Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8) - Shannon Messenger Page 0,235

you not to be here.”

“I know,” Linh said, adding his fresh tears to the others. Surrounding them in their own kind of starlight. “But I am here. Because we’re stronger together.”

“For the record, Hunkyhair,” Ro called from somewhere behind Sophie, “that was the answer you should’ve given.”

“And much as I hate to break up this touching brother-sister bonding moment,” Lady Gisela added, her voice echoing around the room—everywhere and nowhere—“NEUTRALIZE THE HYDROKINETIC!”

Tam straightened, his body turning soldier-rigid, and his eyes clouded as he raised his hands, opening his mouth, but…

He shook his head and stumbled back—crying out in pain and curling his arms around himself and shaking, shaking, shaking.

Linh scrambled toward him, but Tam raised his hands again, this time like stop signs. “Stay back! It’s not safe! I’m not safe!”

He pulled down his sleeves, revealing the glowing bonds on his wrists—which definitely were brighter than King Enki’s crown.

Sophie could barely look at them.

And every time she tried, it felt wrong.

“Think there’s any way a Flasher can break those things?” Sophie asked Wylie, who was already making his way closer—with Maruca and Sandor right behind him.

“I’ll try my best,” Wylie promised.

“And it will never work,” an unfamiliar female voice told him. “Only the person who sealed the bonds can unseal them.”

“And I’m guessing that was you?” Keefe called into the darkness.

“It was,” agreed the voice, which had to belong to the other member of the Neverseen—who was clearly the person they needed.

More fire, Sophie transmitted to Marella, and Marella made her blue fireball double in size.

Heat licked Sophie’s cheeks as she searched the brighter space, relieved to finally see all of her friends.

But there were still too many shadows and cracks and crevices.

Keep her talking, Sophie transmitted to Keefe as she opened up her mind.

She was finding this girl—now.

And she was making her set Tam free.

“That didn’t bother you? Treating someone like that?” Keefe called to the girl, obeying Sophie’s request. “Didn’t make you wonder what they’d do to you if they were willing to do that to him?”

“You’re wasting your time,” Lady Gisela told him. “Glimmer’s more loyal to our cause than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Glimmer,” Keefe repeated. “Wooooow. Okay, then. How’d you pick that name?”

“Am I the only one wondering what we’re still doing here?” someone whispered in Sophie’s ear—arguably the last voice that Sophie wanted to hear. “This is a standoff now,” her biological mother informed her, “and our side seems to be out of moves—and King Enki’s surely rallying the troops. We need to get out of here.”

“How?” Sophie whispered back. “Tam can’t leave with those things on his wrists, and Linh’s not going to leave her brother, and I’m not leaving anyone behind. And even if we had a fix for all of that, how are we supposed to get out of the city?”

Keefe was right—they didn’t have an exit strategy.

And his hadn’t worked.

Which was strange.

He’d dragged even more of their friends into danger—he wouldn’t have done that unless they were essential to his plan.

And all Marella had done was make a couple of flames.

And all Linh had done was say hi to Tam.

Was that really all that was supposed to happen?

That was when she noticed the way Keefe kept shuffling his feet as he tried to draw out the conversation.

The very deliberate, repetitive pattern—as if he were calling for more dwarves and nothing was happening.

Which made her wonder how bad it was in the main marketplace.

What was Vespera doing?

It had to be something huge for King Enki to wait this long to come after the elves who’d pressed a knife to his throat.

Bile soured Sophie’s tongue, and she wondered if it was a mistake that she hadn’t reached out to Fitz—but were they supposed to do that if things went bad?

She closed her eyes, deciding it had to be better to know.

But as she stretched out her concentration… she heard it.

A low, audible rumble in the ground.

“I guess that means it’s time,” Lady Gisela said, her voice echoing everywhere as the ground shook beneath their feet.

“Time to find out what happens when you take a king hostage,” Councillor Liora told her. “Don’t expect us to speak in your defense.”

“Oh, I won’t,” Lady Gisela assured her as a dozen dwarves burst out of the floor—and a dozen more after that.

And Sophie shouted to her friends, “Raise your hands!”

Like humans did when they faced the police, to make it clear they posed no threat.

It’s going to be fine, she told herself. Keefe’s the one who helped