Neverseen (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #4)(47)

“It’s a good thing you were,” Sophie told her. “You stopped me from making a ton of dangerous mistakes. And I never would’ve thought to throw my pendant at the force field.”

Warm spots colored Biana’s cheeks. “I just remembered what Fitz’s note had said about the smallest things being the most dangerous and I thought . . . why not?”

“Well, it was brilliant,” Sophie said. “You saved us.”

Biana smiled. “Anytime.”

Keefe ruined the moment by grumbling, “But you didn’t learn anything! You had the Neverseen right in front of you—you talked to him!”

“I know,” Sophie mumbled. “I tried to trick him into telling me something, but he was too smart. And when I tried to probe his mind, I couldn’t push through the force field.”

“I bet we could’ve done it together,” Fitz said.

“Maybe,” Sophie admitted. “I wish you could’ve been there.”

“Me too. Don’t run off like that again, okay?” he asked.

“I’ll try not to.” Sophie hoped his small smile meant she’d been forgiven.

“And we did learn something super important,” Biana added. “The Neverseen guy we met today went to Exillium.”

“Does that mean he’s the Boy Who Disappeared?” Fitz asked.

“It seems like it,” Sophie said. “And even if he isn’t, now we might have a way to find out who he is.”

“Already on it,” Dex said, running toward his bedroom. He raced back a minute later holding a Dexified Imparter, with wires jutting out the corners of the small silver square.

“I put all the stolen Exillium records on here,” he said, twisting the wires and tapping the screen. “We’re looking for Psionipaths, right?”

Sophie nodded. “There can’t be many of those, can there?”

“You’d be surprised,” Della said, treating a thin scratch on Biana’s cheek. “The talent can be unstable, like pyrokinesis. Not quite as dangerous, but it’s one of the most common abilities among the banished.”

“Well, we still know his age range and his special ability,” Sophie said. “That will have to narrow things down. And once we figure out who he is, we’ll work on finding him—assuming the Black Swan hasn’t caught him already.”

Dex frowned. “Looks like there’s eight guys with that ability who were at Exillium at the right time. And none of them ever made it back to the Lost Cities.”

“Great—so it’s another dead end,” Keefe said, looking like he wanted to punch something.

Sophie heard him mumble under his breath, “He was right in front of them.”

She wished she could make him understand how much she’d wanted to learn something about his mom. Instead, she joined Fitz and Biana, who had gathered around Dex, studying the list of eight Exillium Psionipaths. None of the names looked familiar, and they were all banished for some variation of the same reason: proven unstable and unfit for society. But surely there had to be something that would clue them in to which one was him.

“That does not look like an approved assignment,” Mr. Forkle said, stomping into the room.

Sophie was too happy he was still alive—and safe—to care about his grumbling.

The rest of the Collective filed in behind him, all equally unharmed.

Her joy evaporated when Mr. Forkle said, “All of Brackendale is an inferno of Everblaze. The Neverseen must’ve torched the area after you left.”

“Do you think the tree will survive in its force field?” Sophie asked.

“I suspect it was already gone,” Calla said. “I searched underground most carefully and couldn’t find a single root.”

“So that’s it?” Fitz asked.

“For the moment,” Mr. Forkle said, collapsing into one of the empty beanbag boulders. “We’ll find a way to alert the Council so they can extinguish the Everblaze.”

A loud THUMP! turned everyone’s heads, and they spotted Keefe shaking his fist.

“We echo your frustrations, Mr. Sencen,” Mr. Forkle said. “But punching walls is not the answer. Remember, Miss Foster has a photographic memory.” He turned to Sophie. “I’m going to need to see all of your memories of the tree.”

Sophie nodded, proud of herself for not fidgeting as he poked around her mind. She tried to feel his presence, but his telepathy was completely undetectable.

“The tree was healthy?” he asked after several seconds.

“I thought that was strange too,” Sophie said. “I’d figured it was incubating the plague under the force field, but if that were true, the branches or leaves would’ve looked sickly, right?”

“One would assume,” Mr. Forkle said.

“So maybe they were incubating something else.” Granite glanced at the other members of the Collective before adding, “It’s possible the Neverseen could be working on a cure.”

“That almost makes sense,” Mr. Forkle admitted. “If they develop a cure before the Council, they could use it as leverage, much the same as if they’d managed to capture the alicorns in their previous attempts.”

“But how can a tree be the cure?” Dex asked.