“The public’s lack of knowledge of Team Valiant is no reason for us to hold off utilizing the arrangement,” Councillor Emery informed him. “Particularly with a sensitive meeting like this, which would’ve been kept classified anyway. But… I can see how you might’ve thought otherwise. Especially since I’m now realizing that we didn’t mention the date or time of our meeting with King Enki to you. I suppose we assumed Miss Foster would pass that information along.”

Which… Sophie probably would have, if she hadn’t been fighting with Mr. Forkle about her biological parents.…

Yet another way her selfish focus was coming back to haunt her.

“In the interests of improving our communication,” Councillor Emery added, “you should know that we’re planning to announce the Regent appointments next week. We’re still figuring out the exact date, time, and place. If you’d like an update once we’ve decided—”

“I would,” Mr. Forkle told him. “And… for what it’s worth, I do apologize for not informing you about Granite’s meeting with King Enki—and I’m glad to hear that Miss Foster was able to salvage the situation.” He turned to Sophie, and she was a little surprised by the level of pride radiating from his expression—like a dad whose kid had just hit a game-winning home run. “Does this mean you’ll be willing to share what you learned while you were in Loamnore?”

“If you’ll be willing to share what Granite learned with us,” Bronte countered.

“But not right now,” Sophie cut in when everyone nodded.

Mr. Forkle sighed. “Yes, I suppose I’ve sidetracked us from the reason you called me here, haven’t I? All right then—why don’t you go get settled into bed while I hail Livvy and let her know what’s going on. I’d also still like to have Mr. Vacker and Mr. Sencen here—so long as that won’t make you uncomfortable.”

Sophie’s mouth turned drier than the desert they’d hiked through earlier.

But she croaked out, “Of course it won’t!”—even though she was pretty sure that seeing Fitz wasn’t going to go well.

Then again… he couldn’t stay mad at her when she was about to come super close to dying again, could he?

Maybe she’d finally found a perk to her allergy!

“I can hail my brother if you want,” Biana offered.

“And I can hail Keefe,” Dex added.

“Excellent,” Mr. Forkle told them, clapping his hands as he turned to the Council. “I’m assuming you’re planning to stay for this?”

“You are?” Sophie blurted out when Councillor Emery agreed.

She hadn’t realized she’d be almost dying in front of such a huge audience.

“We want to make sure you’re okay,” Oralie told her, sounding so genuine that it melted a bit of Sophie’s panic.

Or it did until Bronte added, “And let’s be honest, we’re all curious to see how this works—myself in particular, given that the ability being focused on is one that Miss Foster and I share.”

“If you’d rather have privacy, Sophie,” Edaline jumped in, sending an angry-mama-bear glare at Bronte, “I’m sure the Councillors will understand.”

“No, it’s fine,” Sophie decided.

Given the lengthy discussion that Mr. Forkle and the Council had just had about working together, it didn’t seem like a good idea to shut the Councillors out.

And who knew? Maybe they’d appreciate her a little more after they saw for themselves the kinds of things she put herself through in order to be useful.

“Just keep in mind,” Dex warned the Council, “that if this goes anything like the time I accidentally gave her limbium, there’s going to be a lot of Sophie-vomit. So if that’s going to trigger a hurlfest for you guys, this could get really messy really fast.”

“Actually, I think I have an elixir that will help with that,” Elwin told him. “I’ll grab some when I go back for Bullhorn.”

“You’re bringing your banshee here?” Grady asked.

Elwin nodded. “The last time I worked on Sophie’s allergy, he was the only way I knew if something was or wasn’t helping.”

Right.

Because banshees could tell when someone was either close to dying—or really, really, really close to dying.

“Gotta say, it’s not sounding like a whole lot of fun to be the moonlark right now,” Stina mumbled. “And it’s not feeling very awesome, either.”

She fanned the air in front of her face the way Keefe always did.

“Wait. You can feel my emotions right now?” Sophie asked. “Without physical contact?”

“Some of them, yeah.” Stina wrapped her arms around her stomach. “And it’s a pretty miserable experience, so I think it might be proof that hanging out with you is ruining my life.”

She said the last part in a friendly, teasing tone that Sophie never would’ve expected to hear coming from Stina.

And Sophie had zero words for a response.

“Most likely you’re benefitting from the residual boost that comes from being around an Enhancer,” Mr. Forkle explained. “It’s a subtle effect—nothing like grabbing hold of Sophie’s hands. But it can still cause small improvements to the abilities of everyone around her.”

“Huh,” Stina said—which summed up Sophie’s thought on the subject as well.

She remembered Mr. Forkle mentioning something about that when he first triggered her enhancing, but then she’d been so busy getting used to the gloves that she’d kind of forgotten about it—especially since none of her friends had noticed a difference.

She wondered why Stina had.…

“Come on,” Edaline said, crossing the room and draping an arm around Sophie’s shoulders. “Let’s get you settled into bed.”

Sophie nodded, letting Edaline lead her up the stairs. But halfway to her room she changed her mind.

“I think we should do this under Calla’s Panakes tree,” Sophie decided. “I feel much calmer out there. And it’s probably not a bad idea to be so close to all of those healing flowers.”

Plus, Calla had been a part of Project Moonlark—and even though Sophie knew Calla’s consciousness was technically gone, the thought of being surrounded by the Panakes’ whispery songs while the limbium burned through her system made the whole process sound a little less awful.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Edaline said, snapping her fingers a few times. “I just sent blankets and pillows out there—I’ll get you set up. Why don’t you go change into fresh clothes while I do? Pick something extra soft and cozy for when you’re…”

She looked away, and Sophie pulled her into a hug.

“I’m going to be okay,” Sophie promised.

“I know.” Edaline squeezed Sophie tighter. “But I’m still going to worry. It’s my job as a mom—and I’m very good at it.”

“You’re good at all of the mom things,” Sophie assured her, and Edaline found a way to hug her even harder.

They stood like that for a while, neither wanting to let go.