“Well, can I ask specifically what you’re taking me to go see?”
Silence.
She knew it. “Ah. So you’re bringing me not to see something or a group but someonein particular.Someone you think I’mgoing to be interested in, or who you think will be interested in me.” She shook her head. “Fess up.”
Ibin stared down at the floor.
“Allow me to put this very simply, Ava. You are a mechanism.” Nos’s tone wasn’t unkind, just matter-of-fact. “A key. Not valued, perhaps—butnecessary.”
The book under her arm seemed to grow somehow heavier. Like it was trying to slow her down. Or get her to change her mind.
“Oh, how flattering. I’ve been upgraded from ‘worthless’ to “necessary mechanism.’ You charmer, you.”
Nos stared down at her with his mismatched gaze. “I do not mean you ill will, Ava. I do not wish you harm. But harm you shall bring. To us, and to all who dwell here, and worlds beyond if we are not careful. And neither I, nor Ibin, can protect you from the things that will come for you. Thatarecoming for you. Do you understand?”
She hesitated. She did and she didn’t. But she nodded anyway.
“There are those who live within these corridors who can keep you protected from them. And some who may choose to do so for a price that we will allowyouto set. Do you understand?” Nos was lecturing her like a school principal.
And Ava felt just as small. She nodded again. They weren’t selling her, not exactly. They were taking her to someone so she could…have a chance to sell herself. There was a big difference. She guessed. “You’renotselling me?”
“No. We are allowing you to do the negotiation.” Nos turned and resumed his walk. “We are not. Contrary to what I originally advised.”
The next five minutes were the most uncomfortable five minutes of silence in Ava’s life.
They entered a corridor where the floor was made of water. Not beside water. Not near water.Madeof water. Crystal clear, impossibly solid, fish swimming beneath their feet as though this were the most natural thing in the world.
“How—” Ava started.
“Magic,” Ibin and Nos said in unison.
“Right.” Ava sighed. “Stupid question.”
A massive archway loomed ahead. It was constructed of what looked like twisted metal and living tree roots, intertwined so completely that Ava couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. Intricate symbols—some resembling mathematical equations, others looking like they’d been drawn by a child having a fever dream—crawled across its surface.
“Through here, things become…more complicated.” Nos studied the archway.
Ibin’s hand found Ava’s shoulder. A warning. A comfort. “Remember. No contracts. No promises. Not until you’re sure.”
Right. Because that had worked out so well for her so far. She looked at Ava and Nos and frowned. Could she even get into an agreement with another fae when she was bound to Serrik? Was that evenpossible?She didn’t know how anything worked in this world.
The archway pulsed. Like a heartbeat.
“Be careful with him.” Nos grimaced. “He is…unpredictable.”
The symbols on the archway began to move.
Ava gripped the book tighter. “I don’t think I like this.”
“In that, we find something in which we are agreed,” Nos grumbled.
The archway opened.
And the Web revealed another of its impossible secrets.
The space beyond wasn’t a room. Wasn’t a landscape. It was…possibility.Raw and unformed. Like watching the moment before creation, when everything could become anything.
Iridescent threads—some thick as tree trunks, others thin as spider silk—crisscrossed the space. They weren’t just threads. They were pathways. Histories. Potential futures.
