Keeper of the Lost Cities: Rebuild [COMPLETED]

Chapter Thirteen - SOPHIE

She didn't initiate, though. Keefe didn't deserve a girlfriend who used him to ignore her problems.

Instead she took his hand and let him lead her to the cliffside. They didn't sit—they were both too restless for that—but standing was fine. Honestly, simply being near him calmed her nerves.

Then again, that could have been the remnants of Calla's song humming through her mind; the distant splash of the waves against the rocks; the gentle caw of a seagull. The sounds also sent her back to darker times, when enemies were invisible and allies were unknown.

So much for calmed nerves.

"You okay?" Keefe asked, brows pinched together.

Old instinct to jerk away almost overtook Sophie's arm muscles, but she held still. "Did you turn the dulling off?"

He shrugged. "I can still read strong emotions, and since your 'normal' feelings are already strong, when your emotions get intense, the effect is the same."

"Mm."

He shuffled, his grip in her hand sliding as his palms turned sweaty. He bit his lip. "Soooooo. About yesterday—"

"You don't have to say anything," Sophie interrupted. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

The reminder made her stomach go sour, but she pushed it back. If she tried hard enough, she could hide some of her emotions from him now—which was an awful thought for her to have.

But Sophie couldn't tell him everything. It would require too much explaining, and... she wasn't even sure what was wrong herself.

"Okay," said Keefe, looking at the ocean below.

Sophie tried not to cringe. When had their conversations become this awkward? Was it because they hadn't been spending enough time together?

Or maybe it was because all their time they did spend together was at work, either as Mentors or two people fighting against the injustices of the world. The only times they could afford to have a "casual conversation" was in between classes or on the way to all the places they needed to be. Maybe they had gotten out of practice.

Say something quirky, she commanded herself, but her all-powerful, Telepathic, genetically-enhanced mind couldn't seem to come up with anything. Besides, quirky was Keefe's forte.

Except he didn't say anything.

So she said the only thing she could think of, the only thing on her mind since that afternoon: "What are we going to do about the Purities?"

Sophie wasn't sure what she wanted to hear from Keefe—Reassurance? Hopeful sentiments? An actual solution?

It didn't really matter, because it was none of those things. He just sighed, like it was the most exhausting question in the universe, and dragged a hand down his face. "Why is everything with you about the Purities?" he muttered.

Her mouth dropped open. "The Purities marched today."

"Seriously? You and Dex both?"

"What's wrong with taking things seriously, Keefe? But oh, wait, I forgot who I was talking to." Her words were daggers, chipping at Keefe's soul, and she wrenched her hand out of his, backing away. She needed space.

"You guys don't get it. No one gets it. 'The Purities haven't attacked yet,' you say. But they will, Keefe. We can't keep pretending this isn't a serious threat, because that's what the Council did when the Neverseen was taking humans behind their backs and torturing them."