Keefe blinked.

“I know,” she mumbled, hardly believing the words herself. But that didn’t stop her from repeating, “You should take the deal. Think about it—what do we gain by turning him over?”

“Uh, we make sure he can’t cause any more trouble?” Keefe reminded her.

“I know, but… look at him,” she argued. “Does he really look like a threat? And this might be our last chance to learn something about what your mom is planning before she makes her next move.”

“But—”

“I let Brant go,” Sophie reminded him. “He had information about the ambush on Mount Everest, and I let him go to get it—and I don’t regret it, even with all the horrible things he did afterward. Sometimes, when there’s no great option, you make the deal that gets you what you need to know right then—and if we decide to hunt Alvar down after that, I’m sure we can find him again.”

Keefe chewed his lower lip so hard, his teeth left little dents. “Okay… but… if Fitz finds out—”

“I know,” Sophie interrupted.

There was a decent chance Fitz would hate her for this forever—and if he did, she would have to deal with that.

But knowing that didn’t change anything. “It’s still the right decision,” she promised. “Even with the fallout.”

“I agree with Blondie,” Ro chimed in.

Sandor let out a squeaky sigh. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… so do I. Alvar won’t get far in his condition. And I can’t see him doing a whole lot of damage.”

“He hasn’t done anything this whole time he’s been hiding here, right?” Sophie reminded Keefe.

Alvar flashed a tired smile. “Sounds like the majority has spoken. So are we ready to do this?”

Keefe stole another glance at Sophie.

“I’m sure,” she told him, before he could ask.

“Okay,” Keefe said, dragging a hand through his hair. “I… guess we are.”

“One more thing,” Ro told Alvar as he slowly struggled to his feet. “If you do anything—and I mean anything—that makes my boy or our pretty Blondie feel guilty for agreeing to this, I will find you and take great delight in making your final days as agonizing as possible.”

“I believe you,” Alvar told her, coughing as he pulled a crystal from his crumpled tunic—a crystal that looked like it’d been torn randomly out of a Leapmaster.

Keefe grabbed Alvar’s arm before he could hold the crystal up to the light. “Secrets first—then you can make your little escape path.”

“You really think I can run away?” Alvar coughed again, nearly toppling over in the process.

“Just tell us what you know,” Keefe demanded, tightening his grip on Alvar’s wrist.

Alvar cleared his throat, needing several gasping breaths before he said, “Your mom was very specific about the child she wanted. She wanted a son—and she wanted him to have a very unique ability. But she abhorred the idea of experimenting on her own kid, like the Black Swan was doing in Project Moonlark. So she did something to herself—and your dad—before she got pregnant. She never said what—but I know it involved the elements somehow.”

“How do you know that?” Sophie demanded.

Alvar shrugged. “I’m a Vanisher. I know how to sneak around and eavesdrop—and I figured it might be good for me to have a little dirt on Lady Gisela if I needed it. Clearly I was right.”

“And that’s it?” Keefe asked, laughing when Alvar nodded. “That’s the big mystery behind my legacy? That Mommy Dearest put herself through this super-painful thing and it failed completely?”

“How do you know it failed?” Alvar asked him.

“Uh, because I’m an Empath,” Keefe reminded him. “Nothing unique about that!”

“And you’re sure that’s your only ability?” Alvar countered. “Your mother’s a Polyglot, so her genetics are primed for manifesting twice.”

“Except she didn’t,” Keefe argued. “My mom only has one ability.”

“Does she? Or is that just what she wants everyone to think?” Alvar let that settle in before he added, “And how do you know she isn’t waiting for you to manifest again?”

“If she is, she can keep right on waiting,” Keefe told him. “I’m past manifesting age.”

“Unless she’s going to try to trigger it,” Sophie murmured.

Embrace the change.

“My thought exactly,” Alvar agreed. “For the record, I have no idea what the ability is supposed to be. But I know she called it ‘game-changing.’ And another time, I heard her say it was the foundation of her entire plan. Sounds like quite a legacy, doesn’t it?”

“Watch it, Whiny Boy,” Ro warned, pointing her dagger at his smug grin. “I can make it so you have to crawl into your little light beam.”

Alvar’s smile faded. “That’s all I know,” he told Keefe. “And you haven’t accused me of lying, so clearly you believe me. Which means this is the part where you let me go.”

“I… don’t know what to do with that information,” Keefe mumbled as he released his hold on Alvar’s wrist.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon enough,” Alvar told him as he hobbled into the light, adding, “Remember what I said,” as he disappeared in a shower of sparkle.

“It’s ridiculous, right?” Keefe asked Sophie in the silence that followed. “I’m not…”

There were a million ways to end that sentence.

But Sophie was pretty sure he’d planned to say, I’m not you.

And he wasn’t—he wasn’t part of some huge genetic project.

But maybe he didn’t have to be.

“I’m not manifesting another ability,” Keefe said—almost like it was a decision he had control over. “I don’t care what she tries—it’s not going to work.”

Sophie had to stop herself from reminding him that shadowflux changed everything it touched—because she’d had a much more terrifying thought that she wasn’t quite ready to share:

Lady Gisela… was messing with things she didn’t understand.

And Tam did understand them.

And Tam knew what she wanted him to do to Keefe.

And he was certain it would kill him.

FORTY-ONE

OKAY,” KEEFE SAID, CLAPPING HIS hands. “So… that happened.”

“Keefe—”

“I’m fine, Foster,” he interrupted in a squeaky voice that sounded anything but fine. “Seriously! Why wouldn’t I be? I mean… sure, we just let a traitor go free in order to learn about how my mom did some freaky fertility thing to herself and my dad, so they’d have a kid with some weird mystery ability. But… you know what that means?”

“That you and our pretty blond moonlark probably understand each other better than anybody?” Ro suggested, batting her eyes when he turned to scowl at her. “What? I’m just saying! That’s an awfully unique thing to have in common!”