it was getting late, maybe she was one who went to bed early.

So he kept making note of what elixirs to add to his next trip to Slurps and Burps. Come to think of it, Kesler Dizznee was pretty hilarious. He might could even suggest a few ideas to Keefe.

He really should take some time to try to get to know Dex. His dad seemed pretty awesome--even if most people looked down on him for being Talentless--and if Foster wasn't hanging out at Everglen, she was usually with Dex.

If he could position himself to constantly be in her proximity, maybe she'd take a bit more notice of him.

Especially if he wasn't being compared to Fitz every time they were together.

It was kind of ridiculous the way her emotions seemed to trip over themselves when Fitz was around. Fitz hadn't said anything about it, so Keefe didn't think he'd noticed. But Keefe definitely had, and was kind of hoping that would fade away on its own.

Because that girl was adorable.

And such a mystery. One that he really wanted to solve.

And to break down those strange barriers she seemed to have set up. He didn't know why, but she constantly seemed surprised when people wanted to talk to her. He wished he knew what that was about. And how the Vackers had found her. How they'd even known she existed in the first place.

Okay, he was really not doing a very good job at keeping his mind away from Foster.

Just then his Imparter lit up--and for the first time, he was disappointed to see Fitz's name. He'd been hoping to see hers.

But the look on Fitz's face drove Sophie from his mind.

"How quickly can you get here?" Fitz asked him. "I need to talk to you."

"What's wrong?"

Fitz looked pale and terrified.

"I'll tell you when you get here."

"I'm coming now."

Thankfully, Alden and Della had long ago given him a home crystal that would leap him to Everglen. His Leapmaster would take him there, but Keefe suspected they'd given him this crystal so he would feel like part of the family--and so that he could leap away without having to set foot outside of his room if he didn't want to run into his parents.

Fitz met him at the gate and wordlessly let him in. Biana was with him and they both looked miserable.

"Keefe..." Fitz took a shuddering breath. He'd never seen Fitz like this. How bad could it be? "Sophie and Dex are missing. We don't know for sure yet, but....it's possible that they drowned."

"You can't be serious." Keefe looked from Fitz to Biana, who had tears streaming down her face. She tried to speak, but seemed unable to.

Keefe's world started to spin. He sank down in the grass and leaned up against the gate. "How is this even possible? This can't be right."

So Fitz and Biana sank down beside him, and Fitz explained the situation between Sophie and her guardians, and how she had confronted Fitz and Biana and questioned their friendship. So when she'd run off, Fitz had found Dex and asked him to go check on her, because he knew she wouldn't want to see him or Biana but also knew she needed someone--and Dex was the one person she'd probably still talk to.

No wonder she'd felt that storm of misery after school.

"So maybe she ran away, and took Dex with her?"

Fitz shook his head. "Apparently the minute she leapt back to Havenfield, she ran straight down to some caves by the ocean. She and Dex have been practicing alchemy in there. And when Dex got there a little later, Edaline told him that was where she'd gone. But when they went down to check on her because her pet imp scampered into the pastures acting crazy...they weren't there. And it looked like a massive tidal wave had swept through the cave that they usually use, so they're searching along the coastline and in the ocean too. They think..." his voice cracked. "They think the wave that swept into the cave might've been strong enough that it pulled them out. They're hoping they turn up somewhere along the coastline, and maybe their home crystals were lost to the waves so they've been stuck trying to figure out how to get home. But they've been gone a while and I don't have a good feeling about it and I just..."

"Thought I should know?" Keefe said dully.

"I needed my best friend here," Fitz said in a desperate voice. "And, I thought you'd rather be here waiting for news instead of at Candleshade. Especially if--if they're really--" but he couldn't say it. "I didn't want you to hear it from your parents. Grady and Edaline hailed my parents right away, and they're searching with the Dizznees. And Elwin too, in case they need medical help."

"It's my fault," Biana whispered, finding her voice at last. "It's all my fault. If she hadn't found out why I first became her friend, she'd have come over here today instead of going back to Havenfield. If anything happened to them, it's completely my fault."

"No, it isn't," Fitz said, his voice heavy. "I'm the one who found her. I'm the one who brought her here. Tore her away from her human life. I've never seen anyone so upset. She sobbed uncontrollably for I don't even know how long after we sedated her parents so she could get away. If my dad and I had just left well enough alone, she'd still be there."

"Don't," Keefe told them. "Don't feel guilty. Neither of you are to blame. And we don't even know yet if anything is really wrong." It couldn't be. Elves didn't die. Very, very rarely. No one Keefe had ever known had died. So it just didn't seem possible.

Especially not Foster.

But eventually--after minutes that felt like years--the gates opened to reveal Alden and Della.

The looks--and the steady streams of tears--on their faces were enough to tell them the worst.

Even before Alden wordlessly held out a waterlogged registry pendant.