"Do you want to keep going through your significant memories to see how much things were affected by the Neverseen?" Keefe asked.

Sophie nodded. "How about we look at the Peace Summit? If they wanted to plant a spot where I would've started to 'switch over', it might be there. Fintan had a lot to say about the Lodestar Initiative there."

"Sounds good." They clasped hands, and Sophie closed her eyes.

She reached out to Keefe with her mind, searching for his thoughts to latch on to. Where were they? There—

A headache erupted against the inside of her skull, and Keefe jumped, sucking in a breath. He could feel her pain. She ripped her hands away and gripped her skull, bending over at the middle and trying to take in deep breaths.

This headache was one of the worst ones yet.

"Hey, hey," Keefe said, slowly peeling here hands away from her face. Black spots danced across her vision, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Make it stop—

Tiny, blue breezes brushed over her consciousness, and finally, Sophie was able to breathe normally again. Her senses flooded back to her, and she was able to register her feet on the floor and the smell of the room and Keefe's hand in hers, rubbing small circles over her palms.

She took a shuddering breath. She was fine. It was okay.

"Do you know what that was?" She finally rasped.

Keefe shook his head. "No, I don't."

Sophie dropped her head into her hands again. "Why is this happening to me?" She whispered. "In what way did the Neverseen break me this time? Or was it the Black Swan? I'm losing track."

"They're not breaking you, Foster. You're here. You're breathing. Okay? Focus." She closed her eyes and lifted her head. "And as long as that's true, we'll get through this. Alright? No one is infallible—which means that we can beat whatever the Neverseen did to your system."

"Everyone keeps saying that. I'm still waiting for it to be true."

Keefe gave her a knowing smirk. "It will be."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Would you really settle for anything less?"

Sophie considered. "No."

"Exactly. And I know from experience that Foster Determination can outlast anything."

She took a deep breath, a renewed surge of energy coursing through her veins. "So . . . what are we going to do?"

"I could monitor things with my ability. If you focus hard enough on a memory, I can still feel what you're feeling without watching it."

"Okay." Sophie held out a hand, and Keefe twined their fingers together.

"Still down for the Peace Summit?"

"Great. Can't wait to relive this one."

Sophie thought back to the time when she'd sat down with the rulers of the world in a fancy dress to try and work out a deal between the ogres and elves. Thinking back, it was a little bit hazy, but when she concentrated . . .

"You actually listened to him," Keefe breathed.

Sophie nodded, eyes still closed. "We were right. They definitely used this as a turning point."

"This is so—so intricate," Keefe said. "It feels real."

Sophie gulped, but didn't respond. "What next?"

"Hmm. Dex was one of your first friends, right? How about when you met him?"

Sophie blew out a breath and closed her eyes, going back in her mind's eye. She and Edaline were walking into Slurps n' Burps . . .

When she got to the part where she met Dex, her past-self regarded the strawberry-blonde boy with wariness.

"Wariness?" Sophie cracked her eyes open and watched Keefe's eyebrow quirk. "This suspicion game is quite the theme, isn't it? Glad to know the Neverseen is just as original as always."

"What about the time when I first met you? Let's go there." Sophie closed her eyes again, pulling up the memory.

"You must be lost."

Past-Sophie's head jerked up as she finally noticed the blonde-haired boy sprawled against the blank walls of the hallway she'd stumbled into.

Sophie concentrated, trying to feel the emotion that the Neverseen had planted . . .

Keefe chuckled. "Interesting."

Sophie's stomach flipped. "What?"

"Oh, nothing."

Sophie glared at him. Unfortunately, it didn't have much effect, as his eyes were still closed. She might have imagined it, but she could've sworn that she saw a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

She cleared her throat. "What if we look at a memory from my time with the Neverseen? To compare it to the memories that were changed."

Keefe contemplated. "Sure. Although it might be a bit more complicated, because they were real—not altered—but your emotions were under different influence."

She closed her eyes again. "Well, there's only one way to find out."

Touching these memories were a bit harder, since Sophie had buried them deep in her mind as soon as she recovered from the limbium. But she dug in deep and pulled out the first one she could find—which was from a time right after the battle in which Sophie and Ruy had gotten their scars.

Sophie's chest heaved as she gasped for air. She pressed her back as close as she could to the stone she was crouched against, trying to ignore the warm blood dripping down from under her left ear. She'd been nicked by a throwing star thrown by an angry goblin earlier—even so, a small smile tugged at her lips as she relished in the memory of finally being allowed to go on a mission.

A second later, Ruy slammed down beside her, breathing just as heavily.

A few moments passed in silence, the only noise to fill the damp immediate area the sound of their breaths clouding in the air.

"You lost them?" Sophie finally asked, her voice hushed and hoarse.

Ruy nodded in response, throwing back his hood and sucking in another large breath. Sophie's eyes snapped to the red coating his neck, ice crawling down her spine. "You were hit."

She fumbled through her cloak pockets for any gauze, cursing when she didn't find any. Her own wound was starting to sting now—

Ruy's eyes latched on to her hands, which were covered in her own blood. "So were you."

She reached a shaky hand up to touch the wound. Her fingers came away with even more blood. "It's just a surface wound," she lied.

Ruy gripped her shoulders and spun her towards him, inspecting her wound. "Sophie, by a goblin throwing star?" He swore. "That's going to leave a nasty scar."

Sophie jerked away, glaring. "Says the one with blood all over his neck. You're lucky you're still walking."

Ruy touched his own cut. When he brought his hand back down, he seemed to sway a bit. "I was trying not to think about it." He laughed softly.

"Here." Sophie heaved herself up, shoving away the dark clouds of exhaustion that hovered over her eyesight with the movement and sinking back onto her knees near a small pool of water set into the rocky ground. She splashed water onto her face and wiped the blood away, scrubbing her hands clean.

Ruy came up beside her, cleaning out his own wound. Sophie watched him, relieved to see that it was smaller than it had first appeared—although it would still definitely leave a scar.

"We should go soon. The goblins will probably come after us sooner or later."

A wicked smile curled her mouth. "I'd imagine they'll be pretty cross, considering what we just did to them."

Ruy grinned back. "I'll admit, it was fun."

Sophie snorted. "Maybe you should take that as a sign to actually let me out of the hideout more often."

Ruy stood up, rolling his eyes. "Not a chance. Especially if this whole getting-injured thing starts to be a theme. Come on." He yanked his hood up, and Sophie followed suit.

Sophie's eyes jerked open. Keefe wasn't holding her hand anymore—he had pulled away.

Her eyebrows raised. "What did you feel?"

"Yeah, you definitely felt some more positive stuff with the Neverseen."

She might have been just imagining it, but she thought that she detected a hint of another emotion in his voice. Something that only manifested after seven months of pain.

She blew out a breath. "Keefe, you know that it wasn't easy all the time in the Neverseen, right?"

"Of course I know that."

"I missed—" she cut herself off. She was about to say that she missed everyone, but that wouldn't have been true.

Keefe met her eyes. "Exactly," he said quietly.

"I did, though," Sophie whispered. "Before I gave myself up, I—"

"You gave yourself up?"

Sophie was on her feet, eyes wide and hands raised. "It was the only way."

"The only way? Sophie, there's always another way. If you had just told us—"

"You don't get it, Keefe. You have no idea what they threatened—"

"Then tell me." He crossed his arms. His eyes were hard, shattered.

Sophie clamped her mouth shut.

Keefe turned away, tearing a hand through his hair.

"Keefe," Sophie said in a small voice. She felt like all the walls she had built up around herself the past seven months were slowly crumbling, leaving her exposed and trembling. She desperately searched for something to say to regain a sense of stability. "I did it to protect everyone."

Keefe shook his head. "We could've figured out another way," he repeated.

Tears welled in her eyes. "That would have been impossible. At least everyone was safe."

"While you were off wearing cloaks and making friends, we were—"

"Are you saying that I had it easier off than you? I was with the bad guys. You know firsthand how painless that is."

"I'm not saying that."

Sophie dragged her hands through her hair. "Then what are you saying, Keefe?"

Keefe didn't meet her eyes. "Maybe you weren't the only one who was hurt by the Neverseen taking you these past few months."

And that.

That, right there, hit Sophie square in the face like a bucket of ice water that shocked her senses and wiped all doubt and fogginess away.

Sophie backed towards the entrance. "I need—I need some air," she breathed.

She couldn't get out of Aurahand fast enough.

As soon as she did, she was running, dodging branches and trees that were quickly blurring through her watering eyes.

When she made it to Flori's flowery clearing, she sank to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

Why couldn't she stop hurting people?

Actually, she didn't care that she was hurting people. And that was the problem. Every time pain flashed in someone's eyes because of her, something resonated deep down that felt a lot like regret.

But every day, it felt like it was getting harder and harder to try and fight for that tiny feeling. Almost as if things were getting worse instead of getting better.

She'd already caused the people around her so much pain. And even if she hadn't meant to, they still got hurt just from knowing her.

Dex and Biana had permanent scars because of her.

Tam and Linh were now forced to take part in the messy, complicated battle Sophie had dragged them into. They hadn't even wanted to be apart of it—but now they couldn't escape.

Grady and Edaline had been dealt so much more heartbreak and pain than they deserved after Jolie—her recent debacle being the latest blow.

Sophie's arrival had ripped the Vacker family apart; Alden and Della had lost their eldest son. Fitz was no longer the Golden Boy. Whispers trailed the family wherever they went.

But as her mind trailed down the ever-growing list of people she'd caused grief, she kept drifting back to one person.

Keefe.

His entire world had been ripped apart. His mother—the parent that he'd always believed to have his back—turned out to be worse than any demon inside his father. Someone like him didn't deserve to be caught up in this horrible, twisted web of a game their world was playing—yet he was at the very center of it.

And still, he stood by her.

Her chest heaved, a sob choking its way out.

He had every right to be mad at her. They all did.

She furiously wiped at the tears streaming from her eyes, but to no avail. They kept flowing in a disgusting, pitiful stream.

It took all of her strength to pull herself off the ground and snap back into reality, but what eventually won out was her determination to set things right—whatever "right" was. She owed at least that much to everyone.

Just as she was about to turn back towards the hideout, she froze.

A branch snapped behind her. A muttered curse.

In half a second, Sophie pivoted towards the sound—the intruder—fingers flexing as she wished once again for the familiar weight of her Moonblades.

Her blood ran with ice as she took in the black cloak and the white eye.

You've got to be kidding me.

She opened her mouth, ready to order the Neverseen member to drop the hood.

She didn't need to.

The figure was faster. He hastily drew back the fabric, hands raised in a show of peace.

Sophie's feet wobbled and her vision swayed, but she forced her glare demeanor to stay locked in place.

"You don't need to look so on edge," Ruy drawled. "It's just me."