Author's Note: We're back to Sophie's POV! This will be the last chapter I write before Christmas, I promise I'll write more afterwards.

I also wanted to wish happy holidays to everyone reading this! Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Boxing Day or some other holiday, have fun! I hope you have a great holiday (except Hanukkah, which already ended, I'm sorry I forgot to mention it earlier, I hope everyone who celebrates it had a happy Hanukkah)!

Remember: even though this stupid virus really screwed our lives up, 2020 is almost over! Tough times never last, but tough people do! The end is in sight!

I hope you enjoy the chapter and have a great day/week/year!

Sophie was officially tired of this. All day, she'd been avoiding Keefe. She couldn't afford to see him, because Fitz could. . .

She didn't even like thinking about it.

It was a bit difficult to avoid him. The Foxfire halls were pretty crowded, and it seemed like he had a sort of sixth sense for finding her. Wherever she went, he would appear, waving and trying to talk to her. Thankfully, during lunch he had detention. She sat in between Biana and Linh, knowing that she could trust them. She avoided making eye contact with Fitz. She knew she couldn't manage that without punching him with her Sucker Punch. Or possibly shoving him in a locker. Or maybe teleporting him into one of the enclosures at Havenfield. It would take them at least a few hours to notice him.

All day, she'd been imagining different ways she could hurt Fitz. Perfectly normal dreams for a teenage girl, right?

After lunch, she quickly went to her next class, avoiding the spots where she normally saw Keefe. She ended up seeing him a few times anyway. Sandor was very confused, and kept asking questions.

"Are you avoiding someone? Why are you walking so fast? Sophie, your class is in the other direction! Is there a problem? Are you avoiding Keefe? It's Keefe, right? Fitz? Stop ignoring me! Is it serious, or just a childish game? Sophie, stop, that's a pole-"

Sophie had been so busy looking behind her that she'd walked headfirst into one of the columns.

"Ow," she mumbled.

Sandor grunted. "Now, you'd better stop ignoring me. What's going on?"

Sophie got up. "I'm going to be late for my session, let's go!"

Sandor stopped her before she could walk two steps. "Sophie, your head is bleeding. I'm taking you to the Healing Center."

She protested a bit, but she was so dizzy that she soon gave in and let Sandor carry her to the Healing Center. When she got there, unfortunately, there was someone very familiar in there, being treated by Elwin as well.

"Hi, Sophie," Keefe said.

She mumbled something incoherent and tried to crawl out of Sandor's arms toward the door, but he held on tightly.

"Hey, it's my number one patient, Sophie Foster!" Elwin said, motioning for Sandor to set her down on the cot next to Keefe's. "What did you do this time? That's a nasty gash."

"Ran into a pole," Sandor said.

Elwin laughed. "Not surprised."

Sophie blushed and looked down at her hands. She could sense Keefe staring at her. Don't look don't look don't look, she repeated to herself while Sandor and Elwin talked.

She glanced over at Keefe.

Keefe looked worried, and a little bit confused. His ice blue eyes looked sad, and she wanted to tell him so badly. . .

He tapped a finger twice against his head. She looked away from him. She couldn't afford to tell him. His safety depended on it.

"You wanna know what Keefe did?" Ro asked. "He punched a wall."

Sophie glanced back at Keefe, and suddenly he looked angry.

"What did the wall do to you?" Elwin asked teasingly.

"Nothing," Keefe said quietly, staring off into space. "The wall did nothing."

He looked lost in thought. Elwin treated him and he and Ro left without a fuss, thankfully. Sophie breathed a sigh of relief when he left.

"What happened between you and Keefe?" Elwin asked, looking back and forth between Sophie and the door.

Sophie's mind immediately flashed back to that almost-maybe-kiss in the hallway, that moment on the balcony, and Keefe flirting with her in the kitchen. She turned bright red.

"Are you two avoiding each other?" Elwin finished.

Oh. That's what he meant. She immediately felt guilty.

"No," she said.

"Yes," Sandor corrected. "She's been avoiding him all day. That's why she ran into the column. She was so busy looking behind her."

Elwin raised an eyebrow. "Sophie, what happened? You know you can trust Sandor, and you can probably trust me." He winked and stage-whispered, "I make no promises."

Sophie sighed. "There's nothing to tell you. I. . . I'd really rather not talk about it."

Elwin continued putting some sort of greenish-grey goo on her forehead. It was cold and felt like slime. She didn't even want to know what it was.

"Okay," Elwin said. "But if you ever need someone to talk to, you can talk to me. Also, I think you should fix things with Keefe. I don't know what happened, but he looks seriously depressed."

Sophie was trying her hardest not to cry. She didn't want to do this to Keefe. Fitz had dragged him into this mess, and now she had ended up hurting him.

Elwin finished treating her cut in silence, and then Sophie and Sandor got up to leave.

"Thanks," Sophie told Elwin. "Feels a lot better now."

He smiled. "No problem! You are, after all, my star patient."

Elwin gestured to the picture of her in her furry Mastodon outfit from Level Three that he'd hung up a few years ago. She smiled.

Sophie and Sandor left the Healing Center. As soon as she walked out the door, someone grabbed her hand, held up a leaping crystal, and leaped away, with her in tow.

Keefe.

They landed at the Shores of Solace, and Keefe pulled her inside, locking the door behind him. Sophie struggled to get away, but he held onto her wrist tight. She thrashed and struggled, but he just picked her up and dumped her on the couch. She tried to get up, but he grabbed her hands and pinned them to the armrest above her head.

"Sophie," Keefe said. "Quit it. You're not leaving until you tell me what's going on."

She was still too shocked to speak. He had kidnapped her, sort of. She knew he wasn't going to hurt her, but it was terrifying how fast he'd done it. The Neverseen could easily do that. She hadn't even had time to scream. She caught a last-second glimpse of the hallway. Sandor had looked shocked. Ro had, too. And then. . .

No. Of course there had to be someone else in the hallway. Naturally, it was just her luck. Sophie gasped and stopped trying to fight Keefe off. Her mind was too focused on the other person she had seen in the hallway, the other person who had seen Keefe kidnap her.

Fitz.