Flashback ( PDFDrive )

“You won’t!” Keefe assured him. “We’re working on body
temperature regulation.”
Sophie groaned.
The day they’d practiced that skill at Exillium had been long, hot,
and very, very sweaty. And given the large silver basin of freezing
water that Elwin set on the cot next to hers, it looked like a lot of
shivering would soon be in her future.
“You sure you don’t want to work on something else?” she tried.
“I’m sure. I know it seems like a pointless skill when you first think
about it—like, ‘Why can’t I just put on a heavier cape or roll up my
sleeves?’ But I bet if we’d all mastered it before the ambush on
Everest, my mom wouldn’t have gotten away. And Alvar told me it’s
the only reason he didn’t die when Brant trapped him in a room full of
flames to punish him. That’s why he made me practice it for a few
minutes every day, along with appetite suppression, breathing control,
and darkness vision. He called them our ‘survival instincts.’ ”
They both stared at the basin, watching the ice swirl, until Keefe
whispered the words they were both thinking.
“I should’ve taught you this stuff a while ago.”
“I should’ve asked you to,” she said, accepting her half of the blame.
They’d both wanted to put Keefe’s time with the Neverseen behind
them. And they’d both been mourning the loss of one of the Forkles,
and trying to find her human parents, and battling a million other
distractions.
All that mattered was, “You’re teaching me now.”
“Yeah, I guess.” He helped her prop herself up with a few extra
pillows and scooted the basin close enough to her left side to make the
chill seep through her blankets.