Keeper of the Lost Cities

FORTY-ONE

SOPHIE WASN’T SURE IF SHE WAS RELIEVED or disappointed when she didn’t find a note in her locker on Monday. She’d spent the entire weekend attempting to trigger hidden memories but hadn’t found anything, and she was trying not to feel frustrated.

She studied in the caves, partly to avoid Grady and Edaline, but mostly because the walls at Havenfield pressed in—like there wasn’t enough room for her anymore. Grady and Edaline left her alone as long as she came back by dark.

Nights were the hardest. She imprisoned herself in her room, sorting out the things she would take whenever it came time to move. Other than Iggy, she was determined to leave everything Grady and Edaline had given her. She didn’t want any reminders of the people who’d kicked her out of their family.

But she’d decided to tell her friends about it. The thought of everyone’s pity made her feel as if an angry imp were tearing around inside her body—but it was time.

Dex barely looked at her as he opened his locker, and his whole body radiated tension.

She cleared her throat. “Hey, Dex.”

He didn’t turn, keeping one very cold shoulder pointed in her direction.

“I’m sorry. I don’t blame you for being mad. I know I’ve been a little distant lately.”

He reeled around, his face twisted with so much anger she barely recognized him. “You weren’t distant with Fitz and Biana on Friday! I saw you hugging them in the hall.”

“Dex, . . . .” She hadn’t realized anyone was around.

“Why would you tell them before me? I thought we were best friends.”

“We are.”

“Then why did you go home with them after you turned me down?”

“I was going there anyway. And I didn’t tell them—they already knew.” She took a deep breath, preparing for the next words. “Grady and Edaline canceled my adoption.”

“Oh.” He stared at his feet. “Are you okay?”

She choked back a small sob. The words hurt even more to say out loud. “Not really,” she admitted. “But that’s why Fitz and Biana knew before you. Alden told them when he asked how they would feel about me living with them.”

“What?” His voice was so loud half the prodigies in the atrium turned to stare. “You’re going to live with them?”

She leaned closer so he would keep his voice down. “The Council still has to approve it, but I hope so.”

“You hope so?” He slammed his locker closed. “Well, that’s just great. You’ll be a Vacker.” He said their last name like it was a bad word.

“So?”

“So, Vackers aren’t friends with Dizznees.”

“I would be—and Fitz and Biana would be too if you made some effort with them.”

“Right.” He kicked the ground. “I don’t get why you’d want to live there anyway.”

“For one thing, there aren’t exactly people lined up to adopt me.” She cleared the bitterness from her voice before saying anything else. “Besides, they’re my friends, Dex. I keep waiting for you to get over this—prejudice—against them, but it’s like you want to hate them.”

“I don’t trust them.”

“Well, I do.”

“Yeah, because you have a megacrush on Fitz.”

“I do not!” Blood rushed to her face. He’d said it so loud everyone giggled.

Dex snorted. “Whatever.”

“It’s the truth. And why are you being such a jerk? I tell you my guardians are kicking me out, and you pick a fight with me and humiliate me in front of everyone?”

“Maybe if you’d talked to me first—instead of running to Wonderboy—I could’ve helped. But I guess I should get used to that. Once you’re living there, you’ll ditch me anyway.”

“Right now I kind of want to.”

“Good!”

“Good!”

Dex kicked the wall and stomped away.

Sophie leaned against her locker, trying to figure out what to feel. Hurt, regret, and anger warred with each other, but anger won. She was in the middle of the biggest crisis of her life, and all Dex could think about was his silly competition with Fitz. It made her want to throw something. Hard. At his head.

Instead, she grabbed the illegal necklace from the back of her locker, shoved it in her bag, and stomped to elementalism.

DEX AVOIDED HER LIKE THE plague for the rest of the day—which was fine. She wasn’t talking to him until she got a very sincere apology. Maybe with a little begging. And a present.

She’d planned to stop by Everglen to drop off the necklace, but Biana told her Alden and Della were in Eternalia all day meeting with the Council. So she went back to the cave at Havenfield and tried to trigger memories until sunset. Once again, she found nothing.

She was up in her room transmitting commands to Iggy—her new, very successful method of training him—when Grady knocked on her door.

“Sophie,” he called. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes.” It was the first word she’d spoken to him since their talk.

He cracked the door enough to slip his head through, looking more uncomfortable than she felt. “Sorry to interrupt. A package arrived for you.”

He held out a small parcel wrapped in brown paper. When she didn’t move, he set it on the floor. “I guess I’ll leave it here. Um . . . good night.”

It was easy to hate Grady for what he was doing, but it was also hard. She really did love Grady and Edaline, and she’d thought they loved her. Her eyes blurred with tears as she tore off the brown paper, unwrapping a silver orb and a note.

“You must help them.” Followed by three names: “Connor, Kate, and Natalie Freeman.”

Her hands shook as the silver orb came alive at her touch, the word spyball glowing across the center. She’d never seen one before, but she’d heard kids talk about them. They could show you anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world. You had to apply for a special permit to have one. And she had no doubt who’d sent her this one.

Still, she couldn’t resist whispering, “Show me Connor, Kate, and Natalie Freeman.”

Light flashed and the Spyball displayed three people huddled together.

The rest of the world disappeared.

Her mom’s hair was longer, her dad looked a little thinner, and Amy looked older, but it was definitely her human family. Three echoes of a life where she thought she didn’t belong. But they had loved her—which was more than she had here.

She wanted to reach through the orb and touch them, but she had to settle for watching as they huddled on the floor of a crowded room.

Why were they on the floor?

Her eyes found the words EVACUEE CENTER and she nearly dropped the ball.

They’d been evacuated. Which meant the fires were near them.

You must help them.

The note’s words rang in her ears and she tried to shake them away—tried to remind herself she was being manipulated. But she couldn’t take her eyes off the three people she’d once loved more than anything—the three people she still loved—looking tired and afraid as a deadly, unquenchable fire threatened them.

You must help them.

Something inside her clicked into place.

Her family never would’ve abandoned her. She couldn’t abandon them. She didn’t know how, and she didn’t know when, but she would help them.

For now she would stay with them as a silent supporter, watching from afar.