Forbidden ~ after unlocked

Chapter 21 - Sophie

Sophie had several problems.

First of all, she hadn't heard from Oralie yet about their whole "bottling sunlight" dilemma. It had only been a couple of days, but she was still getting anxious to at least proceed somehow with the plan to get the stellarlune out of Keefe. Assuming the information in Kenric's cache was correct. And assuming they ever found Keefe.

Second, the conversation Sophie had with Marella kept replying in her head over and over again. She knew Marella was probably the biggest gossip at Foxfire, and all she did was look for a way to create drama.

But her mind kept obsessing over every word, trying to decide if the meaning behind those words were actually true.

The ending of his letter:

Love, Keefe.

What she'd heard in her mind:

Love you.

Then Marella:

"Keefe likes me?"

"Uh, duh."

She'd told Marella that she didn't have time for crushes and drama, since her life was already complicated enough as it was. But did a tiny part of her maybe wonder...?

Nope.

Definitely not.

Those were the kind of thoughts Sophie pushed away to stay focused on more important matters. But unfortunately, her mind always seemed to stray to the back of her head where she shoved all her problems—problems she wanted to solve.

Lastly, and definitely the most annoying, she hadn't been able to teleport to Keefe.

The minute she'd gotten home from Foxfire she'd jumped off of Havenfield's ocean-facing cliff to test if her new "evolved" ability was still "evolved."

It wasn't.

When the void opened she pictured Keefe's face and every detail about him: striking ice blue eyes, sharp and handsome jawline, and perfectly styled hair the colour of the sun. But instead of the void shooting her out to him, she became trapped. Surrounded by inescapable and suffocating darkness giving her an excruciating migraine. Sophie had to use the last of her strength to visualize Havenfield. Only then did her teleportation skills start working again, and with relief she'd tumbled onto the pastures.

Right away Sandor marched over to her, lecturing Sophie for trying to teleport away without him. All she did was take a few moments to recollect her thoughts before running back over to the cliff and hurling herself over the ledge. Again, it didn't work.

All she managed to do was give herself one of the worst headaches of her life.

A famous human saying kept taunting her: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

She definitely felt a little bit insane, sprinting off the cliff screaming like a crazy person only to teleport back to the top of it a moment later. She was so desperate at any chance of getting Keefe back she didn't stop until even Sandor lost interest in her.

Sophie didn't understand how her teleportation ability could have advanced and then unadvanced. She thought of what Mr. Forkle had told her: When death threatened you, your body adapted to avoid it.

So maybe this wasn't a life or death situation. But it sure felt like it.

She couldn't figure out why in the world she couldn't teleport to people anymore, and specifically, one particular person. Which didn't help with her second problem.