Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8) - Shannon Messenger Page 0,121

formulate a response—or even parse out what Lord Cassius was implying—Ro patted the side of her breastplate and told him, “Sounds like it’s time to bust out my extra fun bacteria buddies. Get ready to lose a lot of body fluids, Lord Snootypants.”

“Nah, save ’em for when it’ll really be worth it,” Keefe told her, stalking over to his father and tilting his head. “You wanna share all of our family secrets with the Fitzster—you do that. I have nothing to hide.”

“Neither do I.” Lord Cassius flashed a particularly oily smile before turning his attention back to Fitz. “I’m assuming you’d like to visit with your friends for a few minutes—be my guest. But don’t keep me waiting too long. I’ll be in my office.”

Keefe whistled as Lord Cassius left the way he’d come. “Wow. Have fun with that, Fitzy.”

He sounded so calm and casual that Sophie almost believed him. But she knew Keefe better than that. She’d seen the terrified, broken version of Keefe tucked behind his mask of snark and indifference. And she couldn’t blame him for being bothered by this.

He didn’t try to hide the abuse he’d suffered—but he definitely wasn’t an open book about it either. And now Fitz was going to read the extended, annotated version, complete with sound and visuals.

“I’d like to go on the record and make it clear that I was against this idea from the start,” Grizel informed all of them.

Fitz rolled his eyes, and Sophie stepped closer to him, keeping her voice low as she asked, “Why would you agree to this without telling us?”

“Uh, maybe I tried to tell you but someone ignored my hails—even though you promised you weren’t going to do that anymore?” he snapped back.

There was nothing Sophie could say to that except, “Sorry.”

“Yeah, me too.” Fitz looked away. “And just so you know, I agreed to do this to help Keefe. If Lady Gisela tried to hide something from Lord Cassius, we need to find it. And I figured Keefe would rather have someone he trusts poking around his father’s memories—someone he knows won’t tell anyone about anything he finds.”

“Except none of those other people that Keefe suggested were strangers,” Sophie couldn’t help reminding him. “And some of them he’d even worked with before.”

“Okay, everyone, relax! It’s fine!” Keefe flopped back down on the swing and scooped up the box of Custard Creams. “This is definitely not worth you two having your first Fitzphie fight over it. Seriously. Spend as much time with my dad as you want, Fitzy—and if you feel like telling people all about the fun things you learn, fine by me. If Daddy Dearest is cool with you knowing exactly how awesome he is to live with, by all means, spread the Sencen shame!” He tore open the box and fished out one of the biscuits. “Ooo, these ones are fancy! Check that out!”

He held up one of the rectangular sandwich biscuits and pointed to the swirling filigree pattern on the top. “Looks promising, doesn’t it? But there’s only one way to tell.”

Pale yellow crumbs showered his tunic after he took a huge bite, and he closed his eyes as he chewed. “Hm. Still a little on the bland side—but the cream center really helps. Definitely the best so far. You guys should get in on this.”

“Ugh, I think I’m on biscuit overload,” Sophie admitted.

“Better stop, then,” Keefe told her. “We don’t want you tossing your cookies—if you know what I mean.”

He looked very proud of his wordplay, so Sophie let him enjoy it.

“What about you, Fitzy?” Keefe asked, shaking the package of Custard Creams. “You’ve yet to experience the wonder of a British biscuit. And trust me, if you’re going to spend hours poking around my dad’s brain, you could use a good sugar rush.”

Fitz ran a hand through his hair as he made his way over, reaching for a cookie and—

Keefe snatched Fitz’s wrist. “I knew it!”

“Knew what?” Fitz shouted, trying to wrench his arm away.

Keefe tightened his grip. “Shhhhh, let the Empath work.”

“Ugh, a little help here?” Fitz asked Grizel, who was talking to Sandor, barely paying him any attention.

“No, this one’s your mess!” Grizel called over her shoulder. “You can get yourself out of it!”

“Relax, Fitzy, no need to take your frustrations out on the poor innocent biscuits!” Keefe told him when Fitz’s next escape attempt nearly sent the rest of the Custard Creams plummeting toward the floor. “I’ll let go in a second. First things first.