Reversed

liii. fifty-three

  Sophie stared at the round, marble-like objects in her hands, shock numbing her senses.

  Two caches were familiar—one had seven sparkling gems embedded in the side, and the other had nine. Fintan and Kenric's caches.

  The third she'd never seen before; it was pure white shot through with honey brown and gold with a singular gold gemstone in the side. For some reason, she could've sworn she felt the slightest tug of a connection to it—like it was calling out to her.

  She numbly them rolled them around in her palm. How could they have—

  Ruy.

  He must have slipped them into her pockets when they were sitting close together.

  Sophie shook her head, a small smile creeping over her lips. A sliver of hope eased the pain in her chest—maybe she could actually have a shot at fixing all of her mistakes. Ruy had given her a chance.

  As quickly as it had lifted, her mood dropped. Yes, Ruy had given her a chance—at his own expense. If Lady Gisela wasn't already going to kill him for meeting with her, she would definitely kill him for this. Or worse—torture him. There was no way the Neverseen wouldn't notice the missing caches.

  "You idiot," Sophie whispered, closing her fists around the caches. "You idiot."

  She slipped them back into her pockets, worry clenching her heart. She desperately wanted to transmit to Ruy to see if he was okay, but she refused to risk his safety any more than she already had.

  Oh, right. There was also the little fact that she probably couldn't do that anymore, since she was, you know, losing her abilities.

  Sophie sighed, reluctantly forcing herself to head back towards the hideout. Even though everything was so confusing right now, the least she could do was try and make sense of it all.  

  Keefe was waiting for her in the common room. He tweaked an eyebrow when she came in. "Finally. I was starting to wonder if you got abducted or something."

  Sophie raised her eyebrows.

  Keefe winced. "Ah. Right. Sorry."

  Sophie shrugged, brushing her fingers over the caches through her pocket as she shoved away her ebbing shock. "Just wanted to check something out." She rolled her shoulders. "So, what did you want to show me?"

  Keefe winked. "Oh, I'm not going to reveal my surprise just yet. You have to trust me." He took out his pathfinder and offered her his hand. "Are you ready?"

  Sophie gave him a skeptical look, warily reaching out her hand. "Am I going to regret this?"

  "Absolutely not."

  "Why don't I find that as convincing as I should?"

  "Just . . . trust me."

  "I—" Keefe pulled her into the light.

  Sophie blinked, taking a few seconds to let her eyes adjust to the new lighting. Or rather, the lack of it.

  "Where are we?" Sophie whispered, letting go of Keefe's hand and spinning around in a circle.

  Cool air kissed her face, and a steady drip, drip, drip sounded somewhere off in the distance. The scent of the air was so delicious and fresh that Sophie sucked in deep gulps of air, wishing she could bottle it up.

  They seemed to be in some sort of cave—except it was one of the most beautiful caves she'd ever seen. Much like the walls of the Black Swan's one hideout, the cave walls were covered in tiny, glowing specks that replicated the explosion of stars above that could be seen through the spotty holes and pockets of space above them. As her eyes adjusted more, she realized that the glowing specks softly illuminated various deep green plants with glossy leaves. A trickling stream ran through the middle of the tavern, as crisp and fresh as the slight breeze sweeping through the ceiling.

  "Oh," she breathed. It was one of the most breathtaking places she'd seen—and that was saying a lot, considering all the places she'd been in the Lost Cities.

  She stepped further into the cave, her eyes continuing to adjust to the dim lighting, picking out smaller breathtaking details as she drifted forward, silent on her feet.  Natural patterns covered the bottoms of the cave walls that spun and dipped and swirled and glistened with something that looked like liquid stars, then she took in the trailing vines speckled with tiny white flowers covering a portion of the walls . . .

  Keefe smirked. "I told you it wouldn't be a waste of your time."

  Sophie cast him a side glance, as if to say we'll see about that.

  He led her deeper into the cave, pulling aside tailing, draping vines at the end to reveal a set of massive and rough-hewn wooden doors. The handles were carved with a series of intricate whorls that depicted different artful scenes of nature—exploding stars, flooding rains, newborn leaves, dancing fires, death-cold ice, towering mountains, northern lights.

  She sucked in a breath as he pushed the door back, releasing a wave of air even fresher than what she was currently breathing. "After you," Keefe gestured with a wink.

  As soon as she stepped through the doors into the space beyond, the air that had been whispering through the doors hit her full-force. Sophie was floored to the spot as the breeze brought to her mind images of moonlit days and sun-drenched nights, of lilting music that tasted like honey and falling stars, of booming rain and sodden earth and shining eyes and fire-lit hair and bubbling laughter that made her feel as if she would float away, past the sky and into the clouds.

  "It takes a little while to get used to at first," a voice said softly by her ear. Keefe.

  "Yeah," Sophie slowly opened her eyes, taking in the room they'd just walked into. "You could say that."

  If the cave before had been borderline magic, this portion was straight out of a dream.

  Trickling water ran down the walls in the back, reflecting the starlight of the open night above them. The specks of light on the floor and walls were alive now, drifting and swaying and glowing with a soft, golden light. Uncut gems sparkled in the rock behind the falling rivulets, blue and white and green. The plants that thickly draped and grew and stretched out along the border of the cavern bloomed with white petals even brighter than those outside.

  In the center of the room, a rough circle of naturally-eroded rock stood up about a foot above the rest of the floor. Surrounding it was a thin pool of aquamarine water that branched out into tiny streams which flowed out to the walls, seeming to flow . . . upwards into the moats that ran over the rock making up the walls.

  While half of her wanted to lay on her back in the middle of the cavern and drink it all in until she drowned, the other half of her attention snagged on the figure already sitting in the middle on the raised dais of stone.

  Linh cracked open a silver-blue eye that—if Sophie wasn't mistaken—was glowing with a soft golden light not unlike that of the plants and water and cave walls.

  "Hello," she said. "I'm glad you could make it. Come. Sit."