Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8) - Shannon Messenger Page 0,210

Sophie said as he dropped his hand from her chin. “You have to tell Fitz that I was a part of what happened with his brother. No taking all the blame on yourself. I’m serious,” she added when Keefe started to argue. “Promise me that, or I’m going with you when you talk to him.”

Keefe nodded slowly. “All right, Foster, I promise I won’t cover for you.”

“Do you also promise you’ll go back to focusing on your memories?” she pressed, and Keefe flopped back on the bed. “And that you’ll do everything you can to stay far away from the Neverseen?”

He clearly wasn’t happy about it. But he told her, “Yeah. I’ll keep hiding from my legacy.”

And they both tried to believe that his mom would let it be that easy.

* * *

Sophie wasn’t sure how much Keefe wanted her to share about their recent discoveries when she group-hailed Stina, Dex, Wylie, and Biana. But she decided her teammates needed to know at least some of the details so they would understand what they were up against.

She left out all the stuff about weird fertility treatments and focused on the fact that Keefe’s mom would probably be having Tam try to use shadowflux to trigger some sort of extra ability in Keefe.

And she reminded them that Tam thought the process would be fatal.

“Should we have Maruca stay with Keefe?” Stina asked. “That way she can put a force field around him if his mom shows up at his house or something?”

“Tam can break through force fields,” Sophie reminded her, wishing that Shades weren’t quite so powerful. Because Keefe probably was going to need extra protection. And Sophie had no idea what would actually be able to stop Tam.

“Have you told any of this to Linh?” Wylie asked, and Sophie fought back a tinge of guilt as she shook her head.

“I’ll tell her,” he offered.

“And I’ll reach back out to Lady Zillah,” Stina added, “and see if she has any ideas on how shadowflux would trigger an ability—or how to stop it, or… I don’t know. Seems worth checking.”

“It is,” Sophie agreed, wishing she’d thought of the idea herself.

The best she’d come up with was to mention to Dex, “I don’t suppose you can build a gadget—”

“That’ll block shadowflux?” Dex finished for her. “I doubt it, since I don’t really understand how that stuff works. But I’ll still do some brainstorming.”

“If you need me to enhance you again, let me know,” she offered—and almost ended the conversation there.

But…

Biana deserved to know about Alvar.

The news did not go over well—especially the part about how Alvar was very likely dying.

And when Sophie asked, “Are you mad at me for letting him go?” there was an endless stretch of silence.

But Biana did sound like she meant it when she eventually told Sophie, “No.”

That was all.

Just that one word.

But it was enough to give Sophie a trickle of hope that maybe Keefe’s conversation with Fitz wasn’t going as badly as she feared.

Part of her wanted to sit there, staring at her Imparter long after her teammates had clicked away, waiting to see if Keefe or Fitz would hail her. But she was getting better about remembering to focus on the bigger, less personal problems.

Sandor was updating Flori on everything, so Flori could pass a message on to Mr. Forkle. But the Council should probably know as well—and not just the bullet points, like Sophie had given her teammates.

The Council should have the whole story.

And since the idea of discussing fertility treatments with Bronte sounded about as fun as having her head chewed on by a T. rex, Sophie told her Imparter to show her Councillor Oralie.

The pretty blond Councillor’s expression was impossible to read as Sophie filled her in on everything. The only noticeable reaction was a slight flinch when Sophie described how painful Lady Gisela’s “treatment” had been.

“Thank you for telling me,” Oralie said when Sophie finished. “I’ll admit, I’m not entirely sure what to do with that information.”

“Neither am I,” Sophie said. “But I still thought you should know.”

“We should,” Oralie agreed. “And actually… it’s helped me make up my mind about something I’ve been debating. Mr. Forkle told me that the strength of your enhancing has increased significantly since your abilities were reset, and that he’s now hoping you’ll be able to find the means within yourself to switch the power on and off in order to prevent anyone from taking advantage. I’m assuming you’ve not had much luck with that endeavor?”

“I