Blood pounded in Sophie's ears as she stared at Mr. Forkle, unable to make sense of what she had just heard.

"You're asking us," she said slowly. "To join the collective?"

"Not exactly," Mr. Forkle admitted. "But rather to create your own one. I admit that we need a newer, fresher perspective on things and I have spoken with the rest of the collective. It was a unanimous decision to bring some more minds into it."

Sophie swallowed, wiping her far-too-sweaty hands on her leggings. "Who exactly do you... have in mind?"

The words felt foreign out of her mouth, as if her brain had gone on autopilot and was doing the work for her. Keefe squeezed her hand and she could tell that he was also surprised. Through the corner of her eye, she could see Fitz staring at their hands and then looking away.

Mr. Forkle stroked his chin thoughtfully. "The collective can only have five members, and I was hoping you would be able to make that decision for us. "

Sophie started, hand fluttering to her gut where she could feel her emotions knotting even more. "You want me to choose?"

As if the day wasn't full of enough surprises, she thought gloomily as Mr. Forkle left her to her thoughts. Everyone else had already left and through a daze, she had gone upstairs and sat on her bed.

It shouldn't have been that hard of a decision. Keefe was an obvious choice, and so were Biana and Dex. The other one... she could choose Tam. Fitz was the most logical option... but there was still a thick tension between them. Then again, not choosing him would make her selfish.

There was also the problem of everyone else on Team Valiant. Wylie would obviously want to join, and so would Stina, especially considering that both of them had very personal relations to the Black Swan. But Stina, no matter how much nicer she was, she was still Stina. And bringing Wylie more into the middle of all of this, especially after everything else he had been through, that wasn't fair to him.

That left Linh, Marella and Maruca. Linh had turned especially bitter ever since Tam had taken Rayni's side, and Marella and Maruca were friends with her. Rayni wouldn't mind not being part of the Black Swan, since she was just part of the Neverseen... but what if she did?

"Foster?"

Sophie looked up to see Keefe standing in her doorway. "Keefe?"

"Grady told me to come here," he admitted, sitting next to her. "Are you okay?"

Sophie thought about lying but there was really no point so she dropped her head into her hands, not wanting to look into his ice-blue eyes because if she did, she might just end up crying.

"I don't know who to choose," she whispered. "I don't know why I'm thinking too much into this."

"Relax, Foster," Keefe told her, taking her hand. "Calm thoughts. You know no one's going to hate you if you don't choose them?" Sophie shrugged, exhaustion seeping through her bones. "C'mon, tell me who you have in mind so far."

She sat up reluctantly. "Well... Dex and Biana. I mean, I trust them and they'd be perfect. Obviously, you. But I don't know who the fifth member should be."

Keefe's expression shuttered at that. "About that, I don't think it's the best idea for me to be in the Collective."

"What?" Sophie jumped up, snatching her hand away. "Why not?"

"Because of all of this." He spread his arms helplessly. "My mom doesn't need one more reason to target all of you guys."

Sophie's gut tightened at the mention of Lady Gisela. She sat down and held his hand again.

"She never needed a reason," Sophie reminded him. "And it's not like you not being in the Collective will impact that." Before Keefe could protest, she interrupted. "Please? I need you there."

He flashed his signature smirk. "Are you saying you want your boyfriend with you?"

Sophie smiled widely, feeling butterflies in her stomach. Boyfriend. Keefe was her boyfriend.

"Maybe," she teased.

"If Ro were here, she would probably be jumping up and down," Keefe said.

The air immediately turned sour at the mention of Ro. She had left to fight Cadfield, and despite Sophie using the bacteria, she still hadn't come back home.

"I forgot about her," Sophie admitted.

"Have you tried reaching her through telepathy?" Keefe wondered.

Immediately, her mood brightened. "I'll try later tonight." Her head had cleared too. "And about the Collective, I think I know what I want to do."

Keefe grinned. "That's my Foster." He leaned in to kiss her, and just like the first time, Sophie melted into it.

Someone cleared their throat loudly and Sophie and Keefe practically jumped apart. Edaline and Grady were standing in the doorway. Edaline looked giddy with happiness and Grady had a weird expression on his face.

"Oh - uh," Sophie stammered, casting a hopeless glare at Sandor, who was standing behind them. He just looked like he was trying hard not to laugh.

"Maybe you should go, Keefe," Grady suggested with an edge in his voice.

Keefe gulped and saluted him. 'Sorry, Foster', he mouthed as he left, squeezing her hand again.

As soon as he was out of hearing, Edaline hugged Sophie and Grady tapped his foot against the floor, waiting.

"If you have something to say, just say it," Sophie told him, exasperated.

She was expecting something along the lines of 'stay away from that boy', but to her surprise, Grady shrugged. "I think you forgot that I was the one who sent him up here. If you're happy, we have no problem with that. It's just... we don't want you to get hurt."

Sophie pulled away from Edaline. "What do you mean?"

Grady sighed. "Look, you know Keefe has a lot going on. We don't know what's going to happen in the future or-"

"Right," Sophie cut him off, blinking back tears as she remembered that they still needed Elysian to help Keefe, and they had no idea how. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Right."

Suddenly, the implications of everything came raining down on her. Keefe might die if she failed, and Elysian was a person, and they didn't know who, and Lady Gisela wanted to work with them and Vespera was dead and she needed to choose the members of a brand new collective.

"Sophie, nothing will happen," Edaline told her softly, pressing a kiss on her forehead. "You're still a kid. Don't worry about everything for once, okay?"

Sophie nodded hazily. "Yeah. Yeah, okay." She didn't miss how Edaline and Grady exchanged worried looks before silently leaving. Sandor stood station in the corner of the room, his concerned look never leaving her as she slipped under her covers, too exhausted to change.

Before she could fall asleep, she remembered what Keefe had said.

Ro? She broadcasted widely, imagining the word multiplying into threads that tied together in a giant net, falling downwards from the sky to capture its target. Ro, can you hear me?

Nothing happened and after a few more attempts, Sophie gave up. As soon a s she closed her eyes, she was swept away into a dreamland of blood on grass and crystals leading nowhere, a figure in black haunting both.