“No, it’s . . .” He took a slow breath and pulled himself up, cradling his singed hand. “I can’t go with you guys. I know you think this fixes everything—but Fintan’s vision is huge. And all of this will only be a small setback. We still need someone on the inside—”

“Do you really think Fintan will trust you after you let everyone else get captured?” Sophie interrupted. “Think of what he did to your mom, and she only cost him one prisoner. Look at what Brant just did to you!” She grabbed his wrist, forcing him to see his oozing wound. “Would they do that if they trusted you?”

Keefe turned away, not quite fighting off his shudder. “That’s why you have to let me take Alvar.”

“Yeah, that’s never happening,” Fitz practically growled.

“It has to. I know it’s brutal—but think of the bigger picture. If I bring Alvar back, I’m the hero who saved one of the team. And Alvar’s the safest one for me to take. He’s always believed in me—you heard him defend me when Brant sparked the flames! And he’s never killed anyone—”

“No, he just kidnaps people and watches them be tortured,” Sophie snapped.

“Believe me, I’ll make him pay for that—but right now we have to play this smart. Ruy and Brant are part of Fintan’s big plan, so take them, lock them up, and have Forkle interrogate the crud out of them until we find out what they know. But they’ll only know a piece, so I’ll use Alvar to keep my ‘in’ and learn the rest. I’ll be safe. Fintan . . . likes me.”

“Dude, save your daddy issues for another time,” Tam ordered. “Fintan doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t trust you. And if you go back to him, he’ll destroy you.”

Keefe’s eye roll was epic. “Don’t you need to go fix your bangs or something?”

“You can hate me all you want,” Tam told him. “It won’t mean I’m not right. Admit that now, and you might still have a chance to fix what really matters. Or you can wait until you’ve lost her. It’s your call.”

“Lost who?” Fitz asked.

Tam shook his head. “We need to go.”

“Tam’s right,” Sophie said, her legs shaking as she stood. “Come on, Keefe. You’re never going to get another chance like this. I’ve tried for weeks to figure out how to get you away from them, and this is it. You’re safe. You’ll be long gone before they realize what happened. And we’ll hide you somewhere until we shut down every single one of their hideouts connected to the symbol. And that’ll be the end of it.”

“But it won’t be,” he mumbled. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. There’s still so much more to do.”

“Then do it with us.”

She offered him her gloved hand, and her eyes pleaded with him to take it this time.

After a breathless second, he did.

He let her pull him to his feet, leaning on her to stay steady. “I know what matters, Foster,” he whispered. “And it’s all that matters.”

The intensity of his stare turned everything floaty and fluttery. But it all crashed back down when he lunged for Tam and snatched the Alluveterre crystal from his hand.

“What are you doing?” Fitz shouted as Keefe bolted to Alvar and hefted him over his shoulder.

“I bet I can trade this for the information I need to steal the caches. And I’d stay back if I were you,” he told Fitz and Tam. “You don’t want those guys waking up if you jostle them around too much, do you?”

“Then drop him with your inflicting,” Tam shouted at Sophie.

But Sophie had drained all her pent-up emotions when she took down the others. All she had left was shock, and a sickening sadness.

“Please don’t do this,” she begged. “If you leave here with that crystal, you’ll trap us—and you’ll compromise Alluveterre.”

“The Black Swan can sacrifice one hideout for what this will get me,” Keefe said. “And you can teleport. There has to be a cliff around here you can jump off to get the momentum.”

“Are we supposed to haul two bodies with us as we try to find it?” Sophie argued.

“Use your telekinesis. You’re the amazing Sophie Foster. You’ll figure it out.”

“And you’re making a seriously huge mistake,” Tam warned.

“Maybe. I’m pretty good at that—but I’m even better at fixing things. That’s still what I’m trying to do here. Trust me.”

“How?” Sophie’s voice cracked along the edges. “After all the times you’ve lied or ignored us or betrayed us? How do we ever trust you again?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered.

“And I don’t know if I can forgive this one,” she whispered back.

Keefe swallowed hard, eyes focused on his feet as he nodded. “Yeah . . . I can feel that. And if you needed proof that I’m not doing this for me—that’s it, okay?”

It definitely was not okay.

Nothing about this was okay.

“I’m sorry,” Keefe whispered. “You have no idea how much. I’m also guessing this means no more check-ins. So please, please, please be careful. Keep your bodyguards close and know that I will end this.”

It did feel like an end as he stepped onto the glowing Lodestar symbol. She just didn’t know what it was the end of.

“Oh—I forgot to tell you,” he mumbled. “I finally know how the black disks work. If you have the one you need, and you give the right command . . .”

He moved to a circle at the end of one of the rays and whispered, “Gwynaura.”

The ray flashed so bright, Sophie had to look away.

By the time the glow faded, Keefe and Alvar were gone.

SEVENTY-ONE

SO . . . THAT HAPPENED,” Tam mumbled. “You guys okay?”

Fitz looked like he wanted to stab many things.

“Fine,” Sophie said, pressing her shaky hand against the glass to steady it. She’d moved to the cracked window, staring at the long grassy field swaying in the wind. “Just trying to figure out how to get out of here. We could be wandering a long time trying to find a cliff.”

“And my levitation’s not strong enough to lift a whole other person,” Tam said. “Especially since it sounds like we need to be pretty high up if we’re going to teleport. So weird that you need to free-fall.”