Neverseen (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #4)(105)

She reached to take a sample of the roots, then realized it could infect Calla.

“Who’s ‘we’?” Tam asked.

“Me. My friends. And . . . others.” Sophie wasn’t sure how much to tell them about the Black Swan. “Let’s just say I know people who are good at uncovering secrets. And when you’re facing a group like the Neverseen, you need lots of backup.”

Branches crunched behind them, making the three of them jump. But it was only the wind creaking through the sickly trees.

“This way,” Linh said, leading them up the crest of a hill, where they could see the span of the narrow valley.

A river cut down the center before it disappeared into the jagged gray mountains, and an enormous iron gate barred the pass beyond the foothills.

“Ravagog,” Sophie whispered, her feet itching to run toward the city—and far, far away.

“Sometimes, at night, we can hear them marching,” Linh said.

“Are you sure it’s safe to stay here?” Sophie asked.

“We’re banished,” Tam reminded her. “Nowhere is safe.”

They’d reached the river by then, and Linh raised her hand, flicking her wrist and making the water lift out of the riverbed. The river made an arch over their heads, leaving dry ground for them to cross underneath. As soon as they reached the other side of the shore, the water crashed down and surged away.

“Wow,” Sophie breathed.

Linh blushed.

Tam headed for a thicket of gnarled trees, which didn’t look particularly inviting, but at least the grove hadn’t been infected yet. He waved a clump of shadows away, revealing a gap hidden in the branches. Sophie followed Linh through, finding herself in a nook of green grass with two weathered tents. The threadbare quilt Linh spread out for them to sit on had been patched together from the craziest bits of fabric—old human T-shirts, lace doilies, the butt pockets of a pair of jeans.

“This is really where you guys live?” she had to ask.

“We don’t need much,” Linh said.

Maybe not, but the twins didn’t seem to have anything.

An idea formed then—one Sophie knew would be gloriously complicated. But it could give Tam and Linh a better life, and make use of their incredible talents.

“How long are you going to wait before you tell her the rest?” Linh asked her brother, reminding Sophie she should be paying attention.

“Tell me the rest of what?” Sophie asked.

Tam shook his head. “We still don’t know her well enough.”

“Okay, so what do you need to know?” Sophie said. “Ask and I’ll answer.”

Tam smoothed his bangs over of his eyes and gave her his most defiant stare. “Answers can be lies. If you really want me to trust you, I need to read your shadowvapor.”

“It doesn’t hurt,” Linh promised. “He just has to let his shadow pass through your mind.”

“That . . . might be a problem,” Sophie said. “It’s hard to explain without getting into a bunch of crazy stuff about my genetics. But my mind is impenetrable. Even Councillor Terik couldn’t descry me.”

“Shadowvaper is simpler to sense than potential,” Linh said.

“Since when are you the expert on my ability?” Tam asked her.

“Same reason I know you’re stalling,” Linh told him. “I’ve lived with you for almost fifteen years. And this is why we brought her here. Do the reading and we’ll tell her—assuming you don’t mind,” she added, turning to Sophie.

Sophie wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but she knew she needed their information. “You can try the reading,” she told Tam. “But you have to promise you’ll tell me even if you can’t understand what you see in my head.”

“Deal,” Linh said, earning a glare from her brother. But he moved toward Sophie without further argument.

“Hold still,” he said as Sophie flinched away from his shifting shadow. “Linh’s right—it won’t hurt. But it will give you chills.”

Chills was an understatement. It felt like a blizzard blasting through her head. But once his shadow retreated, the freezing thawed immediately.

“I can see why Terik struggled with his descrying,” Tam said, rubbing the spot between his brows. “You have a lot of shadowvapor. But you also have a lot of illumination, and they cancel each other out.”

“Is that a good thing?” Sophie asked.

“Balance is good,” Linh agreed.

“But it can be hard to hold on to,” Tam countered.

“Which only matters for her future,” Linh pressed.

The words felt like a warning, and Sophie wanted to pick them apart. But Linh was urging her brother to share his secret, and it looked like Tam was finally ready.

He moved across the clearing, staring at Wildwood through a small gap in the trees. “Before I tell you, you should know that what I’m going to say technically counts as treason. And you told me you still have a few friends in the Lost Cities, so you’re probably hoping to go back someday.”

“I still want to know,” Sophie said.

Tam nodded and turned to face her. “When the Council was here gathering samples, they didn’t think I could hear them. But I used my shadow to carry my consciousness to where they were working. I couldn’t tell which Councillors it was—only that it was a male and a female. And the female Councillor said, ‘We should’ve warned them this could happen.’ Then the guy said, ‘No one can know.’?”