OKAY

I'M SUPER SUPER SUPER SORRY

I SHIP SOKEEFE UM YEAH

BASICALLY I REREAD STELLARLUNE AND KEEFE AND SOPHIE WERE SUPER CUTE AND THERE WAS A LOT MORE DEVELOPMENT THAN I REALIZED.

BUT EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE THE SAME. I PROMISE. I'LL KEEP THE STORYLINE EXACTLY THE SAME, IT'LL JUST BE A BIT MORE SOKEEFY IN LATER CHAPTERS.

I HAD BIG PLANS FOR FITZ AND SOPHIE AND WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THEM EVEN BEFORE SHIPPING SOKEEFE. SO PLEASE FORGIVE ME.

I KNOW I PROMISED I'D NEVER STOP SHIPPING FITZPHIE IN AN EARLIER CHAPTER. BUT I JUST CAN'T KEEP THAT PROMISE. BUT THERE WAS STILL LOADS OF FITZPHIE IN EARLIER CHAPTERS, SO, YOU'RE HAPPY, RIGHT?

ANYWAY ENOUGH SHIP DRAMA HERE IS YOUR AWAITED CHAPTER I'M SO FREAKING SORRY.

"Jensi Babblos?" Sophie asked at the same time that Marella asked, "Dex Dizznee?"

"Jensi? Really?" Marella asked, staring at Sophie.

"She's not wrong," Fintan said, humming to himself.

"So Dark Hearts is really Jensi Babblos?" Sophie demanded. How could Jensi ever be...

But then again... they'd stopped hanging out around the time Sophie had joined the Black Swan.

Had he felt endangered?

It couldn't be Jensi.... but at the same time, it was...

"It's not Dex?" Marella clarified. She looked petrified, maybe because Dex was her boyfriend.

"Marella Adene Redek, I'm sure you would've found cracks in Dex's attitude. For the last time, DARK HEARTS IS JENSI BABBLOS AND NOT DEX DIZZNEE."

Sophie and Marella just stared at Fintan for a few moments, their jaws dropping and feeling utter amazement. How could it be Jensi? But maybe he had befriended her to get close to her to find out her secrets. And then he'd utterly failed since she'd stopped hanging out with him once she got into the real stuff.

But the way Fintan's eyes were glinting... the Ancient wasn't lying at all, and he was amused by how everything had turned out.

"I'm surprised it took you this long to realize. Perhaps Dark Hearts is a better actor than I feared," Fintan said, humming to himself as he drummed his fingers on his thighs. "Well, now you'll find a solution."

Sophie sparked a neon yellow flame with hovered above her palm and arched an eyebrow at Fintan. "Tell me what you know," she said, "or I'll make you burn."

Fintan cocked his eyebrows. "You think I care if you burn me with Everblaze? Sophie, I have craved the heat of fire for months." He gestured to his blueish lips. "It's incredibly cold here. Whatever fire in me is all used up just to keep me alive. And here you are, giving me Everblaze! Sophie, I assure you, that will merely be a treat for me." He lifted his head. "Burn me a little if I give you the information you want."

"You want me to burn you in exchange for information," Sophie clarified, pretty sure her brain wasn't processing this weird deal Fintan was making.

Fintan nodded. "That is all I want. A little fire. It doesn't even have to be mine. But I need some warmth, some solitude from this endless cold."

"Fine." Sophie turned to Marella. "Anything you want to ask?"

"Do you know where Dark Hearts got his Pyrokinetic DNA from?" Marella asked. Sophie had clued her in on everything previously, and Marella had been dying for answers. Sophie suspected that Marella thought she had been genetically altered as well.

Fintan smirked. "Funny thing, that. It so happens that Dark Hearts walked around for months and months, flashing his DNA scanner all over the place, until one day he passed by Fluttermont and did a scan on a whim. You know what he found? Caprise Redek, with lots of Pyrokinetic DNA. Exactly what he needed. And Caprise wasn't cooperative at all, so he Mesmerized her into giving it to him and then Washed it from her mind."

So the DNA had come from Marella's family. Marella's shoulders sagged and Sophie understood that her blonde friend had been hoping she could get rid of her ability somehow.

But Sophie herself had become accustomed to the flame, like it was a part of her, and she treasured it, craved it with every fibre of her body. Sparking Everblaze helped to calm the endless craving for fire in her head.

"Is that all you want to know?" Fintan asked, shivering slightly.

"No. What are Dark Hearts' other identities that you know?" Sophie demanded.

"There are many, Sophie, many. And I'm sure I don't even know a large fraction of them. Think about it. A Mesmer, a Telepath, a Polyglot and a Technopath. He has a lot of abilities and those work to disguise many identities."

"That doesn't answer my question," Sophie pointed out. She had a feeling Fintan was deliberately dodging her question.

Fintan smiled. "I'm afraid I don't know as much as Lady Gisela, but I did know that Dark Hearts once had a position on the Council. He did a lot of bargaining, and-"

"He wasn't Councilor Kenric, was he?" Sophie demanded.

She didn't want to hear that answer, especially if it was yes, but it was something she needed to know. The neon yellow flames in her palm cooled to white as she fought with herself. The eternal craving for fire raged inside of her, wanting her to lash out with Everblaze and get that information out of Fintan.

But she stopped herself and Washed those memories away, hiding them beneath fear and doubt and anger, paths she seldom wanted to tread. And the flames in her palm cooled further to blue.

"No, he was not. Dark Hearts is much older than you realize. He's an Ancient. And it's worked out well for him."

"How old?" Sophie asked. She wished her voice wasn't trembling and was even more embarrassed when Marella put her arm around her, but she couldn't bring herself to shove her fellow Pyrokinetic away.

"He's only slightly younger than Fallon Vacker. Think about that," Fintan said quietly.

But Fallon was old. There was no other word to describe it but that. And if Dark Hearts' age could rival Fallon's, he was really very old and had a lot of experience. But Ancient minds tended to wander and Sophie knew that. Did that mean that he wasn't entirely focused on his projects all the time? But Jensi had always been on the ball, bright and bubbly. She couldn't see his mind being Ancient.

"Jensi Babblos doesn't seem the type, does he?" Fintan whispered as though he had been reading her mind. "But Dark Hearts works in many ways. And he has many methods." He cleared his throat. "I'm willing to work with you in exchange for warmth and comfort. That's all I want. I know I can never erase my crimes and no one will ever forgive me. But I don't want to live the rest of my life in the cold."

"But that's how you chose to be," Sophie murmured. But she touched Fintan with the blue flame, seeing some color return to his cheeks. She turned the flame white and he sighed in relief.

"Everblaze," he whispered, willing her to change the flames to neon yellow.

"It will burn you," Sophie warned. "Promise me this is not a ruse. If it is, I will burn you to death."

"There are many ways you can kill me, Sophie Foster. And I am not quite ready to risk my life for a cause that will never return to save me." Fintan drew in a deep breath and repeated, "Everblaze."

Sophie sparked the neon yellow flame and Fintan pulled away after a few moments, and Sophie let it die. His skin had a slight burn, but not as bad as Sophie had thought it would be, and Fintan looked blissful. But then the fire from Sophie was gone and the cold hit him again in waves.

"I'm hoping you'll need more information soon," Fintan sighed as he leaned back into his chair. "I could get used to that every day."

"Well, we don't have a lot of Pyrokinetics, so you'll have to make do with whenever I feel like I need you."

Fintan laughed. "Sophie Foster, I could wait a millennia just to feel that warmth again."

Sophie found it hard to imagine Fintan with even pointier ears.

"Well then, goodbye, Fintan," she said. "I will come if I ever need more."

His smile was perhaps a little sad when he raised a hand and said, "Farewell."