Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8) - Shannon Messenger Page 0,90

people often complained about the challenges of keeping her and her friends focused on a single topic.

Wylie shook his head. “No. But she said we should definitely talk to Lady Zillah. Apparently Tam did a ton of late-night training sessions that he wouldn’t let Linh go with him on because he said they were too dangerous.”

“That… doesn’t sound good,” Dex murmured.

No, it did not.

“Okay… so when would be a good time to meet with Lady Zillah?” Sophie asked. “Is everyone free tomorrow?”

“Why do we all have to be there?” Stina wondered. “Isn’t the point of us being a team so that we can do five things at once and then loop back and fill each other in on what we’ve learned?”

Once again, Sophie had to admit that Stina had a valid point—and she surely had some serious Stina-bragging in her future for conceding. But time was of the essence, so she said, “All right. Who wants to be in charge of meeting with her?”

“I get the impression she’s not a fan of Flashers,” Wylie said, “so it might be better if it’s not me.”

“Actually, I think it should be you,” Sophie realized.

Lady Zillah did have some very strong opinions about how overrated Flashers were—and light in general—particularly since Shades were generally looked down on in the Lost Cities.

But after leaping with the Sources and feeling the potency of that glowing power—and how cooperative it was—Sophie didn’t want to lose track of the bigger picture.

If shadows and shadowflux were going to be the Neverseen’s focus, perhaps the best countermeasure would involve light in some form.

“Maybe bring Stina with you,” Sophie suggested, “as a buffer.”

Miraculously, Stina didn’t argue.

She even agreed to take notes and give Sophie a full update once they’d learned everything they could from the Shade Mentor.

Which left Team Valiant with the bigger challenge they needed to be focusing on—the threat that felt so huge, it made Sophie want to hand her wolf patch to an adult and say, “Shouldn’t this be your job?”

“Okay. Moving on,” she said, trying to sound as leaderlike as she could. “Since it sounds like King Enki might be difficult to work with, I think we want to prepare as much as we can before we visit Loamnore.”

“Uh-oh, are you about to give us the ‘we need to do lots of research’ speech?” Dex asked. “Because it’s not too late to change your mind!”

“We do need to do research,” Sophie insisted. “But it doesn’t have to be hours and hours in the library. I think, in this case, we’d be way better off going straight to the source.”

She motioned for everyone to follow her, and there was shockingly little debate as Sandor, Bo, Flori, Lovise, and Woltzer took the lead and their whole group made their way down the flower-lined path through Havenfield’s rolling pastures—though Biana and Stina did get sidetracked when Wynn and Luna came trotting over for some nuzzling.

“Are we teleporting somewhere?” Dex asked when they made it to the Cliffside gate.

“You’d better not be,” Sandor warned as Sophie squatted to undo the lock.

She shook her head. “Not today.” And she couldn’t help grinning when she noticed how relieved Stina looked by the news—but her smile faded when Dex turned very pale.

“Are we going where I think we’re going?” he whispered.

Sophie nodded, wishing she’d thought to check with him when she put this plan together. “Is that a problem? If it is—”

“No, it’s fine,” Dex interrupted.

But it didn’t sound fine.

“You don’t have to worry,” Lovise told him. “You have me now.”

“Um… where are we going?” Stina asked.

Sophie chewed her lip, wondering if she should course-correct—or if that would only embarrass Dex.

“There’s a cave down there,” Dex explained, making the decision for her. “It’s… where Sophie and I used to practice alchemy.”

“You mean the cave where the Neverseen grabbed you guys?” Biana asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Sophie admitted. “But we don’t have to—”

“Yes, we do.” Dex stood up taller. “If you can go back there, so can I. Plus, we have five bodyguards with us.”

“Six,” Sophie corrected. “Which is why we’re going there—you’ll see what I mean in a minute.”

“Then lead the way,” he told her, gesturing to the now unlocked gate.

Sophie studied Dex a second longer and was about to reach for his hand—but Biana beat her to it, making Dex jump a little as their fingers twined together.

Sophie smiled, definitely not missing the pink flush across Dex’s cheeks as she pulled open the gate. “Okay, let’s do this.”

Sandor, Bo, and Woltzer drew their swords