I cling to Raze until I can breathe again, until the tight squeeze of my lungs and the shaking subside, but he still doesn’t let go. “It’s okay,” he says, gently relaxing his grip on me until he’s still holding my shoulders, but loosely enough that he can look at my face.

“What happened?” he asks. One hand reaches for my face, like he might brush away the tears that have already dried, but then he thinks better of it. I’m not the best with social boundaries, but that seems like it might be too much.

Chest aching, I finally find my voice again. “This p-place is playing tricks on me,” I say, which isn’t exactly a lie. “I th-thought I saw something, b-but it was just an enchantment.” Also true.

“Are you hurt?” he asks, his eyes running over me for any kind of injury.

“No,” I lie, pulling away from him. “Just scared.” I flash a fake smile loaded with very real embarrassment. I can’t believe I let him see me fall apart. I can’t believe I ran to him.

“Are you—?”

“I’m fine now.”

I don’t think he believes me, but he lets his hand run from my shoulder down my arm to my hand. He squeezes it once before letting it drop to my side.

It rises, palm-up, and he does a double take. “The enchantment,” he gasps. “It’s gone.”

All I can do is nod, pulling my hand back to my chest defensively. “We...we must be close.”

Raze hesitates, looming over me with sad blue puppy-dog eyes, like he’s waiting for me to burst into tears again. When I don’t, his face lightens a little. “I found something,” he says, excitement creeping into his voice. “Before I heard you.” He sways in place, like he wants to reach out and hold me by the shoulder again and just ends up looking like he doesn’t know what to do with his hands.

I nod, sniffing one last time. “Let’s go.”

But before I can turn away and stiffen my shoulders and try to focus, he finally does reach out again, fingers lightly brushing the sleeve of my borrowed shirt. “Wait,” he says. “It’s probably not...exactly what we expected. I just want you to prepare yourself.”

“What does that mean?” I snap, before I can think about how to soften the words. I don’t know if I can take one more thing going wrong. We have to find the treasure. This can’t all be for nothing.

“You’re going to get paid,” Raze promises. “I’ll make sure. It’s just... Well, I think you’d better see for yourself.”

“So, as I already said, let’s go.” I know he’s trying to be kind and I’m being unfair to him. But rudeness is the only armor I have left.

Raze blinks at me for a second before letting out a sharp breath and brushing past. He leads me down the hall, in what I think is the opposite direction from the one I came here, but it’s impossible to tell. I feel numb and slightly confused, and it doesn’t really matter where we are.