Neverseen

by Shannon Messenger

  She watched him shuffle from foot to foot, his fingers twitching, twitching, twitching. “I don’t know what you’re up to, Keefe—but you promised you’d let me help.”

  “I know. But this is something I have to do by myself. It’s fine, though, I swear. It’s all going to be fine.”

  He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

  “Remember when we were at the Black Swan’s ocean hideout, and you ate the drugged cookie and left me all alone with Silveny?” he asked. “I trusted you. I’m just asking you to do the same.”

  “I seem to remember almost dying that day . . .”

  “And I’m saving the near-death experiences for you and Fitz. I like being alive.” He stepped closer then, so close she could count the snowflakes in his eyelashes, which were much longer and darker than she’d realized. “Please just trust me, Sophie.”

  She chewed her lip. “You’ll hail me later and let me know you’re okay?”

  “I’ll hail you as soon as I can.”

  That wasn’t the answer she’d been looking for, and it definitely added to her worries. But she couldn’t think of anything else to say except, “Okay.”

  He grinned at her then, a real Keefe grin, and she let herself believe she was making the right decision.

  She managed to stay convinced as they said a quick goodbye—even as she pulled out her home crystal and held it up to the light.

  But then she noticed the crystal in Keefe’s hand and realized it was pale yellow—the same color as the crystals that went to the Neutral Territories.

  Without thinking, she lunged and grabbed Keefe’s shoulders, letting the light carry her with him as he glittered away.

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Keefe yelled as they reappeared by a bloodred lake, surrounded by stark, misty mountains.

  Sophie recognized it from the memory she’d seen in Mitya’s mind. “I should ask you the same question. Are you serious right now? Were you actually thinking of breaking into an ogre prison by yourself?”

  “Go home, Sophie.”

  “I’m not leaving without you.”

  He grabbed her home crystal pendant and tried to hold it up to the light, but she wrestled the pendant away.

  “Please,” he begged. “You have to get out of here.”

  “So do you!”

  “I can’t.”

  Round and round the arguing went, and Keefe lunged for her home crystal again. It flew out of her hand, splashing into the red lake.

  Keefe was shaking now, tearing through his pockets, searching for another crystal.

  “You don’t have your home crystal with you?” she asked. “How were you planning to get back?”

  “He wasn’t,” a familiar voice said behind them.

  Sophie studied Keefe’s face, noting that he didn’t look the least bit surprised as she turned to find Alvar, Fintan, and Brant.

  SEVENTY-EIGHT

  THIS IS A trap, Sophie realized. But it didn’t seem to be the Neverseen’s doing.

  Somehow, some way, Keefe had set this up.

  So what was his plan?

  And why hadn’t he told her?!

  “I must say”—Fintan raised his hands, ready to call down flames—“you’ve really outdone yourself, Mr. Sencen. Miss Foster is an excellent addition to our bargain.”

  Keefe jumped in front of Sophie. “She’s not supposed to be here.”

  Brant’s scarred smile crawled straight out of Sophie’s nightmares. “Then we’ll consider her an excellent bonus.”

  Sophie hadn’t noticed that Alvar had vanished until she felt his arms wrap around her. She screamed and thrashed and kicked, but he was too strong. He pinned her arms behind her with one hand while he ripped her Black Swan pendant off her neck and tossed it to Brant.

  “Let’s leave the fires to the professionals, shall we?” Brant asked as he crushed the monocle under his heavy black boot. “I’ll take yours, too.”

  Keefe jerked away as Brant yanked the pendant off his neck.

  “Must we really do this again?” Brant asked, snapping his fingers and creating a sphere of Everblaze.

  “Not if you let her go,” Keefe said.

  “I’m finding it rather hard to believe your commitment,” Fintan told him. “Surely you’ve realized that switching sides means betraying your friends.”

  Sophie’s stomach switched to vomit mode. “What is he talking about, Keefe?”

  “You can’t guess?” Brant asked.

  She was developing some terrifying theories—but none of them made sense. Or they didn’t until Fintan asked Keefe, “Where’s the cache?”

  The only way they would know she had the cache was if Keefe had told them. He must be running the same trick she’d had him use on King Dimitar, offering something the Neverseen wanted in order to get information.

  But what kind of information?

  And then she knew.

  There are better ways to save your mom, she transmitted to Keefe. Let’s get out of here and we’ll figure it out together.

  Not that she had any idea how they were going to get away. Her home crystal was gone, and Keefe didn’t seem to have one either. But the mountains weren’t that far away. If they made a run for it they might be able to get high enough to teleport—assuming she could get out of Alvar’s viselike grip.

  “We should finish this at the hideout,” Alvar said, as if he knew what she’d been planning. “Ruy will be wondering where we are.”

  “Not until he proves he can deliver the item,” Fintan said. “Show us the cache.”

  “Let her go first,” Keefe snapped back.

  “There you go again, making it hard to trust you. So let’s make this easier.” Fintan shoved Keefe to the ground and grabbed Sophie from Alvar. He squeezed her arm so hard she wondered if the bone might snap.

  Everblaze erupted in his free hand and he held the flames under Sophie’s nose. “Give me the cache,” Fintan said, “or I’ll start giving her scars like the ones she gave Brant.”

  “Okay,” Keefe said, stumbling to his feet. “I’ll get it right now.”

  Sophie was trying hard to think of a way to help him out of his bluff when she heard the sound of her voice saying, “221B Baker Street.”

  The cache dropped into Keefe’s palm with a plop, and Sophie’s jaw fell.

  “How did you . . .”

  Keefe wouldn’t look at her. “I pieced it together after I heard you training with Fitz. And mimicking’s easy.”

  “Give it here,” Fintan ordered.

  Don’t do it, Sophie transmitted.

  Keefe kept his focus on Fintan. “You’ll honor the rest of our deal?”

  “If you prove your loyalty,” Brant snapped.

  “I brought the cache—what more do you need?” Keefe asked.

  “You haven’t actually given it to us,” Fintan reminded him. He pointed to Alvar, who was the only one with free hands.

  Sophie couldn’t breathe when she saw the look on Keefe’s face. There were so many emotions stretched across his features: Pain. Sorrow. Regret.

  But the worst was shame.

  “Don’t do it,” she begged. “That cache could destroy everything.”

  “That’s the point,” Fintan agreed. “Three seconds, Mr. Sencen, then things get ugly.”

  Sophie couldn’t fight back her sob as Keefe handed Alvar the cache. She tried to grab it telekinetically, but Alvar’s grip was too tight. And as soon as he had it, he leaped away.

  Gone.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Fintan said, still holding the flames under Sophie’s nose. “But you still have one more test before I’ll trust you. And since the strongest bonds are created with fire . . .”

  Brant smiled and picked up the bent frame of Sophie’s ruined monocle pendant. He passed the dented metal through the flames of Everblaze, then offered it to Keefe. “Brand her a traitor and maybe we’ll believe your commitment.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Sophie asked as Keefe to
ok the red-hot pendant. “How can you join them after everything they’ve done?”

  Keefe’s eyes stayed focused on the brand. “I can’t pretend I’m who you want me to be anymore.”

  “What does that even mean?” she screamed.

  Keefe’s voice was choked now, but Sophie was too angry to cry.

  “It means I got more memories back,” he said. “I’m not like you. You were made to be the hero. I was raised to be something . . . else.”

  He reached toward her face, and she braced for searing pain. But all he touched was the necklace he’d given her. “I wanted you to have this before I left,” he whispered. “I thought it would be good for you to have something to remember me by. In case someday . . .”

  “I’m growing impatient, Mr. Sencen,” Fintan warned.

  “Give me a second!” Keefe traced his fingers over the beads, lingering on the one he’d made. “I know why my dad hated it now. It looks like our Exillium necklaces, doesn’t it? That’s why my mom must’ve liked it. She knew I was meant to be the outcast. You keep trying to fix everything, Sophie. You even fixed Exillium. But you can’t fix me.”

  His eyes met hers then, and they held some sort of plea.

  He glanced to his left, and she followed his gaze, spotting the faintest trace of a light path, glinting out of the tiny crystal on the new bead he’d painted for her.

  “You understand, right?” Keefe asked.

  “No.” But she did. Sort of.

  Come with me, she transmitted.

  “I have to do this,” he said. “Please don’t hate me.”

  Their eyes met again and he nodded toward the faint trail of light he was still holding in place.

  Sophie swallowed hard, wishing there was something—anything—she could do to take him with her. But her only choice was to channel the full force of her mental strength and twist free of Fintan’s iron grasp. She fell toward the path, taking one last look at Keefe’s anguished face as the light he’d created for her pulled her away.

  SEVENTY-NINE

  I THINK WE need to go through this one more time,” Mr. Forkle said, pacing across the petaled carpet of Sophie’s Havenfield bedroom. The rest of the Collective stood near the doorway, and Grady and Edaline sat with her on the bed.

  They’d wanted to hail Elwin, but Sophie wasn’t injured—unless crushed hearts counted.

  The path Keefe had made for her had brought her straight home, erasing any doubt that he’d wanted her to escape. He’d probably used his mom’s crystal-making kit when he painted the bead. But none of that changed the fact that he’d given the Neverseen the cache—using her voice. And that he’d clearly arranged the whole meeting.

  If she hadn’t followed him, he’d still be with the Neverseen right now.

  He’d still be a traitor.

  The word made her dizzy and nauseous and ache in places she didn’t know could hurt. And it only got worse as she recited the story from the beginning again.

  Grady’s hands curled into white-knuckled fists. “I knew we shouldn’t have left you alone with that boy!”

  “If it makes you feel any better,” Sophie mumbled, “he didn’t want me there either.”

  “Which is significant,” Granite jumped in. “He clearly never meant to put Sophie in danger, and he took quite a risk getting her out of there.”

  “What do you think the Neverseen will do to him?” Sophie whispered. “They’ll have to know he helped me.”

  “Perhaps not,” Mr. Forkle said quietly. “Mr. Sencen has always had a talent for spinning convincing stories and excuses.”

  “You mean lying,” Grady corrected, the word dripping with bitterness.

  “It’s a trick we’ve all been forced to rely on at times,” Granite reminded him, gesturing to his rocky disguise. “I understand the disappointment you’re feeling—”

  “I’m more than disappointed!” Grady snapped. Edaline took his hand, trying to calm him.

  “I know,” Granite tried again. “But right now, our focus should be on developing our contingency plan.”

  “What do you mean?” Sophie asked.

  “Mr. Sencen knows quite a lot about our organization,” Mr. Forkle said, “including the location of Alluveterre, and my identity as Sir Astin, as well as the Hekses involvement.”

  “You don’t think he’d tell the Neverseen that, do you?” Sophie asked.

  “We have to prepare for the possibility.” Granite turned to Blur, Squall, and Wraith. “Can you increase security at Alluveterre? And explain the situation to Tam and Linh, and Vika and Timkin?”

  “Sophie will need extra security as well,” Mr. Forkle added. “All the children will.”

  “We’ll take care of it,” Blur said.

  “I’d like to hear your plan,” Grady told him. “Keefe knows far too much about Sophie for us to treat this lightly.”

  “He wouldn’t hurt me,” Sophie insisted.

  Grady shook his head. “He already has.”

  The words loomed over her as Grady followed Blur, Wraith, and Squall out of her room. Edaline started to follow, then turned back and hugged Sophie tight.

  “We’ll figure this out,” she promised. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

  “Fine” didn’t sound nearly as comforting as Edaline probably wanted it to. But Sophie still told her, “Thanks.”

  Edaline hugged her again, then left Sophie alone with Mr. Forkle and Granite. Somehow the smaller group made it easier for her to ask the question she couldn’t get away from.

  “Do you think Keefe is bad?”

  “ ‘Bad’ is a relative term,” Mr. Forkle said. “All I can say is that he’s become very reckless.”

  “So you think his guilt made him do this?” Sophie asked.

  “I think he’s desperate for answers we cannot give him,” Granite said. “And this is the path he has chosen.”

  “But how is this a path?” Sophie asked. “The Neverseen will never trust him unless he convinces them he’s one of them.”

  “And therein lies the recklessness,” Mr. Forkle agreed. “It will be up to Mr. Sencen to decide his level of commitment.”

  Sophie’s mind flashed to what Fintan told Keefe during their confrontation.

  Surely you’ve realized that switching sides means betraying your friends.

  Was that why Keefe had given her the necklace?

  She stared at the bead he’d made. The tiny crystal she’d used to escape had dissolved—but it had been there.

  And it had saved her.

  But he hadn’t known she’d be following him that day, so he must’ve made the bead for “just in case.”

  It helped thinking that, imagining Keefe trying to preplan for any possible dangers. Except . . .

  He’d only made one bead.

  “And you have no idea what he meant,” Granite said, “when he mentioned that he’d regained memories his mother had erased.”

  Sophie shook her head. “All he said was that he was raised to be something else.”

  “Likely another part of this Lodestar Initiative,” Mr. Forkle said. “We’ll have to increase our efforts to learn more about it. Perhaps I should pay Gethen another visit.”

  “I’m going with you,” Sophie said.

  His mouth started to curve with a “no,” but at the last second he changed it to, “Of course. I’ll speak with the Council to arrange it. In the meantime I urge you not to make rash decisions. Don’t be too quick to give up on your friend. But do not trust him blindly, either.”

  “What about the cache?” Granite asked, unleashing a whole new set of worries. “The Council won’t be happy to know Sophie has lost it.”

  “We must recover the cache—quickly,” Mr. Forkle said, “before the Council discovers it’s missing.”

  “You mean we’re not going to tell them Keefe stole it?” Sophie asked.

  Mr. Forkle sat next to her on the bed, his bulky weight making her lean toward him. “This isn’t the first time we’ve had to
keep secrets from the Council. And it likely won’t be the last. If the cache remains missing too long, we’ll inform them. But to tell them now would only be a distraction.”

  “How are we going to get it back?” she asked.

  “I’m still working on that,” Mr. Forkle said. “But hopefully, with the right planning, we can recover everything we’ve lost.”

  The glint in his eyes made it clear he wasn’t giving up on Keefe either.

  “Sounds like she’ll need a good bodyguard,” a high-pitched squeaky voice said from the doorway.

  Sophie jumped out of bed and sprinted across the room, throwing her arms around Sandor. She didn’t mind at all when he lifted her off the ground, or the noseful of musky goblin scent.

  “I’m not hurting you, right?” she asked, realizing how tight she was squeezing—even if it was hard to imagine hurting so much rock-hard goblin muscle.

  Sandor laughed. “No, Miss Foster. I’ve never been better.”

  He set her down and turned to Mr. Forkle, informing him of the new security protocols Grady and the rest of the Collective had agreed upon, which included bodyguards for Fitz, Biana, and Dex, as well as regular observation of Everglen and the Hekses’ house. The best news was that Sandor would resume his supervision of Sophie.

  Sophie tried to listen to the rest, but she kept staring at the bead in Keefe’s necklace. He’d chosen a Panakes blossom, which Calla had said could heal anything.

  As she stared longer at the intricate flower, she noticed tiny letters painted into one of the petals—the same petal that had hidden the crystal that saved her.

  Trust me.

  Mr. Forkle cleared his throat, reminding her she wasn’t alone.

  “You’re not alone,” he said, making her wonder if he’d been eavesdropping on her thoughts. “And I think it’s important for you to know that as you enter this next phase in your life. You’re back in the Lost Cities. Back under the watchful eye of the Council. Returning to the routines of Foxfire. And I’m sure everything that’s happened will make you question who’s truly on your side. So I think it’s time to finally answer a certain question you keep asking, don’t you, Granite?”

  “I do,” Granite said, though he sounded wary.