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On her knees, she glanced around her desolate landscape, wondering what the chances were that the Library could transcend time and space just like back in her world. She knewit could deliver her to and from Freya, but whileinFreya, she had never attempted to open a doorway to anywhere other than Medora. And Athora himself had mentioned that he and Lady Mystique were the gatekeepers from Medora to Tia Auras, which implied she couldn’t cross between the two worlds without someone like him opening the door.

But… What if now that she wasinTia Auras, the rules were different?

Alex feared it was a fool’s hope. Even in Medora, she could only visit somewhere new by first being inside the Library building and then stepping through to a new location—it didn’t work from the outside unless she was moving through a doorway she had already used before. But then again, what did she have to lose by trying?

Alex rose shakily to her feet, closing her eyes against a sudden attack of lightheadedness. She would have given anything for some water and something to eat, since other than a meagre slice of bread, the last thing she’d consumed was thehaesondelsludge Niyx had forced her to swallow before the battle at Graevale. The instant shot of adrenaline had helped her recover from the night of torture, just as it had helped her survive the fight against Aven and his Claimed army, but with the time she’d spent burying her friend afterwards—then her hours wandering through the Tia Auran desert—it had been nearly two days since Alex had last eaten anything of substance. And while the immortal blood in her veins was helping to ward off the effects of dehydration, she was still close to reaching her limit. But she wouldn’t give up—shecouldn’tgive up.

Blinking through her dizziness enough to look across the rolling dunes and overhead at the streaking stars once more, in a hoarse, dry voice she whispered, “If you can hear me, I could really,reallyuse a way out of here.”

An answer came as swiftly as the wind that swept the sand up at her feet.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Goose bumps rose on Alex’s skin as déjà vu hit her so strongly that she felt as if she’d been struck in the stomach. The voice, as clear as the night’s sky, echoed some of the very first words the Library had ever spoken to her.

“You’re here,” Alex breathed, not believing it. Fearful, perhaps, that her exhaustion had made her delirious.

“I told you I’d always be with you, Alexandra Jennings. It is you who keeps forgetting.”

Overly emotional from both her fatigue and the events of the last few days, Alex felt tears spring to her eyes. For the first time since she had arrived in the never-ending desert, she didn’t feel quite so alone anymore. And apparently, she never had been.

“Is Kaiden all right?” she rasped, needing to know.

“He is safe and waiting for you,” the Library answered. “You would have been with him much sooner had you not taken so long to remember to call on me.”

Alex marvelled at the fact that alibrarywas somehow managing to make her feel guilty. But she also knew more than anyone that the Library was no ordinary library.

She cleared her parched, croaky throat and gave the only excuse she had. “It’s been a rough couple of days. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Your trials of late have been many, Alexandra,” the Library said in a deep, soothing voice that caused Alex to swallow thickly, the compassion both comforting and painful. “And I need not tell you what you already know—that they are not yet over.”

Alex did know that. Despite what she had already endured, until Aven was defeated, there was still much more that she had to do.

“Can you help me?” she asked. “Can you take me where I need to go?”

In answer, a doorway rippled into existence barely a few feet from where she stood.

“You need only ask, Alexandra,” the Library said. “Try not to forget again.”

Alex’s shoulders sagged with the knowledge that she had been wandering the desert for so long only because of her own stupidity. A similar experience had occurred during her time in the past—she’d forgotten all about the Library and the possibility that it could return her to the future. She should have learned from her mistake then, not continued to make it over and over again.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” the Library said, as if reading her mind. “When the time comes that you need to remember me, you will.”

A shiver ran down her spine, and all she could do was nod her head. “Where will it take me?” she asked, looking into the doorway that showed nothing but darkness.

“Where you need to go,” the Library answered, back to being as vague as Alex expected.

Feeling the need to double check, Alex squinted her eyes and confirmed, “And Kaiden’s waiting for me there?”

“You will have to step through and see.”

With that, Alex could almostfeelthe Library’s presence disappearing. Or, if not disappearing entirely, at least… quieting. Leaving her to make her own decision about what to do next.

While she wasn’t thrilled with the Library’s ambiguity, Alex knew that wherever the door led, and whoever was— or wasn’t—waiting on the other side, it had to be better than continuing to wander aimlessly through the desert.

“Thank you,” she whispered, knowing the Library would hear her.

And then she stepped into the doorway.