Just like you guys did when Keefe was in the same position.”
“Yeah, but Keefe was different. He chose to run off and join the Neverseen without anyone threatening him.” He’d foolishly thought he could take them down by pretending to be on their side. “And he had nothing to lose. Tam has Linh.”
“I think Keefe had more to lose than you realize,” Edaline said, her lips curling into one of those annoying parent smiles that always seemed to say, You’ll understand when you’re older. “He still does. But my point was, he got out of there before it was too late.”
“Barely,” Sophie mumbled.
And Lady Gisela had claimed that the real reason Keefe remained alive was because he was her son and benefited from her protection.
Tam didn’t have that advantage.
“It’s a tricky situation,” Edaline admitted. “But the good news is, Tam has a group of smart, dedicated friends to help him through this—and I’m sure they’re just as eager to get to work as you are. So don’t be afraid to lean on them.”
Sophie nodded, watching Wynn chase his tail in stumbling circles. “I guess I should hail them and explain what’s going on.”
She could hear the dread in her voice and was certain Edaline had picked up on it. But Edaline didn’t bring it up as she kissed Sophie’s cheek and lowered her arm.
“I should get over to the gorgodon enclosure and see how the gnomes are doing,” Edaline said, taking a couple of steps down the path before she turned back to Sophie. “Oh, but in case you were wondering, I know there’s still something you’re not telling me. And if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I’m not going to pressure you. But I figured I should at least tell you that I’m onto you.”
She said it with a smile, but Sophie still had to fight the urge to tug out an itchy eyelash—her much-too-noticeable nervous habit. Discussing boy troubles with her mom was about as fun as being dropped into a pile of sparkly alicorn poop.
Plus…
Grady and Edaline had already lived through all kinds of bad match drama with Brant and Jolie—and it had not ended well. She didn’t want her situation to send them back to the miserable place they’d been in when she first met them.
“You can tell me anything,” Edaline assured her, as if she’d guessed part of Sophie’s worries. “I realize I haven’t always been as strong as you needed me to be—”
“You’re very strong,” Sophie interrupted, scrambling for an explanation that wouldn’t hurt Edaline’s feelings. “I just… want to be strong too.”
Edaline stepped closer, taking Sophie’s gloved hands. “You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met. I know you can handle anything. But you’re carrying such heavy burdens for someone so young. I wish you’d unload some of them on me. I understand if you’d rather face it alone. I guess I just want you to know that you don’t have to.”
Sophie’s heart felt like it was pressing against her throat, and for a second, she was tempted to blurt out everything. But… she was also worried about how Grady and Edaline would react to her plan to fix her matchmaking situation.
They’d never been bothered by her connection to her human parents, but her biological parents might be a different story. They were elves, living somewhere in the Lost Cities. And once Sophie knew who they were, it would probably change things. Not that she’d want to live with either of them—or even want to talk to them, honestly.
These were people who’d been okay with letting their child be part of an experiment, knowing it would likely put her in constant danger. People who’d let her grow up in a forbidden world without them. People who hadn’t made any attempt at contacting her now that she was back in the Lost Cities. In fact, for all she knew, she saw them all the time and they never gave her the slightest clue that she meant anything to them.
Probably because she didn’t.
She wasn’t their daughter.
She was the Black Swan’s creation.
And as far as Sophie was concerned, they were nothing more than DNA donors.
That was why she didn’t care about Mr. Forkle’s reasons for keeping their identities secret. Her genetic parents chose to be a part of Project Moonlark. Nobody forced them to do it. So if having people know about their involvement caused problems for them, that was their own fault.
She shouldn’t have to deal with a lifetime of scorn just