Sophie did know. But she couldn’t quite keep the disappointment out of her voice when she said, “That’s okay.”
“I’m sorry,” Dex mumbled. “I wish I could help.”
“You can. Tell me what happened when you tested the Imparter. If it’s easier to talk in person, I could come there—”
“NO!”
Dex disappeared from the screen, followed by a series of thuds that sounded like he was barricading his door.
“What do you think I’m going to do?” Sophie called after him. “Leap there and drag the secrets out of your mind?”
Honestly, she was tempted to do exactly that when Dex called back, “Just promise you won’t come here, okay?”
“Why not?”
“Because”—more thuds—“it’s… um… chaos right now!”
“It’s always chaos there! I’ve met the triplets, remember?”
“I know. But… Lex and Bex manifested, so it’s extra insane. Lex is covering everything in ice, and Bex is trying to walk through every wall.”
“Then why don’t you come here? Or we can meet at Havenfield. Or—”
“I can’t.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
“To save time,” Ro jumped in, “it might help if I mention that I heard your whole conversation with Hunkyhair. I told Blondie to ask you about it because I don’t understand all your elf-y weirdnesses—but if you’d rather be a pain, I can tell her about—”
“STOP!” Dex rushed back into view, and for a second Sophie wondered if he was going to hang up on them. Instead he took a long, shaky breath and said, “The thing is… it’s not really my secret to share.”
“Whose is it?” Sophie asked.
“I can’t tell you that, either.”
“Well then, it’s a good thing I can!” Ro draped her arm around Sophie’s shoulders. “I’ll give him ten seconds to start talking, or I’m taking over. Ten… nine… eight…”
“Please stop.” The crack in Dex’s voice made Sophie’s heart feel twenty pounds heavier.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Dex. Or force you to share something you’re not comfortable with. But Keefe’s out there right now, lost in some human city with no food, no ID, no place to go, and no one to help him. I have no idea how I’m going to find him—but I have to try. And if I do manage to track him down, I need to be able to convince him to come back. He thinks he’s too dangerous to be in the Lost Cities—and I won’t be able to prove him wrong if I don’t know why he believes that. So please, tell me what you know—I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
Dex buried his face in his hands.
It felt like a year passed before he mumbled, “No one else can hear this. In fact…”
He disappeared from the screen again, and a loud click echoed in the background, followed by a steady crackling hum, like static.
“That’s my silencer,” he explained as he stepped back in front of the Imparter. “It guarantees that no one can eavesdrop—over here at least.”
“I guess that’s my cue,” Elwin said, making Sophie jump. “Forgot I was here, did ya? Don’t worry, I won’t mention anything I’ve already heard—not that it’s made a whole lot of sense.” He turned to head for the stairs, shoving earplugs in as he walked. “I’ll be in my room.”
“What about Sandor?” Dex asked.
Sandor leaned closer to the screen. “I go where Sophie goes. And I stay where she stays.”
“Aw, come on, Gigantor!” Ro whined. “We’re finally getting somewhere! I can protect Blondie—”
“That’s debatable,” Sandor interrupted. “But I’m far more concerned about the two of you running off to the Forbidden Cities.”
“I won’t go anywhere without you,” Sophie promised.
“Besides, I thought you had trackers sewn into her clothes,” Ro reminded him with a smirk. “Surely Mr. Perfect Bodyguard would be able to catch us if we tried to—”
“We’re not going to try anything!” Sophie cut in. “I swear on Ella—and Wynn and Luna!”
Sandor cracked his knuckles. “I’ll be right outside, watching you through the windows.”
Ro snorted. “Because that doesn’t sound creepy!”
Sandor slammed the door so hard, the glass walls rattled.
“Okay, start talking,” Sophie told Dex.
He turned a vomit-y shade of green. “I… don’t know how to say this.”
“Then blurt it out—it doesn’t have to be a big, fancy speech.”
“The shorter, the better!” Ro added.
Dex swallowed hard and closed his eyes. “Okay… so… Keefe manifested another ability. We’re not a hundred percent sure how it works, but… it seems like he can sense if someone is going to manifest and tell what ability they’ll get.”
Sophie let the words tumble around her head.
“Why is that such a bad thing?” she had to ask.
“THANK YOU!” Ro shouted. “Glad I’m not the only one who thinks Tech-Boy and Hunkyhair are being way overdramatic!”
“You seriously don’t see how scary that is?” Dex asked.
Sophie shrugged. “I can see how Keefe might have a ton of people asking him what their ability is going to be. Kind of like what happened to Councillor Terik with his descrying. But Terik just stopped doing readings.”
“Yeah, well, descrying only measures someone’s potential,” Dex reminded her. “Abilities define us for the rest of our lives.”
“For the record, that’s where you elves lose me,” Ro noted.
“Me too,” Sophie said quietly. “And that still doesn’t sound that bad, Dex, so I’m assuming there’s more you haven’t told me.”
Dex glanced over his shoulder again, then leaned closer to the Imparter and whispered, “We’re pretty sure Keefe can make someone manifest.”
“How would you know…?” Sophie’s voice trailed off as she answered her own question. “You think Keefe made Rex and Bex manifest?”
“Lex and Bex,” Dex corrected, choking strangely on the names. He had to clear his throat twice before he could add, “Keefe was around them yesterday, and he said Lex’s hand felt super cold, and Bex’s hand felt weirdly squishy—and no one else could feel that. Then today Lex manifested as a Froster, and Bex manifested as a Phaser. No way that’s a coincidence.”
Sophie had to agree. But she also wasn’t ready to make as huge of a leap. “Couldn’t Keefe have just been sensing what was about to happen?”
“He could—but given how young they are, it seems more likely that he caused it. And if he did…”
Sophie tried to find an end to that sentence with the right amount of dun dun dunnnnnnn.
“I still don’t get why Keefe ran away,” she admitted. “Even if he can trigger abilities, he’s just speeding up something that’s going to happen anyway, right? And Mr. Forkle has triggered abilities—”