UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 61

Sophie held her breath, grabbing Keefe with her good arm as his expression turned to that reckless, uncontrollable, filled with determination expression that Keefe had put on right before he went to the Neverseen.

"Please," Sophie pleaded with him, knowing he was going to do something bad to Fitz. "Please, it wasn't... it was me... I didn't want to tell him-"

Keefe looked at her and gripped her hand.  "Foster... I love you because you always see the best in everyone even if you're wrong about it. But... what Fitz did to you isn't supposed to-"

"I lied to him," Sophie told Keefe quietly. "He knew we were dating, and I tried to lie to him, I didn't want him to hurt you Keefe..."

"You did that for me?" Keefe choked out.

"Yeah," Sophie mumbled, feeling embarrassed. "I knew he was going to do something to you... I was trying to-"

"Foster," Keefe whispered, leaning over to kiss her forehead that she didn't notice was still beaded with sweat.  "I don't care about me. I care about you."

"I care," Sophie said simply.

Keefe hesitated before mumbling, "I... don't matter.  But..."

His ice blue eyes caught her breath in her throat as they stumbled into her gaze. Sophie opened her mouth to argue with him, but his hands laced into hers and the cool green breezes flowed smoothly through her mind, washing away the pain and panic temporarily, sweeping it all into a current that was whooshing farther and farther away from reality.

"Sophie, I can't forgive him for this." Keefe brushed a tear of her own eyelid with his fingertips and looked at her bruised wrist. Sophie tried for a smile.

"Please. Let me go after him, he hurt you, he can't get away with this-"

"I agree!" Ro cut in, and Sophie groaned realizing that they'd had their little "moment" in front of the smirking ogre princess. "Beat Pretty Boy's-"

"And... let's stop Ro there!" Keefe interrupted, nervously.

"Can you at least try to forgive him?" Sophie asked him.  "Just promise me that you won't do anything reckless."

"I won't."

Sophie didn't need to be an Empath to sense the lie in his promise.

_____________

"I'm still keeping you overnight," Elwin insisted, when Sophie begged him to let her go home to Havenfield.   "And we both know it's not because of your wrist."

Sophie glared at him. "Do we really need to have another ten minute talk about 'emotional-turmoil?'" she asked, exasperated.  Her wrist had healed nicely- it was still a bit tender and wrapped in gauze, but it didn't hurt as much anymore.  But of course...

"You know that your relationship with both boys are... unsteady," Elwin said carefully.  "I don't think it's a good idea to over-exert yourself."

"I'm not going to.. whatever you just said," Sophie mumbled angrily. "I want to check on Fitz-"

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Elwin asked her matter-of-factly.  "He just... did that to you. What's going to stop him from...?"

"I know Fitz," Sophie insisted stubbornly. "And I know Keefe. And I know how they're going to respond."

Elwin tore a hand through his hair, shifting in his gorgodon-covered pajamas. "I.. kinda get it," he admitted. "But promise that you'll come back here if anything happens."

"Okay," Sophie promised, clambering out of her cot to give Elwin a hug before heading towards the Healing Center doors.

"Cheer up," she told Sandor, who had looked furious with himself when he heard what had happened to his charge while he was gone- and also just encouraged him to support the Let's-Not-Let-Sophie-Date-Anyone Team even more.

"Goblins don't 'cheer up,'" Sandor growled, holding onto her arm as she raised her crystal to the light and glittered away.

__________

Sophie would save all the hugs and greetings for later.  Edaline and Grady both cornered her when she arrived, but she tried to condense the crazy day into a few sentences, before shooing away their worries and questions, claiming exhaustion, and stumbling upstairs to her bedroom after Sandor's tedious security check.

And she hailed Biana.

When her friends face showed up on the square screen, Sophe could instantly sense the concern and the unspoken apology in her teal eyes.

"You okay? I heard what.. what Fitz did..." she choked. "He's in a lot of trouble. They considered suspending him from Foxfire when school starts again, but... I mean, we're Vackers, and the Council didn't want to disgrace the name- with Fallon and everything."

Sophie knit her eyebrows with concern. "They brought it up to the Council?"

"Duh," Biana told her. "He could've killed you. I didn't hear the whole story..."

"Keefe and I.. we're dating, you know... and I didn't want him to hurt Keefe because of that... so I kinda lied." Sophie bit her lip.

"He did that to you because you lied to him?" Biana asked incredulously. "I swear to God that boy has issues... I would kick him for you but Dad made him stay in his room 'till dinner... or more like the rest of eternity, but Mom convinced him to go easy on Fitz."

"Oh," was all Sophe could think to say.

"But I bet he's sorry about it," Biana added quietly. "And not just because it caused him a ton of drama. I would ask him for a formal apology- or just have him hail you -but he's locked up there with no Imparter."

Biana looked at her apologetically.  "I think he'd apologize if he could."

And she left Sophie to hope that her last words were true.