Flashback ( PDFDrive )

instructions, since it was more important for Luzia to focus on
building the new hive.
“Okay,” Sophie said quietly, trying to think through what Luzia had
told them. “She told us not to believe our eyes. So what about our
other senses?”
Something did seem off about where they were standing—but she
couldn’t put her finger on it because everything looked normal.
It felt normal too.
A dry breeze kept making the briars crackle—which sounded right.
And the lake . . .
“Wait—the lake isn’t rippling from the wind,” Sophie realized.
And now that she thought about it, the air should’ve had a sour,
musty smell from all that icky, stagnant water.
“The lake must not be real,” she decided, moving to the edge and
tapping the water with her toe.
She’d expected to find solid ground, but . . . wetness soaked through
the fabric of her boot.
But the lake didn’t ripple, so . . . maybe she was still right? There
was only one way to really know for sure.
“If I fall in,” she told Fitz and Tarina, “you’re not allowed to laugh.”
“I would never,” Fitz assured her. “I’ll even give you my cape to dry
off.”
His smile was so sweet. And it was such . . . such a boyfriend thing
to offer . . . that Sophie couldn’t help blushing when she smiled back.
But now so wasn’t the time.
Fitz seemed to get that too as they both turned back to the lakethat-might-not-be-a-lake,
and Sophie wished the water didn’t look so