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“Come on,” she murmured to herself, closing her eyes and trying to visualize, trying tofeelthe doorway in Cairo.

A short while later, after several failed attempts, Cassie opened a door onto darkness and warm air, a courtyard with palm trees. To her left, at the end of the courtyard, the twin towers of the Hanging Church of Cairo held identical crucifixes up to the sky. In the distance she could hear the noise of a city, different from New York’s. As she stepped out under the Cairo sky, she looked behind her, through the old wooden doorway, and saw her small bedroom, the soft light of her lamp, her bed with the blind pulled down over the window.

“Oh wow,” she said, on a sigh of amazement.

The Book of Doors was so much better even than it had seemed the previous evening. The whole world was available to her, every city and every street; anywhere a doorway was to be found was a place she could travel to in moments.

She was still holding the postcard in one hand. She looked down at it and then back up at her surroundings and giggled in disbelief.

It was overwhelming, and her heart fluttered with excitement as she tried to come to terms with this truth, as she struggled with why Mr. Webber had given her this gift. What had she done to deserve this miracle?

She shook the questions away, refusing to be melancholy.

“You are in Cairo!” she scolded herself.

She was on a continent she had never even set foot on before. She gazed up at the church with its silent, simple beauty, just enjoying the experience of a new place.

That night she spent hours finding pictures of doorways from around the world in places she had never been and traveling to them, experimenting with what was possible. She visited cities in the US that were new to her, opened doors to an observation deck high above Tokyo, a library in Beijing, and a hotel in Rio de Janeiro where she crossed the lobby and then stepped through another doorway back into her bedroom.She was testing the Book of Doors, seeing what it was capable of, what the limits of this miracle were. She found no limits.

She could goanywhere.

Izzy was waiting when Cassie arrived home after work, late the following evening, and they spoke for the first time since meeting at the bookstore a couple of days previously.

“How are you doing?” Izzy asked, gazing at Cassie from the couch.

“All good,” Cassie said lightly, slipping off her coat and tossing it onto the end of the sofa. She put her bag on the kitchen counter to pull out the sandwich and fruit she had bought on the way home. She had planned to have a quick meal before traveling.

“You look tired,” Izzy said, standing up from the couch. “Like you need sleep.”

Cassie nodded. She took a bite from an apple and dumped her bag down at the end of the sofa along with her coat. “Must be all the fruit I’m eating.”

Izzy smiled politely.

“What’s wrong?” Cassie asked, sounding more challenging than she meant to.

Izzy sighed and looked away for a moment.

“You can tell me,” Cassie said, more gently. “It’s okay.”

“Come and sit down.”

They sat, facing each other from opposite ends of the couch. Izzy took a few moments, as if trying to pick the words she wanted to use.

“You’re still using the book, aren’t you?” Izzy said.

Cassie didn’t reply, neither confirming nor denying the accusation.

“It’s not safe,” Izzy said.

“You can’t say that,” Cassie argued.

“You don’t know what it is or where it came from or what it’s doing!” Izzy said, her words tumbling out. “All you’re seeing is the adventure it’s letting you have. But you don’t know the cost!”

“What cost?”

“There’s always a cost to things like this!”

“There are no things like this!” Cassie shouted, suddenly frustrated. “Nothing, Izzy. We’re talking about magic!”