Flashback (Keeper of the Lost Cities Book 7)

by Shannon Messenger

  “Which means your job right now, Foster,” Keefe said, tightening his grip on Sophie’s hand, “is to keep doing exactly what you’ve been doing. Rest. Recover. Take whatever medicine and time you need to get strong again. And trust the rest of us to cover anything that comes up while you’re down.”

  “But you’re not Telepaths,” she argued. “That could be what this is about.”

  “If it is, we have Forkle. And Granite. And Alden. And Quinlin. And technically even Prentice. I know they can’t do as many fancy tricks as you—and they’re definitely not as good at staring into each other’s eyes as you and the Fitzster. But I think they can cover for you guys while you get back on your feet. So just take care of you. You’re the only one who can really do that.”

  She blew out a breath. “It’s really annoying when you’re right.”

  “Don’t worry,” Ro told her. “It doesn’t happen very often.”

  Keefe smirked. “So . . . you okay? I don’t have to let go yet if you still need the boost.”

  “One second,” she said, closing her eyes and imagining herself stuffing her scariest questions into thick mental boxes and marking them Deal with Later.

  But she needed one more piece of information before she could seal everything shut: “Has the Council set the date for when they’re moving Alvar to Everglen? Biana hasn’t said anything, and I haven’t wanted to bring it up.”

  “Yeah, I haven’t wanted to bring it up either,” Keefe admitted. “But Dex said Lovise and Grizel are due back from Gildingham within the next few days. So I’m assuming it won’t be long after that.”

  “Great,” Sophie mumbled. “He’ll be home before I am.”

  “Maybe not. You said it yourself: You’re getting better every day. Right?”

  “She is,” Elwin answered for her. “And yes, I have been listening this whole time,” he added as he strode over from his office. “And part of me definitely wanted to charge in here when I heard Sophie start to lose control. But it sounded like you had it covered.”

  “I did,” Keefe agreed.

  Elwin slipped on his spectacles. “Let’s see, shall we?”

  He snapped his fingers, flashing through each color of the spectrum, nodding with each one.

  “Does that mean I didn’t do any damage?” Sophie whispered as Keefe helped her pull her glove back on.

  “It does,” Elwin said, and the last hidden worry evaporated from Sophie’s mind. “And that’s why I’m going to allow you two to go ahead with those plans you were discussing, despite the way this spiraled. As long as you’re careful, I’ll let you train together every day. You can even get started now, if you want.”

  “You still up for it, Foster?” Keefe asked.

  “Pick something quick and easy,” Elwin said when Sophie nodded. “She’s going to need to rest soon.”

  “Done and done! I was already planning to have us start with telekinesis, since that’s what got Foster all swoony about my skills in the first place.”

  “I didn’t get swoony,” Sophie felt the need to point out.

  “Keep telling yourself that, Foster. Keeeeeeeeeep telling yourself that.”

  Sophie glanced at Elwin. “I’m going to regret asking him to teach me, aren’t I?”

  “Oh, that’s a given,” he said, chuckling. “I’ll leave you to it—but remember, quick and easy.”

  “On it!” Keefe said as Elwin ducked back into his office. “Let’s do this!”

  He floated the scrap of knotted bandage into the space between them and clapped his hands. “Okay, pay attention to what I do.”

  The bandage started to spin, moving in wider and wider circles, and he stretched out his arms and spun around with it, whipping the bandage so fast it became nothing more than a blur.

  “Figure out the secret yet?” he asked, leaning on the nearest cot like he’d made himself dizzy.

  “Um. Not really,” Sophie admitted.

  Ro snorted. “Wow. You’re a horrible teacher.”

  “Psh, I’m the best,” Keefe insisted. “No boring lectures. And Foster’ll get it this time—you’ll see.”

  He floated the scrap of bandage back toward himself, then set it back down. “You know what? It’ll be easier to notice with something bigger. Hmmmmmm . . . Oh! I know!”

  He lunged and thrust his arms toward Ro—who yelped as she launched toward the ceiling.

  “Put. Me. Down!”

  “Aw, is the big, tough ogre princess scared of a little elf-y mind trick?” Keefe asked.

  “You realize I can end you with one dagger, right?” Ro asked, drawing one from the sheath around her thigh. “And there’s no way you’d be fast enough to stop it.”

  “Probably not,” Keefe agreed. “But I could do this.” He let her plummet, then blasted her back up with a big enough jolt to knock her weapon from her grasp.

  “Uh, I’m pretty sure she’s going to murder you in your sleep tonight,” Sophie warned.

  “Oh, I’m planning something much more painful than that,” Ro snarled.

  “See, and I thought you’d be honored to be part of this important moment, when Foster shows us how much she’s learned from my brilliant demonstration. Go ahead,” he told Sophie. “Tell Ro the secret.”

  She shook her head.

  All that was missing was the sound of a cricket chirping.

  His smile faded. “Okay, maybe I am bad at teaching. Weren’t you watching my feet?”

  “Why would I be?”

  “Because I told you to pay attention.” He waited until she’d leaned over enough to see the floor, then stepped forward and thrust his arms, launching Ro higher. “See? It’s all about the foot energy.”

  “Foot . . . energy . . . ,” Sophie repeated.

  “Yep! Alvar called it ‘full body momentum,’ but that’s boring and confusing because all it means is: You want some extra oomph, move your feet. See?”

  He shifted his weight onto his other foot at the same time he waved his hands forward, and Ro shot backward, nearly crashing into the wall.

  “It’s a small thing,” he said. “But that’s the point. Everyone forgets their feet with telekinesis. They focus on their hands and their arms and pulling energy from their core. And it doesn’t have to be a big movement. The tiniest step makes a huge difference. Try it.”

  “I’m not allowed to get out of bed,” Sophie reminded him.

  “And yet, you’re moving your feet right now.” He pointed to where her feet were, in fact, fidgeting under the covers.

  “Wow—remind me again: Why do so many people think you guys are so special?” Ro wondered.

  “No idea,” Sophie told her.

  “Don’t let her fool you, Ro. If Foster used foot energy, she could smash you through the ceiling.”

  “So? It’s all still a party trick. You try something like this in a battle and you’ll end up with a dagger through the forehead.”

  “Not Foster. Foster could catch that dagger and whip it back at you. Even with only one hand.”

  “Pretty sure I couldn’t,” Sophie argued.

  “I know you couldn’t,” Ro corrected.

  “See, and I know she could,” Keefe insisted. “Especially with a little foot energy.”

  “Then prove it,” Ro said. “Not with a dagger,” she added for Elwin, who was already on his feet. “With that.” She pointed to one of the empty sedative vials near Sophie’s cot. “I’ll fling that toward her head—and don’t worry, I’ll make sure it will miss her—and we’ll see if she knocks it back at me or if it shatters a few inches from her ear.”

  “Works for me,” Keefe told her, setting Ro back on the floor. “But I think we should put a wager on it.”

  “Guys,” Sophie said.

  Ro’s grin was equal parts gleeful and vicious. “How about if I’m right, I get to shave your head?”

  “Keefe,” Sophie warned.

  He smirked. “Okay. And if Foster knocks the vial back at you, you have to get a tattoo that says S
parkles Rule! It can be tiny. But it has to be somewhere we can see it.”

  “GUYS!” Sophie shouted as they both said, “Deal!”

  “Uh, hello—I never agreed to this!” she reminded them.

  Ro shrugged. “This isn’t about you anymore. We have a deal. It’s your job to settle it.”

  “She’s right,” Keefe agreed. “And don’t look so nervous, Foster. Trust the foot energy!”

  “I’ve never used foot energy!”

  “Eh, you’ve always been a fast learner.”

  Elwin joined them from his office.

  “You’re going to tell us we can’t do this, right?” she asked. “Because it’ll hurt my recovery?”

  “Nah. I just want to see what happens,” he said.

  Keefe pumped his fist. “WOO, we have Elwin approval! That makes this official. This. Is. Happening!”

  “Ready?” Ro asked, snatching an empty vial and raising her arm.

  “No!” Sophie said as Keefe said, “Yep!”

  “I’m going to throw this whether you play along or not,” Ro told her. “So you can either give your boy a chance. Or forfeit. You have three seconds to decide. One . . .”

  On “two” Sophie reached deep into her core, gathering every drop of energy she could find and mixing it with her mental reserves—reminding herself that Keefe got himself into this mess, so it wouldn’t be her fault if it ended badly.

  And his hair would grow back eventually. . . .

  “Three!” Ro said, and Keefe shouted, “Team Foster-Keefe for the win!” as Ro whipped the vial toward Sophie’s head.

  Sophie threw out her left hand and kicked her feet as much as she could, and her fingers tingled as the energy poured out of her, hurtling toward the tiny bottle like a tidal wave.

  Glass shattered and someone screamed—it might’ve been Sophie—as the broken pieces changed direction, slamming into Ro’s breastplate like a stampeding woolly mammoth, sending her toppling head over feet and crashing into the wall of medicine.

  Shelves collapsed and shouts echoed as hundreds and hundreds of vials plummeted—and Sophie whipped her hand and feet again, reaching to save anything she could.

  All that medicine—all of Elwin’s hard work.

  She couldn’t let it go to waste because of their silly game. So she imagined herself with thousands of hands, grasping in every possible direction and . . .

  A beat of silence followed.

  “So that’s why the moonlark’s special,” Ro breathed as she stared at the vials hovering around her like tiny glass satellites.

  Not a single one had hit the floor.

  “You okay, Sophie?” Elwin asked. “No headache? No pain?”

  “None,” she promised.

  And she knew then, beyond any of the doubts waiting to roar at her from the shadows.

  She might be broken.

  She might be healing.

  But she was strong.

  FOURTEEN

  IT TOOK ELWIN MOST OF the night to clean up after the Foster Foot Energy Triumph—as Keefe had named it—so Sophie was stunned when he still let Keefe and Ro into the Healing Center the next afternoon.

  She also couldn’t believe that Ro already had a new tattoo inked to the underside of her right wrist.

  Bold, impossible-to-ignore letters declaring, Sparkles Rule!

  “Did it myself this morning,” Ro said when she caught Sophie staring. “A bet’s a bet. I figure this is my reminder to never side against the moonlark.”

  “Always the best way to go,” Keefe agreed, his eyes trailing over Sophie’s bandages. “No setbacks from yesterday?”

  “Nope!”

  According to Elwin’s numerous tests, her echoes hadn’t stirred at all. So physical strain didn’t seem to bother them. Only emotional turmoil.

  Whether that was good news or bad news was yet to be determined.

  “And I see Fitzy’s still snoozing,” Keefe noted, moving to his best friend’s side and waving a hand in front of his face. “Since he’s also cuddling with his sparkly dragon buddy and looking all rosy cheeked and peaceful, I’m guessing we don’t need to be worried about that?”

  “You don’t,” Elwin agreed. “The sedatives are just a precaution.”

  “But how much longer are you going to keep him knocked out?” Sophie had to ask.

  It’d already been over a week.

  “Hopefully until his echo fades,” Elwin told her. “But I guess it depends on how long that takes. Right now it’s one day at a time.”

  She couldn’t help her sigh.

  One day at a time.

  One problem at a time.

  It was the plan they always fell back on, no matter how hard they tried to widen their focus.

  And it never seemed to get them anywhere.

  “Is Edaline here?” Keefe asked, turning to scan the rest of the Healing Center.

  Sophie shook her head. “She hailed me this morning and said the Council put Grady on assignment for the next few days—something to do with the dwarves, I think. So she’s going to stay at Havenfield to take care of the gorgodon and help Sandor with everything he’s got going on with my new bodyguards.”

  The excuse made perfect sense—but Sophie was also 90 percent certain that Edaline was trying to give her some space. And while she felt a little bit bad for chasing her away, she couldn’t deny how nice it’d been to not be fussed over all morning.

  Then again, she’d also had to get dressed all by herself, and that had been an adventure. Even with the altered tunics, she’d still had to twist her body in all kinds of unnatural ways as she fought to wriggle out of one shirt and tie on another without moving her right arm.

  “That’s right—I heard you were going to be part of a multispeciesial bodyguarding experiment,” Keefe said. “Please tell me you’re going to make them wear glittery armor that says Fearsome Foster Five!”

  Sophie rolled her eyes. “Ha-ha.”

  “I’m serious! What’s the point of having your own army if you can’t make them wear embarrassing uniforms? Feel free to draw inspiration from this.” He cringed as he waved his hands in front of his Level Six uniform.

  It was the same half cape, plus jerkin, plus pants combo as all the other grade levels—but it looked significantly worse in solid white, with a yeti pin at the base of his neck.

  “They’re not an army,” she argued, because denial was becoming her new best friend.

  Keefe smirked. “If you say so, Foster. Did Edaline tell you anything about them?”

  “Not much. All I know is it’s going to be Sandor and Flori, plus a dwarf named Nubiti, a troll named Tarina, and an ogre named Botros.”

  The last name made Ro unleash an impressive string of ogre curses.

  “I take it that means you know the guy?” Keefe asked.

  Sophie could see every one of Ro’s pointed teeth when she said, “I do.”

  “And?” Keefe pressed.

  “It’s none of your business,” Ro snapped back.

  “Pretty sure it is, since Foster’s supposed to trust him with her life,” Keefe argued.

  Ro muttered a few more creative words under her breath. “Bo’s a loyal Mercadir. That’s not the issue.”

  “You call him Bo?” Keefe noted as Sophie asked, “Then what’s the issue?”

  Ro ignored both of them.

  “Stay here,” she told Keefe, “and don’t even think about leaving until I return.”

  “Where are you going?” Elwin called as she headed for the exit.

  “To throttle my father.”

  The door slammed hard enough to shake the walls, and Sophie, Keefe, and Elwin all shared a look.

  “Yeah . . . we definitely need to get the story on Bo and Ro,” Keefe decided.

  Sophie nodded. “Do you think they dated?”

  “Ohhhhhhhh, now I do! And I’ve been trying to get dirt like that on Ro since she got here!” He cracked his knuckles. “Okay, this is going to call for some epic-level snooping—and
if that doesn’t work, I guess I know what my next bet will be!”

  “No more betting,” Elwin warned. “At least not on my watch. And today’s lesson better be chaos-free or I’m nixing these little sessions.”

  “Aw, we can’t have that. Foster would miss me too much. Who knew the way to her heart was my mad teaching skills?”

  “Or I’m just bored,” Sophie countered.

  “Nah, you’re realizing I’m the total package. Beauty and brains—”

  “And super modest,” she noted.

  “Exactly! And, because my amazingness knows no bounds, I even come bearing presents!” He pulled a box of Prattles from his cape pocket with a dramatic flourish. “Today you’re getting my brilliant lesson and candy!”

  He tore open the box and fished out the tiny satchel, dumping the collectible pin into his hand.

  “Cool—the Prattles kraken! I’ve always wanted one of those!” He held up the tiny replica of the giant sea monster. “Remember when the Black Swan had us leap under the ocean and that kraken wanted to eat us?”

  “Kinda hard to forget,” Sophie told him. “And you can keep the pin.”

  “Uh-uh, it’s yours.”

  “But you want it.”

  “And I want you to have it! So how about we call him ours? We’ll name him Krakie, and he can live right here.” He pointed to the bandage covering her right hand. “That way Krakie can protect you from the echo—not that you need protection. He’ll just be your backup.”

  Sophie wasn’t sure why her voice sounded so thick when she said, “It’s good to have backup.”

  “It is.” His smile softened into something that made Sophie’s cheeks warm. And her heart seemed to trip over itself as he leaned close and carefully pinned Krakie to the back of her hand, right in the center.

  His palm rested over hers when he finished, and she got the sense that there was something he wasn’t saying. But then his eyes skipped past her, landing on Fitz for a beat before he shifted his focus to Elwin.