Reversed

xliii. forty-three

There were so many things Sophie could've said in that moment. So many things she wanted to say.

But what she ended up saying was, "Aurahand?"

Keefe nodded, sitting up. "That's what this hideout is called."

"Oh."

Keefe hummed, patting the armchair next to him. "You ready, Foster?"

Sophie narrowed her eyes. How could he act so carefree and unbothered?

She forced herself to walk over to the chairs, sinking into the chair across from him. Okay, play it cool? She could do that.

Fine.

Keefe cleared his throat. "So . . . "

"So . . . "

"Can you . . . list your abilities for me?"

"What does this have to do with—" Oh. Keefe wanted to know because he wasn't sure if she knew that she was an Enhancer or not. Fitz has probably told him about her asking him to erase her memory of it.

"I know that I'm an Enhancer," she said, point-blank.

"That makes things easier," Keefe said.

Sophie nodded. Play it cool. She started pulling her gloves off. "Do you need to be Enhanced for this?" She asked.

Keefe gave her a funny look, momentarily caught off guard. "Why do you have gloves on?" He asked.

Sophie gave him a look that definitely topped his previous look in the funny looks category. "What do you mean?"

"Are those your silver nails?" He interrupted, his eyes dropping down to her hands as she tucked her gloves under her leg.

Sophie gripped the fabric of her dress with her fingers, resisting the urge to hide her hands due to all the attention they were receiving. "Yeah. Why?"

Keefe met her eyes, and she could see that he was actually confused, not just pretending to be. "But . . ."

"But?" Sophie waited for him to continue, but he just shook his head and trailed off.

"I guess we have a lot to sort through," was all he said. He reclined back in his chair, calm demeanor back up. Sophie could tell that he was still calculating things in his head, though.

"Do you need to be Enhanced?" She prompted again.

He nodded. "Yeah, actually. But later."

She opened her mouth, but he held up a finger. "Hang on there, Foster. It's time for an awesome Lord Hunkyhair lecture. You're in for a treat." He winked, but it didn't quite look like his heart was in it. At least, she thought it didn't. Maybe she was just imagining things.

"Do you remember me telling you about my father's whole head-and-heart-emotions theory before?" At her nod, he continued.

"I think that the Neverseen would've only had access to—only would have known how to access—your head emotions. Those emotions, like I said before, can easily be twisted and changed. It's easier to convince ourselves of something up here—" he tapped his temple—"than it is to convince ourselves of something different here." He touched his chest, right over his heart. "In fact, as far as I know, we can't convince ourselves of something different down here." His hand was still over his chest. "And I'm not sure yet if other people would be able to change our heart emotions—it would definitely take a ton of power and strength to pull off a feat that big. And even then, I'm not sure if your heart would forever stay like that.