Шеннон Мессенджер - Keeper of the Lost Cities

“If it’s so useless, why does everyone buy from me?” Kesler countered.

Vika couldn’t seem to find a retort. So she threw the hood back over Stina’s head and dragged her toward the door.

“I’ll get you for this,” Stina promised Dex.

“Oooh, I’m really scared.”

Stina’s bitter eyes focused on Sophie. “What are you looking at?”

Sophie looked away. “Nothing.”

The door burped again, then slammed.

Kesler pounded his fist against the table, making everyone jump. “Do I want to know what that was all about, Dex?”

“Probably not.”

Kesler sighed. “You need to be more careful, Dex. You know how some people feel about our family—especially Vika and Timkin Logner.”

“Well,” Edaline said quietly, “this store hardly helps the situation. Perhaps if you made it more traditional—”

“Absolutely not,” Kesler interrupted. “Nothing brings me more joy than watching all the stuffy nobles squirm in here.”

“Just like nothing makes me happier than a shiny bald Stina,” Dex added, grinning.

Kesler couldn’t help laughing. “Well, Dex, since you made the mess, you get to tweak the Hairoids. I need to help Edaline with Elwin’s list.”

Dex scowled and stalked off to collect the supplies from the back. He returned a few seconds later with an armful of vials and spread them on the worktable with a sneaky smile. “This will make her hair grow faster,” he whispered to Sophie. “But it’ll also give her a beard.”

Sophie giggled, and made a mental note never to get on Dex’s bad side. “What did that girl do to you?”

“She’s just evil,” he said as he ground black leaves with a mortar and pestle. “Trust me.”

EDALINE DISAPPEARED TO HER ROOMwhen they returned to Havenfield, and Grady tried to teach Sophie how to light leap alone. She’d never been so horrible at anything in her life.

The first twenty times she tried, she couldn’t feel the warm feathers—no matter how many times Grady told her to concentrate on the tingle in her cells. After that she couldn’t hold on long enough to do anything except break out in a full body sweat from the heat.

On attempt fifty-seven she finally made a solo leap to the other side of the property. She completed the next five in a row and felt ready to collapse, so she wanted to cry with relief when Grady announced she’d practiced enough. But when he checked her nexus, he frowned.

He pointed to the gray rectangle, which displayed only a sliver of blue. “That means your concentration is at ten percent. Everyone your age is at least at thirty percent by now.”

Yeah, and they’d been light leaping their whole lives—but she chose not to point that out. She didn’t want Grady to think she was difficult. “I’m trying as hard as I can.”

“I know,” Grady said, worrying the edge of his tunic with his hands. “But I don’t think you have any idea what you’re up against. Alden told me Bronte doesn’t want you at Foxfire, which means he’ll be watching you like a hawk. He’ll check with your Mentors. He’ll monitor your tests. And at the first sign of weakness, he’ll step in and try to have you expelled. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pushes for you to be transferred to Exillium—and let’s just say it’s somewhere you don’t want to go.”

She nodded, swallowing a mouthful of bile. If she hadn’t been freaked out about starting Foxfire before, she was now .

How was she supposed to pass when she was so far behind?

Grady forced a smile. “I know you’re struggling to adjust and have a ton to learn, but you’re going to have to push yourself as hard as you can. And I promise I’ll help you every way I can. Edaline will too.”

A flash of light pulled her out of her mounting panic attack, and two people appeared a few feet up the path. She recognized Dex from Slurps and Burps, and the woman he was with resembled Edaline, except her hair was messy and her yellow gown was wrinkled and plain.

“Had to come see for yourself, Juline?” Grady asked.

“I’m allowed to visit my sister, aren’t I?” she asked, her eyes riveted to Sophie.

Grady laughed. “Where’s the rest of the family?”

“Home with Kesler. I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

“And maybe you wanted time to gossip without interruption?” Grady teased. “Sophie, why don’t you show Dex your room? I have a feeling the girls have a lot of talking to do.”

SOPHIE HAD NO IDEA WHATto do with Dex. She’d never had a friend before—much less a boy—much less an elf. Dex seemed pretty comfortable, though. He wandered her room, touching everything that caught his interest. He thought her human clothes were hilarious, and was even more excited when he found the scrapbook she’d hidden on the bookshelf.

“Hey, is that you?” he asked, pointing to the photo mounted to the cover.

Sophie’s eyes stung as she glanced at the picture. Her dad and sister waved at the camera while she hid in the background building a sand castle. “Yeah. That was last summer.”

“Is that your dad?”

“Yeah. Well—um—that’s the guy who raised me,” she corrected, blinking away the tears that had formed. It was going to be hard to get used to saying that. But she had to. She wasn’t his daughter. He didn’t even know she existed anymore.

Dex frowned. “What happened to them?”

“I’m not allowed to know.” She couldn’t keep the sadness out of her voice. As much as she didn’t want it to matter, it was hard not knowing where they were or how they were doing.

“Sorry.” He shuffled his feet. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” She wasn’t sure she was ready to look through the scrapbook, but Dex already had it open and was flipping through the pages. She hoped there weren’t any naked baby pictures in there.

“Why did you take your picture with a guy in a giant mouse suit? Actually—better question: Why would anyone wear a giant mouse suit?”

“We’re at Disneyland.”

His head snapped up. “I have my own land?”

“What?”

“My last name is Dizznee.”

She laughed. “I’m pretty sure it’s a coincidence.”

He squinted at the picture. “Are you wearing fairy wings?”

“Okay, I think we’ve had enough fun with the photos.” She pulled the scrapbook away from him before he found anything else to make fun of.

“Sorry. I just can’t get over it. I mean, I’ve never seen a human, in real life. And you lived with them.” He shook his head. “How come you live with Grady and Edaline? Are you related to them?”

Her jaw tightened. “I’m not related to anyone.”

“You’re alive. You must have parents.”

She shook her head. “My real parents didn’t want me to know who they are, so as far as I’m concerned, they don’t exist.”

Dex didn’t seem to know what to say to that. Honestly, she didn’t either.

“Hey, this is one of those music things,” he said, picking up her iPod.

“Yeah. How did you know?”

“My mom’s into human movies. She doesn’t have many, but one of them had one of these things in it, and I’ve always wanted to see one. We don’t have anything like them.”

“Really? Why not?”

“Elves aren’t really musical—not like dwarves. They have some awesome music.” He slid his fingers across the screen. “It’s dead.”

“No outlets here. No way to charge it.”

Dex flipped it over. “I don’t know much about human technology, but I bet I could make it solar powered.”

“Really?”

“Well, I can give it a try.” He slipped it into his pocket and went over to her desk, rifling through all her Foxfire stuff. He scanned her schedule. “Sir Conley’s pretty cool, I hear. But good luck with Lady Galvin. She has the highest fail rate of any Mentor—ever. I’m pretty sure she failed her last prodigy a few weeks ago.”