“I’m guessing this isn’t what you were expecting,” Elwin told Keefe, setting Bullhorn down so that the slinky banshee could duck down some tiny gap in the glass floor and scurry away under their feet.
It was and it wasn’t.
Honestly, Keefe had never really given a whole lot of thought to where Elwin went when he wasn’t at Foxfire.
He knew Elwin had to live somewhere.
He’d just never had a reason to imagine it.
And now… he lived here too—at least temporarily.
Life just kept getting weirder and weirder.
But it was way better than going back to the Shores of Solace and Daddy Dearest, with his constant demands and criticism—especially since his dad would love that Keefe couldn’t snap back with any jokes or insults.
And it was definitely better than letting the Council build him a “facility.”
Plus, Elwin had a steady supply of sedatives, and Keefe did not share Foster’s aversion to drug-induced sleep. He’d actually been planning to beg Elwin to knock him out for a few more days—or weeks, whatever it took—hoping he’d wake up and his senses would be back to normal.
But as soon as the Councillors left, Elwin started scrambling to pack up and get them out of there, so that sleep-away-the-troubles plan would have to wait.
Elwin claimed he was worried that the rest of the Council would try to change the plan once they knew what was happening, so he wanted to get Keefe settled in so they could see how well things were going. But Keefe was pretty sure Elwin was mostly just trying to find some way to fill the excruciating silence that followed Foster’s sudden departure.
She’d raised her home crystal to the light and disappeared as soon as Keefe had agreed to Alina’s condition—without even saying goodbye.
Keefe couldn’t blame her.
He closed his eyes, forcing himself to remember the look on her face—the hurt and betrayal and sadness and anger.
Even if he wasn’t an Empath, he would’ve felt each emotional blow.
And he deserved to, because he knew she was already blaming herself for what happened, and he’d basically told her that he blamed her too.
It wasn’t her fault.
It was his fault—and his mom’s fault.
He’d only told Sophie to stay away because… he was scared.
And embarrassed.
And what if he discovered more horrible changes?
He needed some time and space to figure out how to hide everything that had happened—and he wasn’t going to be able to do that with Miss Worries-Too-Much watching him with a crinkly-forehead stare.
So… he’d told her to go away—and then he’d been too big of a jerk to even tell Fitz he should go after her.
He’d thought about it, so maybe Fitz had been eavesdropping again, and that’s where he went when he left a few minutes later.
But Keefe doubted it.
Fitz could be pretty dense when it came to things like that.
And some tiny, selfish part of Keefe secretly hoped he was right. Because if Fitz couldn’t figure that out on his own, he didn’t deserve Foster.
Then again, neither did he.
Ro heaved a sigh. “I hope you have some cures for ‘mopey boy’ in that little satchel of yours, Doc. Otherwise it’s going to be one big sulkfest around here. And I never thought I’d say this, but it’s even worse without Hunkyhair talking.”
“Sadly, there’s no cure for teenage angst,” Elwin told her, motioning for them to follow him to a glass staircase tucked into the far corner. “Though baked goods can help—and I always have some fresh ripplefluffs in my pantry. Today’s are chocolate peanut butter.”
Keefe shook his head as hard as he could.
His stomach was still recovering from the squelchberries.
“Aaaaaaaand there’s the sparkle-overload,” Ro said when they reached the top of the stairs and found themselves in a hall where the windows were draped with crystal-beaded curtains and the doors were each positioned near fancy chandeliers.
“Told you I was a fan. The bottom level is my quiet space, so I kept things simpler. But up here is where I live.” Elwin pushed open the first door, revealing a room packed with so many stuffed animals, Keefe almost wanted to swan-dive into them and drown in fuzzy snuggles. “This is my Emotional Support Stuffed Animal collection. Mrs. Stinkbottom used to be right there.” He pointed to a small gap near a stuffed griffin and a stuffed ghoul. “But I thought she’d be happier with you. I’ll make sure your dad sends her over here tomorrow, along with some clothes and anything else you want. But if you need a snuggle buddy stand-in for tonight, might I suggest Boo Boo the boobrie?”
He pointed to a black-and-yellow stuffed bird with a mohawk and long, curled eyelashes.
“See, and I think Hunkyhair might prefer cuddling with that,” Ro said, pointing to a shimmering silver moonlark.
Keefe rolled his eyes as Elwin coughed to cover his laugh.
“Come on, seriously! An eye roll is all I get for that?” Ro tapped the top of Keefe’s head. “I know you have about a billion snarky comebacks dancing around this brain. Bet you’re composing another verse of The Ballad of Bo and Ro, too. What do you think is going to happen if you say it? I’m going to fall madly in love with him? Actually, you know what? Let’s not test that, just to be safe. But come on, Hunkyhair, hit me with something. I deserve it for that moonlark comment!”
Keefe turned away.
Somehow the longer he stayed quiet, the scarier it felt to speak. Like his words might be storing up power.
“I’m not going to let anything happen, Keefe,” Elwin assured him, grabbing Boo Boo the boobrie and leading them down the hall to the far door. “But if you need a little time to process all of this, I’m not going to fight you. Right now, I want you to settle in and get some rest.”
He pulled open the door and Ro groaned. “Okay, now you’re just messing with me.”
“Kind of,” Elwin agreed. “But not completely. I call this my ‘prism room.’ Everything is designed to catch the light differently.”
“Yeah, and it’s sparkle overload,” Ro grumbled, shielding her eyes.
She wasn’t wrong.
The walls were covered in tiny crystal beads that refracted so many glints of light, the floor and ceiling looked like a hologram. And the bed was piled with dozens of jewel-encrusted pillows.
“If it’s too much, we can move you to another room tomorrow,” Elwin told him, “but for tonight, I thought it might be good to have you sleep in here. Because the best part about the prism is…”
He snapped his fingers, turning off the chandeliers and transforming the room into a tiny universe. Each fleck of light was now a star, twinkling steadily though the inky darkness.
“Ohhhhh,” Ro breathed. “Now these are my kind of sparkles.” She ran a hand gently down the wall, watching the stars shimmer on her skin. “This reminds me of my father’s palace. Some of the microbes he cultivates there look just like this.”
Keefe might’ve imagined it, but Ro sounded a little choked up. And normally he would’ve teased her about it. So he was actually kind of glad he had a reason to stay quiet.
He never really thought about what it must be like for Ro, living somewhere so different and far away from her own world—particularly because it was also somewhere people sometimes judged her or mistreated her or tried to kill her.
“Okay, this is officially freaking me out!” Ro said, grabbing Keefe’s wrists and shaking his arms. “Stop looking at me all sappy like that! And stop with the thoughtful silence! It’s time to be you again. Bring on the insults! Bring on the rhymes. Bring on the bets!”
“He’ll get there,” Elwin said when Keefe pressed his lips tighter together. “He just needs some time to process. And sleep will help too. I’m guessing you don’t want any dinner?”
Keefe shook his head so hard, it hurt his neck a little.
“Then I’ll leave you to settle in. But I want you to
take these before you go to bed.” He dug through his satchel, pulled out five vials in various shades of blue, and set them on the round table beside the bed. Then added a deep purple one. “That last one’s a sedative, since I have a feeling you’re going to want one—but I’ll leave that up to you. The others aren’t optional, but that one is. And if you need anything else… well, I was about to say ‘holler,’ but I think we both know that’s not going to happen. So just come find me. I’ll be in my lab for the next few hours, which is the third door on the other side of the hall.”
“You gonna make something to fix our boy?” Ro asked.
“It’s not about fixing.” His eyes shifted to Keefe. “You’re not broken, Keefe. I know it feels like it. But right now, you’re just… adjusting. And I have a few ideas for some elixirs that might help smooth out the process. That’s what I’ll be working on—though I might need to wait until I speak to Kesler Dizznee tomorrow morning. I don’t usually work with amarallitine, and it can be a little volatile. Plus, I need to go to Slurps and Burps to get some supplies. Anyway, none of that really matters to you. Sorry, I think out loud a lot when I’m home, so it’s a little strange having someone around here who can hear me. Try to get some rest. And if you want to dim the lights more, just keep snapping. I figured you might not enjoy darkness right now, so I have it on the brightest setting. But if you can’t sleep with all that light, there are ten other levels, including absolute pitch black. I wouldn’t recommend that one unless you take the sedative—and then it won’t really matter since you’ll be knocked out cold anyway. Aaaaaaaand I’m rambling again. Sorry. Gonna take some getting used to, having company.”
He gave some sort of awkward wave as he turned to leave.
“Wait.”
It took Keefe’s brain a second to process that the whispered voice had come from him, and he squeezed his eyes shut for a beat, hoping hoping hoping he wouldn’t find Elwin frozen in place when he opened them again.
“Everything okay?” Elwin asked when Keefe dared a peek.
Keefe released the breath he’d been holding and nodded.
But he needed to use his voice again to say two things.
First, “Thank you.”
He wanted to add more, since Elwin deserved a lot more gratitude than that for taking him in and saving him from ending up in one of the Council’s facilities.
But each word was a risk, and he’d thought of something much more important to communicate—something that might be another way to help him take control of his new abilities.
He cleared his throat, telling himself to keep his tone neutral as he whispered, “Tell Dex.”
Elwin frowned. “Tell Dex what?”
Ro knew what he meant. “Actually, that’s a good idea. Your techy friend made something to help Blondie with some of her abilities, didn’t he?”
Keefe nodded.
Technically, some of the gadgets had been made by Tinker—the Black Swan’s Technopath—but Dex had designed some bracelets that would’ve helped Sophie with her enhancing if he hadn’t used crush cuffs and made it awkward.
Dex had even invented an ability restrictor—which… had seemed like a really horrible idea. Particularly after the Council forced Foster to wear it.
But it might be good to have Dex build a backup, just in case, and key it to his DNA so there was no way the gadget could be used on anyone else.
“Tell Dex,” Keefe repeated, and that time Elwin got it.
“I will,” he promised. “Now take your medicine and go to bed.”
- FIVE - Sophie
I brought you some breakfast,” Edaline said as she made her way over to Sophie’s enormous canopied bed—even though the tray she was carrying of sliced purple fruit and sugar-sprinkled pastries pretty much spoke for itself.
And what the tray said was: I know I’m a Conjurer and could’ve snapped my fingers and made this appear in your room, but I’m using breakfast as an excuse to check on you.
Which was sweet.
Sophie knew that.
She also knew how lucky she was to have such caring, supportive adoptive parents.
But… she really wasn’t in the mood to talk.
“I know,” Edaline told her, proving that mom-intuition could sometimes be just as powerful as telepathy. “And I’ll leave you alone if you want me to. But… Elwin hailed me last night and told me what happened, so I have to at least make sure you’re okay.”
Sophie buried her face between Ella’s floppy blue elephant ears. “I’m fine. It wasn’t a big deal.”
That’s what she’d been telling herself ever since she’d fled the Healing Center.
Keefe was just trying to be extra careful until he figured out how to control his new ability—she should be grateful for that!
He was being cautious instead of reckless.
And it wasn’t like he’d told her to stay away forever.
But… her mind kept replaying that nod he gave Oralie. The set of his jaw and the determination in his eyes almost felt like…
Like he wasn’t even going to miss her.
Like he didn’t care at all.
Which was a really weird—really pointless—thing to be thinking about when she should be trying to figure out what Lady Gisela was planning, and what Elysian was, and how to find Kenric’s cache.
And yet, there she sat, strangle-hugging her stuffed elephant instead of getting up and getting dressed and doing something productive.
She’d also barely slept, despite the soothing images of meadows and mountains and endless starry skies that Silveny kept flooding her mind with—and she’d thought about camping out under the Panakes with Wynn and Luna, but… she didn’t feel like snuggling. Even with adorable baby alicorns.
She just wanted to be alone.
Okay, fine, maybe she wanted to sit there feeling sorry for herself for a few more hours—but in her defense, it had been a rough couple of weeks.
She’d sorta broken up with Fitz. Found out Councillor Oralie was her genetic mother. Watched helplessly as Keefe nearly died from his mom’s horrible experiments. Spent days sitting by his side in the Healing Center, worrying he’d never wake up. And now that he had, he’d basically told her to go away.
“Must’ve been pretty scary,” Edaline said as she set the tray on the bed next to Sophie and carefully sat down beside her. “Feeling numb like that.”
Sophie shrugged. “The thing about being numb is, you can’t feel anything.”
“I guess that’s true. But it sounded like what happened afterward was… intense.” She stopped there, as if she were hoping Sophie would fill in the rest of the details. But Sophie was sure that Elwin had already told her more than enough.
Edaline sighed. “Fine, I won’t force you to talk about it. But you do need to eat something. You went to bed without dinner.” She nudged the tray closer. “At least try one of the sugarknots—I guarantee they’ll be one of your new favorites. And Flori brought the fruit from her personal garden. I don’t actually know what it is, but she insisted you try it.”
Sophie stared at the neatly arranged slices, which were such a dark purple, they looked like they would stain her teeth. “Maybe later.”
Edaline blocked her from pushing the tray away. “Flori also wanted me to tell you that the fruit came from a very special tree—a tree she grew using seeds that Calla sent her right before she chose to sacrifice herself. And the seeds came with a note that said, ‘Grow these for my moonlark.’ ”
Sophie sat up straighter, setting Ella aside. “Really?”
Edaline smiled and held up the plate.
Sophie reached for a slice, and maybe she was imagining it, but she could’ve sworn she heard one of Calla’s soft songs as she lifted the fruit to her lips—a gentle melody about how shedding leaves helps a tree survive the harsh winter.
She closed her eyes, savoring that tiny connection to her lost friend before she took a taste and…
It was like eating sunshine.
She tried to savor each bite, but all too soon the fruit was gone. So she moved on to the sugarknots, which turned out to be flaky—like croissants—and were filled with some sort of rich brown-sugar custard.
“Thank you,” she told Edaline, dusting the extra sugar off her hands. “And thank Flori, too.”
“You’re welcome!” Flori called from the hallway. “I was so excited when that tree finally started to produce! I decided to name the fruits dawnlings, since they have to be harvested at sunrise. And I have a good crop growing now, so I can bring you some whenever you need another boost.”
“I’m sure that’ll be soon,” Sophie called back, feeling her mood already sinking.
Edaline snapped her fingers, making the empty tray disappear so she could scoot close enough to wrap her arm around Sophie’s shoulders. “I’m guessing you still don’t want to talk about it.”
“Not really.” Sophie tilted her head forward, hiding behind her hair before she added, “It’s just been… a lot.”
“I know.” Edaline tucked Sophie’s hair behind her ear. “That’s why I’m here. I wish you’d let me help. I doubt I can do anything for Keefe. But I might be useful for whatever you and Oralie are working on—and don’t even think about telling me you guys aren’t up to something. She was here for way too long yesterday. She also came alone, so I’m guessing this project is a bit less official than your Team Valiant assignments.”
“It is,” Sophie admitted, trying to figure out how much to say. “But I’m not working on it with Oralie anymore.”
Not since Oralie had proven that anything Sophie shared with her would go straight to the Council.
Plus, it wasn’t like they’d had much of a plan to find Kenric’s cache, anyway. All she was supposed to do was talk to Fitz about Alvar—and she’d left the Healing Center in such a rush that she’d forgotten to do that.
She could hail Fitz now, of course, but… if he knew anything, he would’ve already tracked down his brother, wouldn’t he?
She also wasn’t in the mood to get yelled at again.
Unlocked 8.5 (Keeper of the Lost Cities) Page 34