Neverseen (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #4)(100)

Magnate Leto arrived then and put the Healing Center on lockdown. After that, there was a lot of showering and changing, and drinking ten billion elixirs. Sophie was stunned that Elwin could find signs of everything she’d been through, from the healed burns of her Dividing to the light poisoning Della had treated after they’d gone to see Gethen. But the weirdest part was putting on a Foxfire uniform again. Magnate Leto had brought her a green Level Four uniform, and Sophie kept staring at her reflection, wondering if she’d ever make it back to Foxfire to wear one for real. She suspected Fitz was thinking the same thing as he fidgeted with the cape of his white Level Six uniform.

“Are you going to tell the Council we brought the gnome here today?” Fitz asked.

“Of course,” Magnate Leto said. “They should know who the true heroes were.”

Fitz smiled at that—and Sophie tried to do the same. But it was hard to feel heroic every time she looked at the gnome. Elwin had moved him to a clear quarantine bubble, and his skin looked less pale—and his sleep looked more restful—but he was clearly very, very sick.

“You kids should head back,” Magnate Leto said. “Assuming Elwin’s given the all clear, of course.”

“Yep, they’re totally clean,” Elwin said. “Though I hate to see them go.”

“Me too,” Jensi agreed. “Will you tell Biana I said hi—and Dex and Keefe?”

Sophie nodded, her voice too thick to work.

“Don’t worry,” Magnate Leto said. “I suspect this won’t be the last time we see you standing among these halls.

Sophie stared out the window at the expansive Foxfire grounds and let herself hope he was right. But as she took Fitz’s hand and prepared to leap to the Crooked Forest, she realized getting back into Foxfire wasn’t their biggest problem.

After everything they’d done, and all the rules they’d broken, there was a very good chance they’d gotten themselves expelled from Exillium.





FORTY-EIGHT


SOPHIE HADN’T KNOWN what to expect when she and Fitz arrived in the Crooked Forest, but she’d assumed lecturing and freaking out would play a major role.

Instead, her friends greeted them with the tacklehug to end all tacklehugs, and when they finally let them breathe—and were done pestering them for every detail about their time at Foxfire—she noticed Calla watching from her perch on one of the curved trunks.

“We’re safe,” Sophie promised. “Elwin quarantined us before we left.”

“I can tell,” Calla said. “I just . . . don’t know how to thank you. The risk you both took . . .”

She looked away, trailing her green thumb along the straightened edge, where the tree had morphed into a survivor.

“I wish we could’ve done more,” Sophie said, swallowing back the knot of all her frustrations. “How bad was it at Exillium after we left?” she asked her friends.

“Well, let’s see,” Keefe said. “The purple Coach fainted when you guys teleported, and I’m pretty sure the other two peed their pants. Then everyone started screaming and freaking out about the plague, and it took a couple of hours for the Coaches to calm them down. That’s when a group of Waywards started demanding to know if you guys were going to be ejected or expelled or whatever they call it—”

“Are we?” Fitz interrupted.

Dex, Keefe, and Biana shared a look.

“They wouldn’t give me any extra beads when I asked for them,” Dex said, “which turned into another whole-school shouting match. But the Coaches said their decision was final.”

“So I guess that’s that,” Sophie mumbled.

“Not necessarily,” Biana said. “Before we left, the Shade came up to me and did this freaky whisper-in-my-head thing.” She shuddered. “And he said to tell you ‘If you really want to prove the Coaches wrong, you should return with your friends and make a stand.’ So I’m guessing he wants you to leap with us in the morning—but I don’t know if it’s a good idea.”

“Me either,” Dex said. “Who knows what the Coaches will do?”

“I don’t think the Shade would’ve suggested it if he thought we’d be punished,” Sophie said. “He told me when they punish someone, they punish everyone.”

“Maybe he thinks we’re all going to be punished anyway, so he wants you to suffer with us,” Dex said.

Sophie shook her head. “That doesn’t sound like him.”

“But you barely know him,” Fitz reminded her.

“Yeah, and isn’t this the guy I heard the boobrie dude warn you about?” Keefe asked.

“It is,” Sophie agreed. “But I think the real reason the Coaches don’t like him is because he disagrees with their rules and finds ways around them—sound familiar?”

“Right,” Keefe said. “But I’m not a Shade.”

“You’re seriously going to judge him because of his ability?” Sophie asked.

“We do it with Pyrokinetics,” Dex jumped in.

“And I don’t know if that’s right either,” Sophie admitted. “Think of how much the ban on pyrokinesis has made them what they are. That’s why Fintan rebelled. And why Brant joined the Neverseen. If being Talentless hadn’t made him a bad match for Jolie, their story might have had a very different ending.”