Last chapter, I asked for comments, and man, did I get them XD. Those comments not only made my day, but my entire month <3. Thank you all for these reads and comments. Enjoy!

Wednesday. Huh. And I thought Sundays were bleak. Somehow, I'd been looking less and less forward to it, and somehow more and more impatient for it at the same time.

Come on, come on, I want to find Charlotte, came every time, followed by, but what if I can't? What if I don't? What if I break another memory? What if my lack of knowledge on the subject ruins our chances completely? What if I —

What if I fail?

Shut up, idiot, I told myself. If I failed, I'd fix it, and move on.

But now Wednesday was here, and the bright pink blossoms bunched in a vase in the middle of the room, and the cheery lime green throw blanket across the sofa seemed far too joyous for the grim looks around the room. The only other two people in the room were Keefe and Fitz. If anything, I'd imagined me telling Fitz to back off Sophie because Keefoster belonged together, not absolute silence as I sat uncomfortably in my seat, trying not to squirm.

"Where's Sophie?" I asked Keefe.

"She's talking to Sandor and her parents," Fitz replied in his deep, accented voice.

Did I ask you, you wayward Wonderboy?

"Why are you here?" I said, wondering who would answer.

Fitz looked taken-aback at my blatant tone, and he glanced at Keefe, who merely shrugged with a rather goofy smirk.

"Well, I'm here because we — well, I'm assuming we're friends," said the blond-haired boy.

Oh, my Lord, was I friends with a popular kid now? Yeesh.

Fitz nodded, regaining his composure. "And I'm here because —"

"You're her cognate." Blah, blah, blah. "Yeah, the whole school knows." We get it.

The teal-eyed boy nodded with a smile. "I'm here to help," he said kindly.

"Aria?" said Keefe.

"Yessir?"

He stared at the flowers, clearly choosing his words carefully before he told me, "Chill."

"What?"

"I know you're freaking out," he whispered softly, and suddenly I found the warmth of his hand on mine. "Just calm down. No one is pressuring you to find Charlotte, okay?" he said soothingly.

"Yeah," I muttered back. "I know." Ha, no, I didn't.

Fitz cleared his throat, crossing his legs and clasping his hands together awkwardly.

"What do you want?" I asked him.

"Aria!" Keefe reprimanded.

"Sophie's — she's — hi, Sophie," he said, glancing towards the entrance.

I turned around to find the beautiful girl entering the room through the tall, intricately designed door. Her gold hair cascaded over her shoulders, brown eyes darting between Keefe and I. Finally, her gaze dropped briefly to his hand over mine. It was so fast, I almost didn't catch it. But I did.

Holy crap, was Sophie — ? No.

Sophie made her way across the room to sit gracefully besides Fitz.

She was doing pretty well until Fitz smiled and told her, "Hey, Sophie. You look beautiful."

Sophie tripped over her own feet.

Ew. Ew, ew, ew. If I had to watch them flirt with each other, I would toss my lunch. Not that I'd eaten anything, and certainly not school lunch.

Keefe's warm fingers tightened on mine rather harshly. I glanced up at him to find his gaze on Fitz. His jaw was tightened, but his eyes were sad. I scowled.

"You done?" I said dryly, raising an eyebrow at Fitz. You done flattering her?

Fitz avoided my gaze. Sophie frowned at me, but she didn't try to ask what had happened between anyone.

"I have two questions. For this to work, you need to be completely honest," Fitz said as kindly as he could as he avoided my death glare.

I can't guarantee I'll answer them, I wanted to answer, because, in all honesty, I would totally ignore him just to mess with him.

"First, have you ever used your powers?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Sort of. Once. Maybe? I mean, I did. Ish."

Fitz tilted his head, clearly confused, but he moved on. "Okay, then. So you know how to enter someone's mind?"

"Yeah. I've done it twice. Wait, does my own count?"

His teal eyes widened. "Y-you went in your own mind?"

"Yeah."

He and Sophie exchanged glances, communicating with unfathomable expressions.

That wasn't good.

"And," he said slowly. "second, do you trust me?"

I glanced at Sophie, who was watching me intently, waiting for my answer. My gaze found Keefe's and he raised an eyebrow. Then I looked back at Fitz. Should I tell him the truth? I thought, debating with myself. For it to work, I 'need to be completely honest.' And putting aside the fact that I hated him . . . did I?

Looking Fitz straight in the eye, I said with a casual shake of my head, "No."

Keefe cracked up, though, to his credit, he coughed, trying unsuccessfully to cover up his sudden burst of laughter.

Fitz's expression froze. Then he blinked. And blinked again. "Oh. Well. That's . . . not good. Why not?"

"You said two questions." I almost really added why, but that would've been rude. Well, more rude than I already had been.

Keefe nudged me.

With an inward groan, I told him, "I don't know, I just, I don't know you."

He frowned. "Do you trust Sophie?"

"Yes."

"You don't know her, either. How come you don't trust me?"

I'm tolerating him, I'm tolerating him, I'm tolerating him. If I lashed out, I might've calmly thrown him off the cliff. "Fitz?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm not going to answer that," I told him firmly. "For your own sake."

Fitz scowled, a small crease appearing between his manicured eyebrows. Sophie bit her lip, head tilted. Her gaze landed on Fitz, but she didn't comfort him. She was a little . . . off. She seemed more focused on Keefe than the teal-eyed boy.

"Well, this was awkward," Keefe announced. "Um, I feel like this calls for a subject change. So . . . aren't you here for telepathy stuff?"

"Great, what do I do?" I said though I didn't feel so great.

"Before you start, there are rules to this thing!" he declared. "Foster and Fitz know 'em. All conversations must be kept out loud, unless you're talking about me."

I laughed. "No can do, Keefe."

"Hey, don't disobey the king of the Lost Cities!" he told me.

Sophie's eyebrows raised higher and higher until they were in severe danger of disappearing into her hair. "You're the king of the Lost Cities, now?"

"Well," I said to Keefe, studying my nails nonchalantly. "I wouldn't want you to get all conceited, you know?"

"Ah, you admit you'll be talking about me?" The boy smirked.

Walked right into that, idiot, I thought to myself.

"How do you find the location of someone's mind?" I asked Sophie. I'd read part of my telepathy book earlier in the day, but the author was a moron.

Keefe clearly noticed that I didn't reply to him, but he didn't point it out.

Sophie frowned thoughtfully, tucking a strand of blond hair behind her ear with a slender hand. "If you're familiar with them, or their mind, and the way they think, try to track it and follow it to a general area."

"A general area?" I wondered.

"Most telepaths can't track it to the exact location," she replied.

"I think you mean no one can except you?" Raising an eyebrow, I smirked at the way she ducked her head to hide behind her hair.

"Well, you can if I enhance you," she said. "But not right now. I think what you need is practice. Fitz can go to another room in the house and you can try to track him."

Fitz stood up, ready to leave, but I stopped him. "Does it have to be Fitz?" Yeah, I don't care if y'all know I hate Fitz Vacker. Deal with it.

"He's the only telepath here whose mind you can locate," said Sophie.

What? I thought. What about Sophie? I couldn't try to locate hers? Was it a part of Sophie being The Great Foster, or was there something she didn't want me to see? I understood she probably didn't trust me — she barely knew me, and I'd basically offended her crush, but it still intrigued me. She knew I wasn't against her. But what secrets were roaming in the mind of the Black Swan's moonlark?

Keefe grinned at Sophie, as if reading my mind. "The Mysterious Miss F. happens to have an impenetrable mind. What a surprise."

An impenetrable mind? Then . . . what secrets are the Black Swan hiding in their moonlark's mind?

Sophie blushed. "We should get started."

Fitz nodded and made his way to the entrance, casting one last glance at me. His teal eyes pierced mine, but I knew that all he saw behind my eyes was a layer of darkness, shadows shrouding every thought. I've had far too much practice with people trying to discern my feelings from my expression.

It was a mistake on his part.

I met his eyes and waited for him to try to penetrate the darkness. Unexpectedly, he flinched, and left the room.

"His blocking is super strong," Sophie told me. "Which means it'll be really hard to enter his mind. As a beginner, it's impossible. All you can do is track his mind to wherever it goes."

"Why would I need to enter his mind?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "It makes it easier to find his location, but, without it, you should still be able to find him."

Watch me, I thought, though to whom, I didn't know. As a normal beginner, it was impossible. But if I was a regular beginner, I wouldn't be able to enter my own mind and watch my own memory break.

Sophie paused, seemingly lost in her own mind before she said, "he's ready."

"Did he just transmit to you?" I asked.

"Yeah. Fitz is one of the only ones who can get past my blocking."

"There are a lot of impossible things that you and your friends make possible," I noted. I closed my eyes, trying to think strategically. The only ones in the house were Sophie's five bodyguards, Fitz's bodyguard, Ro, and the Ruewens. Which meant there were only five elves, one whose mind I couldn't enter, and another whose mind I've already entered once. The three remaining were Fitz, Grady Ruewen, and Edaline Ruewen. Since the Ruewens weren't telepaths, their minds probably weren't as blocked as Fitz's was.

That's what I had to look for.

I stretched my mind over Havenfield, detecting the consciousness of different elves around the house. The feeling of presence came over me, like I knew someone was there even though I couldn't see them. One was Keefe's, his thoughts wandering slowly to a pair of gold-flecked brown eyes and studying each and every shade.

As I tried not to snort of laughter, I narrowed my mental attention to the two furthest away from me, which meant they were a bit harder to reach. I slipped my thoughts into one of the bundles of memories and thoughts. The image of a comfy-looking loveseat painted itself in my mind, with two hands entangled with each other. Those two must have been Grady and Edaline.

There was only one more mind I could possibly find. I followed a trail of quiet, half-sketched thoughts to a heavily guarded wall. And by heavily guarded, I meant heavily guarded. Like a huge slab of smooth, cold concrete, with cannons and arrows poking out here and there, ready to shoot down anything that tried to pass through.

Something light and fiery spun itself into a weightless web of gut-clenching fear in my mind. Drawing a mental cloaking over my thoughts to quiet them, I let a soft tingle slip over my consciousness like a blanket. It was the same feeling I got when I vanished, but instead of my body disappearing, my thoughts did. At the same time, my shoes appeared, then my tunic, and my arms, and, slowly, my hair faded into view. The only thing new about my appearance was a black cloak, the fabric trailing after me. I tip-toed forward, and when none of the defenses fired I pressed my hand against the concrete, expecting cold, hard, grounding solidity. Instead, my hand pushed right through, like the barrier was but a fog creating a hallucination. Or perhaps it was because consciousness wasn't really tangible. The only blockade a mind could create was its defenses. After that, nothing.

Interesting, I thought, and the word seemed muffled, even to me. I inhaled deeply and a step forward into the fog before I could think myself out of doing whatever I was doing. Suddenly, the fog surrounded me in swirling white winds whipping this way and that. I pushed as hard as I could as the cold lashed against my face and tried to keep my hood up. It felt like long days and mere minutes at the same time before I managed to throw myself out of the whirlwind. Stumbling forward, I nearly crashed into a memory, a scene flickering as it replayed over and over.

For some reason, Keefe was at the front of Fitz's mind. I watched, mesmerized by the way his hair was falling onto his forehead, and the way his eyes were dim, like the light had been snuffed out. He'd never looked so . . . tired. He was wrapped in a soft blanket, and the image was through a window. Blond hair fell in front of the scene as a slender hand brushed it aside.

Blond hair?

My feet were seemingly floating in midair as I reached out as quietly as I could and brushed my fingers softly against the memory, against the perfect image of Keefe. I stroked my thumb softly against his cheek, wishing I could brush away his tears. A rapid rush of thoughts and emotions flooded through me, a feeling that I wish I could hold close to my heart and never let it go. I just wanted to sit there in the comfort of my blankets and Keefe's presence.

Wait a minute.

I barely knew Keefe Sencen. These weren't my feelings, these were . . . These are the feelings of Sophie Foster. I was in Sophie's mind, not Fitz! Holy crap, I was in the impenetrable mind of the Mysterious Miss F. Inside Sophie Foster's head.

And yet, all I wanted to do was bury my head in a pillow and sleep.

Those are her feelings, I repeated in my head, shocked. I closed my eyes, and opened them again. Turning around, I found another scene, much more recent, right besides the other memory. The scene of me, sitting next to Keefe. His hand was on mine, and he was murmuring softly, but from where Sophie stood, she couldn't hear any of the words.

That's why she was thinking of Keefe.

Dear Lord, Sophie Foster is jealous of 'Neefe' — a ship that will never sail? I thought. Wow.

But the emotions that tumbled down the floodgates . . . the kind of pain I'd felt only once before, and the kind I was hoping I'd never feel again. The one in my head that would never leave, the cracks in my heart as it felt like someone was dragging a dagger through it . . .

I'd never cried before.

And I wasn't crying then.

But I wished I was, as something shot through my mind like a flash of lightning striking my thoughts and leaving behind a scorched memory. Searing torture sunk it's claws deep and burned a hole through my mind. I let out a cry of pain, but the shout was lost in Sophie's hundreds of thoughts and memories.
I stumbled backwards from Keefe and Sophie, and whipped around, pressing on. I probably should have left her mind, but the thought never occurred to me. I had to distract myself from the pain. I needed to.

I padded forward in awe, darting in between memories and trying not to invade her privacy by looking at them. But one in particular caught my eye, and I couldn't help it. Not a memory, but a thought. It wasn't quite made of words, but not quite images either, her mind was much like Keefe's. The thoughts were just . . . there, like a little bubble of something that I only understood when I touched it.

If this doesn't work, came Sophie's thoughts, and Aria can't find Charlotte . . . Her thoughts drifted into emotion, pressure building up on my shoulders, threatening to bury me so deep under rubble that no one would be able to find me, suffocating under the debris of the ruins. The suffering stress pressed against me, pushing me this way and that as the deadline approached, as time passed day by day with nothing to show for the promises I'd made.

We're done for, I finished. We were done for. That was it. That was the end. That was what happened if we didn't find Charlotte — if I couldn't find her. It would be my fault.

Like always.

I couldn't let that happen.

I couldn't handle it.

I couldn't handle it. My head hurt, aching harder and harder. It pounded louder than my heart as my vision blurred, and turned dark as lightheadedness crossed over me. And the bright, beautiful memories became vivid and dim at the same time. Dark, light, dark, gray, light, dark, gray, light — dizzy. Super dizzy.

My weak knees buckled underneath me, and suddenly, I began to fall. I plunged into the darkness beneath me, crashing into memories and thoughts that cut deep gashes across arms, my legs, my face — my consciousness in the form of my body.

I — I needed to wake up. How was I supposed to wake up again? Something to do with eyes.

Blue eyes.

Wait, blue? What was going on? Why did I need to wake up again? Was . . . was I lost? Why was everything so dark?

No more.

No darkness.

So turn on the light, I urged myself. Just fix it. Then you can move on. But my muscles were so tired, and my head was throbbing so, so hard. Maybe if I just closed my eyes, and relaxed, and let the memories around me rise.

Rise?

I was falling.

Deeper and deeper into Sophie's mind —

Snap out of it, you dung-sniffing, mold-eating, slug-faced hippo! I told myself. My eyes shot open despite the migraine and I sucked in a deep breath, trying to grab onto something or anything as I plummeted. My hands latched onto memories here and there, but they immediately slipped out of my grip and I only fell faster with every second.

Come on, come on, come on. Finally, I reached out and grasped a memory with both hands, hanging precariously as my legs dangled. The memory depicted a familiar man with wrinkled skin — Mr. Forkle, his name was — holding up an enormous needle.

I pulled back, and suddenly, I was walking in midair again. Reaching forward, I let the emotions and her thoughts wash over me.

All she'd been thinking about was Alden Vacker. And how she could fix him. And the feelings of pure terror that washed over me were telling me no, no, no, no, no, no, no, but despite them, she waited patiently, her thoughts flickering to all the people who were depending on her, as the needle came closer and closer . . . and pierced her hand. Not less then a moment later, pain in its sharpest form shot up my arm.

Instantly, I threw myself back, away from the memory, massaging my hand. I'd only felt a fraction of that pinching, fierce stinging. I could never even begin to imagine what Sophie had felt. That kind of pain was far too harsh.

And yet, she'd gone through all of it.

She'd experienced every heated, never-ending hit that had struck her. She'd undergone every experiment, every shred of hatred that anyone held against her with determination. She'd protected her friends, won battles against the Neverseen — she'd done everything without shedding a tear.

Maybe several eyelashes, but not a single tear.

And there was I, barely able to walk through her mind without being crippled. I couldn't find Charlotte. Who was I kidding? I lived alone in a stupid little treehouse! I could keep secrets from my best friends, but I couldn't keep my mind from shattering for no flipping reason. I could give a trillion reasons why I wanted to find Charlotte, but I couldn't actually find the girl.

I couldn't do anything.

I couldn't do anything. I was pointless. I was worthless.

A heavy weight settled in my stomach, pulling me to the ground.

There was no one to catch me.

And even if there was, it was too late.

The tormenting agony screamed up my arm and made its way like poison up my veins, towards my heart and my mind. My breathing quickened, shoulders shaking as I shuddered deep breaths. The headache grew harder, ready to drag me under the silky darkness like dense, smothering wool.

No. More. Darkness.

Lord, please, somebody help me. Somebody, take me out of here. Carry me somewhere I can rest my thoughts. Help me, please — anyone . . . I couldn't take it. There were invisible daggers slashing my memories into bits, and I couldn't stop them.

Just like how I couldn't stop Charlotte from disappearing.

I couldn't do anything.

I closed my eyes, letting myself fall again. Down, down, down . . . Light, dark, gray . . . I didn't care anymore. Head over toe, I hurtled deeper and deeper into Sophie's mind. The fog blanketed me in a dizzying swirl of hot and cold. But I didn't care. I just needed one thing.

No more darkness.

Too much darkness.

|~|~|

I'd always thought Piper was a strange name. It was beautiful, but strange, nonetheless. Imagine walking through the streets of a human city and hearing people cheer on the bagpipe player. It would be rather awkward if I said 'thank you' to someone who wasn't talking to me, but to the actual piper. Apparently, the name was a human name, and despite the fact my parents didn't really care for humans, they named me Piper. But whenever I pointed that out to my parents, they simply told me that Piper was a sensible name. It didn't sound weird (which I was thankful for). It was just unique enough that it was still normal.

Huh. Normal.

Maybe they didn't imagine their daughter would be working with Dex Dizznee, one of Sophie Foster's best friends, to find Charlotte Viper, the girl who'd been kidnapped by the Neverseen.

"The Neverseen really need to up their game," grumbled Dex in annoyance. "I mean, they already kidnapped us three years ago. They're losing creativity."

I tilted my head. Dex had been really grumpy for the past few days, though I hadn't understood why.

I knew now.

This brought back old memories, none of them too good.

I fiddled with a wire as his fingers flew over the keys, trying to find the last known location of Charlotte. We'd moved to my workshop (which was technically my room, but that was an insignificant bit of information) a few days before, but it still felt a bit awkward having someone in there. The only people who ever entered my room were my parents, and they could barely handle the sight of wires and half-finished gadgets before having a strange urge to clean it up.

"This place is amazing," Dex told me, as he opened a couple drawers to find a screwdriver. "I mean, you have everything in here."

"Thanks," I said, twisting the wires in my hands together. I took off my glasses and glanced up as Dex stuck the screwdriver in the gadget he was making. It was a tiny machine, with a sleek black shell, shaped like a box, with a small stand beneath it. Green and blue wires were visible out here and there, shadowed by a flickering purple light the box was giving off on its underside.

"Hmm," he muttered. With a violent wrench, Dex ripped out a couple of the wires. The flickering of the purple light subsided, giving off a steady glow. "There."

"What is that?" I asked him. I'd asked him the same thing for the past three days, but he'd replied vaguely, 'you'll see.'

Dex handed me a blueprint depicting the gadget, with lines arrows here and there pointing to different parts and labeled with tiny writing. Some of them were paragraphs explaining the contraption, and others were inexplicit words.

"Woah," I whispered, "this thing has its own hard drive? Did you build it?"

Dex grinned. "Yeah."

"What's it do?"

"Here," he said, plugging in a wire to the wide screens showing the maps of the Forbidden Cities. "I put some of the Councillors' tech in there, the part that recognizes Charlotte's pendant signature. Then I wired it to a few human satellites —"

"No way!" I said in excitement. "I did the same thing for these screens!"

Dex's grin widened. "It's genius, right?"

"Let me guess, and then you listed the places Charlotte is usually at by looking at her pendant history, and then you picked the most sketchy one?" I asked, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear.

He blinked at me. "That would've been a lot easier, actually. I was planning to connect it to this to find the last, but most sensible place her pendant's been to make it a little more accurate." He plugged the other end of the wire in his hand to his machine, linking the gadget to the screens.

"Cool," I said, slipping around him to look at the screens. The maps remained blank for a moment before a small circle flickered here and there across the map.

"Come on, come on," said Dex. He and I stared intently at the screen.

"Come on . . ." I echoed, pushing my glasses back up my nose.

Slowly, the circle solidified, gliding across the screen before stopping near the bottom left corner. The words that popped up read, Angel Island, Tiburon, CA.

I gasped, letting out a breathless laugh of joy. "Is that it?"

"I don't know," said Dex, squinting at the screen. "What's 'Whole Foods'? That seems pretty sketchy to me."

"I'm pretty sure it's a food market," I said thoughtfully.

"What if they hid her in the vegetables?"

The way he said it like it was the most casual question in the world had me laughing in spite of myself. I grabbed my imparter. "Come on, let's tell everyone!"

"Wait," said Dex. I halted in my tracks and turned around to face him. "Wait, what if she isn't there? We'd be endangering everyone for no reason."

"We can send out a scout group before they launch a full-on rescue mission. They should be discreet, though. Not your friends, because they're too obvious, you know?" I gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry."

Dex shrugged. "I never get to go anyway, I guess."

Frowning, I tilted my head. "How come? You're a really valuable asset, you know."

"Yeah, really valuable. I have the most dangerous job. I have to sit on a chair."

"Hey, it could be dangerous! Sitting is bad for you. Besides, what if one of your siblings put a thumbtack on your seat?" I joked. When he didn't smile, I nudged his shoulder. "They really don't appreciate you. But you're awesome, you know."

He sighed. "It's not that I like complaining about having to sit at home and do technology stuff, but . . . This was why I didn't tell anyone I was a Technopath. I'm basically useless, now. I have to sit out while they practically get themselves killed, and I can't help them."

"Well, maybe you and I can go scouting," I offered.

"No one would agree with that," said Dex.

"Why not? I agree with it. I'm not no one." I paused. "I think."

Dex laughed, pulling out his leaping crystal. "Okay. Let's go to Havenfield first so Sophie hears the news, and then we can tell Isla, Kate, Lucky, and Aria."

"Wait, now? I thought we were going to call them," I said, glancing out the open window. The sun was sinking quickly beneath the horizon, letting out a soft orange glow with barely enough light to shadow the trees lining my front yard. "It's almost sunset on a school night."

The other Technopath raised an eyebrow. "So?"

I blinked.

"We just found information on a girl who's been kidnapped by the Neverseen. I think it'll be fine if you oversleep a couple hours for school," Dex said, holding the leaping crystal up to the faint light pouring into the room from the window, offering his other hand to me.

"Oh. Right," I said with an embarrassed laugh. I took his hand and stepped into the light. Dex and I whisked away.

As we arrived, Dex strolled forward and rang the doorbell. The door slowly creaked open as a mistrustful goblin squinted out, casting a suspicious glance at me.

"Hey, Sandor," said Dex, slipping past him casually. I followed him, wondering vaguely if the death-glare the goblin had initially given us meant nothing to the other Technopath. "This is Piper. We have to talk to Sophie."

"She's in her room," Sandor said.

I covered my mouth as quickly as I could to keep a laugh from bursting out at his voice. And by his voice, I meant a high-pitched, child-like squeak. Clearing my throat, I tried to ignore the unexpected giggle.

The goblin wasn't easily fooled, but he simply sighed.

"Is she awake?"

"What do you think?"

"Point taken," Dex said, dashing past Sandor and up the stairs. Each thump of his step echoed throughout the house as he raced past excitedly.

I bit my lip, throwing a tentative glance at the goblin — particularly, his long, curved sword in its sheath.

"I won't kill you," he promised. "Unless you hurt my charge."

"That's fair," I said, following Dex up the stairs. Running my fingers over the smooth wooden railing, I stepped slowly up the stairs to find myself standing in what looked like a room, the size of a reception hall. The pink carpet was adorned with petals, and the canopied bed was large and beautiful. There were two paintings hung up on the wall, one of Sophie and the Ruewens, and the other of her and her friends. They were so realistic, if I couldn't see the faint brushstrokes, I would've thought it was an actual picture.

"What did you find?" I found Sophie asking Dex, who was biting his lip in restrained excitement.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure if it's right, but it's a lead," he replied. "We found an approximate location of where Charlotte last was. We might be able to find clues there . . ."

"But?" Sophie prompted, tucking a lock of gold hair behind her ear. Her clear, thoughtful brown eyes darted between his, and I had to admit, Sophie was actually really pretty. Most people didn't seem to notice it. Except Fitz, Dex, and Keefe, of course.

"But . . . well, there's danger to everything," Dex said. "We're not sure."

"The Neverseen could've faked the trail to mislead us," she said.

"Yeah. Which is why Piper and I were thinking . . ." he muttered hesitantly. "If we could go out and scout —"

Sophie was already shaking her head. "Dex —"

"Please, Sophie, I know what you're going to say —"

"It's too dangerous, Dex."

"It's always too dangerous!" he cried, throwing his hands out. "You guys still go anyway. Besides, Piper had a really good point. You guys are far too conspicuous now. They don't know who Piper is, and they barely ever see me —"

"We can't drag civilians into this," Sophie said firmly.

"We didn't." Dex's eyes focused intently on hers. "They did."

Don't pull that card, I thought as I studied Sophie. It was clear what she was going to say next. Don't pull that card. Come on, Sophie, don't pull that card . . . Nope, of course she will.

"You're my best friend. You know that," she whispered. "I don't know what I'd do if you'd get hurt, Dex."

He flinched. He'd known it was coming. But he didn't try to stop it. His periwinkle eyes narrowed, and voice was calm, but his words cut through like a hot knife through butter. "You're my best friend, but every time you go off and die, you don't ever think of that, do you?"

No, it was like a giant chainsaw through butter.

Sophie closed her eyes, clearly not expecting his words. "I-I can't let you do that."

"We're not asking for permission," I intervened. My voice was soft, but it seemed to slice through the room, silencing both sides of the discussion. "We're telling you." I shrugged nonchalantly as I leaned against the doorframe, studying my nails. "Whether you like it or not."

Sophie tilted her head at me, staring as if she wasn't quite sure what else she could say.

"I know what you're thinking, so I'll save you some time. You're not changing our minds," I said politely.

She sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. "Fine, fine, okay. But —"

"No backup," I interrupted immediately, trying to ignore her disapproving scowl. "This is only a scouting mission. We'll be fine, Sophie. I'll be Dex's backup."

"And who'll be yours?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"I will," Dex said with seemingly newfound determination. He shot me a smile.

Sophie frowned, clearly imagining hundreds of ways the situation could go wrong. And when someone else did that, I usually ended up doing that, too. Trying not to think too hard, I fiddled with my fingers, waiting for Sophie who was obviously ready to disagree.

But she only sighed again when she caught Dex's hopeful look. "Fine."

"Really?" I asked. "Awesome! I have one other thing, though."

The brown-eyed elf looked at me expectantly.

"I really like your eyes," I said earnestly.

"Oh," Sophie said, taken-aback. Her eyes widened and she stared at my feet as a deep pink rose to her face. "Uh, thank you."

She really does blush a lot, I thought, remembering the rumors that had grown rapidly across the school.

Dex laughed. "Moving on," he said. "Charlotte's last location was Angel Island."

Sophie's expression hardened as her eyebrows pressed together in shock. "Angel Island?" she repeated slowly. "In the Forbidden Cities?"

"Yeah." Dex bit his lip. "What's wrong?"

"Tiburon, California?"

"Uh, yup."

The other girl backed away from him, dropping her gaze to her pink-petaled carpet as she stumbled onto her bed. Her eyes glazed over, suddenly distant. "Angel Island . . . The Neverseen — they've been watching me, haven't they?"

"What?"

"They've been watching me . . . ever since I was young. But if they saw me then, why didn't they take me?" she wondered. She shut her eyes tightly. "What else were they looking for?"

"Sophie," Dex whispered softly. He sat down beside her, setting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Gentle, but keeping her firmly out of her mind and in the present. "What's wrong?"

"I grew up in California, in San Diego," she replied, her eyes darting back and forth like even Dex wasn't enough to keep her from plunging back into her memories. "My human family and I, we took a trip to Angel Island. A long time ago. When I was, maybe ten, or eleven. I was exploring with my sister when we found this tiny abandoned shed, or something. And when we opened it . . . it was the coolest, and most terrifying thing I'd seen. It was huge inside."

"Inside a shed?" Dex wondered. "How does that work?"

"Exactly. We didn't know. Amy wanted to explore it, though. She thought it was awesome. When she pushed aside some of the dusty crates, there was nothing there. There wasn't even a floor, just a huge, gaping, rectangular hole. And we could hear —" Sophie choked off, allowing Dex to rub her shoulder comfortingly until she gulped and managed to say, "screams. The most inhuman screams I'd ever heard, the kind that would give you nightmares for months on repeat. Like — like whoever was there, they were being tortured in the most unimaginable way." The lights in her room reflected the terror in her eyes, gleaming so bright, I could almost see the memory replaying in her mind. "The Neverseen . . . that must be one of their hideouts."

"That's horrible." The words slipped from my lips before I could stop them. But they were true, nonetheless. Wait a minute. "Inhuman screams?"

Dex's eyes widened as realization dawned upon him, as did Sophie's.

I twisted my fingers together, a sudden urge to vomit passing over me. So this was what we were facing. Not some villains of a story. Not good against bad, or words against words. This wasn't some kind of joke, and the Neverseen was going to great lengths to show they were serious.

If Charlotte, a girl who hadn't related to the Neverseen in any way, had been kidnapped, that meant the world was in danger. Not just those who interacted with the Black Swan.

Everyone.

Our family. Our friends, our school, our world. We were all in danger.

Something twisted in my stomach, something gut-wrenching and fervent. The kind of fear that lodged itself in my throat and in the back of my mind. The kind of fear that made me feel like I was falling. And I wasn't afraid of hitting the ground. I was falling forever.

I was afraid I'd never stop. I wanted to scream so loud, for someone to find me and catch me in the dead of night.

"Oh, no," I whispered, feeling sick. Inhuman screams. "They were torturing elves."

|~|~|

The words seemed to reverberate inside my mind, echoing louder every time I wish it would go away. Sophie buried her head in her arms, but she didn't seem like she wanted to cry. No, she was done with crying. When she pulled her hands back, her eyes weren't red or puffy. Instead, they were filled with a determination I wish I had.

"Piper?"

"That's me," I said with a shy wave and a goofy smile.

Dex laughed at Sophie's confusion, but the other girl only continued, "Hail Izzy, Kate, and Lucky. Tell them to meet here. I hate dragging them in, but I have some pretty important news for them."

"Yes, sir — ma'am," I said, "Sorry."

"Dex —"

"Biana, Fitz, Linh, Tam, and Keefe. Got it." The boy nodded.

"I'll call Keefe," Sophie said hesitantly.

"I — Okay. Really?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Dex shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I just thought you would've said you'll call Fitz, you know?"

Apparently, she didn't know. She tilted her head and shot him an annoyed look. "What does that mean?"

"Nothing, never mind," he said, holding his hands up in defeat.

I grinned, pulling out my imparter. I'd always heard rumors that Sophie was unbelievably oblivious, I just never thought I'd been able to see it in action.

And who knew it would be so entertaining?

Ten minutes later, after I'd called Kate, and she'd called her friends, and Dex had called his, Sophie led us outside and told us to wait where we were as she pulled out her imparter and made her way several feet away from us, just out of earshot.

"Hmm," Dex said thoughtfully, subtly inching closer to her once her back was turned.

I followed him and dropped onto the ground, letting the grass weave its way into my dirty-blond hair. I didn't question Dex's choice. Instead, I remained silent and listened as intently as I could, casually taking off my glasses and cleaning them with my sleeve.

Her voice was faint, but her conversation didn't quite escape my ears.

"Hey, Keefe," she said.

"Hey," I heard Keefe reply almost imperceptibly.

"Are you still at the healing center?"

"Yeah." One-word answers? I barely knew Keefe, but that didn't sound like the boy I'd heard of. And why was he at the healing center?

Was that why Sophie was so weary of the scouting plan we had in mind? She didn't want to send anyone else to the hospital wing.

"How's she doing?"

And who was 'she'? (No wonder people told me I asked too many questions)

"Elwin said there's nothing physically wrong with her. Fitz and Alden are still trying to see what's up in her head." There was a pause before Keefe continued, "Sophie, there's something going on. It's hard to explain. I don't think anyone's ever seen anything like it."

"What's wrong?"

"Her mind is sort of slowly . . . breaking."

Breaking? I wondered.

"Breaking?" Sophie repeated, her voice suddenly emotionless. The softness that was once there disappeared, and suddenly, I couldn't tell who was talking anymore. She didn't sound like herself. Her voice was suddenly indescribable, suddenly devoid of any characteristic.

Keefe whispered, "yeah. Slowly. A few memories at a time."

"Are you sure?" she questioned. "How do you know?"

"She told me. I was there when one of her memories broke, actually, but she woke up and she was fine," he said. When Sophie didn't say anything, he continued, his voice instantly alert, "Why'd you hail? Do you need to talk? What's wrong? Are you okay? Did something happen?"

"I'm fine," she said through a soft smile. But it sounded fake. Forced.

"Oh," Keefe said, letting out a relieved breath. "Good. You just wanted to see my cute face?"

Sophie ignored him, but I could hear the smile in her voice when she spoke. "Could you come to Havenfield? Dex and Piper found some important news. And I figured you could tell Aria's friends what happened to her."

Aria? My eyes widened and I sat up, glancing at Dex who was clearly shocked as well. They were talking about Aria. Did that mean . . . ?

No way.

A memory flashed behind my eyes. It hadn't happened long ago when Aria's mind should've broken. When she'd let out a scream and collapsed to the grass, unmoving. I could remember the fear curling somewhere in between my heart and my stomach. I could remember the shock on Isla's expression, the way Kate froze, suddenly parayzed.

And I didn't really know who Aria was, but . . . I'd never seen Kate freeze before.

And I'd never seen anyone die before.

That's almost what I'd thought had happened, and it'd looked like Kate and Isla had thought the same.

"Great," said Keefe through the imparter, but he didn't sound too great. "See you soon."

"Hey!" called a voice.

I turned around to find Kate waving to me from where she'd light-leaped. Isla stood next to her, tugging her cape around her. Not longer than five seconds later, Alex Lucky Pierce appeared beside them in confusion.

"Aria wasn't picking up," said Kate as they made their way towards us.

Sophie focused on Kate's feet, suddenly very interested in her shoes.

She frowned thoughtfully, but didn't question her about what was going on.

"I guess we have to wait for everyone," I said.

"No need," Sophie told me, "They're here."

Dex slipped beside me as the rest of Sophie's friends proceeded towards us, either side-by-side in silence, or arguing with each other (particularly the Song siblings).

"What's going on?" asked Fitz in his accented voice, casting an uncertain glance at me, Kate, and Lucky. His gaze flickered on Isla for a moment longer than I'd expect was necessary, but before I really caught it, it landed back on Sophie.

Biana came up beside him, and Tam and Linh followed in suit, their identical silvery blue eyes taking in the whole scene.

"Where's Keefe?" Sophie asked, her eyes darting between his.

Fitz seemed to notice how she didn't answer his question, but he only bit his lip, a whisper of a frown tugging at his expression. "He's coming. He's a little . . . shaken."

"Shaken?" the brown-eyed elf repeated in concern.

Just then, Keefe appeared, stumbling forward, running his hand through his blond hair and causing it to fall forward just slightly. "Hey, Foster. Ooh, am I late to the party?" he asked, glancing around. "Oh, well, I can live with being fashionably late." A smirk settled on his lips, ice-blue eyes bright and humorous.

Right.

Shaken.

What . . . ?

At first, I was confused. And so was everyone else, it seemed.

"W-what? Why is everyone looking at me like that? Am I just . . . that hot? Don't get me wrong, I love the attention, but I — what's going on?" he asked, the slightest of creases appearing between his eyebrows. He was fidgeting, I couldn't help but notice.

And then I could see it.

His eyes dimmed ever so slightly, and his smirk faded for only a moment. It was like a candle in the dark. The way his gaze flickered, it was the only thing I could see. The only thing that was on our minds, because there was nothing else to look at. Nothing else the darkness didn't shroud entirely.

Sophie shook her head, taking charge of the situation, but she didn't seem to notice what a perfect leader she made. "Dex and Piper found a possible location where Charlotte may be, but we don't know for sure. They could be . . ." She hesitated, refusing to meet any of the gazes on her as she mumbled, "They might be torturing elves down there."

The only thing that met her words was silence. Heavy, uncomfortable silence, soaking the air, trying to drown each of us slowly.

"It's very dangerous," she continued, shooting a pointed look at Dex and me.

Dex and I exchanged glances, but his periwinkle eyes looked much more determined than I felt. He shot me a dimpled smile.

"But a sending scouting mission is the best way to figure out what's going on," Sophie continued.

"Piper and I," Dex clarified.

She tugged out an eyelash rather viciously before nodding in agreement. "Yeah."

"Where is the location?" asked Linh.

"In the Forbidden Cities," I said, shutting my mouth immediately. This wasn't my place to speak. I had no idea what I was saying, and these weren't even my friends. I didn't know them.

But when everyone looked at me expectantly, I sighed. I tried not to duck my head and shy away. "Angel Island, California."

"Or Whole Foods!" Dex piped up.

Sophie snorted out a laugh before she could stop herself. She covered her mouth quickly, but she was already laughing too hard, and her shining eyes were evidence.

"Vegetables are evil," he said indignantly. "Nobody would check in the vegetables."

And suddenly everyone was laughing. Reluctantly, but laughing nonetheless.

I glanced at Dex, unable to force away the timid smile that climbed onto my expression despite the trepidation lingering in the pit of my stomach. He beamed back at me wittingly. He knew what he was doing. He knew how to make people laugh, how to break the clear tension that had risen the moment his friends had set foot on Havenfield.

Only after the laughter had died out did I realize Keefe hadn't laughed at all. A soft, delicate grin had appeared, but quickly vanished after a few moments. He ducked his head tiredly. There was something on his mind that felt much bigger than anything else. Much bigger than Charlotte's kidnapping, or the Neverseen.

Or maybe it was completely insignificant to everyone but him.

Who knew?

Sophie made her way towards Keefe and exchanged glances with unfathomable expressions. Only they seemed to understand each other. Keefe nodded and stared at the grass fluttering on the ground, like tiny birds trying to fly whilst stuck in the soil. He seemed to feel that way, opening his mouth only to close it and frown at himself not a second later.

"Aria's mind is breaking," he said finally to his murmuring friends. Kate, Isla, and Lucky's eyes grew enormous.

"Her mind's broken?" Kate repeated. "I knew something had happened when — !"

"No, it's in the process of breaking," Keefe said, taking a steadying breath. He frowned at the grass again, clearly confused . . . at what? Sophie's hand slipped into his and she squeezed it comfortingly. And suddenly, Keefe was somehow composed and scattering into a million pieces like flower petals gliding in the wind. Around Sophie, at least.

"In the process?" asked Isla.

"What's that mean?" Lucky said.

Keefe's gaze dropped to Sophie's fingers weaved between his, and it would've almost been discreet if he'd looked away a little sooner than he had. But it wasn't.

"It — uh, it's sort of breaking a few memories at a time. I-I don't know how. It's — that's what happened when she — well, she was looking for Charlotte. And then again when we were . . . also — kind of — looking for her."

Isla let out a soft huff and broke away from the group. No one seemed to notice her except Lucky, who was rolling her eyes in something more than annoyance, and me.

"She's unconscious right now, and don't know when she'll wake up. According to Alden, her mind is 'lost.' I'm assuming you guys know what all that telepathy stuff means," he said, glancing at Sophie.

She frowned thoughtfully, and judging from the confused look she wore, and the way the thoughts flashed like lightning behind those eyes, she had no idea what Keefe was saying.

"Lost," she murmured thoughtfully, tugging out at an eyelash with her free hand..

"You do know what that telepathy stuff is, right?" said Keefe, squeezing her hand gently. His ice-blue eyes made their way to hers, and there was something in them, something that knew exactly the truth, but he was still asking, begging her to tell him what he wanted to hear.

Sophie's gaze flicked up to his as the eyelash pulled free. "Yeah," she assured. "Of course."

He blinked down at their tangled fingers, his voice dropping to a strained whisper as he repeated, "Of course."

But it was clear she was lying for his sake.

And he was an Empath. He knew it.

"What does it mean?" asked Kate. She was smart enough to catch on, I knew, but for some reason, she didn't care. She didn't want to catch on.

"It means we can't find her consciousness," Fitz jumped in.

Sophie shot him a grateful look, but her eyes quickly landed back on Keefe.

"We can't hear her thoughts, or see her dreams, or anything. It's just . . . entirely empty. I think, when she tried to track me, she lost her thoughts in my head. If that makes sense."

"It doesn't make sense," Kate muttered.

"At all," I added. "How could she lose her thoughts? And what do you mean in your head? And — she was tracking you? How? And why? What does all this mean?"

"That's a lot of questions we can't answer," Keefe said softly, putting a slight emphasis on the last three words as he looked at his best friend intently.

Fitz was silent for a moment before he nodded in agreement, teal eyes flashing with questions I couldn't understand.

"I think that's everything," Sophie said quietly. She didn't waste time trying to let the information sink in. After all, it never really would. Instead, she looked to Dex and me and said, "You two better stay safe."

Dex and I nodded grimly.

"We've got Lovise," said the boy. "We can leave tomorrow, at nightfall."

"If we're not back before dawn, something has either gone terribly wrong . . . or we stopped to see the sunset and eat human cookies," I said seriously.

Several gazes paused on me. Each one asking the same question. How can you be so humorous about this?

I held up my hands in defeat. "I'm not even kidding, you guys. Anyone want some?"

A/N: Welp. This was . . . something. Really confusing, wasn't it? I was really hoping I could include Dex and Piper's scouting mission, but it was already over fifteen pages in my google doc as is, and, though I certainly wouldn't mind making my chapters three-hundred pages long, you guys would get seriously tired of me XD. Unfortunately, I couldn't add much sokeefe/fitzphie fluff as I thought I would be able to, but . . . soon! 

I hope you guys commented a ton! Don't forget to vote! Luv y'all! (8749 words)