Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities Book 8)

by Shannon Messenger

  He lifted her gently by the shoulders and eased her into a sitting position, propping her back and arms with extra pillows. “Better?”

  She nodded, needing a second to catch her breath. “Definitely wouldn’t mind if Elwin and Livvy let me take some pain medicine.”

  “Yeah. Me neither.” He shook his arms as he backed away, and she realized his empathy was making him suffer through everything she was feeling—and she’d just made it worse for him by being stubborn.

  She cleared her throat, planning to say, Sorry. But at the last second she changed to “Thank you.”

  “For what?” Keefe asked.

  “For helping me sit up. And for staying here for so many days. And… for whatever you did to get me through the reset.” Her memories were a scrambled mess, but she definitely remembered one thing. “You sent me a green breeze, didn’t you?”

  Keefe’s gaze shifted to his hands, which were fidgeting with the loosened laces of his jerkin. “I mean, I can’t always see the color of the emotions—and honestly, sometimes I’m not even sure what emotions I send. My ability gets a little abstract when you’re enhancing me, so I don’t always know what I’m doing. But I do know I wanted you to feel like whatever was happening was a fresh start, so it wouldn’t be as scary for you, since your fear was spiking even worse than your pain.”

  “A fresh start,” Sophie repeated, feeling her lips curl into a smile. “I guess that’s a better way of looking at it than fixing my broken ability so I won’t be useless or ruin anything else.”

  Keefe whistled. “It’s kind of ridiculous how hard you are on yourself.”

  Sophie shrugged—then wished she hadn’t when they both winced from the tearing sensation that zinged through her shoulder muscles. “I have to be hard on myself,” she told him. “I have lots of people counting on me.”

  “You do. And I get it. But just… don’t forget what I said before. The only thing you have to be is Sophie Foster. That’s more than enough.”

  “Awwwwwww—good one, Hunkyhair!” Ro called, ruining the moment—not that it was a moment or anything like that. “Way to recover!”

  Sophie cleared her throat, trying to move past the cloud of awkwardness now hanging over them. “So… Dex, Biana, Stina, and Wylie are working on Team Valiant stuff with Grady? Did they say what they were doing?”

  “Not really. I’m not on the team, so… I don’t get to know the secrets.”

  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand, the awkwardness got a whole lot worse.

  “Pretty sure it had to do with the dwarves, though,” Keefe added quietly. “And Dex told me to tell you they’ll stop by tomorrow morning to see if you’re awake, so I’m sure they’ll update you on everything then. After all, you’re their Fearless Lady Fos-Boss.”

  Sophie sighed. “More like the Failing Lady Fos-Boss. No, really,” she added when he opened his mouth to argue. “I totally forgot to check in with Wylie and Stina after they did… something I might not be allowed to talk about. And I forgot to give Dex and Biana anything important to do while Stina and Wylie were working on that. And I almost inflicted on all of them in Loamnore—and then had to have my abilities reset and ended up unconscious for three days. And who knows how much longer I’ll be stuck in bed.”

  “See, but I seem to remember Bronte—Bronte! The-Dude-Who’s-Tried-to-Have-You-Exiled-Almost-as-Many-Times-as-Dame-Alina-Has-Tried-to-Have-Me-Expelled, so you know he’s not just being nice—saying that you were the reason King Enki didn’t throw you guys out of Loamnore. And by the way, King Enki was mad because the Council and the Black Swan totally botched things with the scheduling. Your mistakes were nothing on that—and you’re new at this. Plus… I mean… being a leader actually seems pretty hard.”

  “It is,” Sophie admitted, staring at her hands—and realizing she wasn’t wearing gloves. She also noticed a new bruise, the same size as the star-shaped scar it was next to, which she’d gotten the last time her abilities were reset. “Is that where they injected the allergy remedy?”

  Keefe shook his head. “The main shot went into your leg. But then when Elwin had to start doing chest compressions, Livvy dug out a much smaller syringe with green liquid in it and stabbed that into your hand. Does it hurt?”

  “Everything hurts.” Sophie slid her hand under her blankets so she wouldn’t keep staring at the spot that was surely going to be a new scar.

  They needed a subject change—fast.

  “So Fitz is at the Shores of Solace right now?” she asked.

  “He is—and he’s not happy about it. He didn’t want to leave you. I heard him yelling at my dad before he left, saying the whole thing is a waste of time. But my dad still got his way—he always does. Someday I need to figure out how he pulls that off.”

  “I take it that means they haven’t found anything useful?” Sophie asked.

  “That’s what I’m assuming. And I’m not surprised. I’m sure my dad’s being super stubborn, and controlling, and hiding a ton of stuff, and basically sabotaging the process.” Keefe plopped back onto the desk chair and propped his feet on her desk. “Plus… don’t get me wrong. You know Fitzy’s my Best Dude—”

  “Best Dude?” Sophie interrupted. “Is that seriously what you’re calling him now?”

  Keefe nodded. “Until I convince him that we should call ourselves the Keefitzinator. Anyway, I’m not saying our Fitzy’s not a super-powerful Telepath. He’s just… better with the basic stuff when he’s working alone, you know? And finding shattered memories seems like it might be a bit too fancy for him. Especially since my dad’s good at dodging Telepaths.”

  Sophie chewed her lip. “If you want me—”

  “Nah,” Keefe cut her off, before she’d had a chance to make her offer.

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “Uh, for one thing, have you seen you?” he asked. “Hate to break it to you, Miss F, but you need some major bed rest.”

  “I meant after I’m better,” Sophie mumbled, tugging at the parts of her hair that weren’t plastered to her forehead and trying to hide behind the greasy strands.

  “Oh, I know—but once you’re better, you’ll have way more important stuff to do than digging through my dad’s creepy memories,” Keefe insisted. “Besides, it’s not like we even know for sure that we’re going to find anything.”

  “Right, but—”

  “Seriously, Foster. It’s not worth it.”

  He wouldn’t look at her as he said it. And Sophie had a feeling there was a bigger reason he was letting her off the hook.

  And in case she was right, she decided not to keep pushing.

  But they were running out of subject changes.

  All she had left was, “Any luck with your memories?”

  “I wish.” He snatched the gold notebook off of her desk and tucked it into his cape pocket before picking up the silver one and slowly flipping through. “I’ve logged a bunch more stuff. But nothing useful. And Dex told me yesterday that he still hasn’t gotten any hits from the London cameras, so… I don’t know. Maybe the drawing I gave him wasn’t good enough for the facial recognition.”

  “Or the guy might’ve moved,” Sophie hated to tell him. “Humans do that way more than elves do.”

  “I know. I thought of that. But… London’s the only lead I have, so…” He slumped lower in his chair.

  “Well… it hasn’t been that long since Dex set up the cameras,” Sophie said, trying to be positive. “And the guy could’ve been on vacation. Or battling the flu and not leaving the house or something. Just because we haven’t found him yet doesn’t mean we won’t.”

  Keefe looked about as convinced by those suggestions as she was.

  She wished she could think of some brilliant solution, but… the man Keefe remembered could literally be anywhere on the planet, and they only had cameras searching one city.

  If only they could tap into, like… a human spy satellite or something. Then they could at least cover a lot more ground. But she doubted Dex’s Tech
nopath skills stretched all the way to outer space—and even if they did, there would still be lots of places the satellite didn’t cover because human tech wasn’t that powerful. And the elves didn’t…

  “Wait,” Sophie said, wincing as she straightened up. “Is Mr. Forkle still here?”

  “He might be,” Keefe said. “Why?”

  “Go check,” Sophie told him, wishing she’d thought of this sooner. “If he is, tell him I need to talk to him right now.”

  “About what?” Mr. Forkle asked from the doorway, and Sophie jumped—then winced.

  “Whatever it is, it can wait,” Livvy cut in, shoving Mr. Forkle aside to make her way over to Sophie, with Elwin right at her heels.

  Edaline was with them too, and she held Sophie’s hand the whole time that Elwin and Livvy did their exam—which was mostly Livvy asking, “Does this hurt?” before poking Sophie somewhere, while Elwin flashed various orbs of colored light around Sophie’s body and studied her through his funny spectacles.

  The answer, unfortunately, was always, “Ow, yes.”

  And the final verdict seemed to be that everything was on the right track—but Sophie still had a long way to go. They also didn’t think she’d be up for taking any elixirs for at least another day.

  Including pain medicine.

  “Why is it so much worse this time?” Sophie asked, sucking air through her teeth as Livvy made her lie back flat again and her muscles punished her for the movement. “I mean, I know you messed with my heart a little, but last time you gave me double the amount of limbium so…”

  “The heart is much more sensitive than people realize,” Livvy said gently. “And so much more vulnerable. It can’t defend itself the way the mind can—and I don’t mean physically,” she added when she noticed Sophie’s frown. “From a physical standpoint, they’re both vital organs, and any sort of serious strike or blow would be Game Over. But from an emotional standpoint, the brain can think through feelings and talk us into or out of them.”

  “Tell me about it,” Ro muttered from Sophie’s closet.

  “See?” Livvy said. “The ogre princess knows what I’m talking about. It’s a defense mechanism that the heart simply doesn’t have. The heart feels what it feels, whether we want it to or not. So messing with it the way I did takes a much bigger toll, even on a physical level. This isn’t a perfect metaphor, but… try to think of it as I poked a hornet’s nest. And you got stung. And I’m really sorry.”

  “Me too,” Elwin said.

  Edaline squeezed Sophie’s hand.

  “The good news,” Mr. Forkle told her, “is you made the right decision with the pill you selected. I can already feel your heart and mind communicating in ways they never have before.”

  Sophie’s eyes widened. “Are you reading my thoughts right now?”

  “Not in the way you’re assuming,” Mr. Forkle assured her. “I realize you haven’t given me permission. So you’re going to have to tell me what it is you needed to discuss—unless you want me to find the answer myself.”

  “No, it’s fine,” Sophie said, glancing at Livvy and Elwin and deciding it wouldn’t matter if they heard. “I need you to do me a favor.”

  Mr. Forkle sighed. “If this has to do with—”

  “It doesn’t,” Sophie interrupted. “I’m not focusing on that right now—though the fact that I trusted you with my life again when you still won’t trust me with that information—”

  “What information?” Livvy interrupted.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Mr. Forkle insisted.

  Sophie decided it did. So she told Livvy and Elwin, “He won’t tell me who my biological parents are. Even though I deserve to know.”

  “You definitely deserve to know that,” Elwin agreed, narrowing his eyes at Mr. Forkle.

  “Some secrets must be kept, even from those deserving,” Mr. Forkle countered.

  Livvy groaned.

  “I’m not saying that to pressure anyone into telling me right now,” Sophie emphasized, turning back to Mr. Forkle. “But I need something else—and since I just took a huge risk for you, and you still won’t give me the other information I really need, I don’t think you should be allowed to say no to this. Especially since it’s a very reasonable request.”

  Mr. Forkle pursed his lips, looking both wary and amused by her assertiveness. “That’s quite the sales pitch, Miss Foster. But you realize you’re going to have to actually tell me what you want before I can decide if I’ll be able to help you, right?”

  Sophie glanced at Keefe and said, “Show him the drawing.”

  Keefe’s eyebrows shot up, but he didn’t argue or question her. And as he flipped to the right page in the silver notebook, Sophie explained about Keefe’s shattered memory and their plan to find the guy using the CCTV cameras.

  “So this is why you and Mr. Dizznee went to London?” Mr. Forkle asked, taking the notebook from Keefe to study the man’s face more closely. When she nodded, he asked, “Why do you need my help?”

  “Well… so far, none of the London cameras have found the guy. And I’m starting to worry that it might be because he doesn’t live in London anymore. It’s been a few years and humans move around.”

  “They do indeed,” Mr. Forkle agreed, turning to study the drawing from a different angle.

  She waited to speak again until he met her eyes, hoping her stare made it clear that what she was about to demand wasn’t optional. “That’s why I want you to take Dex to Watchward Heath.”

  “What’s Watchward Heath?” Keefe asked.

  “Forkle’s secret office,” Sophie told him. “Or one of them, at least. He brought me there a few days ago and showed me how it gives him access to thousands and thousands of camera feeds—and that’s exactly what we need. So now Mr. Forkle’s going to take Dex there, and let Dex do his Technopath thing. And if our guy is anywhere on this planet—we’ll find him.”

  TWENTY-NINE

  IF I AGREE TO WHAT you’re asking,” Mr. Forkle said, glancing slowly between Sophie and Keefe, “and let’s be clear that what I mean by that is, if I allow Mr. Dizznee to do his ‘Technopath thing,’ as you put it, to the cameras feeding into my private office, I expect to be fully kept in the loop on this project’s progress from this point forward—and I don’t mean simply with this particular memory. I mean with all of the memories you decide to investigate in the future.”

  He held Keefe’s stare as he slowly flipped to the next page of the silver notebook, as if he was testing to see if Keefe would try to stop him.

  “Flip all you want—I have nothing to hide,” Keefe said, leaning back in his chair. “But I should warn you, that also means there’s nothing else interesting in there. Mommy Dearest did a good job of making sure I wouldn’t recover these memories. Why do you think Foster’s pushing you so hard for this one?”

  “What about the memories in those?” Mr. Forkle asked, pointing to the green and brown notebooks still sitting on Sophie’s desk.

  Keefe scooped them up and held them out. “I mean… if you’re looking for a particularly inspired visual re-creation of the Great Gulon Incident, then you’re about to be super excited. Otherwise, not so much. Oh, and if you flip the pages at just the right speed, you can watch the moment the gas erupts.”

  Mr. Forkle’s lips twitched with a smile as he took the notebooks. “And here I thought you had nothing to do with that event.”

  Keefe smirked. “Not saying I did.”

  Sophie didn’t bother asking. She’d been trying to get someone to tell her what happened during the Great Gulon Incident for years and had never gotten a straight answer.

  And now definitely wasn’t the time to sidetrack the conversation.

  Especially when Mr. Forkle pointed to Keefe’s chest and asked, “What about the notebook tucked away in your cape pocket? Are you going to show me the memories in there, or do you have something to hide after all?”

  Keefe straightened up, placing his hand over the pocket, like he was af
raid Mr. Forkle was going to try to snatch the gold notebook away. “How did you know?”

  “I have very sharp eyes. Far sharper than you and your friends realize.” He handed Keefe back the silver, brown, and green notebooks without paging through them. “Truthfully, Mr. Sencen, I neither want nor need to see your full recorded life history. I just need to trust that you’ll come to me when and if you recover something pertinent. Given what happened with the Council and the meeting with King Enki, I’m realizing it’s time for all of us to aim for a higher level of transparency.”

  “Said the guy who still won’t tell me who my biological parents are,” Sophie felt the need to point out.

  “Ohhhhhh, she has you there!” Livvy added.

  “She does indeed,” Mr. Forkle said through a very long sigh. “But it sadly doesn’t change where we stand on that particular issue. Sometimes a mystery must remain unsolved.” His eyes locked with Sophie’s. “And someday you’ll understand why I had to protect this secret. In the meantime, I’m willing to grant your request. I’ll bring Mr. Dizznee to Watchward Heath at his earliest convenience and let him program the cameras to search for the man in Mr. Sencen’s drawing.”

  “And you promise you’ll let us know the second you find him?” Sophie countered. “No holding back information while you conduct your own investigations?”

  “Well, I suspect that Mr. Dizznee will program the feeds to notify him of any matches long before anything alerts me, so this is likely a moot point. But you have my word that if the cameras locate this mystery man and I’m the first to acquire that information, I’ll pass it along to you and Mr. Sencen immediately—but note my use of the word ‘if,’ Miss Foster. I fear you’re feeling a bit too confident in this plan’s success and forgetting that there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to find this man. Watchward Heath is an unprecedented monitoring system—but it’s not without its gaps. The man may also have altered his appearance in some significant way since Mr. Sencen saw him in this memory—a change of hairstyle. Adding a beard or mustache. Gaining or losing weight. Even the simple inevitabilities of human aging, like wrinkles and hair loss, could be significant enough to make the cameras disregard him as a viable match.”