Olani takes offense at that one first. “We weren’t trying to kill you,” she protests. Everything she says is so low, so mild, that it’s hard to tell if she’s upset or just insistent. I’m pretty sure I don’t ever want to see her truly angry. “We were just trying to talk.”

“Sure,” Isolde says. She leans back in her seat, but I can tell she’s still far from relaxed. “Why do you need the compass so badly, anyway?”

They both grimace, exchanging an uncomfortable look.

“We didn’t know what we’d find in that room,” Raze says eventually, as if that explains everything. I realize that what I thought was mindless fidgeting is actually him rubbing the spot where his ring must have fit onto his finger, before Isolde knocked it off and it got forgotten in our escape from the manor. Since Isolde is still glaring at him, he adds, “We just knew it was important. The Wildline legacy, that’s... It’s more than I ever dreamed of. Plus, Leira spent years trying to figure out how to activate it, and the changeling here did it in less than a minute. Any chance to make Leira look bad is worth whatever it takes.”

I stare down at the design rippling over my palm. I never meant to activate it, but it’s alive with magic now. Just my luck.

“Hmm. Okay.” Isolde frowns, like she’s filing that information away. “You two don’t exactly strike me as each other’s type. How the hexes did you end up working together?”

“None of your business,” Olani says, at the same time Raze says,

“It was kind of an accident.”

Isolde presses her lips together, dark eyes flicking back and forth between them. “Mmm-hmm.”

Tension crackles in the air. No one wants to be the first to speak, to give up any more information.

Raze’s fingers drum dully on the sticky table, his eyes focused on a point somewhere over my shoulder. Slowly, a smile flickers at the corners of his mouth. He stands. “How about I go grab us some food?”

Olani crosses her arms. “Grab us some food, or flirt with that lovely girl at the counter?” Her eyes move pointedly towards the spot he’d been staring at, and mine follow, my whole body twisting to see behind me.

Across the crowded room, I easily pick out the girl in question, standing by the bar and trying diligently to pretend she’s hard at work. She’s pretty in a way, with long dark hair framing her bright blue eyes and rosy cheeks carved out by a warm smile. She doesn’t look down at what she’s doing as the rag in her hand scrubs repeating circles, over and over, on what has to be by now the cleanest spot in the entire inn.

“Don’t stare at her!” Raze hisses, his already-pink face growing a little pinker. At Olani’s raised eyebrows, he composes himself again, slipping back into easy charm as effortlessly as a swan into water. “And who says I can’t do both?” With an even brighter flash of a grin, he wades into the crowd.