Sophie had wanted to stay by his side until he woke up, but Elwin insisted on treating her for frostbite and altitude sickness and smoke inhalation and a dozen other maladies her adventures had given her. And he didn’t ask about her missing circlet as he rubbed a healing balm on the abrasions on her forehead, but he gave her a huge hug when he was finished.
Sophie hugged him back, feeling her eyes burn with tears. She was starting to realize what choice Mr. Forkle had meant before she’d left Mount Everest. And she had no idea if she was brave enough to make it.
Alden had insisted everyone stay within Everglen’s protective gates—even Dex, who looked extra nervous in the grand, glittering halls, regardless of how many ways Della tried to make him comfortable.
Sophie was given the same bedroom she’d slept in twice before, once on her first night in the elvin world, and the other after she’d first been rescued from the kidnappers. But she knew this night would be her scariest night yet.
She sat awake long after Grady and Edaline brought her Ella to help her sleep, trying not to remember the heartbreak she’d seen etched into their faces. It wasn’t her fault they looked so lost and devastated—but it would be soon, if she did what the Black Swan had asked.
But did she really have another option?
“Can’t sleep either?” Keefe asked, peeking through the crack in her doorway. He fidgeted with the sleeves of the blue pajamas he’d borrowed from Fitz as he sat on the edge of her bed. “Please don’t ask how I’m doing. That’s all anyone’s said to me since I got here, and they keep tilting their heads and puckering their brows and it makes me want to punch them—and I really don’t want to punch you. Especially since I’m pretty sure you could knock me across the room.”
Sophie smiled at the cuff still on her wrist. She knew she should give it back to Dex, but she had a feeling she was going to need it.
A lot.
“So when do you leave?” Keefe asked, like he knew what she’d been thinking.
“Ugh—I swear, for an Empath, you act more like a Telepath.”
“That’s because I’d be an awesome Telepath. And I can guarantee, if I snuck into your head and saw secret things, I would tell you what they are. Most of them, at least. Okay, maybe just the part about you being completely lost without me and needing me to come with you when you leave.”
Sophie reached for an itchy eyelash, but stopped herself on the way. If she was going to do this, she needed to learn to be brave.
“I don’t even know if I’m going,” she mumbled.
“Yes, you do. I mean, you’re also scared and stressed and stuff. But I can feel your resolve. Shoot—I could feel it down the hall. Which is why I had to come in and bug you. Because I want in—and before you say anything, you should know I’m not really giving you a choice in this. I’ll follow you if I have to, but I’d rather not have to be creepy like that.”
“Keefe—”
He took her hand, waiting for her to meet his eyes. “Don’t make me beg, Sophie.”
“Keefe, if I do this, I don’t know when I’ll be able to come home.”
“Sounds perfect. Is now too soon to leave?”
“If you don’t want to stay with your father, I’m sure you could stay here.”
“Probably. But then I’d still have to see him.” He picked at a thread on the end of his sleeve, unraveling the perfect seam. “Who knew he’d turn out to be the ‘good’ parent? Didn’t see that one coming.”
“Keefe—”
“Whatever you’re going to say, I’m sure I’ve already thought it. I’ve been replaying the last few years of my life—and you know what I keep focusing on? That wound you spotted on my mom’s arm. The one you were worried my dad gave her? Turns out I gave it to her. I hit her with a goblin throwing star during that battle on the cliff, right after she clocked me in the head with a rock and knocked the melder out of my hand. And the thing is . . . I wasn’t wearing a disguise like she was. She knew it was me. And she still attacked me.”
“But she did stop Biana from falling off the edge of that cliff,” Sophie reminded him. “She didn’t have to do that.”
“She also pressed a melder to Biana’s brain and threatened to pull the trigger. She didn’t have to do that, either.”
“I guess that’s true,” Sophie admitted.
Honestly, Lady Gisela scared her way more than Brant did.
At least Brant had a reason for being broken and crazy.
Nothing would ever excuse the horrible things he’d done, but Sophie could understand why he’d joined the rebels in the first place. She knew better than anyone what it felt like to have her abilities stripped away, and the hard choices that had to be made.
“So when do you want to leave?” Keefe asked, sensing her mood shift.
Sophie threw up her hands. “I don’t even know where I’m going!”
“I do,” Fitz said, leaning in through her doorway. “One of the things Mr. Forkle showed me was the rest of that memory I found earlier—that window in Italy?”
He plopped next to Keefe on the bed, wearing the exact same pajamas, only his fit better.
Under normal circumstances, Sophie might’ve teased them about being twins. But given everything that had happened, all she asked was, “Did you find out where it is?”
“Yeah. I guess it’s in a city called Florence. Or was it Firenze?”
“They’re the same place,” Sophie explained. “Firenze is Florence in Italian. But that’s a huge city. Did it tell you any more information than that?”
Fitz nodded smugly. “But I’m not telling you until you say I can go with you.”
“And me!” Biana added, appearing in the corner of the room—making Sophie wonder how long she’d been there.
Sophie got up to pace, realizing only after she did that she was wearing a long pink nightgown Biana had loaned her, covered in sparkly unicorns. It might not have been so bad if Biana weren’t wearing a simple black tunic and stretch pants with red fluffy slippers.
“Guys, this isn’t some, like, fun adventure I’m going on,” she told them, crossing her arms and trying to look serious. “It’s not even like the other stuff you’ve helped me with. We’re talking about running away to find the Black Swan!”
“We are?” Dex asked from the doorway. “Guess it’s a good thing I came upstairs, then, because I definitely want in on that.
Dex was also wearing a pair of Fitz’s blue pajamas, though he’d had to cuff the pants and the sleeves several times to make them fit. The extra fabric swished as he made his way to where Fitz and Keefe were sitting and dropped down beside them.
“So where were we?” he asked.
“I’m pretty sure this is the part where Sophie goes on and on and on about all the reasons why she’s not going to let us go and we have to wear her down bit by bit,” Fitz told him.
“You’re not wearing me down!” Sophie insisted.
“She’s cute when she’s in denial, isn’t she?” Keefe asked. “Especially covered in sparkly unicorns.”
Sophie rubbed her head, wondering if it would be easier to hide in the bathroom until she was ready to leave. “You guys have to understand—if I do this, I’ll be a fugitive. Not only will I be going to live with the group the Council has basically made their Public Enemy Number One—”
“The group we all illegally went to help this morning?” Fitz asked, grinning at her when she was forced to nod. “Just making sure. Carry on.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Not only will I be going to live with the group the Council has basically made their Public Enemy Number One, but I’ll be doing it without the circlet they ordered me to wear—”
“You mean the circlet I illegally helped you remove and then threw into the Everblaze to destroy?” Dex asked.
“I see what you guys are trying to do,” Sophie told the
m. “And yeah, you’re probably going to be in trouble. But that’s not the same as leaving everything you know behind. If I do this, I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back. Is that really what you want?”
“Yes,” Keefe answered immediately.
“Yeah, I know,” Sophie told him, turning to Fitz, Biana, and Dex. “But what about you guys? Do you really want to leave your families, not knowing when you’ll see them again? Do you have any idea what that’ll do to them?”
“You have a family too,” Biana reminded her.
“I know.” And the stabbing guilt she’d been trying to ignore jabbed her heart like a hot poker. “But I don’t have a choice here.”
“Neither do we,” Fitz told her. “Like it or not, we’re all involved, Sophie. So you can let us come with you and we can solve this mess a lot faster together. Or you can be stubborn and try to sneak away and we’ll just follow you. In fact, we’ll beat you there, because—let’s not forget—I already know where you need to go, and you don’t.”
“Can I say something?” Alden said from the doorway, making them all jump.
They jumped again when they realized he wasn’t alone. Della, Grady, and Edaline all followed him into the room as Sophie sat beside her friends, bracing for the lecture of the century.
Instead Alden told them, “I think the five of you should go.”
“What?” they all asked in unison.
“To the Black Swan,” Alden clarified. “I think you should go.”
Fitz was the first to recover, clearing his throat and asking, “You do?”
“Yes. Mind you, it’s not what I want. What I want is to lock all of you in your various bedrooms to keep you safe. But when I embarked on my search to find Sophie—which was technically an illegal operation, by the way—I knew I was wading into dangerous waters. And yet I still did it, and even involved my son”—he smiled sadly at Fitz—“because of one simple fact: I knew it was right.”
He paused to look at each of them in turn before he continued.
“The Council was wrong when they sentenced you to wear that circlet, Sophie. Just like they were wrong to target the Black Swan. And to ignore the warning signs from the ogres. And I fear they’re going to get far worse when news of these recent adventures finds them. Which means—much as it pains me to admit—locking you in your bedrooms isn’t going to keep any of you safe right now. The best place you can be is with the group the Council has been failing to find for decades. And you have a much better chance of making it there safely if you go together. So I think you should leave. Tonight. In fact, the gnomes are already gathering a few things you might need for your journey. You should be ready to depart within the hour.”
“Seriously?” Biana asked, clapping her hands and clearly seeming way too giddy for the occasion.
Sophie turned to Grady and Edaline, who were both wiping tears from their cheeks. “You guys are really okay with this?”
“Yes and no,” Grady said, holding out his arms for a hug.
Sophie crossed the room and sank into them, tearing up when she felt Edaline’s fingers stroking her hair, lingering on the crown of her head where the circlet had been.
“Havenfield won’t be the same without you,” Grady said softly, “and it will always be ready for you to come home. But I have to agree with Alden. The safest place for you right now is with a group who knows how to hide. Dex’s parents agree as well. I met with them while Sandor was getting treated.”
Sophie glanced at Dex, and he nodded.
“But . . . will you guys be okay?” Sophie whispered, turning back to Grady and Edaline. “After . . . you know . . . you won’t need me?”
“We’ll always need you,” Edaline said quietly. “But that’s the point. What we need more than anything is for you to be safe. And I knew you wouldn’t believe me. That’s why I’ve already packed your things.”
She pointed to a purple backpack stashed by the door.
The same purple backpack Sophie had shown up with after she left her human family.
It was crammed a lot fuller this time. But it still seemed impossibly small.
Was that really all she’d have to help her for the next stage of her journey?
No.
She turned to study the faces of her friends—the faces that had been with her through everything. She’d fought so hard to protect them that she hadn’t really considered how much they’d protected her.
Individually they were vulnerable. But together, they were a team.
“You guys are sure you want to do this?” Sophie asked, needing to check one last time. “There’s no going back from here.”
Keefe smirked. “Uh, how many times do I have to tell you: Bring it on, Foster. I’m ready.”
“Me too,” Fitz promised, nodding quickly at his dad.
“Me three,” Biana agreed.
“So the real question,” Dex said, flashing his dimpled grin, “is, are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yes,” Sophie told him, not needing any deep breaths or counted seconds before she decided.
She was ready.
So all she had left to say was, “Let’s go join the Black Swan!”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Yay, you made it to the end—and you’re still reading! That makes me ever so happy. So I want to start by thanking you, dear reader, for coming along with Sophie and her friends on their incredible journey through the Lost Cities. Thank you for reading, for telling your friends, for following me online, and for all of the amazing e-mails and fan art that you take the time to send me. You make this job worth doing.
*reaches through the pages to hug you*
I would also never survive this crazy, confusing business without an army of brilliant people at my side.
Laura Rennert, I can’t thank you enough for your unfailing belief in both me, and this series, and for handling all of the complicated agent-y things so I don’t have to deal with them. I also want to thank the entire team at Andrea Brown Literary, as well as Taryn Fagerness for her untiring efforts to bring KEEPER to readers all around the world. And to my foreign publishers, thank you for taking a chance on these books, and for all of the time and energy you put into translating them for your readers.
Liesa Abrams Mignogna, thank you for rolling with every twist these stories throw at me, and for always pushing me to make the books they best they can be. I also want to thank everyone at Simon & Schuster for the support they give this series, especially Mara Anastas, Mary Marotta, Lauren Forte, Fiona Simpson, Alyson Heller, Emma Sector, Carolyn Swerdloff. Julie Christopher, Lucille Rettino, Paul Crichton, Michelle Fadlalla, Venessa Carson, Anthony Parisi, Ebony LaDelle, Matt Pantoliano, Michael Strother, Amy Bartram, Jeanine Henderson, Mike Rosamilia, Siena Konscol, and the entire sales team. Plus a tremendous thank you to Karin Paprocki for yet another breathtaking cover design, and to Jason Chan for his seriously stunning artwork.
Thank you, Kari Olson, for the peptalks, honest opinions, and lightning-fast critiques—plus your ever-loyal support for all things related to Keefe. And thank you, Sara McClung, for squeezing in a second read among all the hectic, new-mom things, and Sarah Wylie for loving the draft so much, you’re now contemplating a switch to Team Fitz. (I know how much it pained you to admit that)
Every author also needs a network of writer-friends to lean on and laugh with, and I’m lucky to say I have some of the best. Thank you, Heather Brewer, MG Buerhlen, Lisa Cannon, Christa Desir, Debra Driza, Kirsten Hubbard, Nikki Katz, Lisa Mantchev, Andrea Ortega, Cindy Pon, CJ Redwine, James Riley, Amy Tintera, Kasie West, Natalie Whipple, and Kiersten White, plus the wonderful ladies of Friday the Thirteeners. I also must thank Margaret Peterson Haddix for joining me for some very hectic touring in the Midwest, and for braving a midnight Walmart bathroom stop somewhere between Minneapolis and Milwaukee. (Oh, the glamorous lives we authors l
ead.)
I will never be able to properly express my gratitude to the teachers, librarians, bloggers, and booksellers who have gotten behind these books and helped get them in the hands of readers, especially Alyson Beecher, Katie Bartow, Maryelizabeth Hart, Faith Hochhalter, Katie Laird, Kim Laird, Brandi Stewart, Andrea Vuleta, and so many others. I wish I had the space to thank you all individually, but since I don’t (this book is rather thick, after all), I hope you all know how much I truly appreciate each and every one of you, and if I haven’t had a chance to meet you in person yet, I hope our paths cross soon.
To my parents, thank you for telling pretty much every person you meet that they need to read these books (regardless of whether or not they have kids), and to all my friends and family, thank you for the unending amount of slack you cut me as I battle through my crazy deadlines.
Last, but definitely not least, I must thank my husband, Miles, who I seriously don’t know what I would do without. Thank you for celebrating every high and holding my hand through every low. And thank you for pushing us to get one more kitten. You were right, we needed an orange one.
About the Author
Shannon Messenger graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts where she learned—among other things—that she liked watching movies much better than making them. She’s studied art, screenwriting, and television production, but realized her real passion was writing for kids and teens. She is the author of the middle grade Keeper of the Lost Cities series and the young adult novels Let the Sky Fall and Let the Storms Break. She is also one of the founders and organizers of WriteOnCon, a free online Writer’s Conference for kidlit writers held annually in August. She lives in Southern California with her husband and an embarrassing number of cats. Find her online at ShannonMessenger.com.
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Also by Shannon Messenger
Keeper of the Lost Cities
Everblaze (Keeper of the Lost Cities Book 3) Page 42