Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8) - Shannon Messenger Page 0,164

arms and down her legs.

Keefe snorted as he rushed over to help. “You listen almost as well as I do, you know that, Foster? Here.”

He lifted her gently by the shoulders and eased her into a sitting position, propping her back and arms with extra pillows. “Better?”

She nodded, needing a second to catch her breath. “Definitely wouldn’t mind if Elwin and Livvy let me take some pain medicine.”

“Yeah. Me neither.” He shook his arms as he backed away, and she realized his empathy was making him suffer through everything she was feeling—and she’d just made it worse for him by being stubborn.

She cleared her throat, planning to say, Sorry. But at the last second she changed to “Thank you.”

“For what?” Keefe asked.

“For helping me sit up. And for staying here for so many days. And… for whatever you did to get me through the reset.” Her memories were a scrambled mess, but she definitely remembered one thing. “You sent me a green breeze, didn’t you?”

Keefe’s gaze shifted to his hands, which were fidgeting with the loosened laces of his jerkin. “I mean, I can’t always see the color of the emotions—and honestly, sometimes I’m not even sure what emotions I send. My ability gets a little abstract when you’re enhancing me, so I don’t always know what I’m doing. But I do know I wanted you to feel like whatever was happening was a fresh start, so it wouldn’t be as scary for you, since your fear was spiking even worse than your pain.”

“A fresh start,” Sophie repeated, feeling her lips curl into a smile. “I guess that’s a better way of looking at it than fixing my broken ability so I won’t be useless or ruin anything else.”

Keefe whistled. “It’s kind of ridiculous how hard you are on yourself.”

Sophie shrugged—then wished she hadn’t when they both winced from the tearing sensation that zinged through her shoulder muscles. “I have to be hard on myself,” she told him. “I have lots of people counting on me.”

“You do. And I get it. But just… don’t forget what I said before. The only thing you have to be is Sophie Foster. That’s more than enough.”

“Awwwwwww—good one, Hunkyhair!” Ro called, ruining the moment—not that it was a moment or anything like that. “Way to recover!”

Sophie cleared her throat, trying to move past the cloud of awkwardness now hanging over them. “So… Dex, Biana, Stina, and Wylie are working on Team Valiant stuff with Grady? Did they say what they were doing?”

“Not really. I’m not on the team, so… I don’t get to know the secrets.”

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand, the awkwardness got a whole lot worse.

“Pretty sure it had to do with the dwarves, though,” Keefe added quietly. “And Dex told me to tell you they’ll stop by tomorrow morning to see if you’re awake, so I’m sure they’ll update you on everything then. After all, you’re their Fearless Lady Fos-Boss.”

Sophie sighed. “More like the Failing Lady Fos-Boss. No, really,” she added when he opened his mouth to argue. “I totally forgot to check in with Wylie and Stina after they did… something I might not be allowed to talk about. And I forgot to give Dex and Biana anything important to do while Stina and Wylie were working on that. And I almost inflicted on all of them in Loamnore—and then had to have my abilities reset and ended up unconscious for three days. And who knows how much longer I’ll be stuck in bed.”

“See, but I seem to remember Bronte—Bronte! The-Dude-Who’s-Tried-to-Have-You-Exiled-Almost-as-Many-Times-as-Dame-Alina-Has-Tried-to-Have-Me-Expelled, so you know he’s not just being nice—saying that you were the reason King Enki didn’t throw you guys out of Loamnore. And by the way, King Enki was mad because the Council and the Black Swan totally botched things with the scheduling. Your mistakes were nothing on that—and you’re new at this. Plus… I mean… being a leader actually seems pretty hard.”

“It is,” Sophie admitted, staring at her hands—and realizing she wasn’t wearing gloves. She also noticed a new bruise, the same size as the star-shaped scar it was next to, which she’d gotten the last time her abilities were reset. “Is that where they injected the allergy remedy?”

Keefe shook his head. “The main shot went into your leg. But then when Elwin had to start doing chest compressions, Livvy dug out a much smaller syringe with green liquid in it and stabbed that into your hand. Does it hurt?”

“Everything hurts.” Sophie slid her hand under her blankets so she wouldn’t keep staring