Harry Potter and the Lost Cities

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

KEEFE

"Yo, Hunkyhair! Are you listening to me?"

Keefe blinked and snapped out of his thoughts. Oops. Ro was not going to be happy with him. She hated when Keefe spaced out while she was talking. He glanced away from the ceiling he'd been staring at for the past hour to look at his bodyguard's rather irritated face. "Um... yeah... you were saying... something about how much you love all things sparkly?"

Sure enough, Ro gave him the ultimate glare. "Why do I even try to talk to you anymore? You're always too busy thinking about a certain blonde girl."

Keefe blushed slightly. So what if he had totally been thinking about Sophie just now? That didn't mean Ro had to call him out for it! "Shut up. I am not always thinking about her."

Ro wasn't glaring anymore. Instead, she just looked at Keefe with a slightly evil look on her face. "Sure you don't, Funky, sure you don't."

Keefe just rolled his eyes and Ro continued. "I still can't believe you went back on our deal! You said you were going to tell her! And then you didn't!"

"I told you!" Keefe sighed, pushing off his bed to sit up. "It wasn't a good time. Harry had just told her about her dad being Ruy. And she was leaving for Exile a few hours later. I wasn't going to throw that on top of it all."

"Well, either way, you owe me. You have to tell her and do another dare of my choice."

Keefe sighed. He was definitely going to regret that extra dare. But if it helped Sophie at all... it was worth it.

He snorted. That sounded so cheesy. But it was so true. He wasn't sure how Sophie had become so important to him― stupid emotions― but she had. He would do anything to make her happy.

Even if it meant sacrificing his own happiness.

Not that he wasn't happy. He was, really. But every time he saw Sophie with Fitz― even though they weren't dating anymore― or every time he sensed Sophie suppressing her own feelings for him... it hurt. A lot.

He sighed again. Sometimes caring about someone was hard.

"Oh, great, you're going to be all boring for the next hour, aren't you? Thinking about how much you love Sophie?"

He turned to glare at Ro, who just smiled innocently.

He felt his imparter buzz and slipped it out of his pocket.

A swarm of emotion hit him as he saw the name on the imparter― or rather, the absence of a name. The imparter was flashing Unknown Caller. And there was only one person who'd called him with an unknown imparter.

His mom.

Anger, fear, uncertainty, desperation, sadness, hurt, anxiety, hopelessness.

"Who is it?" Ro asked suspiciously, apparently noticing his face. She reached to grab the imparter, but Keefe jerked it away.

And answered.

"What do you want?" He demanded, not letting her get the first word. The screen didn't show a face, just a black screen.

But to his surprise, it wasn't his mom's vice that answered. Rather, it was a voice that made his eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Keefe?"

His heart stopped at the broken rasp in her voice. "Sophie? What's wrong? What's going on?"

To his horror, Sophie started to cry. Huge, shaky sobs that were painful to hear. "Keefe, she's coming― came last night― And the shadowflux― my arm―"