Shades of Starlight (Hiatus)

Book Two: Chapter Twenty-Seven

 "They didn't rhyme," I muttered, breaking the quiet weighing over us. "Unbelievable." Sophie's head snapped up.

"What?" She had been entranced by those first four words: We can fix you.

"Nothing."

"Hey, uh... are you guys okay?" Keefe asked, invisible to us.

"Yeah, we're good," I called. "Be out in a sec." A hand making a thumbs-up appeared in the cave entrance. I smiled.

Sophie, who'd been sitting on a rock in the corner, suddenly straightened up. She ran over to the alcove and started breaking off a few of the twigs on the nest. Then she began to rip at her cloak with her teeth.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"One more minute and I'm coming in there," Sandor yelled.

"Humor me," Sophie whispered. "Be right out!" She shouted to Sandor.

She stuffed the charm and the note into her pocket and put the twigs and a tracker from her cape into the little box. I was about to ask her another few questions when two figures appeared in the cavern with us.

"I said I'd be right out," Sophie said, tripping over several rocks to meet Keefe and her bodyguard. I giggled, stepping carefully over the stones in my bejeweled high heels. My brother smirked.

"Don't even try to pretend you didn't find anything," he told us.

"We did. Show them, Soph," I prompted knowingly. She shot me a look and tossed Keefe the box. He opened it and shook out the insides onto his hand.

"Twigs and scrap metal? Wha-couldn't they have just left a note, like, go here, do this, have a nice life? Less complicated, for one."

"It isn't a piece of scrap metal," Sandor informed him. "It's a tracker." We both glanced at Sophie, who avoided our gaze. I met his eyes and raised an eyebrow.

"To lead us to them?" Keefe asked.

"It would probably only tell them where we are," Sophie mumbled. She started walking out of the cavern. So suspicious. My brother seemed to feel the same way as me.

"So what's the plan, Mysterious Miss F? And I can tell you're hiding something, so don't bother lying to me-to us," he added, looking back at me.

"I have a theory... I need to think it through."

"We need to think it through," I said, catching up to them. Keefe gave me an appreciative smile.

"Yeah, Team Foster-Keefe, remember?"

"Team Foster-Sencen," I corrected him. He wrinkled his nose.

"Not as catchy."

"It'll be Team Foster-Cass soon if you keep it up."

"Hey, you can't take over my invention!"

"You can't leave me out of what I'm a part of!"

"I introduced you to the most important member."

"No, that was Fitz."

"I met her first!"

"I spend more time with her."

"I'm older."

"I'm smarter."

"No, you just like school."

"What's wrong with that?"

"It's lame."

"At least I'm not hiding my enormous crush on-"