“That would be up to you to determine,” he told her. “Journeys of self-discovery must be embarked upon alone.”

“Great,” Sophie grumbled, making no effort to hide her eye roll. “You realize that’s not actually an answer, right?”

“It is—it’s just not the answer you seek,” Mr. Forkle countered. “You want a ready solution, and I cannot give that to you. But I can assure you that if you become more mindful as you use this ability—more aware of the tiny shifts and connections occurring within you as it works—you’ll likely discover whole new worlds of strength and control. Remember, this ability wasn’t one we chose for you—it was one your genetics naturally dictated. Which likely means your genetics have given you the means to manage it on your own.”

Sophie sighed. “That’s still not helpful.”

“It will be,” he insisted. “You just need to give yourself a chance to process.”

“Yeah, well, in the meantime, I’m stuck with eight zillion pairs of gloves and trying not to let my enemies get anywhere near me. Might as well lock me in my room.”

“I’m on board with that plan,” Sandor jumped in. “I’ll happily stand guard at the door.”

Mr. Forkle smiled. “That won’t be necessary. Miss Foster simply needs to remember to rely on her friends.”

He called Dex over and had Dex hold one of Sophie’s fingernail gadgets in one hand while letting her fully enhance him.

“Oh wow,” Dex breathed, his knees buckling the second her fingertips touched his skin—and miraculously, no one made any jokes about Sophie knocking a boy off his feet as Stina and Biana lunged to hold Dex steady. No one mentioned how many additional times Dex whispered, “Wow,” before he pulled his hand free and sank to the grass, staring at the sky.

“Think you can make some adjustments to Tinker’s design?” Mr. Forkle asked him after several seconds. “Create a more powerful shield for Miss Foster’s ability until she learns how to manage it with her mind?”

“I think so, yeah,” Dex mumbled, followed by a bunch of techy words that sounded like gibberish.

“I’ll take him inside,” Biana volunteered, hooking Dex’s arm around her shoulders and hauling him to his shaky feet. “He’s going to need a notebook to write this all down and make some sketches.”

“See?” Mr. Forkle said, turning back to Sophie. “Your teammates are already working on a technical solution. And while they do that, I want you to get some rest—and spend the whole day in bed tomorrow if you can. Try to clear your mind of all other worries and start that mental journey.”

“How?” Sophie asked.

Mr. Forkle smiled. “That’s up to you. But the first step is sleep.”

* * *

As it turned out, mental journeys were every bit as pointless and annoying as Sophie expected—and also, surprisingly exhausting.

Her mind didn’t want to “clear.”

Focusing on her breathing just ended up making her spend hours counting.

And when she tried to listen to her body, all it told her was that she was restless. And hungry. And really hated wearing so many pairs of gloves.

So Sophie literally tackled Dex with a hug the next day, when he showed up with Lovise and Mr. Forkle to deliver her newly designed fingernail gadgets.

The gadgets were clear this time and had to be worn on every finger—and the sequence of taps to activate and deactivate them was much more complicated. But once the gadgets were in place and active, they seemed to do their job perfectly, blocking her enhancing both for Dex and Mr. Forkle.

“You should probably test them on Keefe,” Dex suggested, “since he was even more sensitive to your ability than we were. And I’d still recommend wearing double gloves—and keeping a couple of extra pairs in your pockets.”

Mr. Forkle clicked his tongue. “Have you so little faith in your talent, Mr. Dizznee?”

“No. I just also know technology isn’t perfect. It breaks. Or other stuff interacts with it. So it’s good to have a backup plan.”

Sophie nodded, pulling Dex into another hug, relieved that it still didn’t feel a tiny bit weird between them.

“Thank you,” she told him. “You saved me from being Lady Marshmallow Hands.”

Dex grinned, flashing his dimples. “See, now I kinda want to take back the gadgets.”

“Don’t even think about it,” Sophie warned.

“Oh, I’m thinking about it, Lady Marshmallow Hands,” Dex countered.

Mr. Forkle cleared his throat. “In all seriousness, Miss Foster, I still hope you’ll keep searching within yourself, because I feel quite strongly that you have more to discover. In fact, I’m regretting that I never made self-reflection and meditation into a habit for you when you were younger. I should’ve considered that the uniqueness of your abilities would require a measure of deep introspection, since only you can truly understand the workings of your mind.”

Sophie wanted to roll her eyes and tell him how pointless everything she’d tried the day before had been. But it was easier to just say, “I’ll do my best,” and change the subject.

“What are you working on today?” she asked Dex.

“I asked Forkle to take me back to Watchward Heath, because I had a few thoughts about the cameras while you were enhancing me. The tweaks I made to the feed already are solid—but they’re slow because there are so many different cameras. And I think I came up with a way to make it all work much faster. See? It’s a good thing you had your abilities reset. I know you’ve been lying here regretting it.”

She had, actually—though she hadn’t even admitted that to herself.

She’d just lost so many days.

And now her enhancing was so much more complicated.

And she still couldn’t even use her inflicting—still didn’t even know if it worked any better than it had before.

“It was the right call, Sophie,” Dex assured her. “Just give yourself time to adjust.”

“Mr. Dizznee is very wise,” Mr. Forkle told her. “And I’ve been meaning to add one more thing. I think it’s quite telling that both Mr. Sencen and Mr. Vacker were so much more sensitive to your enhancing.”

“Fitz needed the same number of gloves as you,” Sophie reminded him.

“Yes, but my telepathy is far more honed than his, so for him to be at my same level is fascinating. And I realize you’ve always had strong connections with both boys in different ways. But I wonder if having them assist during the reset amplified those bonds. I think it might be worth exploring. I’d recommend working with both of them in tandem to see what you discover. Perhaps complete a few trust exercises.”

Dex snorted. “You want Sophie, Fitz, and Keefe to do trust exercises together.”

“I think it would be very enlightening,” Mr. Forkle agreed.

“Oh, it’ll definitely be that,” Dex said with a particularly huge grin. “Can I, uh, be there when you do?” he asked Sophie.

“No, it’ll work best if it’s just the three of them,” Mr. Forkle informed him. “Try it today, if you’re up for it,” he advised Sophie. “And if you’re not, then I hope you’ll work on more self-reflection.”