Flashback ( PDFDrive )

“Huh,” Sophie said. “Seems like you could’ve come up with
something cooler. Like Dusk—or Midnight! Midnight would’ve been
so much more mysterious. Plus, Umber sounds like a noise your
stomach makes when you eat something too spicy.”
“Careful, Sophie,” Gethen warned as Umber’s fingernails grew, and
Sophie realized the black that coated them wasn’t polish—it was
shadows. Thick, sludgy darkness that seemed to pour out of her and
curl into long claws.
“You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” Umber told her.
“You’re right,” Sophie agreed, “because you’re still wearing that
ugly cloak. Aren’t you guys supposed to be done with that? Isn’t that
why Lady Gisela told everyone in Atlantis that you weren’t hiding
anymore? I know she was still covered up when she said it, but I
figured that was because you slashed her up before handing her over
to King Dimitar. Think she’s still angry about that, by the way? She
seems pretty vain.”
“She knows that was Fintan’s decision,” Gethen assured her.
“Right, but you still let it happen. Well, not you,” she corrected,
stopping herself from thinking about where Gethen had been or what
he’d been preparing for during that time. She had to keep her cool—
even if rage was slithering down her spine. “But you guys,” she added,
pointing her throwing star at Ruy and Umber and wishing she had a
way to fling it through the force field. “Don’t you worry that Lady
Gisela’s planning some sort of payback? You let Fintan torture her.
And you didn’t even try to rescue her. And you kept working with
Fintan after he took over.”
“She knows we had our reasons,” Umber insisted.