Becoming Magical [2]

C H A P T E R - 4 2

"you okay in there?" Keefe called, startling Sophie so much she almost dropped the note.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I'll be out in a second."

She sank to the nearest rock, taking deep breaths to stop the shaking.

They could fix her.

They didn't say how—this was the Black Swan, after all. But she was willing to forgive them for the lies and the secrets and the ways they'd messed with her life. Even if they were the bad guys—she would trust them if it could make her right again.

All she needed was to figure out the clue.

The note had another sentence. One that was just as vague and unhelpful as the other times she'd heard it:

Follow the pretty bird across the sky.

She studied the crude black swan charm again. It hardly qualified as a "pretty bird."

Although . . .

She glanced back at the nest, where the sand was freshly dredged. There were no other footprints, almost like someone had popped out of the ground and then tunneled back in.

Dwarves.

Maybe that's how the Black Swan were keeping tabs on her. And if they had dwarves on their side, maybe—

"One more minute or I'm coming in there," Sandor called.

"I'll be right out." Sophie tucked the charm back in its pouch, along with the note, and shoved both in her shoe. Yes, she'd promised Keefe, Meredith and Sandor she'd keep them in the loop, but this was about her. She hadn't even told Keefe and Meredith she needed to be fixed—and she intended to keep it that way.

But they'd never believe she didn't find anything, so she grabbed some of the twigs from the nest and snapped off the ends until they fit inside the box. She checked her pockets, wishing she were more like Dex, always carrying interesting things. Then she remembered the trackers.

She felt along the edge of her cape, relieved when her fingers touched the outline of a penny-size disk near the front corner. She didn't have scissors—or time—so she tore the fabric with her teeth, grabbing the copper circle and slipping it in the box just as three silhouetted figures appeared in the cave's entrance.

"I said I'd be right out," she yelled as she ran to meet them, tripping a few times on the rocks.

Keefe smirked. "Don't even try to pretend you didn't find anything."

"I wasn't going to." She handed him the mirrored box, and he dumped the contents into his palm.

"Twigs and a piece of scrap metal? Can't they just say, 'go here, do this, and have a nice life'? Seems like it would save a lot of time."

"It's not scrap metal," Sandor corrected. "It's a tracker." He glanced at Sophie and she looked away.

"A tracker? Like, to lead us to them?" Meredith asked.

"I think it would only tell them where we are," Sophie mumbled, heading out of the cave.

Keefe and Meredith caught up with her. "So what's the plan, then—and don't lie to me, Foster, I can feel you hiding something."

"It's just a theory right now—I need to think it through."

"You mean we," Keefe said, hooking his arm through hers. "We need to think it through. Team Foster-Keefe-Mer!"

"Uh, now it's team Foster-Dex-Mer-and-Keefe," Dex said, marching over and taking her other arm.

Keefe shook his head. "That doesn't have the same ring. Though it could be handy having a Technopath around."