Survivor

Chapter 17

Keefe's POV

Keefe heard the door to his room open and close gently, looking up from his sketching he saw a black cloaked woman and was about to completely flip out before she turned around and he was met with a very familiar face.
"Sophie." He whispered the name, and she looked positively mortified, a letter in hand. At the same time the rushed forward wrapping their arms around each other in a hug. He squeezed her tighter, and she hissed in pain. Immediately he released her and backed away.
"I'm sorry! Did I hurt you!" He asked looking her over for injuries.
"It's an old wound, you don't do anything wrong." She replied making her way to the edge of the bed and sitting down, he sat next to her gently making sure not to jostle her too much despite her claim that he didn't hurt her. She was looking down at the letter, it had a scrawling script running across the envelope, it said Keefe. She was staring at it as if trying to decide something before crumpling it up and stowing it in a hidden pocket. Her hand came away red. Keefe's eyes widened and he looked up at her sadly.
"That's not "nothing" Sophie," he said, getting up and rifling through a bunch of elixirs on his nightstand and pulling out a bottle of youth and grabbing a few bandages.
"Who did that to you?" He asked tensing up, she didn't have to be an empath to feel the waves of anger rolling off him.
"I don't want to talk about it." She said taking the bandages and retreating to the adjoining bathroom to redress her wound. He waited patiently but when she returned he almost jumped up to hug her again he was so used to seeing her one minute and having her be gone the next that it was almost as if he expected her to disappear while in the bathroom.
"Sophie, I don't want to be annoying but I really would like to know who did that to you. If it was my mother I-." She stopped him with a kiss. Pressing her lips against his gently before breaking apart again.
"It wasn't your mother, and even if it was that wouldn't make you responsible in the slightest." Her eyes were brimming with tears, which she furiously wiped away.
"It happened in San Francisco, at my human family's house. Amy she..." Sophie stopped and his heart sank, Amy was dead, Sophie didn't have to say if for him to understand. That was why she couldn't stay with them. Amy was being used as leverage the same way Sophie had been for him.
"I tried to stop it but she, I thought she got away but she came back... It's my fault I should have known..." Keefe pulled her into a hug,
"It was not your fault. They are heartless murderers, you have the biggest heart of anyone I have ever known." He said pulling her into the tightest hug he dared to give her with her injury. "You don't have to say anything else if you don't want to." He said against her hair, rubbing her back soothingly as she cried.
"No I want to show you, you... you have no idea how much telling people helps. Especially you." She whispered.
"Show me?" He asked and she tapped her temple, still unable to talk through the tears, signaling she wanted permission to enter his mind. He agreed and she showed him everything. Watching him on the table on their first day, making Fitz take him instead. Her training, Gisela's threats and eventually her fight with the charger.
"You fought..." He stopped.
"Yes, she was the same charger that hurt you." Sophie said in a small voice.
"I'm sorry." He said and pulled her into another hug. But as she leaned in her lips met his once again. And they were kissing, a little more passionately than anything before. They kissed for a long while until and then just sat next to each other, eventually they fell asleep Sophie curled up next to him. Dwarfed by his larger frame. (No they didn't do the nasty stuff)

Sophie's POV
Sophie woke up first, she was warm and safe next to him and once again she was questioning her choices. Revenge or love. Finding a piece of paper and a pen, she set to work on a new letter. Leaving it on the bed next to him, where she had been moments before. She hesitated a minute before she reached up and unclasped the Moonlark pendant around her neck, the silver charm dangling off the black cord. She placed it over the letter, and decided to take the window out. Once on the black sand she levitated high into the air, thinking about the treehouse and the land around it before, free falling and leaving the shores of solace with a bang!

Upon her arrival she was shocked to see the land around the treehouse was significantly dimmer than before, despite the sun shine she had seen moments before at The Shores of Solace, levitating herself back up to the balcony she gasped at what she saw encircling the woods, lake and everything else in view. It was a gate exactly like at everglen except it was made of shadows. Explaining the sudden dimness, but coming over the gate was a transparent blue vale, rising over the area encircled by the gate and making a massive dome. A force field. She heard laughing below and saw Zeph and Eden making their way into the small clearing below, Zeph was cloaked in the same shadows as the gate which wasn't a surprise, she had assumed the gate had come from him but Eden's hands had the faint blue glow of the force field. It suddenly dawned on her. The reason Eden was so finicky about talking about her guster ability was because she wasn't a guster at all. She was Psionopath.

Kudos to @LeiaMeadows for the idea for the Shadow gate. It was amazing. 100% kudos to you.