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Grumbling about needing a warning sign, Alex had very deliberately chosen to ignore the warmly amused voice of the Library echoing in the wind, “Best watch your step, Alexandra.”

She had taken those words to heart and now, holding a hand in front of her face to shield against the glare of the artificial sun, Alex opened her mouth to call out to her parents rather than wander aimlessly into another barrier. But she didn’t manage to get a single word out before a large gust of wind blasted what felt like every grain of sand in the desert down her throat.

Bending double to hack the coarse grittiness out of her oesophagus, she waited until she could catch her breath before stumbling forward, deciding to head into the nearest pyramid— the only one that was ‘real’ amid the illusions of others, as she’d painfully discovered on her first visit.

Wiping tears from her eyes after the attack of wind, sandandglare, Alex was relieved to find shelter inside the archaeological wonder. Almost immediately she heard excited voices from further in and headed towards them. She found her parents kneeling in a flame-lit chamber at the base of a pillar covered in carved hieroglyphs, talking a mile a minute over each other.

“Rach, honey, can you see—”

“I know, Jack, it’s incredible! Just look at—”

“Extraordinary! I can’t believe—”

Alex cleared her throat loudly, drawing their startled gazes.

“Alex? What a lovely surprise!” said her mum, Rachel, rising to her feet and brushing sand off her knees. She closed the distance between them and drew Alex in for a hug.

“What are you doing here, sweetheart?” asked her dad, Jack, embracing her after her mother. “Please don’t say it’s because you have more immortal elves after you for us to worry about. One arch-enemy is enough for any grand adventure, in my humble opinion.”

“Aven’s not an elf, Dad,” Alex said, though she could understand the popular culture comparison—she made it frequently herself. “He’s a Meyarin. And can’t a girl visit her parents without needing a reason?”

Jack looked at her in a way only a father could. “Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity or not, I still have moments where I wonder if we made the right decision letting you come back here. If Aven’s as dangerous as you say…” He trailed off, gathering his thoughts. “You know, if Darrius hadn’t told us that the elf can now use the Library to step through to Earth and kidnap you, I’m not sure our decision would have been the same. But if he can get to you no matter where you are, then I guess—”

“—that you might as well be somewhere where you’re learning how tonotget caught by him,” Rachel jumped in to finish. “And you are, sweetheart, aren’t you? Learning how to stay safe from him?”

Understanding their concern, Alex tried to reassure them. “I am. And believe me, when my Combat instructor is through with me, Aven won’t stand a chance. No one will be capturing me—Meyarin, human, or otherwise.”

Noting their still troubled faces, Alex decided it was time for her to divert their attention away from imminent threats to her life and therefore the lives of all Medorans. She took in their dirt-smudged skin and, keeping her tone deliberately light, said, “Now enough about me, I want to hear about whatyou guys have been up to. It sure looks like you’re having fun down here.”

That was all it took for her easily distracted, work-loving parents to switch gears, all talk of Aven forgotten. Again Alex was reminded of how they’d seemed to repress what Darrius had told them about Alex’s dealings with the Meyarin. But if compartmentalising it all helped calm her parents enough to allow Alex to continue on at Akarnae, then she’d let them repress anything they wanted.

“This place is amazing!” Rachel gushed. “The parallels between Medora and Earth are astounding. Already we’ve made several new discoveries, and the wonders just keep coming!”

“You should have seen the alluvial deposits we found yesterday,” said Jack, practically glowing with pleasure. “I’ve never seen such nutrient-dense soil before in my life!”

“Who doesn’t love a good alluvial deposit?” replied Alex, unintentionally setting her parents off on a longwinded discussion about the importance of fertile soil for ancient crop cultivation.

It was only after listening patiently to their overload of farming information as well as the tangent conversation about the large Canopic vases they’d found a few days ago—including the mummified contents within and justwhothey might have originally belonged to—that Alex considered her parental duty complete for the day.

With distracted goodbyes and ‘be carefuls’ from her parents who were clearly eager to get back to their hieroglyphs, Alex willed a return doorway to appear from right inside the pyramid. It opened showing her a view of the Library’s foyer, but something unexpected happened as soon as she stepped through the door. With a disorienting swirl of colour, the scenery changed, causing her to land not in the well-lit foyer…

… but in the middle of a forest.

Thoroughly bewildered, Alex turned around once, twice, and then stood there weighing her options. She clearly wasn’t in the Library anymore, but she had no idea how that had happened. Never before had she stepped through a doorway and arrived anywhere but where she had chosen.

No, that wasn’t right. Her very first foray into the fantasy world had landed her in a forest clearing where she’d met Aven, and then Jordan and Bear. But that didn’t explain where she was now—orwhyshe was there.

“Uh, hello?” she called out timidly, wondering what she was supposed to do.

No one answered and she soon realised no one was going to. For whatever reason, the Library had decided to intervene and drop her off somewhere unexpected—and without any instruction whatsoever—and Alex had little option but to simply go with it.

If only she could open a doorway, that would solve all her problems. But when she was in Medora she had to be within the Library in order to will a door into existence. Either that, or she had to have already exited from a doorway that she could then call back into being for the return trip. Neither of those options were available to her at the moment, since technically she hadn’t opened the doorway that led to her being lost in the middle of nowhere. That left her with one option.

“Eenie, meenie, miney, moe,” she said, closing her eyes and pointing in all directions. When her finger landed, she started off into the forest, stepping cautiously through the thick shrubbery and wishing she’d worn sturdier shoes.

“I hope you have a good reason for sending me here,” she murmured, knowing instinctively that if the Library put her there, then it could hear her whingeing.

A branch snapped loudly behind her and the sound remindedAlex that she was in a world where all sorts of monstrous creatures likely prowled through the woods.