“May I?” Ro asked, pointing to Keefe’s letter.
“There’s nothing useful in there,” Sophie warned. But she still handed over the paper as she turned to pace. “Did Keefe say anything before he left?”
“Not that I know of,” Elwin told her. “But I was down here with earplugs in while he tested the Imparter with Dex.”
“They wanted to see if Hunkyhair could talk with a gadget and not feel the urge to give any commands,” Ro explained. “Which totally worked, by the way.”
Sophie halted midstep. “Something happened during that conversation, didn’t it?”
“I’m assuming so, since Keefe left right after,” Elwin said. “But I wasn’t listening.”
“Hang on! How are we not talking about this?” Ro pointed to a sentence near the end of Keefe’s letter.
Sophie realized what it said the same second Ro shifted to a fairly convincing impersonation of Keefe’s voice.
“ ‘You mean a lot to me, Foster. More than you’ll ever know.’ ”
Sophie lunged for the paper.
“Nope! No destroying the evidence—and don’t even think about telling me you don’t know what he meant by that, Blondie! Your cheeks are way too red!”
Sophie tugged her hair forward.
She’d been so thrown by the rest of Keefe’s message that she’d forgotten that part was in there—and her brain honestly had no idea what to do with it.
It almost felt like Keefe was trying to tell her…
But he couldn’t mean that.
…Could he?
“Whoa. I think the Great Foster Oblivion might actually be over!” Ro pumped her fist. “Now I’m even more excited to drag Hunkyhair home! You two can have the talk and—”
“Are you serious right now?” Sophie lunged for the letter again, managing to snatch it back this time—though part of the paper tore in the process. “Two minutes ago you were threatening to behead a bunch of stuffed animals because Elwin wouldn’t help you find Keefe. And now you’re wasting time teasing me about some throwaway line—”
“That line is not a throwaway! You know it. I know it. Dr. Sparkles knows it. Shoot, even Gigantor knows it—look how intently he’s studying his feet right now. But… I suppose you might have a point about priorities. Sorry. I’m just so excited! Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for this? It’s going to be so adorable when you two finally…”
She made a disgustingly loud smooching sound—and Sophie hated her brain for imagining it.
Hated how sweaty her palms felt even more.
She stuffed the letter into her pocket and crossed her arms, trying to dry her hands on her sleeves. “Can we focus, please? I need to know what happened when Keefe talked to Dex.”
Ro’s smile faded. “You should probably ask your techy friend about that.”
“That’ll waste more time.”
“Not really. I only understood some of the stuff they were freaking out about, and if you’re going to have to cross-check everything, you might as well start at the source, right?”
Sophie really hated that Ro had made a good point—and she was still tempted to whip her Imparter at Ro’s head like a goblin throwing star. But she fought the urge, digging out the small, flat gadget and telling it, “Show me Dex Dizznee.”
The Imparter stayed blank.
Sophie tapped the screen harder. “Dex Dizznee!”
More seconds crawled by.
“Is that thing working?” Ro asked. “Or is he ignoring you?”
“I have no idea.” Sophie held the Imparter closer to her mouth and repeated Dex’s name.
Still nothing.
She rubbed her temples and turned back to Ro. “Okay, why don’t you tell me everything you remember, and if I need clarification, I’ll—”
“Sophie?” Dex’s face flashed across the screen. “Sorry… I was, um… Is everything okay?”
“I was about to ask you the same question.” His periwinkle eyes looked red and puffy, and his pale skin was super blotchy. “What’s wrong? And don’t say ‘nothing,’ because it’s pretty obvious that you’ve been crying.”
“No, I haven’t!” He swiped at his nose and cheeks. “I’m fine.”
It might’ve been the worst lie in the history of lying.
Sophie sighed. “We don’t have time to argue, okay? I need to know what happened between you and Keefe.”
All the color drained from Dex’s face. “Why? What did he tell you?”
“Nothing. But… he ran away.”
Dex closed his eyes and somehow managed to turn even paler. “You’re sure?”
“Unfortunately, yeah.” She stopped herself from mentioning Keefe’s letter—no need to relive that humiliation. “I’m still figuring out how to find him, but—”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Dex interrupted. “I mean… maybe he needs to be alone for a while, you know? Might be safer.”
“Seriously?” Sophie asked.
What was wrong with everybody?
“Keefe needs help!” she snapped. “And to know that people still care about him and believe in him no matter what. It’s also way safer here than with the humans—”
Dex’s eyes popped open. “Wait—he’s in the Forbidden Cities?”
“Yep. And he doesn’t know how to survive there. He also doesn’t have any money—and he can’t accidentally rob an ATM like some people.”
Sophie had hoped the tiny tease might lighten the mood—but Dex just looked away, chewing his lip so hard, his teeth left dents in his skin.
“Maybe if you tell me why Keefe left, I’ll understand what you’re so afraid of,” Sophie suggested. “Don’t you trust me?”
“It’s not about trust.”
“It’s always about trust—and Keefe’s life is on the line, Dex. I know that sounds dramatic, but it’s true. Every minute we waste is a minute when he could be hurt, or arrested—or things I don’t even want to think about.”
An eternity passed before Dex said, “I might be able to track him down.”
He disappeared from the screen and reappeared holding a small copper cube with twisted wires sticking out of it. “If he’s still wearing his registry pendant, I can find the signal. Just give me a minute.”
Sophie counted every second.
By four hundred nineteen, Dex had rearranged the wires a zillion different ways—and Sophie had tugged out two itchy eyelashes.
“I’m assuming he removed his pendant?” she guessed.
Dex set the gadget aside. “Sorry.”
“Ugh, the one time we needed our boy to be clueless!” Ro unsheathed one of her daggers and stabbed the air. “Got any other techy tricks?”
Dex shook his head. “Keefe doesn’t wear a nexus anymore—”
“What about his panic switch?” Sophie held up her slightly lopsided ring, wishing she’d thought of it earlier. “You put trackers in them, didn’t you?”
“I did. But… I never gave one to Keefe. I made yours first, remember? And then I made all the others while Keefe was off with the Neverseen—and I kept meaning to make him one after he got back, but there were always other projects I had to work on, you know?”