strange having someone around here who can hear me. Try to get some rest. And if you want to dim the lights more, just keep snapping. I figured you might not enjoy darkness right now, so I have it on the brightest setting. But if you can’t sleep with all that light, there are ten other levels, including absolute pitch black. I wouldn’t recommend that one unless you take the sedative—and then it won’t really matter since you’ll be knocked out cold anyway. Aaaaaaaand I’m rambling again. Sorry. Gonna take some getting used to, having company.”
He gave some sort of awkward wave as he turned to leave.
“Wait.”
It took Keefe’s brain a second to process that the whispered voice had come from him, and he squeezed his eyes shut for a beat, hoping hoping hoping he wouldn’t find Elwin frozen in place when he opened them again.
“Everything okay?” Elwin asked when Keefe dared a peek.
Keefe released the breath he’d been holding and nodded.
But he needed to use his voice again to say two things.
First, “Thank you.”
He wanted to add more, since Elwin deserved a lot more gratitude than that for taking him in and saving him from ending up in one of the Council’s facilities.
But each word was a risk, and he’d thought of something much more important to communicate—something that might be another way to help him take control of his new abilities.
He cleared his throat, telling himself to keep his tone neutral as he whispered, “Tell Dex.”
Elwin frowned. “Tell Dex what?”
Ro knew what he meant. “Actually, that’s a good idea. Your techy friend made something to help Blondie with some of her abilities, didn’t he?”
Keefe nodded.
Technically, some of the gadgets had been made by Tinker—the Black Swan’s Technopath—but Dex had designed some bracelets that would’ve helped Sophie with her enhancing if he hadn’t used crush cuffs and made it awkward.
Dex had even invented an ability restrictor—which… had seemed like a really horrible idea. Particularly after the Council forced Foster to wear it.
But it might be good to have Dex build a backup, just in case, and key it to his DNA so there was no way the gadget could be used on anyone else.
“Tell Dex,” Keefe repeated, and that time Elwin got it.
“I will,” he promised. “Now take your medicine and go to bed.”
- FIVE - Sophie
I brought you some breakfast,” Edaline said as she made her way over to Sophie’s enormous canopied bed—even though the tray she was carrying of sliced purple fruit and sugar-sprinkled pastries pretty much spoke for itself.
And what the tray said was: I know I’m a Conjurer and could’ve snapped my fingers and made this appear in your room, but I’m using breakfast as an excuse to check on you.
Which was sweet.
Sophie knew that.
She also knew how lucky she was to have such caring, supportive adoptive parents.
But… she really wasn’t in the mood to talk.
“I know,” Edaline told her, proving that mom-intuition could sometimes be just as powerful as telepathy. “And I’ll leave you alone if you want me to. But… Elwin hailed me last night and told me what happened, so I have to at least make sure you’re okay.”
Sophie buried her face between Ella’s floppy blue elephant ears. “I’m fine. It wasn’t a big deal.”
That’s what she’d been telling herself ever since she’d fled the Healing Center.
Keefe was just trying to be extra careful until he figured out how to control his new ability—she should be grateful for that!
He was being cautious instead of reckless.
And it wasn’t like he’d told her to stay away forever.
But… her mind kept replaying that nod he gave Oralie. The set of his jaw and the determination in his eyes almost felt like…
Like he wasn’t even going to miss her.
Like he didn’t care at all.
Which was a really weird—really pointless—thing to be thinking about when she should be trying to figure out what Lady Gisela was planning, and what Elysian was, and how to find Kenric’s cache.
And yet, there she sat, strangle-hugging her stuffed elephant instead of getting up and getting dressed and doing something productive.
She’d also barely slept, despite the soothing images of meadows and mountains and endless starry skies that Silveny kept flooding her mind with—and she’d thought about camping out under the Panakes with Wynn and Luna, but… she didn’t feel like snuggling. Even with adorable baby alicorns.
She just wanted to be alone.
Okay, fine, maybe she wanted to sit there feeling sorry for herself for a few more hours—but in her defense, it had