But it also wasn’t.

He sighed. “You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”

“I think you have to,” she admitted. “Because I don’t really get what would be wrong.”

Ro giggled. “The adorable obliviousness strikes again!”

Keefe rolled his eyes and tugged on the hem of his tunic—which was still inside out, Sophie realized. “Fine. Now that you and Fitz are dating—”

“We’re not,” she interrupted.

“I know, I know—not officially. But come on, Foster. You guys are totally a ‘thing.’ Fitz told me the whole sappy story about his big confession. And yours.” He kicked one of his shoes across the room.

“That’s ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back,” Ro added as Sophie’s cheeks reached nuclear levels of heat. “Though I did enjoy the part where you bailed on Pretty Boy right before all the smooching.”

“I didn’t bail on him,” Sophie mumbled, refusing to look at anybody. “Silveny went into labor, and we had to go save her and the babies.”

“Don’t you just hate when that happens?” Ro teased. “And that doesn’t explain why you and Swoony Boy still haven’t…” She puckered her lips and made horrifyingly loud kissy sounds. “Or have you?”

They… hadn’t—but no way was Sophie answering that question. “I still don’t get why any of this means I can’t help with your memories.”

A rhythmic thumping sound followed.

Maybe Keefe kicking the bed?

Or banging his head against the wall?

Sophie was far too busy studying the grains of sand in the rug to check.

“It’s just… now that you guys are together,” he eventually said, making her jump a little, “I figured it might be a bad idea for you and me to work on such a time-consuming project—especially since Fitz is obsessed with finding Alvar right now, so he won’t want to help.”

It took a beat for Sophie to piece together what he meant. “Fitz won’t care if we work on this without him.”

“You sure about that? ’Cause he also told me he hasn’t seen you since Wynn and Luna were born—and that you haven’t been hailing him or doing any of your little secret Telepath convos. He sounded kinda bummed about it. And he got a little less pouty after I told him I hadn’t heard from you either, so…”

“Why is that, by the way?” Ro jumped in as a whole other kind of nausea flooded Sophie’s system. “Shouldn’t you guys be, like, all Fitzphie all the time?”

The urge to tug on her eyelashes was strong. But somehow Sophie resisted. “I have a lot going on.”

“Like what? Something you haven’t included us in?” Ro pressed.

“No! It’s…”

“It’s what?” Ro asked, refusing to let it go.

Sophie sighed. “It’s… personal.”

“Is it, now?” Ro patted the chaise next to her. “Well then, why don’t you sit right here and tell Auntie Ro all about it?”

“Auntie Ro?” Sophie, Sandor, and Keefe all asked in unison.

Ro shrugged. “What? I can be nurturing when I want to be.”

That would’ve been a lot easier to believe if she weren’t using a dagger to clean beneath her claws.

“Don’t look so afraid,” she told Sophie. “Personal stuff is my specialty! Need some smooching advice? Because you’re probably overthinking it. You just—”

“NO!” Sophie interrupted, definitely not wanting to hear the end of that sentence.

“See why I didn’t want to bring this up?” Keefe asked. “It’s like, just when you think it can’t possibly get any worse—it does!”

Yes, yes, it did.

But… now that they were there, Sophie had to know. “You really think Fitz would be bothered by us working together?”

Keefe shrugged. “Seems like he might be.”

Ro snorted. “Of course he would! He’d be super, super jealous!”

“Don’t,” Keefe told her.

“No—I can’t take it anymore!” Ro stalked toward Sophie and tapped her on the nose with a calloused fingertip. “I repeat: Yes, your Captain Perfectpants would be jealous! He scraped together the courage to get all share-y about his feelings, and now you’re ignoring him, and being all mysterious about why, and telling everyone who asks that you’re not dating him. And I’m not saying that’s a bad call. Trust your instincts! Hopefully they’ll lead you out of the oblivion. But in the meantime, count on your teal-eyed Wonderboy feeling a little insecure, particularly if he finds out you’re spending lots of quality time with other dudes. And you know what? That’s good for him. We all know that boy could use a little help in the humility department. So make him sweat a little. And you”—she spun back toward Keefe—“need to stop being so afraid.”

“Afraid of what?” Sophie asked.

“I’m not afraid,” Keefe argued. “I’m being a good friend.”

“And how’s that working out?” Ro countered.

“Awesome!” Keefe spat back.

“Yeah, it looks super awesome watching you draw until your fingers cramp every night because you’re giving up without even trying.”

“Giving up?” Sophie asked.

Keefe flopped back on the bed and covered his face with his hands. “Ugh, I’m so over this conversation!”

“So am I,” Sandor agreed. “Aren’t we supposed to be discussing the fact that your mother has given an order to have you killed by one of your friends?”

Suffocating silence followed.

“I wouldn’t say Bangs Boy and I are friends,” Keefe eventually muttered as he slowly sat back up. “More like frenemies. So I guess Mom kinda got that part right.”

“No, she didn’t,” Sophie said, trying to decide if she should go sit beside him. They were back to the brutal topic, but… it felt so awkward. “I’ll never understand why you and Tam have your ridiculous feud going on, but he took a huge risk to warn you to stay away.”

“Yeah, I’m all warm and fuzzy about it. What was it he said again? Lock me up if you have to? What a good buddy!”

“Keefe—”

“Uh-uh, Foster. I know what you’re thinking—and I don’t care what Bangs Boy said. I’m not sitting any of this out! And if you try to lock me up, it’s on.”

“Anyone else kinda want to see that?” Ro asked, raising her hand. “Come on—you know you’re curious, Gigantor. Our girl’s got a feisty side to her that’s gonna be epic when she fully unleashes it.”

Keefe rolled his eyes but kept his focus on Sophie. “Do you really believe my mom would let something crucial like this leak? She’s totally playing us! If she actually planned on killing me, she wouldn’t breathe a word about it until it was time to give the death order—and there’s no way she’d leave it up to Mr. Happy Shadow Thoughts. He’s a sulky know-it-all with ridiculous hair, but… he’s not a murderer.”