To no one's surprise, Dex was Sophie's first kiss.

The one and only time it happened was when they were eight and curious. It wasn't like she had a lot of options—back when she first joined the Black Swan, there were only two elves around her age that she knew of.

Dex was one of them. They've shared a lot of firsts over the years—first kiss, sure, but also first friend, first argument, first sleepover. When they turned eleven and Dex started attending Foxfire, Sophie feared he would leave her behind for the shiny allure of elvin society. But he never hesitated to call her his best friend, and she has loved him for it ever since.

The other was Lodestar. Sophie had firsts with him, too. First battle, first scar. First medic visit, first stitches, first concussion. First nightmare. First raw, deep-seated fear. First burning hatred. First kill.

Or so she thought.

The point is that Sophie knows what to expect from a kiss. And hearing someone else's voice in her head is definitely not part of it.

I wish you didn't have to be the Moonlark.

Her eyes fly open. Startled, she pushes away from Keefe and scrambles to her feet.

He blinks, looking dazed as he stands with her. "Sophie?"

That was his voice she had just heard. In her mind. She searches his face. "How did you do that?" she whispers.

He frowns, confused. "Do what?"

Maybe it was a fluke. Sophie reigns in her telepathy, building up her walls until it's just her inside her mind. Her impenetrable, genetically modified fortress of a mind. Not even Mr. Forkle has ever been able to get past her blocking like this.

Can you hear me? she thinks to herself, her mental voice barely a whisper.

Keefe tenses, ever so slightly, but she picks up on it anyway. Because she knows him so well. She always has.

"You heard me," Sophie says out loud. Her heart hammers in her chest. She doesn't need him to say it—the look on his face is confirmation enough.

Keefe keeps his expression carefully neutral, as if he had slipped a mask over his face. Or maybe he was removing the mask, and she was finally seeing what lay underneath. She's not sure which is worse. "Yes," he finally answers.

"How do you know who I am?" she asks, and as soon as the words leave her mouth she knows how useless it was to ask that.

Keefe holds her gaze, still inches from her face. Then, deep within the fortress of her mind, she hears him.

The same way you've always known who I am.

Sophie feels as if the room is spinning around her, like the earth suddenly began revolving in the wrong direction, tipped off its axis. The sunlit library feels cold, but she can still feel the sensation of his lips on hers, warm where he had touched her skin. Because she kissed him. And he had let her.

She plucks a throwing star out of her boot and flings it at him.

He ducks with the practiced reflexes of a trained fighter. The throwing star embeds itself in the spine of the book behind his head.

Sophie doesn't stick around to see his reaction and runs, tearing through the library they had just playfully chased each other through. She swallows her panic. She needs to find a way out of here—a window to teleport out of, maybe, or Candleshade's Leapmaster—anything, anywhere she can go to get away from him.

The table they sat at is still covered in Prattles and discarded Alchemy notes. She grabs her bag and rifles through it, searching for something she can use.

"If you let me explain, this can be much easier for the both of us."

On instinct, Sophie flings her entire bag towards his voice as he comes up behind her. The weight of her textbooks sends him toppling into one of the shelves, upsetting a row of books onto the floor.

The move buys her maybe a few seconds. She reaches for the next closest thing—his own bag—and dumps its contents on the table. Her eyes catch on something familiar—a pathfinder with a clear crystal.

Relief floods through her. Sophie ignores his shouts of protest as she raises it to the light and lets it carry her away.

She lands on her feet with a splash. Water sloshes around her legs, and she realizes she's standing knee-deep in a reflective lake. A huge tree rises out of the water in front of her. Its gnarled roots twist around the trunk, forming a cavern-like entrance that appears to lead underground.

Part of a tower peeks through the trees in the distance. Her eyes widen with recognition at the castle-like structure, familiar to her from weeks of studying its blueprints and architecture plans.

Everglen. The pathfinder had taken her to the lake. Why was its lightleaping location set here?

Suddenly, two dark-cloaked figures emerge from the tree's rooted entrance and climb up onto the roots. She bites down a curse. She can't tell if they're Neverseen or not, but either way she finds herself stuck, unable to run without splashing and drawing attention to herself. Great.

One of the cloaked figures pushes back their hood and stares. "Sophie?" Linh gasps, her eyes widening in shock.

Sophie just gawks back. She can't seem to make sense of anything. What is Linh doing at Everglen? What is this place?

A splash sounds somewhere behind her. Sophie whirls around, and her heart drops to her stomach.

"Oh, hell," says the other person next to Linh. "Hey idiot, next time you come up with a crazy idea, clue us in first, please."

Lodestar doesn't respond. His icy eyes reflect the rippling surface of the lake. Water creeps up the leg of his Foxfire uniform pants as he steps toward her, his hands raised placatingly. "Sophie, calm down," he says sharply. "Let's just talk. Please."

"Get away from me," she snarls at him, backing away to the tree. She hates the thought of hurting Linh, but right now Sophie feels trapped. If she has to bring all three of them down to get out of here, she'll do it.

The edges of her vision flicker with red as she stokes her growing knot of her anger.

Lodestar's eyes widen. "She's inflicting!" he warns. "Linh!"

Alarmed, Sophie turns back to watch as Linh raises her hands and makes a sharp movement. Sophie braces herself for the torrent of water, but for a moment, nothing happens.

Then her vision begins to blur. She feels dizzy and lightheaded. Her skin turns clammy as the blood drains from her face. Her blood.

Linh winces. "Sorry about this," she says, and her tone is as breezy as that one time they had ran into each other in the hallway. "You were always nice to me."

Sophie falls forward as her knees buckle. The surface of the lake rises up to meet her before someone—Lodestar, she realizes—catches her in their arms.

With her last ounce of strength, she transmits to him, I'm going to kill you for this.

Then her last hold on consciousness washes away.