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But Taly didn’t slow down. No, she ran faster, pushed her body harder—

FUCK!

And didn’t let herself think as she vaulted off the top of the stairs into the splintering seam of shattered reality as it dissolved into nothing.

It was like moving through mud. A moment of absolute dark, absolute cold before light erupted, and then she fell out of open air.

Taly’s boots slammed into the second-floor landing of the Swap in front of the wide main stairs, and she knew two things for certain.

Aneirin could switch bodies. Alive or dead, it didn’t seem to matter. He slid in and out like one might take on and off a coat.

He could create rifts through space. Nottime—her own magic was still keeping track of the consecutive passing of moments. The Weave hadn’t been clipped or altered. Time was still ticking by at precisely the right pace, yet somehow they’d moved. They were at the Swap now—two blocks from where they’d been. They’d traveled the distance instantaneously.

The rest she would have to figure out later. Aneirin was on the move, and Taly leapt the remaining length of the stairs, landing in a crouch and letting a single fluid movement carry her back into a sprint.

People were gasping from the upper floors. Others shouted, trying to stumble out of Aneirin’s way as he crashed through the aisles. He ripped away shopping bags, shoved people to the ground, and toppled tables, sending fruit, beads, and other wares scattering.

Taly dodged it all, clearing the door a moment later and hurtling into the courtyard outside, where under lantern-lit trees, vendors hawked their wares and fortune tellers beckoned.

The crowd was thicker here. Overflow from the town hall, drawn by the screens strategically placed around the courtyard so that everyone had a good view. People spilled onto the sidewalks. She saw her face more than once framed in a rectangular pane of light.

She realized the stares she was drawing, the murmur of recognition that spread like wildfire as she tried to push through.

Damn it. She didn’t have time for this. On the other side of the street, beyond the mass of horses and rumbling carriages, Aneirin was already slipping out of view.

Taly made a split-second decision. She dove into traffic, dodging a startled horse as she vaulted onto the roof of the nearest carriage.

Wood groaned under her boots.

The driver’s shout rang out as she leapt to the next carriage in the line. Inside, a woman shrieked, pulling her child close.

Taly ignored them, ignored every fear, every inhibition, every faraway concern as she leapfrogged through traffic, her feet barely touching down before she jumped again.

Air rushed past. The world below was a blur of chaos and startled yells.

Finally, she spotted a narrow passage and made a final, powerful leap—clearing the last carriage and landing on the sidewalk on the other side of the street.

Without pausing, she darted after Aneirin, tailing him down another alley, through another crack—

Again, that feeling of absolute cold, absolute dark.

For a fleeting moment, the world seemed to collapse into a void of cold and shadow.

Then, just as abruptly, she was thrust back into reality—onto a new street that once again didn’t connect with where she’d just been.

Her boots splashed as she rounded the corner, only to find herself plunged back into the crowd surrounding the town hall.

There were people everywhere, cramming the sidewalks and clogging the streets. They seemed to be gathering around something, or rathersomeone. Taly shoved her way to the front, where a human woman had collapsed in the middle of the street.

She was breathing but unconscious, with wild curly hair stuffed beneath a green knit cap. No black lines, not like the other two bodies.