Fitz cleared his throat but didn’t seem to know how to break the silence.

Neither did Sophie.

But she forced her tired legs to start trudging up the stairs again—and the momentum helped her find a change of subject. “I think we should run through our plan.”

“There’s a plan?” Fitz asked. “I thought we were just going to ask Glimmer what she knows about the caches.”

“Right, but we’re going to need to make her trust us before she’ll tell us anything,” Sophie reminded him.

“See, and I think Glimmer should be making us trust her,” Biana argued. “She’s the one hiding behind a cloak, probably hoping we won’t ask how many times she helped plan the Neverseen’s attacks.” She traced her fingers over one of the deeper scars running down her arm and shoulder.

“I know,” Sophie told her, cringing over her next words even before she said them. “But I think Councillor Oralie was right about something she told me. Willing allies are way more useful than forced ones. If we make Glimmer trust us, she’ll tell us stuff she’d hold back otherwise.”

“Or we poke around her head and find out everything we need to know in one easy probe,” Fitz countered.

Sophie sighed. “Yeah, but you and I both know probes are never that easy—especially with the Neverseen. I’m sure Gethen’s trained her to block Telepaths, and she probably has all kinds of false information in her head.”

“Yeah, I guess.” They climbed in silence for several steps before Fitz mumbled, “You know, I thought being Cognates would make us way more powerful than we are.”

“So did I,” Sophie admitted, trying not to wonder if he was blaming her for that.

Her struggles with the whole total-trust-and-honesty thing always got in the way of their training.

“Hey,” Biana said quietly, “you guys are being too hard on yourselves. You’ve done some amazing things. The problem’s just bigger than that.”

“What do you mean?” Fitz asked.

Biana traced more scars on her shoulder. “Well… we’ve kind of been set up to fail, you know? Nothing we’ve learned prepared us for what we’re dealing with—not our Foxfire lessons, or our ability training, or even the stories we were told about what it would be like when we grew up. We’re not supposed to have enemies trying to kill us, or massive, evil conspiracies destroying everything we know. Our world was supposed to be safe and happy and perfect, like it was for our parents. But it’s not—and it turns out it wasn’t like that for them, either. They just didn’t let themselves see the problems. So now we’re stuck figuring out how to fix this giant mess—while fighting against people who’ve been planning this stuff for longer than we’ve been alive. So of course they keep beating us. Of course we don’t feel powerful enough. We aren’t!”

“Are you saying it’s hopeless?” Sophie had to ask.

“Are you kidding? I know we’re going to win this.” There wasn’t a hint of doubt in Biana’s voice. “I think we just need to remember that we’re doing something no one has ever had to do before—and all the advice we’ve been given isn’t necessarily good. So yeah, we don’t always do everything perfectly, and it can feel like we’re not strong enough. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t powerful and awesome and amazing. We’re doing our best. We just need to keep fighting. And we should probably stop listening to what everyone’s telling us and try finding our own way.”

She was right, of course.

But when she put it like that, it sounded even more exhausting than all the stairs they were currently climbing.

“Sorry,” Biana mumbled. “Didn’t mean to derail the conversation.”

“No, you’re right,” Fitz told her, rushing up the next few stairs and turning to face them. “Okay, I want to preface this by saying I’m not a fan of it, but… maybe we need to come at this totally differently than we normally would. So instead of focusing on getting her to cooperate with us, we act like we’re willing allies with her.”

“What does that mean?” Sophie asked. “We act like we want to join the Neverseen?”

Fitz shook his head. “Nope. It means acting like we can’t wait to work with her—showing her why she should’ve been on our side this whole time. I know it’ll be tough. But maybe if we act like she’s already a part of our team, she’ll cooperate.”

“Okaaaaaaaay,” Biana said slowly. “You really think we can pretend to be her friend, though? She’s going to be sitting there in one of those creepy black cloaks, probably giving us lots of attitude.”

“Well… we don’t have to be friends,” Sophie realized. “I doubt she’d believe that. But we could treat her like an equal. She kind of is. She could’ve just as easily been working with the Black Swan if we’d reached out to her before the Neverseen recruited her.”

“You really think that’s true?” Biana asked.

“I don’t know,” Sophie admitted. “But it’s at least possible. Both groups exist because of a lot of the same problems. They just have very different solutions.”

“Like murdering,” Biana mumbled.

“I know,” Fitz told her. “That’s why I hate this plan. But… it’s definitely a different approach than we normally use. And I’m pretty sure Glimmer will be expecting us to march in there and treat her like the enemy, so it might throw off her guard if we don’t.”

Biana sighed. “Ugh, I guess I can’t be mad, since I’m the one who started us down this path. Fine… Let’s go be besties with Little Miss Neverseen!”

“Not besties,” Sophie corrected. “Equals.”

Not that she really wanted to be equals with someone who’d put bonds on Tam’s wrists and blasted Keefe with light to trigger the changes he was now struggling with.

But Sophie kept those thoughts to herself.

Her feet were ready to scream at her for the abuse they’d endured when Tiergan’s house finally came into view—sturdy stone towers peeking over fortresslike walls.

Sandor and Grizel were waiting outside the only entrance—a wide, rectangular door carved with elaborate filigree woven around the word “Solreef.”

“I want to make one thing clear before we continue,” Sandor said, holding out his arms as a barricade. “No matter what this Glimmer person tells you, you are taking that information and going home. I mean it!” he added when Sophie opened her mouth to respond. “She could tell you that every member of the Neverseen was drugged, tied up, and ready for capture as long as someone heads there in the next five minutes, and you will say, ‘Good to know, but we’re going to listen to my bodyguard because he will lock me in my room for the rest of eternity.’ Are we clear?”

“I already promised that,” Sophie reminded him. She’d been through the endless Is-it-safe-to-meet-with-Glimmer? conversation that morning. “We won’t do anything without discussing it with you.”

“Not discussing,” Sandor corrected. “Agreeing. We all need to agree on the next move.”