Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8) - Shannon Messenger Page 0,46

summed it up for them. “You have to be kidding me.”

“We’re not,” Councillor Emery assured her. “We’ve invited the five of you here today because you’ve each been chosen for this revolutionary new approach to the Regency—but the arrangement hinges on Miss Foster’s willingness to accept the position of leader.”

“Leader,” Sophie repeated, liking that term even less when the Council was the one assigning it to her.

“Yes,” Councillor Emery said, pausing to glance at each of the other Councillors before he added. “The leader of Team Prodigious.”

SEVEN

SO, QUESTION,” DEX SAID, BREAKING the uncomfortable silence. “Can we get a cooler name? Because ‘Team Prodigious’ is an epic fail.”

“I’m not even a prodigy anymore,” Wylie added.

Sophie knew she should probably worry that Wylie would be annoyed that he wasn’t being put in charge, given that he was the eldest of their group, and the only one of them who’d actually taken the elite levels—and was therefore the only one legitimately qualified to be a Regent. But her brain was too stuck on the fact that she was expected to officially be the leader.

Of Team Prodigious.

Her nose crinkled.

Dex was right. That name had to go.

“It’s not a reference to prodigies,” Councillor Emery tried to explain. “ ‘Prodigious’ means ‘extraordinary.’ ”

“It also means ‘abnormal,’ ” Councillor Bronte informed them, with the closest thing to a smile that his sharp-featured face was capable of making.

“Yeah, well, whatever your boring reasons are,” Dex said through a feigned yawn, “the name’s still a deal-breaker for me.”

“Me too,” Biana agreed. “I think we should be Team Sparkles, because we’ll make everything better!”

Dex snort-laughed—then frowned. “Wait, was that a serious suggestion?”

Biana’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t hear you coming up with any better ideas.”

“I was getting to that!” Dex scratched his chin and tapped his foot for several beats. “Okay. What if we went with something cool and space-y, like… Team Nebula?”

“You realize that would technically make us Team Swirling-Cloud-of-Gas, right?” Biana asked, earning a choked laugh from Grady.

Even with his green spotlight, Sophie could see Dex’s blush spread all the way to the tips of his ears. “Is that what ‘nebula’ means?” he mumbled. “I always get it confused with ‘galaxy.’ But hey… nothing wrong with a little gas, am I right?”

“Everyone has it,” Wylie agreed.

Stina groaned. “Are you hearing this?” she asked the Councillors. “Why would you pick these losers for something so important?”

“Uh, because these losers have taken on the Neverseen how many times now?” Dex snapped back.

“And lost how many times?” Stina countered. “Oh, that’s right—all of them.”

“We haven’t lost,” Biana argued.

“Well, you certainly haven’t won.” She pointed to Biana’s scars, and Biana—to her credit—didn’t flinch.

Della, on the other hand, looked like she’d gone into full mama-bear mode and was imagining the many ways she could use her fancy defense training to drop-kick Stina across the room and then step on her with the spikes of her heels.

“Yeah, well, what have you done?” Dex asked, stepping into Stina’s personal space. He was still shorter than her. But almost everyone was.

Stina got even taller when she straightened to her full height and said, “Uh, how about I saved the alicorn babies and reset the Timeline to Extinction?”

“Um, the people who saved those babies were Sophie, my brother, and the trolls,” Biana corrected.

“Do not underestimate the role my daughter and I played that day!” Vika snapped.

“Maybe you did important stuff,” Dex told her. “But I heard Stina put out some blankets or something? Good job! No one else could’ve done that.”

“There was a lot more to it,” Stina argued. “And what was the last gadget you made that actually worked right? Because I heard a bunch of things failed at the Celestial Festival.”

“That wasn’t Dex’s fault,” Sophie mumbled. “The null that Tinker designed for me interfered.”

“And a Technopath couldn’t tell that was going to happen?” Stina asked, clicking her tongue. “If Dex was any good, he would’ve been prepared.”

Dex snorted. “Yeah, well, at least I actually fought back that night. What were you doing? Hiding behind Mommy and Daddy?”

One of the Councillors sighed—Sophie was pretty sure it was Councillor Zarina because she looked like she wanted to zap all of them with lightning. “I’m starting to remember why we don’t work with teenagers.”

“It’s going to be an exercise in patience,” Councillor Darek agreed, tearing a hand through his dark, curly hair.

“Hey, we’d be fine without Stina,” Biana pointed out. “She’s the one causing all the drama.”

“And Keefe’s a way more powerful Empath than she is,” Dex added. “So it’s a super-easy