Chapter #13 - Amy
The rays seemed to engulf Amy, swallow her into the warmth and fuzziness of traveling on a beam of light. It was an experience she'd recognized from the few times that she had light leaped before— but this was different. It was like... fading.
"Oh no," she heard Keefe mutter. But his voice sounded far-off and distant. "You don't have a nexus."
Suddenly, she came back to reality. She was okay. She wasn't fading anymore.
Amy opened her eyes.
"You look pretty pale," Keefe said, handing Amy a bottle of fade fuel he had conveniently in his pocket— evidently, he'd been prepared. Amy drank it without question. "But you should be alright. It's not nearly as bad as when Sophie faded..." He shuddered at the memory.
Sophie.
That was why she had grabbed onto Keefe's leg. Sophie had told her to.
"I can't believe Sophie made you come!" Keefe shouted, then seemed to realize he probably shouldn't have done it, in case he accidentally said a command. But Amy was too preoccupied, as she was taking a good look at her surroundings.
They were out in a big, green field with a couple of blonde people walking out in the distance— though they didn't seem to notice Amy and Keefe, as they were focused on having a conversation. In the distance, she could see glistening snow, melting away as winter slowly transitioned to spring. It was a beautiful sight, though she still couldn't quite place where they were. Geography wasn't Amy's strong suit.
"Where are we?"
Before he said anything, Keefe looked her up and down. "You don't have any way of contacting Sophie, do you?"
"Nope. My imparter was crushed and I left my phone in my hotel room— not that I could even contact her with that."
"And Sophie wasn't telepathically connected to you as you lept away?"
"I don't think she thought to do that."
He exhaled, "Well, then I might as well tell you. We're in the human country of Sweden."
"That's kind of... random."
"Exactly. It's remote enough that Sophie won't think of it immediately, but populated enough that it won't be strange to find a teenage boy living here. I would've just come here the first time I ran away, but..." He trailed off on the sentence, but Amy remembered what Sophie had told her. Keefe had originally gone to Cambridge in hopes of learning about some man named Ethan Benedict Wright.
Keefe sighed aggressively, yelling it louder this time, "I CAN'T BELIEVE SOPHIE MADE YOU COME!" He took a deep breath, centering himself— then a gust of wind rushed at him and it seemed to take him back to square one.
"Do you want me to leap you back?" Keefe asked as his tone softened, "I don't have a nexus, but you can probably go back to Cambridge safely if you take some fade fuel. And Sophie can leap you to Elwin."
Amy thought for a moment. He was right— Amy didn't know much about light leaping, but she knew she could probably leap back and leave Keefe there.
But...
She had told Sophie she would find Keefe and bring him back. She had promised. And... if she went back so quickly, she would've failed.
And Amy owed it to her sister.
"I'm not going back until you are," she said.
Keefe's icy blue eyes looked down at the ground. "I'm never going back."
Amy just shook her head. She was going to help Keefe. She was going to save her sister's friend. She owed that, and she was going to do it.
"I'm staying," she said, "and there's no changing my mind."
Amy was going to stay until she changed Keefe's mind.