Publisher Description

A New York Times bestselling series
A USA TODAY bestselling series
A California Young Reader Medal-winning series Sophie and her friends face battles unlike anything they've seen before in this thrilling sixth book of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. Sophie Foster is struggling. Grieving. Scrambling. But she knows one thing: she will not be defeated. The Neverseen have had their victories--but the battle is far from over. It's time to change tactics. Make sacrifices. Reexamine everything. Maybe even time for Sophie to trust her enemies. All paths lead to Nightfall--an ominous door to an even more ominous place--and Sophie and her friends strike a dangerous bargain to get there. But nothing can prepare them for what they discover. The problems they're facing stretch deep into their history. And with time running out, and mistakes catching up with them, Sophie and her allies must join forces in ways they never have before. In this spectacular sixth book in the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie must uncover the truth about the Lost Cities' insidious past, before it repeats itself and changes reality.

Author Biography

Shannon Messenger graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she learned--among other things--that she liked watching movies much better than making them. She's studied art, screenwriting, and film production, but she realized her real passion was writing stories for children. She's the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of the award-winning middle grade series, Keeper of the Lost Cities, as well as the Sky Fall series for young adults. Her books have been featured on multiple state reading lists, published in numerous countries, and translated into many different languages. She lives in Southern California with her family--and an embarrassing number of cats. Find her online at ShannonMessenger.com.

Excerpt from Book

Nightfall One YOU REMEMBER ME?" The question slipped from Sophie''s lips before she could stop it, and the weighted words seemed to hit the floor of the messy bedroom with a thud. The wide-eyed, trembling girl standing in front of her slowly nodded, and Sophie''s heart swelled even as it plummeted into the sour pit of her stomach. Her little sister shouldn''t remember her. Technically, she wasn''t even her sister--at least not genetically. Sure, they''d grown up together in the same house in San Diego, California, both believing they had the same parents--despite the fact that Sophie''s blond hair and brown eyes didn''t match her family of light-eyed brunettes. But that was before. Now they were in the after. A world where elves were real creatures--and nothing like the silly stories that humans had invented about them. They were beautiful. Powerful. Practically immortal. Living across the globe in hidden glittering cities. Ruling the earth from the shadows. And Sophie was one of them. Born from humans--but not human--as part of a rebel group''s secret genetic experiment called Project Moonlark. Her DNA had been tweaked. Her abilities enhanced and manipulated. All to mold her into something special. Something powerful. Something she still didn''t fully understand. And after years of feeling out of place--even among the family she loved--the elves finally showed Sophie the truth about her life and brought her to the Lost Cities. They''d planned to fake her death to cover her disappearance, but she''d begged to be erased instead, to spare her parents the grief of losing a child. So her family''s minds had been "washed" by specially trained Telepaths, to make them forget that Sophie had ever been born. And they''d been relocated to a new city and given new names, new jobs, even the fancy new Tudor-style house that Sophie now stood in, with its quaint windows and wood-paneled walls. But erased memories were never truly gone. All it took was the right trigger and . . . "I don''t understand," her sister whispered, rubbing her eyes like it would change what she was seeing. "You . . . shouldn''t be here." Major understatement. Sophie wasn''t supposed to know her family''s new names or where they lived--and she definitely hadn''t been allowed to visit them--to ensure that something like this never happened. And yet, here she was, raising a mental shield to block her sister''s chaotic thoughts as they pounded through her consciousness like stampeding mastodons. Human minds were more open than elvin minds, and they broadcast everything like a radio station on full blast. "Listen, Amy--" "That''s not my name!" Sophie kicked herself for the slip. "Right, I meant--" "Wait." Her sister mouthed the name a few more times, as if her lips were remembering the feel of it. "It is, isn''t it? I''m . . . Amy Foster?" Sophie nodded. "Then who''s Natalie Freeman?" "That''s . . . also you." Amy--Natalie--whatever Sophie was supposed to call her--groaned and pressed her fingers against her temples. "I know how confusing this must be," Sophie told her. Triggered memories tended to flash back in scattered bits and pieces, leaving lots of holes. "I promise I''ll explain, but--" "Not right now," a crisply accented voice finished for her. Sophie flinched. She''d almost forgotten they had an audience for the Most Stressful Family Reunion in the History of Family Reunions. "Who are you?" her sister asked, backing away from the guys standing slightly behind Sophie. "That''s Fitz," Sophie said, pointing to a dark-haired boy whose teal eyes flashed as he offered a smile that would put any movie star to shame. "And that''s Keefe." Keefe gave her sister his famous smirk, reaching up to smooth his expertly tousled blond hair. "Don''t worry--we''re all in the Foster Fan Club." "They''re my friends," Sophie clarified when her sister shrank back another step. "You can trust them." "I don''t even know if I can trust you." Her eyes narrowed at Sophie''s outfit: a fitted purple tunic with black leggings, boots, and wrist-length black gloves. Fitz and Keefe also wore tunics and pants, and while none of the outfits were that elf-y, they definitely stood out next to her sister''s jeans and TARDIS T-shirt. "You trusted us enough to stop hiding, right?" Keefe asked, pointing to the still-open closet door. Sophie''s sister turned toward the dark nook she''d emerged from, where most of the clothes had been heaped into a pile on the floor. "I only came out because I heard you guys say you''d get my parents back." And there it was. The reason Sophie had broken all the rules and raced to the Forbidden Cities to check on her family. She''d spent months protecting her adoptive elvin parents, believing they were the ones that Keefe had warned her were in danger. But they''d both forgotten she had another family to worry about--a family without powerful abilities and bodyguards to keep them safe. "Can you really find Mom and Dad?" her sister whispered, giving Sophie the cue to tell her, "Of course we will! Everything is going to be okay!" Sophie wanted to. But . . . the Neverseen were behind this. The same villains who''d kidnapped Sophie, tortured her, and killed people she dearly loved. And no matter how hard Sophie fought to stop them, they always seemed to be ten steps ahead. Keefe reached for Sophie''s shaky hand. "We''ll get them back safe. I promise." His tone was pure determination. But Sophie could see a shadow darkening his ice-blue eyes. Guilt. A few months earlier, Keefe had run away to join the Neverseen, planning to be a double agent and destroy the wicked organization from the inside out--but they''d played him the whole time, tricking him into leading Sophie and her friends down the wrong paths. Part of Sophie wanted to shove Keefe away, let him shoulder the blame for every terrible thing that had happened. But deep down she knew he wasn''t the only one who''d missed the warning signs. He''d also been working every day to make up for his mistakes. Plus, it was dangerous to let him feel guilty. The elvin conscience was too fragile for that kind of burden. So Sophie squeezed his hand, twining their fingers together as she turned back to her sister. "It''ll help if you tell us everything you can about the people who took Mom and Dad." Her sister wrapped her arms around her stomach, which wasn''t as plump as Sophie remembered. She looked taller now too. And her curly brown hair was cut shorter. In fact, everything about her seemed so much older than the hyper nine-year-old she''d been when Sophie had left--and it hadn''t even been two full years. "I don''t remember much," her sister mumbled. "Dad was helping me with my homework when we heard strange voices downstairs. He told me to stay quiet while he went to see what was going on, but I snuck out to the landing and . . ." She swallowed hard. "I saw four people in the living room wearing long black cloaks with these creepy white eyes on their sleeves. Mom was passed out over one of their shoulders, and another had a cloth pressed over Dad''s mouth. I wanted to run down and help--but there were so many of them. And Dad stopped moving a couple of seconds later. I tried to crawl to a phone to call the police, but then I heard them say something about searching the rest of the house, so I ducked into the nearest closet and buried myself in clothes." Sophie shuddered as she imagined it, and her nose burned with a sweet scent, remembering the smell of the cloying drugs the Neverseen favored during their abductions. "Did you see any of their faces?" "They had their hoods up the whole time. But one of them . . ." "One of them what?" Sophie pressed. "You''re not going to believe me." "Try us," Keefe said. "You''d be surprised what we can believe after hanging around this one." He elbowed Sophie gently in the ribs, and Sophie knew he was trying to break the tension. Humor was Keefe''s favorite coping mechanism. But she didn''t have the energy to joke around. Especially when her sister whispered, "One of the guys kept disappearing somehow. Like with quick flashes, fading in and out of sight." Fitz muttered something under his breath. "That was Alvar." "You know him?" "He''s done a lot of awful things," Sophie jumped in, shooting Fitz a please-don''t-say-he''s-your-brother look. She doubted it would help her sister trust them. "How did he disappear like that?" her sister whispered. "It almost looked like . . ." "Magic?" Sophie guessed with a sad smile. "I remember thinking that too, the first time I saw it. But he''s what we call a Vanisher. All he''s doing is manipulating light." "What about the mind reading thing?" her sister asked. "One of them said he was listening for nearby thoughts as he searched the house, so I thought about darkness and silence just in case." "That was really smart," Sophie told her, stunned she had managed to pull that off. Her sister s

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