Page 140 of Queen of Volts

“In the dream, we’re always looking for a particular door,” Levi said. “Maybe we need to find the real one.”

Grace threw up her hands. “Can’t argue with that logic!”

“It does sound...” Narinder started, looking at his shoes sheepishly as though he didn’t want to offend anyone. “It does sound ridiculous.”

“What doyouthink?” Enne asked Delaney.

Delaney’s expression was serious. But Delaney’s expression was always serious. “I don’t like it. Shades are supposed to disappear once they’ve served their purpose. If it was supposed to lead Enne to New Reynes, then why does this still exist? What does it mean?”

No one could answer that, of course. But from the uneasy glances shared around the room, Sophia expected no onewantedto. They’d had their fill of shades. If Levi and Enne had managed to ignore this one for so long, why stop now?

“We should go,” Levi pressed. “We don’t know our next move. This could show it to us.”

“What happened to using the Chainer as bait?” Grace asked.

“If we find nothing, we’ll come back,” Enne assured her. “Sophia and Delaney can come with us. You all can stay here.”

“I want to stay, in case we hear from Poppy,” Delaney said. “Sophia knows the way. She can take you.”

Sophia didn’t want to leave Harrison, but it felt silly to say that out loud. As his omerta, Sophia had no reason to want to stay with him—she should hate him. And the thought of telling everyone what he’d told her left an embarrassed knot in her stomach. Sophiaknewall the faces in the room, but she didn’t want to lay all her hopes and doubts bare. She didn’t want to be vulnerable.

“Fine,” Sophia murmured. “Let’s go.”

It was a quiet cab ride to the House of Shadows.

The trio paid the driver and stepped out onto the lawn, each soot covered, scraped up, and weary. Enne and Levi studied the manor house as though they saw ghosts in every window, and Sophia supposed they did. Last time they’d come here, they’d barely escaped with their lives.

“The Phoenix Club...” Enne started hoarsely, but the words died in her throat.

“Seems mostly disbanded, now that Bryce replaced the Shadow Game with his one,” Sophia told them. Her words did little to relax their shoulders. Enne reached out and squeezed Levi’s hand.

It was such a small gesture to make Sophia’s heart ache like it did. She missed Jac. So much. And it hurt to lead two people to what they hoped was their happy ending when hers had died not even four months prior.

“Come on,” Sophia managed, then she swallowed and led them to the front door.

The party crowd was at its peak at this time on a weekend night, and after what had happened at the Legendary, Sophia was tremendously done with crowds. She felt overloaded, like one new sensation might break her down, and the House of Shadows’ raucous laughter and jazzy music played at her nerves like a fiddle.

Then she felt a squeeze on her shoulder, and she turned to see Enne give her a slight smile. It grounded her enough for Sophia to push through the partygoers to the door that led downstairs. The stairs creaked with every step, and Enne and Levi both sucked in a breath when they reached the landing, when they took in the hallway stretched out in front of them.

“It’s...it’s just like it,” Levi breathed. “Even the ceiling...”

Sophia looked up. The ceiling looked like an average ceiling to her, minus a few of the exposed pipes.

“The House isn’t nearly this big from the outside,” Enne said, gaping. “How do we know which door it is? We don’t have hours, and there must be hundreds. I can’t see the end.”

Maybe this was all a waste and the two of them really were shatz. Because Sophia could see the end of the hallway just fine, along with its maybe twelve doors.

Levi traced his fingers over the frame of a white door, a clouded, almost dreamy look in his eyes. Nerves bundled in Sophia’s throat.

“Are we looking at the same hallway?” she asked. “Because what you’re describing...isn’t real.”

“What are you talking about?” Levi asked, dropping his hand.

“I’m saying I can see the end. Right there.” Sophia walked ahead of them and slapped the cinderblock wall on the opposite end of the hallway. “Hear that? That’s the end.”

“I don’t see it,” Enne said, her voice hitched. “What does that mean? If we see something different than you?”

“It means we were probably right to come here,” Levi answered. But as he reached for a doorknob, Sophia lunged forward and grabbed him by the hand.