Keeper of the Lost Cities (12 page)

SNAARRLL!

“I’m trying to help, you silly girl,” he yelled as the beast bucked and thrashed.

Sophie cringed, hoping she wasn’t about to watch her new guardian become lizard food.

“Need a hand, Grady?” Alden called.

“Nah. Almost got it.” He lunged and grabbed something black tangled in the feathers. It twisted and writhed, but Grady yanked it off, nearly losing his balance in the process. The fluffy lizard stopped struggling as Grady tossed the black thing to one of the gnomes and slid down the beast’s back. “Sorry about that,” he called to Alden, once he was back on the ground.

“No problem, my friend. Verdi giving you trouble again?”

“That’s why she’s our permanent resident.”

“Would you like to meet a tyrannosaurus, Sophie?” Alden offered.

Her eyes stretched wide at the name. So the dinosaurs really weren’t extinct. The idea was so impossibly cool. And they looked nothing like what humans thought. Now she knew what Fitz meant with his smug comments at the museum.

“Is it safe?” she asked as she followed Alden forward. She wasn’t sure if she was more nervous about the deadly dinosaur or about meeting Grady.

“It is now that he got that jaculus off her neck. It’s a winged serpent that feeds off blood.”

She clung to Ella for support and moved to Alden’s other side, away from the gnome struggling to contain the bloodsucking snake.

“Easy there, Verdi,” Alden said as the giant beast whipped her head toward him and Sophie.

Verdi was more intimidating up close, with huge yellow eyes, sharp claws, and a pointed snout. Sophie tried not to tremble as Verdi bent down in front of her, lowering her giant head to Sophie’s height. Rows of sharp fangs glinted with dinosaur slobber in the sunlight.

“Are you surprised by what dinosaurs really look like?” Alden asked, motioning for her to come closer.

“I wasn’t expecting the neon feathers,” she admitted, her legs refusing to take another step forward.

Grady laughed beside her, and she whipped around to get a better glimpse of her new, dinosaur-riding guardian. With his chiseled features and feather-covered tunic, she couldn’t decide if he reminded her more of James Bond or Robin Hood—which felt wrong. He was so unlike her chubby, balding dad she wasn’t sure how to relate.

His handsome face stretched into a smile. “You must be Sophie.”

She shook the feathery hand he offered and squeezed Ella tighter. He didn’t
look
scary—but her knees banged together anyway.

“Want to pet Verdi?” Grady asked.

She really didn’t want to get closer to those deadly looking teeth, but she didn’t want Grady to think she was a wimp either. So she took a deep breath and stepped close enough to rub the T. rex’s cheek with a light touch. Verdi stayed docile, watching Sophie with her unblinking yellow eye. Sophie lost herself in the stare.

“She’s still in pain,” she said, not entirely sure how she knew.

“Is she?” Grady separated the feathers on Verdi’s neck. “The wound is pretty deep. Maybe I should treat it.”

Sophie stepped back, and plugged her nose as Grady spread stinky brown slime over the wound. It smelled like death and rot and tuna fish—
not
a good combination.

“Kelpie dung,” Alden explained. “Takes the sting out of most bites.”

She hoped she wouldn’t have to touch any dung while living there.

Grady closed the stinky jar and wiped his hands on a cloth the gnome handed him. “I think you were right, Sophie. She seems more relaxed now. You must be good with animals.”

“I can be—with normal animals at least.” She stole another look at the gigantic feathery lizard. Verdi was still watching her, and maybe she was crazy, but she could swear she was trying to thank her.

“Well, come on, Edaline’s probably waiting.” Grady’s voice sounded wary, and his steps were almost as reluctant as Sophie’s as he led them to a house overlooking the ocean. It was small compared to Alden and Della’s palatial estate but a mansion by human standards. The house was taller than it was wide, with golden columns breaking up the etched glass walls, and a glittering cupola rose from the center of the roof.

There was no fancy entryway like Everglen’s, just a huge room with clear walls overlooking the ocean and scattered furniture breaking up the space. A wide central stairway curved to the upper floors, and a chandelier of intricately braided crystals cascaded from the domed ceiling. It was simple but elegant, and very, very clean. So clean it didn’t look lived in.

Edaline swept into the room in a pale blue dress made of wispy fabric that floated around her as she moved. She had soft pink cheeks, wide turquoise eyes, and amber hair that fell past her shoulders in soft curls. Aside from Della, she was the most beautiful woman Sophie had seen—except for the purple shadows under her eyes. Sophie’s human mom had similar dark circles sometimes, but only when she was stressed.

She wondered what Edaline was stressed about. She hoped it wasn’t the idea of having her live with them.

Edaline frowned when she saw Grady. “You’re covered in dinosaur fluff! I’m sorry, I told him to be presentable,” she told Alden.

Alden laughed. “I’ve yet to see someone ride a T. rex without picking up a few feathers.”

“You’ve never seen Edaline in action,” Grady corrected with a smile.

Sophie tried to imagine someone so delicate playing rodeo cowboy with a dinosaur. Nope, she couldn’t picture it.

“I’m going to wash up,” Grady said, dashing up the staircase.

Edaline nodded. Then she took a deep breath and turned to Sophie. “Welcome to our home.” Her shaky voice sounded more nervous than Sophie felt, which actually made Sophie feel better. At least Edaline thought this process was scary too.

“Thank you for having me.” She didn’t know what else to say.

Edaline smiled, but sadness lingered in her eyes. “I hope you can stay for tea,” she told Alden. “There’s mallowmelt.”

Alden’s face lit up. “If you insist.”

Mallowmelt turned out to be a gooey cake that tasted like fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies soaked in ice cream and covered in frosting and butterscotch. It melted on her tongue and was, hands down, the best thing Sophie had ever tasted. She giggled as Alden helped himself to three pieces. Grady joined them a few minutes later—his hair still dripping from a hasty shower—and helped himself to
four
slices.

Tea was served in a nook in the kitchen, and even though Sophie could see orange, feathery dinosaurs grazing outside in one of the pastures, it reminded her a little of home. Maybe it was the pastel linens on the table, or the intricate flowers painted on the china—but for the first time all day she didn’t feel the empty, homesick ache she’d woken up with.

“Would you like some lushberry juice?” Edaline offered Sophie.

“Um, sure.”

Edaline snapped her fingers. There was a tiny
pop
and a flash of light, and a bright green bottle appeared on the table.

Sophie scooted back like the bottle was possessed.

Grady laughed. “Guess you’ve never seen a Conjurer in action before.”

“How?” she asked when her mouth was able to form words again.

Edaline smiled for real this time, and it lit up her whole face. “If I know where something is, I can bring it here with my mind. It’s kind of like teleporting, but with objects.”

That was pretty much the coolest ability ever. “What can you do?” Sophie asked Grady.

His smile faded. “Nothing nearly as fun, trust me.”

She waited for him to elaborate, but he looked away.

Alden rose. “I, unfortunately, must get going.” He dug a scraggly paper out of his pocket and handed it to Edaline. “Elwin wants her to take these medicines for the next few weeks. You should be able to find them at Slurps and Burps.”

All the color faded from Edaline’s face. “I guess I’ll take her tomorrow. Is there anything else she needs?”

“Della took care of the rest. You know how she is when it comes to shopping.”

“I do. I made the mistake of letting her help me shop for a gift for . . . a friend’s daughter one time. Four hours later I had a whole new wardrobe and still no gift.”

Grady took Edaline’s hand and she turned away, staring out the window.

Sophie’s heart ached for them. She knew their pain—she’d lost an entire family. Maybe that was why Alden put them together. They all knew what it was like to grieve. But she didn’t feel like talking about it, so she kept quiet.

Alden fished a thin crystal square out of his pocket and handed it to Sophie. “This is an Imparter. It’ll allow you to communicate with anyone in our world. So if you need anything, or simply want to talk, say my name to the screen and you’ll reach me. Okay?”

“Okay.” She strangled Ella as her heart pounded in her ears. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Grady and Edaline—but it would be weird to be alone with them. What would they talk about?

Alden leaned closer, so he could whisper. “It’s going to be okay, Sophie. If you need anything—anytime—I’m here. Use the Imparter.”

She nodded.

“Good.” He waved to Grady and Edaline, gave Sophie one more reassuring smile as he held up his pathfinder, and vanished in a flash of light.

The silence he left behind was deafening.

Grady snapped out of it first. He jumped to his feet and nudged Sophie. “Let’s show you your new room.”

“THIS IS REALLY ALL MINE?”
Her bedroom took up the entire third floor.

Star-shaped crystals dangled from the ceiling on glittery cords, and blue and purple flowers weaved through the carpet, filling the room with their sweet scent. A giant canopy bed occupied the center of the room, and a huge closet and dressing area took up an entire wall. Bookshelves full of thick, brightly colored volumes filled the other walls. She even had her own bathroom, complete with a waterfall shower and a bathtub the size of a swimming pool.

“I hope it’s okay,” Edaline said, biting her lip.

Was she kidding?

“It’s awesome,” Sophie said, feeling more excited about her new home already. She dropped her backpack off, but decided to keep Ella with her. It helped having something to hold.

Half of the second floor was Grady and Edaline’s bedroom, and the other half was a long hall with three closed doors. Two were their personal offices. One they didn’t explain, but Sophie assumed it was Jolie’s room. They didn’t forbid her from going to that part of the house, but they didn’t give her a tour either, and with the way their voices strained as they spoke about it, she decided it would be best to stay away.

After an awkward but delicious dinner of soupy green stuff that tasted like pizza, Grady and Edaline left Sophie alone to unpack—which turned out to be a good thing.

Unpacking made everything real.

She
lived
here now, in this strange, slightly too perfect world where everything she knew was wrong and all she had to show for the past twelve years of her life was a backpack stuffed with wrinkled clothes she’d never wear, an iPod she couldn’t charge, and a scrapbook full of memories that had been erased from everyone except her.

At least she knew her family wasn’t missing her the way she missed them. Their new life—wherever it was—would be better without her. Alden and Della would’ve made sure of it.

Tears welled in her eyes as she put the last remnants of her human life away. Then she curled up on her bed with Ella and let herself have one last good cry.

When her eyes finally dried, she promised herself she wouldn’t look back anymore.

Grady and Edaline weren’t like her parents, and Havenfield wasn’t like her old house—but maybe that was better. Maybe it was easier if they were different. And maybe, with time, it would really feel like home.

S
OPHIE WOKE TO AN AMAZING SUNRISE—
pink, purple, and orange streaks blending the ocean and sky into mirror images. She enjoyed the view, but she would need to figure out a way to darken her glass walls. Sunrise was too early to be awake every day.

Grady and Edaline were in the kitchen finishing up breakfast when she came downstairs. Sophie hovered in the doorway, not sure if she should interrupt.

“Either you’re an early riser,” Grady said as he moved the scrolls he was reading to make room for her, “or you didn’t close the shades.”

She sank into a chair next to him. “How do I do that?”

“Just clap your hands twice.”

“How about some breakfast?” Edaline asked. Her voice sounded tired, and the shadows around her eyes were so dark they looked like bruises. At Sophie’s nod she conjured up a bowl of orange glop and a spoon. Each bite tasted like warm, buttery banana bread, and Sophie was tempted to ask for seconds, but she didn’t want to impose.

She didn’t know how to talk to them, so she stared at Grady’s scrolls. The sloppy handwriting was impossible to read upside down, but she did notice a symbol in the corner: a hooked bird’s neck, with the beak pointing down. The image tickled her mind, like she should know what it meant, but she couldn’t find the memory it belonged to.

Grady caught her looking and rolled them up. “Boring stuff from a long time ago.” He said it with a smile, but it was obvious he didn’t want her seeing the scrolls, which only made her more curious. Especially when she spotted a line of runes running along the bottom, and this time they made sense.

“‘Project Moonlark,’” she blurted, before she could think it through.

“You can read that?” Grady asked.

Sophie nodded, scooting back a little when she saw the look in his eyes. Anger, confusion—and fear. “Usually I can’t, but this time I could. What’s Project Moonlark?” she whispered.

Grady’s mouth tightened. “Nothing you need to know about.”

But Alden had said the word she used to babble as a baby might mean “moonlark.” That couldn’t be a coincidence. She tugged out an eyelash.

Grady ran a hand across his face and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just, these are extremely classified documents, and those are cipher runes. No one is supposed to be able to read them unless they’ve been taught the key.”