Flashback ( PDFDrive )

FIFTY-TWO
SOPHIE HAD NEVER SEEN KEEFE quite so speechless before. And she
didn’t have many words either. But she scraped together the voice to
tell him, “You can’t blame yourself for this.”
He didn’t look convinced.
But he reached for her, pulling her into a shaky hug. And they both
clung to each other until they had the strength to move again.
Then it was time to focus—time to make Tam’s sacrifice count. So
they set to work, scraping any extra soporidine off of Silveny’s and
Greyfell’s fur and smearing the antidote on instead.
While they waited, Ro went to make sure Wynn and Luna were
okay, and thankfully both babies were safely floating in their goofilled
cubbies.
A few minutes later—after a vivid sunrise washed away the last
wisps of that very long, very dark night—Silveny and Greyfell were
awake. Both alicorns were emotionally overwhelmed, of course, and
Silveny flooded Sophie’s mind with guilty apologies. But Sophie kept
assuring her: You did what you had to do.
Just like Tam had—hard as that was for Sophie to accept.
This time . . . Lady Gisela beat them.
Sophie had replayed their standoff outside the hive over and over,
trying to find a way she could’ve steered the situation toward a better
ending. But she always wound up at the same place, with Tam