“No, he should work on the urgent cases first. Is Grady here? Or Fitz and Biana?”

“The island’s on lockdown, even for friends and family, until the dwarves stabilize the ruins—though Biana managed to sneak over for a couple of minutes. Vanishers. She was looking for you guys and totally tackled me when she saw me. I guess she didn’t realize I’d already left the Neverseen, so there was a lot of threatening and punching. But I deserved it. I deserve so much worse.” His throat closed off, and it took several tries to clear it. “All those months with them, thinking I was playing everything perfectly. I bet they were onto me the whole time. Just like my mom said. And they were planning this.”

He punched the sand, sending it spraying around them.

Sophie held him tighter. “This is not your fault, Keefe. None of us realized what they were up to.”

“Yeah, but I was living with them. Helping them. And all I have to show for it is this.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out two clear glass marbles. One with seven colorful tiny crystals set inside. The other with nine.

“You stole the caches?” Sophie whispered, watching them roll around his palm.

Together, the two gadgets contained sixteen Forgotten Secrets.

“It was the only thing that went right with my escape. And I was so smug about it. But who cares? I mean, seriously—who cares about a bunch of dusty old secrets when people can do that?” He gestured behind her, to the ruined castle.

“It’s still huge,” Sophie promised. “I know it doesn’t feel like it—but the secrets in those caches have to be important. That’s a victory!”

“A pretty weak one,” he grumbled, trying to look away.

She reached up and turned his chin back, waiting for him to meet her eyes. “You have to let this go. Don’t let this ruin what we have here.”

“What do we have?”

She ignored the darkness shredding his tone. “We have a new start. A new lead. A new weapon in this fight.”

Also a new world.

At the thought, Sophie forced herself to finally look back at the destruction. The majestic castle was nothing more than a few jagged pieces. When she squinted at it, she could almost imagine it was a giant gnarled hand, reaching out of the ground as the beast it belonged to tried to claw its way to freedom.

It also looked like a message. The Neverseen had just told the whole world that they were the ones to be feared.

“You should probably transmit to Fitz that you’re okay,” Keefe said quietly. “I hadn’t found you when I saw Biana.” He looked away again, swiping at his eyes. “If you hadn’t been okay—”

“But I am,” she assured him.

She closed her eyes, picturing Fitz’s handsome face as she transmitted, I’m okay, and so is Edaline. Please tell Grady for me. I promise I’ll let you know more soon.

“Okay, I let Fitz know,” she told Keefe. “Have you seen Mr. Forkle?”

Keefe flinched at the name.

“What?” she asked.

The anguish on his face told her everything she needed to know.

“Hey,” Keefe said holding her steady as she struggled to stand. “He’s not dead, okay? He’s just . . . missing.”

“But he’s missing because of me! I made him go back to find Edaline—and then I went back and found her anyway!”

“Deep breaths, Foster. Try to remember that you were ‘missing’ a few minutes ago, and yet you’re fine. There’s a lot of beach to search. A lot of debris to sort through.”

She tried to see it like that, but the nausea wouldn’t fade.

“Is anyone else missing?” she asked, trying to prepare herself for the worst.

But she definitely wasn’t ready for him to whisper, “Oralie.”

The world spun upside down and inside out. “We have to find them.”

She was half crying, half hyperventilating as she stumbled forward—and immediately collapsed.

“Okay, how about you lean on me and we’ll start searching the beach?” Keefe offered.

She shook her head. “We can’t afford to waste time. If they’re hurt . . .”

She closed her eyes, letting her concentration brew and bubble before she stretched her mind across the space of the island. She could feel a ton of people on the beach—but no one she was looking for, so she fanned her thoughts toward the ruins and . . .

“I think I feel something! It’s weak, but it’s there.”

“Can you isolate it? We can tell the dwarves and as soon as they’ve secured the structure they’ll go in—”

“What do you mean ‘as soon as they’ve secured the structure’?”

“King Enki said it’s not safe for anyone to go in right now. All the parts that are still standing have big cracks compromising their integrity, so there’s no way to know if the whole thing is going to come down—especially in this wind. He said he’d have it secured by sunset.”

“That’s too long,” Sophie said. “They have to be hurt. Otherwise why aren’t they here?”

Keefe tore his hand through his hair, shaking loose dust and sand. “What are the odds of me talking you out of this?”

“Definitely none.”

“Then I guess I’m coming with you.” He glanced at Edaline, who was still sleeping restlessly. “She’s going to freak when she wakes up alone.”

Sophie nodded and wrote, I’m okay—went to find Forkle in the sand, hoping this note would cause less trouble than her last one.

Then she headed for the rubble.

“Not that way,” Keefe said, grabbing her hand and dragging her into the shadows. “The dwarves are working just around that bend. If they spot us, they’ll make sure we don’t get anywhere near the castle. We’ll have to sneak around the back and find another way in.”

They didn’t talk as they walked; Sophie was too busy trying to hold on to whatever weak connection she’d found to guide them.

“That looks pretty sturdy,” Keefe said, pointing to an arched doorway half blocked by a fallen pillar. “Think you can run for it? We’ll want to make sure we’re not seen.”

“Yeah, just give me a second.” She took a couple of breaths and channeled some extra energy to her legs. “Okay.”