The compass seemed to be urging me forward, but I don’t know how far this tunnel winds before it eventually slopes up to the building—if it slopes up at all. I can sense the same hesitation in Raze, in his held breath and nervous glances backward. But back is the only other way we can go, and that is not happening right now.

I release him, allowing myself one more look at the compass in my palm. One last brush over the needle with my opposite thumb. “Let’s get this over with.”

Raze won’t stop talking, and I think I’m going to kill him. Luckily for him, he has yet to bring up what happened between us in the faerie realm—though all those memories are hazy now, dissolving in my mind like a dream. Maybe he’s forgotten about that.

As if I could be that lucky.

After the fourth apology about Isolde’s ankle, I snap. He’s gripping my arm in the half light, helping me climb over a steep boulder that blocks the whole narrow tunnel.

I shove him away, hopping down by myself and praying I don’t break my ankle, too. “So you mean all this wasn’t your master plan to get me alone in a cave with you?”

“As if you haven’t been dying for some more time alone.” His voice echoes off the stone, magnifying its smugness. “I thought changelings didn’t lie?”

“Not like—” I cut myself off with a sharp breath. “We’re perfectly capable of lying. I didn’t mean it like that. I meant to kill me off or something. So you wouldn’t have to pay us.”

He looks at me like he isn’t sure if I’m joking. I can see the exact moment he decides I am, in the slight wrinkle at the corners of his eyes. “Well, now that you mention it...”

I relax a bit. “I’d like to see you try, Wildborn.”

He seems offended. “You haven’t seen me as a goose yet. Have you ever tried fighting a goose? They’re bloodthirsty.”

That actually makes me laugh out loud. “Is that a threat?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

The relaxed air between us fades as soon as the last of the light does. Raze goes strangely quiet, and I can hear his breathing turn shallow and rapid, as if he’s frightened.

I try to feel my way along the wall until my toe catches on an uneven spot. I hear myself cry out as I sprawl forward, stumbling to try to avoid falling flat on my face, and then a tight grip closes around my arm. Raze pulls me back onto my feet, holding on until I’m steady again. After that, we walk through the darkness hand in hand, keeping each other steady. From the way Raze’s sweaty hand clamps around mine, it seems like he needs that.

Light returns so slowly that I don’t even notice it until I realize that I can see my hand in front of me.

“Look!” I say, pulling free. Suddenly, we turn a corner, and a corona of light blazes in front of us, pouring through a tall, arched doorway at the top of a smooth set of white stone steps. Our steps speed with excitement until we’re practically running up the stairs, but at the top, I stop. Chills run over my arms. I don’t know what’s up there. I don’t know if I’m ready.