A/N: This is an alternate ending of sorts, wherein Sophie goes to visit Keefe while he's on bed rest after his sparring match with King Dimitar. It'll be told in two chapters.
It had been a couple of days since their journey to Ravagog.
And Sophie kept having nightmares reliving every moment of Keefe's sparring match with King Dimitar.
She had almost hailed him multiple times. Almost reached out telepathically.
She needed to hear from him, needed to know he was okay.
But...she was still so angry with him. Plus, Elwin would have told her if Keefe wasn't okay. He was checking in on Keefe every day and said Keefe was slowly healing.
And it wasn't like they didn't have a lot of other things to focus on.
Her parents hadn't been in Nightfall. Turned out there was more than one. She needed to find them.
Panic was trying to take hold.
And she really needed the one person who seemed to help keep that panic at bay.
The one person who repeatedly proved capable of calming her down.
She missed him more than she wanted to admit.
It was a little bit like him still being with the Neverseen—and she's only just gotten him back.
So finally, after another night of restlessness and nightmares, she hailed Elwin and asked if she could go with him to visit Keefe that day.
Elwin hesitated. "Isn't he trying to keep his location a secret?"
"I don't care," she said fiercely. "He gave up that right to privacy when he put me through the sparring match the other day. Unless..." her stomach twisted at the thought. "Unless he doesn't want to see me."
Elwin laughed. "I very much doubt that. It's taken both me and Ro to stop him from trying to escape and come back to you. He's having trouble accepting that he needs bed rest and that he's not much help to any of you in his current state."
"So can I come?"
This time, Elwin agreed.
And it turned out Keefe's secret hiding spot was Alvar's apartment.
She didn't love that—what if the Neverseen showed up looking for Alvar's things? Elwin assured her, however, that the Council would've been watching the apartment ever since Alvar's betrayal became known.
And...why did it smell so weird?
So she followed Elwin into the bedroom and watched as Keefe realized she was there. His eyes widened in shock.
"Foster?" He said in disbelief. "I didn't expect to see you." Then he suddenly looked frightened. "Oh no, what happened? Did my mom do something?" He tried to get out of bed but Ro stopped him.
"Everyone is fine," Sophie assured him. "I just..." but she wasn't sure how to say 'I just really needed to see you' without it sounding wrong.
Keefe reached up to run a hand through his hair—and Sophie definitely didn't miss the way he had to brace himself first and still sucked in a breath with the motion.
Then he seemed to remember his hair wasn't fixed and Sophie couldn't help but feel a slightly vindictive pleasure when he blushed.
Never mind the fact that even with bedhead, he still looked really good.
"Are you here to yell at me some more?" He asked in a softer voice. "Because I'm totally ready to grovel. And start buying you lots of gifts as apologies. And whatever else you want."
"If she wants to yell at you, she can do so while I check your wounds," Elwin announced as he put on his iridescent spectacles.
But Sophie barely said a word while Elwin examined him and changed the bandage wrapped around his torso.
She tried not to look, but couldn't help but notice that it still looked pretty bad—but noticeably better than it was.
"Wait a minute, where's Sandor?" Keefe asked as Elwin began packing back up.
"He's standing outside the apartment. He claimed he's staying out there to keep watch, but I think..." Sophie glanced at Keefe's new ogre bodyguard.
Ro grinned. "Is the goblin afraid of what'll happen if he spends too much time in close proximity to an ogre?"
Sophie shrugged. "Pretty much."
Elwin was ready to go then, and told Sophie not to stay too long because Keefe needed his rest.
Keefe rolled his eyes. "I'm resting now! I only get out of this bed to go to the bathroom!"
Elwin looked at Ro.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure my new little elfy buddy here doesn't get too worked up. Plus your girl here doesn't strike me as one who would risk letting him sneak out with her if she knows he needs to stay in bed."
"Definitely not," Sophie agreed.
Keefe looked ready to argue, but must have decided better of it.
"So," he said after Elwin left. "How are you?"
Sophie shrugged and tugged out an itchy eyelash. "I'm fine. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
Keefe smiled. "You can't lie to an Empath, remember? I can feel how not fine you are. And I can't hug you from all the way over there." He patted the space next to him on the bed. "Come talk to me."
When she didn't move, his smile faltered. "You're still mad at me, huh?"
Sophie shrugged again. "Can you blame me?"
He bit his lip before responding. "No. I suppose not."
But she went to sit next to him anyway.
"I'm sorry."
His voice was so soft she almost thought she imagined it.
"Of course you are. You could have died."
"No, not for that. I would go through that kind of pain again if it was necessary to keep you safe. It's no more than what each of us is facing every time we go up against the Neverseen. What I mean is, I'm sorry I took charge like that. I'm sorry you had to see the sparring match. I'm sorry for how scared you were. For hurting you."
"And for stealing from me again?"
Keefe lowered his eyes. "For that too. I won't blame you if you hate me. I know I keep giving you plenty of reason to."
Sophie rolled her eyes. "I'll never hate you, Keefe. Honestly, sometimes it might be easier if I could, but I can't. I don't. I won't. The problem is...I feel like I can't trust you. And we had that big talk the other day about how much you like it when I trust you, meanwhile you were already planning what you did just minutes afterward. Had you already stolen the note from your mom when you said that? And when you asked if I still trusted you? And I promised you that I did, but then you--"
"I know. But Sophie, please listen."
She stopped--the sound of him using her first name bringing her up short--and listened.
"I had to make absolutely sure that whatever was in my mom's note wouldn't come back to bite you. I am responsible for what she does and says. Not you."
"You aren't responsible for her actions, Keefe. None of us hold you accountable for the things she does. And...it almost makes it worse to know you went through all of that, lost a crazy amount of blood, and are now sitting here on bed rest to avoid permanent damage in order to protect me. That's what Sandor is for--and it's bad enough that he is risking himself."
Ro sighed. "Your girl has a point, you know. Not even my father would have held you responsible for what your mom did."
Sophie let out a humorless laugh. "Our experience with your father is not a good one."
"No, I suppose not. But that's not all on him."
"Maybe not," Keefe jumped in. "But all I know is that I felt like I had to do something drastic to make sure my mom couldn't hurt anyone else. No one but me." He looked at Sophie. "And I'm sorry if I did the wrong thing. But I'm going to make it up to you. I even have something in mind already. And I'll earn your trust back, too. I promise."
"What did you have in mind?" she couldn't help but ask.
But he shook his head and smirked at her. "Not telling. It'll be a surprise. But you're gonna love it."
She felt her lips tug up into smile in spite of herself.
"Ugh, way too much sappy teenage elf flirting going on in here," Ro decided. "I'm going to go raid the kitchen for more snacks." And with that, she left the room.
"Wow," Keefe said, clearly pretending not to notice the way Sophie blushed at the flirting accusation, "you're going to have to teach me that trick."
"What trick?"
He grinned. "Getting rid of Ro. It's only been a couple of days but she's totally wearing me out."
"I'm still here and I can still HEAR YOU!" Ro shouted from the kitchen.
Keefe looked supremely unconcerned and just winked at Sophie. But then his face turned serious.
"In other news...what's been going on? Elwin's been telling me a few things—I know you went to Nightfall and everyone made it out okay, and that your parents weren't there." His brow furrowed and he reached for her hand. "I'm so sorry, Sophie."
Sophie forced herself not to cry as she said, "so am I. But we'll find them."
"We will," he agreed, twining their fingers together.
She met his gaze, and for a second, it was hard to remember what she'd been about to say.
And he didn't prompt her. He just smiled softly and waited.
After a moment, she cleared her throat and looked away, looking down at where their hands lay between them.
Then she gave him a detailed account of their trip to gather ash to protect themselves from the gorgodons, and the way all the humans kept staring at them, and surprised him with the news that Marella was a pyrokinetic, and then dropped the big bombshell.
"You found Alvar?!"