Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8) - Shannon Messenger Page 0,173

go—that was why she’d dragged herself downstairs. But much as she hated to admit it, Sandor had been right to haul her back to bed. There was definitely no way she could’ve stood in a fancy gown with a crown on her head and listened to the Council answer everyone’s questions about the arrangement.

She would’ve passed out for sure.

So instead, she’d been the mysteriously absent team leader.

The one everyone was probably wondering about. Whispering about—

“Here,” Fitz said, distracting her with a tiny silver box tied with silky teal ribbon. “That’s what I meant to bring by yesterday.”

Sophie hoped he didn’t notice the way her hands shook when she untied the bow and pulled open the lid to find…

“You have a charm bracelet, don’t you?” Fitz asked as Sophie picked up the intricate silver charm—a howling dire wolf, just like her Regent patch.

“I do.” She didn’t wear it very often because Grady and Edaline had bought it after she was kidnapped, when they thought they’d be extending their annual commemorative charm tradition to another lost daughter.

But that didn’t make it any less thoughtful and amazing of a gift.

It was perfect.

Just like Fitz…

“I love it,” she told him, tucking the tiny wolf safely back into its box and wishing she could think of something more meaningful to add than, “Thank you so much.”

But she wasn’t perfect—especially when it came to romantic gestures.

Fortunately, Fitz didn’t seem to notice.

“Don’t thank me yet! You still have one more gift—and this one’s special. So special it comes with a speech.” He held her gently by her shoulders, waiting for her to meet his eyes. “I know this boyfriend-girlfriend thing is hard for you. Don’t shake your head—we both know it is. And that’s okay. I get it. And I’m sure you remember me telling you that we’d go at your pace. I asked you to trust me. And then… I don’t know, somehow things got a whole lot more complicated, and I felt like I didn’t know what to do anymore. And I know that’s probably made it even harder for you to trust me, so I want you to know that nothing’s changed for me, okay? Nothing. Still no pressure. Still no time limit. Still your pace. And I’ve been trying to figure out how to prove that, and… this is the best I could come up with.…”

He let go of her shoulders and reached into his cape pocket, retrieving something as wide as a book but much thinner, covered in shiny teal paper.

And when Sophie unwrapped it…

“Oh wow,” she breathed, needing a few seconds to even process what she was seeing.

It was a picture of her and Fitz, sitting under Calla’s Panakes tree, just like they were right then. Only the scene was darker. And he was sitting even closer, with his hand cradling her cheek and…

“This is a memory,” she realized.

His memory.

Of the night he’d just been talking about—when he’d promised he’d wait for her to be ready for all the relationship stuff.

He’d even captured the tears that had slipped down her cheeks while they’d been talking—and Sophie could feel new ones burning her eyes.

“How did you…?” she asked, still trying to understand what she was seeing.

The gift looked more like a painting—but Fitz didn’t paint, did he?

And the style looked familiar.…

“Keefe helped me,” Fitz admitted, before Sophie’s brain could get there. “I started out projecting the memory—but… it didn’t look quite right, because I don’t have a photographic memory like some people. So there were details missing, and parts that were a little blurry. So I paid Keefe to paint over it and add in all the stuff my mind didn’t get right.”

“Wait—you paid Keefe?” Sophie asked, not sure why that was the part her mind had fixated on.

Fitz nodded. “Otherwise it’s his gift—and it’s not. This is from me. Just like I’m the one who wrote the words on the back.”

Sophie hadn’t thought to flip it over. But she did, and there, in Fitz’s neat handwriting, was his simple plea:

Trust me.

“I do,” she promised, feeling her tears spill over onto her cheeks. “I just—”

“I know,” he interrupted, taking her hand and tangling her gloved fingers with his. “I get it. The unmatchable thing—it threw us both off. And I really wish I’d handled it better. I should’ve done everything I could to make it clear that it doesn’t change anything for me. I’m still here, still waiting on you to set the pace. And I know it’s all going to work