“Hey, do you think this is that soporidine stuff?” Tam called out.

Sophie spun to where he was pointing and noticed a stack of barrels lined up on their sides, tucked into the shadows. A quick count told her there were twenty, which matched how many dusty circles they’d seen on the floor of the first Nightfall facility.

“Probably,” she realized—which made her wonder if any of the vials she was searching were filled with the antidote.

She shoved a few in her pockets just in case.

“You need to hurry!” Sandor warned—as if they didn’t already know—and Sophie forced herself to skip past the next section, which was crammed with scrolls.

Part of her was dying to unroll them and see what she could learn about the Neverseen’s plans. But she was there for one thing and one thing only.

“You’re looking for Kenric’s cache,” she mumbled as she tore through a pile of fabric on the next shelf. It seemed like a bunch of scraps, until she noticed the white eye symbol and realized it was more of the Neverseen’s cloaks.

Dozens of them.

Maybe hundreds.

Goose bumps prickled her skin as she imagined facing that many enemies.

They’d barely survived battling a few of the Neverseen at once.

How were they supposed to—

“Is that what you’re looking for?” Glimmer asked, tossing something tiny and black at Sophie’s head, which turned out to be a velvet satchel.

The size was right—and Sophie could feel two small items inside—but her fingers were shaking so badly, she couldn’t unknot the strings.

“Here,” Flori said, using her green teeth to rip the fabric before pouring two clear orbs into Sophie’s palm.

“YES! THIS HAS TO BE THEM!”

Sophie honestly couldn’t believe it.

Things never went this smoothly—which made her glance over her shoulder, waiting for cloaked figures to leap out at her.

But the cave stayed silent, except for the muffled rumble of the waterfall—and the pounding of her heart as she tucked the caches safely into her pocket.

“Okay, time to go,” she said, taking one last longing look around the cave as she pulled out the crystal Tiergan had given her.

“That’s it?” Glimmer asked, and Sophie noticed that she was holding a small blue bundle.

“What’s that?” she demanded.

“My stuff. You know, the reason I made this deal in the first place? Don’t look at me all suspicious like that! I told you this was why I went to so much trouble to be able to find this place! Plus, we all know your little bodyguards are going to search it as soon as we’re out of here. But we’re seriously leaving? Already?”

“Our time is almost up,” Sophie reminded her.

Glimmer shook her head. “Woooooooooooow. That’s… I don’t even know what to say to that. This whole time I’ve been thinking there had to be more to the plan than what you were telling me. But you’re seriously ready to grab the caches and go? You realize you’re standing in the Neverseen’s storehouse right now, don’t you? You think you’re going to get another chance like this? The Neverseen are going to have guards crawling all over this place anytime now.”

“Yeah, and that’s why we need to leave,” Sophie argued.

“No, that’s why you should be grabbing everything while you can—though, honestly, what you should’ve done is come here with your own little army and seized this place. Showed the Neverseen it was your storehouse now, and let them cry while you go through all their stuff. But you didn’t even think of that, did you?”

“No,” Sophie admitted, feeling her stomach knot up.

The knots twisted tighter when Glimmer told her, “And that’s why you guys always lose.”

“Glimmer,” Tam warned.

“No—I mean it,” Glimmer told him. “You keep telling me I should join your side because you guys are right about everything and fair and keep your word and blah blah blah. And maybe you do—but you also lose Every time. And now I know why! Do you think the Neverseen would leave a single thing behind if they found your storehouse? They’d grab it all—and keep some dwarves here to ambush whoever finally showed up to find out what was going on. That’s why they win.”

“That’s also why they’re creepy,” Sophie muttered.

“Maybe,” Glimmer agreed. “But what’s the point of being ‘better’ if you keep getting beaten? You want to do some actual good in this world? You need to take them down. And sorry, but from what I’ve seen, you guys just don’t have it in you.”

Sophie opened her mouth, dying to tell Glimmer she was wrong.

But… Glimmer had a point.

“Fine,” she said, racing back to the shelves. “Everyone, grab as much as you can.”

She wished she’d brought a Conjurer who could snap their fingers and send everything into the void. But she hadn’t thought of that, either.

The best she could do was stuff her pockets with all the vials she could carry, then load up her arms with scrolls.

Tam had a similar haul.

So did Glimmer.

But Sandor and Bo informed her that they needed their hands free to be able to draw their weapons.

And Flori was struggling to carry a thick black book—though Sophie’s pulse raced when she recognized it.

“That’s Lady Gisela’s Archetype!” she shouted. “Be super careful with that!”

She couldn’t believe they’d almost left that behind.

“And we should be good now—let’s go,” she said, holding Tiergan’s crystal up to the light. “We need to get out of here.”

Glimmer clicked her tongue. “You’re really going to leave the rest of this behind?”

“We don’t have a choice! We can’t carry any more, and we’re running out of time, and—”

“If I learned one thing from Gisela,” Glimmer interrupted, “it’s that there’s always a choice. And you’re about to make the wrong one—again. You already made a bunch of bad choices when you planned this mission, but it’s not too late to fix that.”

“How?” Sophie demanded.

“You tell me,” Glimmer argued. “You’re the moonlark, aren’t you? The one who’s supposed to lead everyone to victory. So lead!”

“How?” Sophie repeated. “What do you want from me?”

“I want you to prove that you guys have any chance of winning this thing! And I think you know what you need to do—you just don’t want to do it. And that’s fine. I don’t even blame you for that. I probably wouldn’t want to either. But don’t ask me to sign up for your little cause, because I’m done losing. I’ve lost more than enough already!”

Sophie stared into the cowl of Glimmer’s cloak, wishing she could see the girl behind it. It might’ve made it easier to know if Glimmer was right or just egging her on.

But did she really need to see Glimmer’s face to know that everything she’d just said was true?

Hadn’t she already felt just as lost—just as hopeless—just as convinced that they were losing this fight?