Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8) - Shannon Messenger Page 0,123

Keefe held out the pack of Jammie Dodgers.

Grizel snatched the cookies and stomped off after Fitz.

“Oh, but Fitzy?” Keefe shouted as Fitz reached the bend in the hall. “I want to know all the memories you see, okay? Not because… whatever. It’s just possible there’s something in his head that’ll knock something loose in mine, you know?”

Fitz gave him a thumbs-up.

“Boys,” Ro told Sophie. “They really are high-functioning amoebas.”

“It’s a good thing we’re cute, right?” Keefe countered.

When Ro didn’t agree, Keefe launched into a long pondering on whether Ro considered Bo to be a “hunky ogre,” and Sophie decided to flee before the bacteria started flying.

But she couldn’t leave without making sure Keefe was okay.

He assured her he would be—and the third time he said it, he almost sounded convincing.

He also promised he’d try to come up with a subtler plan for investigating the names on his list of possible biological parents. But Sophie wasn’t holding out much hope on that front.

“Subtle” wasn’t really a word that fit with “Keefe Sencen.”

“Thanks again for the biscuits,” he said as she dug out her home crystal. “And don’t think I’m going to forget about the E.L. Fudges you owe me.”

Sophie had no doubt she’d be hearing about them endlessly.

“I’ll find a way to get you some,” she promised, ignoring Sandor’s protests—though those weren’t as spirited as they normally were.

She wondered if that meant Sandor had already resigned himself to the fact that elf-shaped cookies were going to have to happen.

And Sophie was about to leap away when she realized she had one more thing she wanted to tell him. “Thanks for listening, Keefe. It… really helped.”

Keefe’s smile was slower than usual—but it lit up his whole face. “Anytime, Foster. And I meant what I said. You’re not doing anything wrong. But if you change your mind and go ahead with the reset? I’ll be right there to make sure you get through safe.”

Sophie nodded. And she’d just pulled Sandor into the light when Keefe called after her, “Oh, and don’t worry about the Fitzster. I’ll talk to him.”

Lots of ogre curses filled the air as the rushing warmth swept Sophie away.

* * *

Back at Havenfield, Sophie lasted about ten minutes in her bedroom before the walls closed in. And she had to give Grady and Edaline credit. When they saw her stumbling down the stairs with her comforter, pillows, and Ella, all they’d said was, “What else do you need?”

Even Sandor and Bo didn’t argue with Sophie’s plan. They just set to work rearranging the nightly patrols to better cover Calla’s Panakes tree. And thanks to Edaline’s conjuring, it only took a couple of minutes to get a hefty mound of pillows and blankets neatly arranged under the swaying branches.

Wynn and Luna seemed to think the campout was the greatest idea that Sophie had ever had, and were snuggled up in her makeshift bed even before Sophie had added the final pillows.

Iggy didn’t mind it either. He was snoring like a garbage truck within about thirty seconds of Grady setting his cage next to Calla’s trunk.

“So… is this going to be a regular thing?” Edaline asked as she and Grady helped Sophie crawl past the tangle of alicorn legs to get under her covers.

“I don’t know,” Sophie admitted. “I just… couldn’t breathe inside tonight.”

“I know the feeling,” Edaline told her, kissing Sophie on her forehead.

“And I’m not trying to be nosy, kiddo,” Grady added. “But… I have to ask if this has anything to do with your meeting with King Enki.”

“I have a meeting with King Enki?” Sophie asked.

Grady nodded. “The Council’s taking you, me, and your team to Loamnore in two days—and since you clearly didn’t know that, I guess that answers my question.”

“Yeah,” Sophie said, feeling a whole new set of worries stack up inside her brain. “Wow. I’m… getting really bad at this.”

“Bad at what?” Edaline asked, lowering herself to the grass and petting Luna’s sparkly rump.

“Juggling,” Sophie admitted. “I used to be so much better at keeping track of all the things I needed to focus on. But now…”

She’d barely thought about the dwarves.

Or Team Valiant.

Or Tam.

The last one hit the hardest.

Especially when she considered how much time she’d spent focusing on herself—fighting about healing her abilities. Stressing about boy stuff, and matchmaking stuff, and her biological parents.

“Why is it so hard to remember what really matters?” she asked quietly, staring up at the stars.

“Because it all matters,” Edaline told her, reaching for Sophie’s hand. “And for the