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The journey was long, winding, and entirely in silence.

Ava was lost in thought, feeling like she was marching to her own execution.

Like she was about to have a black bag put on her head and have someone put needles in her arm to put her under.

Or someone was about to throw a switch and lights out, no more Ava Cole .

Bitty was terrified, following close beside her. And Lysander seemed in no mood to talk, either. For once.

Lysander led them through parts of the Unseelie realm that Ava had never seen before—dark forests where the trees whispered as they passed, meadows of strange, luminous flowers that closed their petals as moonlight fell across them, streams that flowed uphill and pools that reflected skies that weren't there.

Tir n'Aill was beautiful in its alienness, its wrongness. It hurt something in Ava's human brain to look at it for too long, to try to make sense of landscapes that defied fundamental laws of physics and nature.

Yet at the same time, something in her was drawn to it. Something that wasn't fully human anymore, that recognized the strange beauty of this place as kin.

They walked for what felt like hours, all in silence, with Lysander in his humanoid form leading the way. “Almost there,” Lysander finally spoke as they approached a ridge overlooking a vast mist-shrouded valley. “Just a bit further.”

The path narrowed, winding down into the valley below. As they descended, the mist thickened around them, cool and damp against Ava's skin. There was something else in it too—a faint tingle like static electricity that made the hair on her arms stand on end.

“There is a clearing up ahead.” Lysander sighed. “Somewhere you likely won’t be interrupted.”

“Is it safe here?”

“Nowhere in Tir n’Aill is safe.” His smile was grim.

“And nothing about what you're planning is safe, Ava.

But if you're determined to do this, this is the place.

Whatever happens here is less likely to affect the rest of Tir n'Aill. And…if you are successful, you are soon to be far more dangerous than the mist.”

They continued downward, the mist growing thicker until Ava could barely see a few feet in front of her. The static feeling increased, making her skin prickle uncomfortably. Beside her, Bitty's wings buzzed nervously .

Then, suddenly, the mist parted, revealing a clearing unlike anything Ava had seen before.

It was perfectly circular, maybe fifty feet across, the ground covered in moss that glowed with a faint, ethereal blue light.

But it was what surrounded the clearing that took Ava's breath away.

The mist that encircled them wasn't just mist. It was…active, somehow. Moving not with air currents, but with purpose, with consciousness. The mist was alive. It was a thing.

“Whoa…hold up—did we just walk through somebody?” She laughed in disbelief.

She reached out to touch the wall of swirling, seemingly sentient mist, and sure enough, it swirled, almost reaching back out to touch her, before darting away.

It looked almost like when giant clouds of starlings would flock together and move in mesmerizing shapes.

Murmurations? Was that what it was called?

Lysander chuckled. “You are still amazed that a mist in Tir n’Aill might be sentient enough to be the source of legends, yet you stand on the precipice of becoming powerful enough to destroy us all.” Letting out a long, tired sigh, he shook his head. “We are doomed.”

“Yeah, well, sorry I think this shit is cool.” She rolled her eyes, still watching the swirling mist. She thought about all the stories she’d heard about strange fog and the tales of people who went out into it and never came back. “I hope I never lose that. No matter what happens to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at how bored and miserable Valroy is.” She reached her hand out again to the mist, hovering it over its surface.

It swirled around her hand, but didn’t seem to want to touch her.

Maybe it was afraid. “It was like Puck said, I guess. If you expect the world to be miserable, it’ll be miserable, and you’ll be miserable.

I hope I can still appreciate the wonders the world— worlds— have to offer, even if I become some eldritch super-weapon. ”

“Finally, somebody fuckin’ listens! That’s what I’m sayin’!” Someone half-shouted from beside her .

Everyone screamed.

Including the newcomer.

The mist pulled back a foot before settling back into its shape.

Ava turned to glare at Puck. “You suck.”

Puck was grinning from ear to ear, his silver hair hanging in his eyes. “And blow.”

Ava tried to stay mad. Tried. But she couldn’t. She snickered. “God damn it.”

“Yep. Gets Alex all the time, too.” Puck looked around, narrowing his eyes, studying the space. “Yeah, this’ll do.”

“Glad you approve.” If Lysander were still in his cat form, his fur would be raised. “Now go away.”

“And miss the show? Never.” Puck walked over to the opposite edge of the circle and sat down on the moss, stretching out with his feet in front of him. “This is going to change the course of our universe. I want a front row spot.”

“That’s great. Too bad I want you to take Lysander and Bitty as far away from here as you can.” She motioned at the other two.

“What?” Bitty’s wings flared in alarm.

“Absolutely not!” Lysander crossed his arms, tail swishing sharply.

“Guys, I have no idea what’s going to happen when I do this.

” She took Book in its sling from off her shoulder.

“I could destroy this whole area. I could create some kind of—black hole, or something. I don’t know!

I could get sucked into the Web and never come back.

I could drop the Titanic on us all. I need you all to be safe. ”

“Which is precisely why we’re staying,” Lysander countered. “Someone”—he glanced at Puck and grunted before amending— “ Someone responsible needs to be here to help if things go wrong. Or to get Valroy if things go very wrong.”

She shut her eyes. She was flattered. But. “You don’t understand?—”

“No, you don’t understand.” Lysander’s voice took on an edge she’d never heard before. “I didn’t bring you all this way to abandon you to face this alone. That’s not how this works.” He smiled, suddenly pleased with himself. “Besides, you owe me a favor. I’m protecting my investment.”

“He's right,” Bitty added. “I—I mean, about the not leaving part, not the investment part. We're not leaving.”

Ava looked between them, seeing the stubborn determination in both their expressions. Part of her was touched by their loyalty. The rest was terrified for them.

Puck was just grinning like an idiot, he didn’t count.

“Fine. But stay at the edge of the clearing, next to Puck. And if things start to look bad, if I start to…I don’t know, change, or if the mist starts doing something strange, or if anything happens that seems… I don’t know. Puck, take them out of here, please. Don't try to save me.”

He snapped a military salute. “You’re the boss.”

“Ava—” Bitty began.

“Promise me you’ll go with him,” Ava cut her off. “Both of you. I'm sorry if you both get deleted or sucked into the Web or whatever, but that won't be my fault. I don't want that on my conscience.”

Lysander and Bitty exchanged a glance, communicating something wordless between them.

“We promise,” Lysander said finally, though his tone made it clear he was probably trying to come up with a way around his promise already.

“Good enough.” Ava knew it was the best she was going to get.

Without waiting for further discussion, she walked to the center of the clearing, her footsteps silent on the glowing moss. She knelt on the moss in the center, with her friends at her back, and taking Book out of the sling, placed it down on the grass in front of her.

For a moment, she simply breathed, centering herself.

“Okay, buddy.” She looked down at Book, smiling at how almost weirdly fond of the thing she was. “Time to cut the crap. Open.”

For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then, to her shock—and yet somehow not surprise at all—the iron latches clicked open of their own accord. The cover lifted, pages ruffling in a non-existent breeze until they settled on a blank spread.

“Shit,” Lysander muttered from the edge of the clearing.

As she watched, the blank pages began to fill—not with text or images, but with a soft, silvery light that pooled like liquid mercury in the center of the book.

The light gathered, coalesced, and then rose from the page, solidifying into two objects that sat quietly atop it, like they had always been there, and what she’d just witnessed was a hallucination.

The mirror shards.

Bitty let out a small, terrified squeak. “Ava, don’t?—”

“How did you get those?” Lysander's voice was sharp with alarm. “Where did they come from?”

Ava ignored them both, her entire focus on the shards before her.

One was the piece Valroy had stolen from the Broken City, the one he'd been twirling so casually between his wing's claws.

The other…she didn't know where it had come from.

Perhaps it had been in Book all along. Or maybe it had been buried deep within the Web, behind some other trial.

Two pieces of a shattered mirror. Two keys to unlock… what?

That was the question, wasn't it? The one everyone had been dancing around. The one no one would answer directly.

“I really suck at puzzle levels,” she muttered to herself, too quiet for anyone else to hear. There were no guides for this one. All she had was what she had in front of her and all the clues people had given her.

The mirrored shards.

Keys to a door.

No, not a door. A lock.

The key changes the lock. And the lock changes the key.

And she was the lock.

She was the Web.

Then it clicked. The piece she’d failed to see even though it was right in front of her. Shutting her eyes, she let out a sound that was half-exhale, half sob. “I understand now,” she murmured more to herself than to her companions. “I get it.”

The shards weren't for the Web. They didn't open a door to some other dimension, some cosmic consciousness that would consume her identity.

They were for her.

The answer had been in Valroy.

The enormous tree, with its multitude of broken weapons.

A massive, shattered Baroque mirror. With three missing shards.

Each a physical representation of a vessel. No, a manifestation. A cellular tower. A point of contact between the unknowable, vast Other, and the Smallness that was Valroy.

That was her.

She was the broken mirror.

She was the prison. She was the Web itself, or would be, once the transformation was complete.

The shards were for her. They unlocked… her. But they didn’t matter in the end. She was healing. She was slowly regrowing the strength the shards provided. They were just a shortcut.

Neither and both. Exactly as the Morrigan had said.

That meant there was no prison door, was there? Serrik wasn’t trapped in some walled off room of the Web. He was going to be trapped inside a person. A vessel. A living, breathing entity who could contain the vast power of the Web within their being.

But where was he?

No wonder he wanted to hollow her out, use her like a remote-control car. She would have so much power over him.

But something deeper was at play. This wasn’t some deep and terrible revelation that made her want to lose her entire sense of self.

No, that was just the first thread in the sweater. The first pull.

There was more. There was another shoe to drop. Far worse than this one.

But it was her choice whether or not she wanted to know it. Her choice. No one else’s. And there was relief and comfort in that .

“Ava." Lysander's voice cut through her revelation. He had moved closer, hovering at the edge of what he clearly considered a safe distance. “Whatever it’s shown you, whatever you’re thinking, whatever you're planning—stop. Let us seek out Valroy. Let us talk about this.”

“I have thought about it.” Ava honestly was a little proud of herself over how steady her voice sounded, despite the storm of emotions inside her. “I’ve done nothing but think about it since this all began. And it’s time to finally know. I’m sorry.”

She knew the moment she touched the shards, it was all over.

And part of her was terrified. But part of her was also so fucking done with it.

It was ripping the bandage off. This was going to happen anyway, sooner rather than later.

Might as well just jump. “This isn’t something I can run from.

This isn’t something I can fight or deny.

It’s what I am now—what I will be. I’m sorry. ”

“But you don't have to do it like this,” Bitty pleaded. “Not alone. Not without help.”

“Whose help? Serrik's? Valroy’s?” Ava shook her head. “They all want to use me, to control what I'm becoming for their own purposes. This is the only way I take control of my own fate.”

“By becoming…” Lysander's tail lashed anxiously behind him. “Ava, there is a great deal you do not know.”

“Exactly,” Ava agreed. “A ton. And this is how I find out. I know what happens if I don't do this. If I keep letting everyone else decide what I know, then they decide what I become.” Her gaze hardened. “I’m done being a pawn, Lysander. I'm done being afraid.”

She reached out, her hands hovering over the shards. This was it. The point of no return. Once she touched them, once she took them into herself, everything would change.

She would change.

“See you on the flip side, kids.” And with that, she pressed her palm down on the shards.

The effect was immediate and overwhelming.

Pain lanced through her, white-hot and all-consuming, as if every cell in her body were being torn apart and reconstructed.

She might have screamed—she wasn't sure.

The world narrowed to a pinpoint of agony, then expanded into something vast and incomprehensible.

She could feel the shards melting into her hands, merging with her flesh, her blood, her being.

Distantly, she was aware of Lysander calling her name, of Bitty's terrified keening, but they seemed to be coming from very far away.

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she collapsed to the moss.