Neverseen (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #4)(141)

Fitz sent her another burst of energy as Sophie plunged into the swamp of memories alone. She’d been in some sludgy minds before, but this was a boiling tar pit, and each bursting bubble unleashed a revolting memory.

Sophie had expected to witness evil. But nothing could’ve prepared her for the devastating truths she scooped out of the mire.

Did you get it? Fitz asked as she pulled their minds back to the eerie green light of Ravagog.

Sophie wanted to lie—spare him the heartache. But they were a team. He needed the truth. So she gathered what little courage she had left and transmitted, The cure is a hoax.





SEVENTY


DOES THAT MEAN the chest King Dimitar has is a fake? Fitz transmitted.

Yes, Sophie said, feeling tears leak down her face. But it was so much worse than that. It was all a lie, Fitz. There is no cure. The one they gave the gnomes in Eternalia wasn’t real.

And even that wasn’t the worst thing she’d discovered. But before she could crush Fitz’s spirit any further, she heard Tam’s shadow voice whispering in her ear.

“I hope you guys got what you needed, because your boy is about to lose it. Biana’s already on her way down for retrieval.”

Sophie couldn’t decide which of those facts was more terrifying as she looked down and found Keefe getting choked again, this time by King Dimitar himself.

“That’s where I’ve seen you!” the king shouted. “You were with that foolish girl who thought she could get away with invading my mind. Is she here?”

And that—unfortunately—was the exact moment Biana chose to steal the silver chest.

The second the chest moved King Dimitar dropped Keefe and lunged, snatching Biana and shaking her until she appeared.

“Another one!” he bellowed, as Dex shouted, “EMERGENCY PLAN—GO!” and flung one of his cube gadgets at the king’s feet.

King Dimitar scrambled back as the gadget exploded, and Sophie couldn’t see through the smoke to know if Biana got away. More gadgets flew—smoke bombs, stink bombs, sound bombs—as Sophie and the rest of her friends levitated into the fray.

Fitz had Calla in his arms, but he set her down and charged into the smoke screaming, “Biana, where are you?”

“Over here!” Keefe shouted, Sucker Punching the ogre who was trying to grab both of them. The punches barely elicited a grunt from the ogre, but Keefe kept fighting anyway.

“Duck!” Linh shouted, and Keefe and Biana dropped to their stomachs as a stream of water blasted the ogre like a fire hose.

The ogre swayed off balance and toppled off the cliff.

“Don’t worry,” Sophie told Linh when she screamed. “Ogres can phase shift as they fall—you didn’t kill him.”

“TIME TO GO!” Tam shouted, running toward them with ogres lunging after him. He grabbed his sister’s hand and ran full speed off the edge of the platform.

Fitz and Biana followed, carrying Calla between them.

“Come on, Foster,” Keefe said, pulling her toward the edge.

“What about Dex?”

“Right behind you!” Dex threw a modified obscurer and whited-out the world.

“Next time warn us that you’re going to blind us,” Keefe said, clinging tighter to Sophie. “Nothing like jumping off a cliff you can’t even see.”

“I can see,” Sophie said, pulling Keefe forward. “Jump right . . . now!”

They leaped together, and for a horrifying second Sophie couldn’t concentrate enough to levitate. Keefe held her up with him until she got control. Her steps were shaky, but she remembered her Exillium training, and they put a good distance between themselves and the mountain. If only it were safe to teleport through Ravagog’s force fields. Instead, they’d have to make it back to the tunnel.

“Are you okay?” she asked, noticing the bruises forming on Keefe’s neck.

“I’ll live,” he said. “Well . . . assuming we survive that.”

He pointed to where dozens of heavily armed ogres had phase shifted to the dusty ground below. More ogres were swarming over the bridge, moving shockingly fast for such bulky creatures. They stormed the empty playa, waving their swords and snarling, waiting for their victims to land.

“Uh, Dex, I hope you have some of those exploding gadgets left,” Keefe said, “because I’m not sure how much longer Fitz and Biana can carry Calla.”

Dex flung two more gadgets, and he must’ve boosted his arm strength, because they launched to the other side of the bridge. Sophie worried it was a mistake, until one explosion created a crater near the bridge’s first arch, and the other erupted with an ear-splitting screech that sent the ogres scattering away.

It stemmed the tide of incoming reinforcements—but they still had more ogres than they could handle. And Dex had to ruin the small victory by saying, “That was all I had.”

“Then it’s my turn!” Linh shouted, spinning in midair and thrusting her arms toward the mountain. Jet streams blasted out of the waterfalls, flooding the playa and washing the ogres over the edge of the canyon.

Before Sophie could celebrate, Fitz, Biana, and Calla collapsed into the crashing waves.

“Linh!” Tam screamed, and Linh whipped her arms again, sweeping the water back toward the mountain in a massive tidal wave.