Testing the waters with keefe sencen

Shade

When Keefe woke up it was dark. He rolled over and found Sophie lying on a cot beside him. She looked so peaceful that he did not want to wake her, besides he did not know what time it was and how long he had been out. Keefe tried to sit up but pain shot up his arms and legs. And he winced. He knew he had to get his blood flowing so knowing the Elwin would kill him if he found out Keefe slowly eased out of bed. As soon as he got on his feet he fell. When he finally got back up after many tries, he wobbled out of the room using the wall for support. As he walked through the halls of Foxfire Keefe noticed that the shadows were moving. Around every corner he went he was terrified that it was his mom or another member of the Neverseen. In the end the pressure became to much and his head throbbed. He turned around and saw a path of solid darkness back the way he came. Concentrating hard not to trip Keefe slowly made his way back. Miraculously the darkness seemed to thin as he went farther until the moon was showing. He looked down expecting to see his hands but only got a pool of darkness. But he was so focused on getting back to the healing center that he didn't think much of it.

Keefe hurried back to the healing center and opened the door. He quietly slipped into the room and closed the door behind him to find a wide eyed a wide awake Sophie  staring at him as if she couldn't believe her eyes. She scared him and Keefe let out a squeak of terror before realizing who it was. Before he could speak a word she threw her hands over his head and hugged him as hard as she could. Surprised Keefe took a second to hug her back but when he did it was just as hard. He was bombarded with all her emotions, relief, happiness, surprise and even a hint of guilt. Keefe pulled away and looked at Sophie  for the first time.

Her blonde hair was a mess and so was her tunic. which looked like she had not changed it in days which knowing Sophie she probably hadn't. "Hey what happened to you?" Keefe asked "I feel guilt in there. You know it was not your fault. My mom did this to me not you. She would have found me eventually."
"I know " Sophie sighed "But I can't help it, I provided the situation" "I think you just need some sleep Foster" Keefe said guiding her back to the bed. Reluctantly Sophie  allowed herself to be steered back to bed. And Keefe laid next to her. Soon both of them fell asleep.

When Keefe woke up the next morning the first thing he saw was a pair of long legs and sharply polished shoes. He knew those shoes. He slowly raised his head to look at Fitz, who seemed so absorbed in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice Keefe until Keefe poked his arm. Fitz jumped in surprise and had to do a double take "Keefe?"
"Yep that's my name" said Keefe and before he knew it Biana was hugging him. 
Fitz looked so surprised to see her so Keefe figured that she must have snuck along  for the ride. "Keefe! I am so glad you are all right" Biana said. " How did you wake up?" But before Keefe could answer Elwin bustled into the room carrying a tray full of elixirs but when he met Keefe's eyes he dropped the tray with a huge crash.
"Keefe?" He asked in shock.
"Yeah it's me" Keefe said tearing a hand through his hair "how long was I out?"
"A week" said Elwin
"Great" sighed  Keefe flopping back on his pillows "Now all I need is Bangs Boy to show up and everything will be just great."
"Well that can be arranged" Tam said as he and Linh walked into the room. Keefe groaned "your awake I see" Tam observed. "Yeah isn't it obvious." Keefe said he was going to say more but Biana interrupted him
"So have you manifested yet?" Biana asked changing the subject "Nope" Keefe said. "Well then we need to get moving. we need to figure out Keefe's ability before the Neverseen do." Everyone looked around, it was Sophie. She was sitting up on her cot looking dazed but determined.

"Keefe is not going anywhere" Elwin said he needs to stay here for at least another day and so does Sophie she has had a couple of trying days lately.Your not working your way out of this."He told Sophie and Keefe as they opened their mouths to argue. Reluctantly they both settled back in their cots without to much complaint.
The next day Sophie and Keefe met Fitz, Marella, Tam, Linh, Maruca ,Grady, Edeline, and the rest of team Valiant in Foxfire's ability testing room. "Ok" Sofie said "I guess everyone is here so let's get started." Edeline walked up. Why dont we think about what abilities lady Giselda would want Keefe to have and go from there. "Ok" Keefe said she would most likely want me to be something cool like a charger or begulor" Sophie moaned "we don't have any of those abilities here, let's just try to stick with what we have here" So Keefe was tested if he was a flasher ( Wylie shining lights in his eyes and asking Keefe if he could move them away) ,telepath, (Fitz was happy he was not), vanisher ("I wish" Keefe said when Biana sadly walked away from him.) And a technopath. " good thing Dex said he would have been lousy" Soon Foxfire's windows began to grow dark and Sofie said "why don't we just test if he is a shade than call it a day"
"he wouldn't be a shade" Tam argued "Lady Gisela couldn't have known they needed one." " just try it" Sophie said "fine" Tam walked up to Keefe reached out his hands and the shadows around him started to rustle. It reminded Keefe of the night before in Foxfire's hallways. Slowly Keefe reached out and focused on the shadows. He thought of them slowly creeping towards him and his friends. Of them doing his bidding.
"Tam, are you doing that?" Sophie asked all the shadows in the room were leaning towards Keefe. "No" Tam said he raised his hands in the air and stepped back. Now Keefe was all alone in a circle of shadow. And when he opened his eyes all the shadows jumped back to position.
"No no no no" Tam said "Why! Of all the abilities he could have had." He walked over to the wall and started banging his head against it.
"He's a shade isn't he"Sophie asked Tam. and Tam nodded his head still leaning on the wall. "Well it seems we have more in common than both of us would have liked" Keefe said he was smiling but it looked forced.
The next day Keefe decided to try to some of the shade tricks that Tam does. He asked Sophie to help him with this. When he leaped to Havenfield  he found Sophie training with Wynn and Luna. They were teleporting around her and she was trying to copy them. But the baby alicorns were more a distraction. They were just showing off and poor Sophie couldn't see  how they did it as they teleported around her. Keefe grinned and walked towards her.  When Sophie turned around a smiled at him it was like a ray of sunlight had come out from behind a cloud. Her blonde hair was flying about her face as she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. Keefe smiled and hugged her back. "Ok let's get started." He said suddenly business like. Sophie looked at him with a calculating stare. "Keefe Sencen you are not fine." She declared and pushed him down the hill. As if that would help. He rolled down laughing and Sophie dashed after him. It was only when they were both sitting down at the bottom of the hill that Sophie caught her breath and asked Keefe the most important question of all. "Are you ok?"
"I am fine"  Keefe said I just want to beat Tammy boy now that I have his ability." He grinned at Sophie and got up. Sophie must not know his true feelings, she was with Fitz. Even though they broke up he knew that they wouldn't stay apart for long. As much as he hated it Sophie didn't have feelings for him in that way. And he didn't want to push her or anything. The last thing he wanted to do was make Sophie uncomfortable.  And if it made his best friends happy then Keefe was happy. Almost. "Hey" Sophie said breaking his train of thought. "Are  you sure your ok? It's ok to not be." Keefe wished he could tell her the truth but that would add even more or her growing plate of worries. "I am fine" he said "let's just get on with this." "Why didn't you ask Tam to help you with this?" Sophie asked. "And spend more time with Bangs Boy? Not a chance" Keefe grinned they walked to an empty place in the field and started training. The sun was  just setting , the perfect time to unleash a shade. "So first try to shadow whisper to me. " Sophie said "what?" Keefe asked " move your shadow over on top of my head and think about something you want to say." There were a lot of things that Keefe wanted to say but he knew that was out. Sometimes he really missed Ro though her would never let her know that. She was just so good at relationship stuff. Keefe sighed and close his eyes. He thought of his shadow slowly creeping toward Sophie. The he thought "hey Foster" and miraculously he heard her voice in his head! "Great job!" She cried " I knew you could do it." "Thanks" Keefe said "I knew too"

Note from the author

Hi guys hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it was a little long. But I am still in school I won't have as much time to write but I want to get this book out to you. So from now on I will have a few short one shots for each chapter and those will be released every couple of days.  Thanks for reading, see you in the next chapter
Madison