Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Every single day, Sofia Aro Heim wished she was an only child.

As Sofia kicked off her shoes in the doorway, she glared at Trinidad, conveying with her murderous eyes that her little sister had better not embarrass her in front of her friend.

Trinidad didn’t even notice, her head stuck in the fridge. She emerged holding…was that Sofia’s last flan?!

Deliberately maintaining eye contact, Trinidad pulled the lid off the flan and stuck in a spoon. She chopped the pudding’s flat surface a few times like an explorer staking a flag. The brat knew that Sofia wouldn’t make a fuss about her food being stolen in front of an outsider. It wouldn’t suit the serene good girl image she’d maintained at school. Though Sofia trembled with fury, not a drop of it showed on her face. But later, after Alexa was gone? Then the brat would pay, when she least expected it, after she believed the offense forgotten.

Alexa swept into the kitchen. “Hi, Trini! I’m here to work on a social studies presentation.”

Trinidad bristled. “My name is Trinidad.”

“Chill out, it’s an affectionate nickname,” Sofia said. A hint of her rage slipped into her eyes, threatening with her laser-sharp glare that each additional word would be an added offense on top of the dessert theft.

“That’s okay,” Alexa said breezily, tossing back dyed blond hair. “It’s great that you and Sophie are proud of your Mexican heritage.”

Trinidad had perfected a sneer designed to make even older kids feel an inch tall. “Her name is Sofia, you can’t even manage a five-letter name? We’re from Chile. It’s not even on the same continent. You’ve been told before. If you don’t know North America from South America, no wonder my sister has to do your homework for you—”

“Let’s leave her alone, she’s probably PMS-ing,” Sofia growled, ushering Alexa up the stairs.

“That’s a sexist thing to say!” Trinidad called after them.

As soon as they were in the bedroom, Alexa asked, “Was I rude? I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“What? Nooooooooo. Ignore my sister, she’s a brat.” Inwardly Sofia prayed that her little sister would turn out to be adopted. Trinidad never understood that people didn’t care if you were right or not, they cared how you made them feel. If you made people feel good about themselves, they’d like you. If you made them feel bad, they would dislike you, and if you made them feel stupid, they might even bully you. Thanks to Trinidad, now Sofia would need to spend the next fifteen minutes reassuring Alexa and soothing her feelings, then do all the work on their group project.

Trinidad had been right about Alexa being useless as a social studies partner, but the brat didn’t understand that Sofia did not solely suck up to the most popular girl at school for the prestige. By studying with Alexa, Sofia had obtained access to expensive SAT preparation material. Sofia needed a top score on the standardized admission test in order to obtain a college scholarship. At the same time, she’d been busy studying for her U.S. citizenship test in order to be eligible for more scholarships.

But Trinidad never thought ahead like that. Trinidad didn’t even care about her grades. She spent all her time on her art and her nerdy manga club. They were too poor to be artistic. Art was an indulgence for kids from rich families like Alexa. The Aro Heim siblings needed to work hard to get ahead. Someday, Sofia would get a high-paid job as a lawyer. Then she would visit her little sister in a shitty tiny starving artist apartment just to laugh at her.

Due to the need to soothe Alexa’s ruffled feathers, Sofia’s careful schedule was fifteen minutes off. She showed her friend out, all smiles and not rushing her at all. The instant the door closed, Sofia ran for the kitchen to preheat the oven. She’d frozen a bean casserole earlier, she just needed to defrost it, then sprinkle cheese on top.

It wouldn’t be a big deal if dinner was fifteen minutes later. Except that then Sofia’s evening SAT studying time would also be fifteen minutes late. She hated it when her routines got interrupted.

“I’ll help.” Trinidad popped up by the kitchen counter. She licked a bit of incriminating custard off her lower lip.

Sofia snorted, switching to Spanish, the language she felt most sarcastic in. “Of course you’ll help, if you want to eat. Make a salad, and don’t think that will get you off the hook for my flan.”

Grinning, Trinidad waggled her eyebrows and replied in the same language. “I wish your school friends could see what you’re actually like.”

Sofia sneered. “If you want me to be nice to you, then be useful to me. What do you have to offer?”

Trinidad appeared to seriously consider this. “I could draw you like an anime character?”

“With giant boobs? No, thanks.”

“I have more class than that!” Trinidad stalked out of the room, then returned with her sketchpad. “See?” She flipped through the pictures, where she’d drawn herself as a wizard, a cat girl, and a warrior princess. She’d been surprisingly honest, including her braces, the frizzy explosion of her red-brown hair, and the rash of freckles on her light brown skin. “Want me to draw you as a fox girl?”

“No, that’s almost more cringey than big boobs.”

“Want me to draw you as the evil dragon I have to slay?”

“Sure, except I’ll kick your ass.” Sofia would rather feature as a nonhuman because she currently felt very insecure in her body. She’d fretted in front of the mirror over her boyish flat figure. Even growing out her black hair halfway down her back hadn’t made her feel pretty. Acne persisted on her chin. Beauty was also for the rich—she didn’t have the money to afford the skin treatments she saw in magazines.

The phone rang. Sofia groaned to see Aunt Mary’s caller ID. This unscheduled call would be a further delay to her evening timeline. But there was no point in expecting her aunt to ever adhere to a schedule, that would go against her nature.

Sofia put the phone on speaker so she could continue prepping her bean casserole. She switched back to English. “Tía Mary, how’d your flight go?” When she spoke to her aunt, she let her original accent come through, unlike her nasally Midwestern accent in high school. Aunt Mary didn’t speak Spanish but had pride in her Chilean heritage, so Sofia called her the Spanish word for aunt to make her happy.

“Quite smooth. I have to run to another one in five minutes, but I wanted to check on you first.” Aunt Mary worked as a flight attendant. “How have you and Trinidad been doing on your own?”

“Great.” Sofia laughed, the same light and airy sound that she’d perfected for high school. “We’re getting along wonderfully.”

Trinidad opened her mouth. Sofia glared. Trinidad closed her mouth.

“I’m glad to hear—oh, I’ve lost track of time! I have to run.”

“What a shame, I wanted to talk longer. Bye! Love you!” Sofia chirped.

After the phone call had ended, Trinidad leaned against the counter and said, “You’re so fake. You could have said we were in the middle of making dinner.”

“You confuse honesty with blurting out every thought that crosses your mind,” Sofia said.

“I refrained from telling you how much I hate your sparkly preppy T-shirt!”

“Not anymore, you didn’t.”

“I’m pretty sure Alexa gave you that shirt because she thinks it’s ugly too.” Trinidad chewed on the tip of her braid. “Alexa can be so rude to you. I don’t know why you put up with it. You’d beat my ass if I ever called you Sophie.”

Because Alexa gave Sofia a lot of free stuff. Because Alexa was the most tolerable of the wealthy popular girls at their school. Because… “Because friendship like in manga doesn’t exist. Friends are people who can be useful.”

“Of course friends exist! I have friends! We don’t have any villains to fight but at least we like each other. Do you think you’re being deep? Because you sound cringey.” Trinidad clutched her hair. “My sister is only eighteen and already an edgelord.”

“My sister is twelve and lives in fantasy land.”

“I bet you’d like manga and anime if you ever tried it.” As Trinidad spoke, she took out the ingredients to chop up for a salad. “I found a good story recently with the standard ‘girl transmigrates into a villainess’ theme except this time, she acts like a villain instead of immediately turning into a good girl. She’s very two-faced, just like you, so I think you’d like her. It’s a great entry point into the isekai genre. We should watch an episode together.”

“I don’t know what isekai means, and I don’t care. Scientific research has proven there is nothing more boring than listening to someone ramble about a show you haven’t seen.” Sofia popped the casserole into the oven and set the timer. “I need to study. Put your earphones in when you watch your show so you don’t bug me.”

Despite her sour tone, Sofia counted her blessings. It was better that Trinidad hadn’t said anything during the call. Sofia was too tired to play peacemaker between her aunt and her sister yet again.

Trinidad didn’t understand or didn’t care to understand just how precarious their living situation was.

The Aro Heim siblings didn’t have any other family besides their aunt. Their parents had been childhood friends raised in the same orphanage. They’d moved to the United States because their mother had gotten a good job offer and their father had wanted to live closer to Mary, his long-lost sister who had been adopted by an American couple as a baby. Then their parents had died in a car accident.

After the funeral, Sofia and Trinidad had been sleeping in the guest room at their aunt’s house. Sofia had been woken by the sound of voices. She’d crept to her aunt’s door and pressed her ear close.

Mary had been talking to a friend: “I don’t know if I can do this. I never wanted kids. If it was only one kid…but raising two is too much. My job requires me to be away from home a lot and doesn’t pay well enough to be a single parent. But if I don’t take in the kids, then they’ll be separated. Trinidad was born here and is an American citizen, Sofia is not. Unless someone sponsors Sofia, she’s going back to Chile. There’s no one else except me.”

Heart hammering, Sofia staggered backward. She moved as silently as possible, slipping back into bed. Her little sister drooled slightly on the adjacent pillow.

The very next day, Sofia had started learning cooking. She’d convinced Aunt Mary that she was old enough to be left alone and look after her little sister. She’d studied how people talked and acted on TV in order to blend in at school. She’d been the perfect kid, causing no trouble. Her motto was: Adapt and survive.

Going back to Chile didn’t scare Sofia. She had only good memories of her early childhood. No hardship had caused their departure. Alexa acted like Chile was a war zone, not a beautiful and prosperous democratic country. Being separated from her little sister scared Sofia. They had only each other as family. Mary had been raised by her adopted family and only reconnected with them as an adult. Sofia feared this fragile bond might break if the kids ever became too much trouble. Mary’s words always lingered in the back of her mind…one kid was easier to look after than two…and Sofia felt certain she knew who would have been the one thrown away. The older kid, the one more able to look after herself, who didn’t belong in this country. Sofia had to be perfect.

Trinidad had never even tried to be good. Maybe because Trinidad was younger and with less responsibilities, maybe because she had the security of U.S. citizenship, maybe because she’d never overheard the conversation revealing they weren’t wanted. Either way, Trinidad had no sense of fear. It drove Sofia crazy sometimes.

When in first grade, Trinidad’s math teacher had lost her homework, then claimed she hadn’t turned it in. Sofia had helped her little sister with the homework and knew it had been finished. But was it really such a big deal to redo it? Trinidad had refused to turn in any math assignments for the rest of the school year unless her teacher admitted he’d been wrong. Sofia had worked overtime hiding the bad grade and letters from the school from their aunt.

Then in second grade, Trinidad had protested her favorite tree in the school yard being cut down by climbing up into the branches and refusing to come down. She’d stayed up there for two days without food or water. Sofia had been at her wit’s end. Her little sister seemed to cause a major incident at least once a year.

As a teenager, Sofia had started babysitting for a bit of extra cash. The Lau family had been one of her favorite customers, with two angelic kids who enjoyed reading alone in their rooms. Until Mrs. Lau had lost her ten-carat diamond engagement ring and accused Sofia of stealing it.

Word had spread around the neighborhood. All babysitting offers had dried up. Sofia had cried for hours in her room, terrified she would be arrested by the police.

Three days later, Mrs. Lau had shown up on their doorstep gruffly saying that she’d found her ring behind the soap dispenser in the bathroom, and she needed Sofia to emergency babysit that night. Sofia had been desperately grateful and about to accept.

Then Trinidad had stepped forward to block the doorway. “Apologize to Sofia.”

“Excuse me?” Mrs. Lau had peered down at the tiny scowling girl.

“Apologize to my sister.” Trinidad had articulated each word with a poise unnatural for an elementary schooler. It made Sofia jealous, because it was perfect for a lawyer, right down to how Trinidad cooly looked up her upturned nose with an adult disdain. “You falsely accused her of stealing, damaging her reputation and her business. You need to go around and tell every last person you spread rumors to that you were wrong and you lost your own ring. Then you should give Sofia enough money to make up for everything she lost when people stopped hiring her to babysit. And you should pay her double for all future babysitting, if she ever agrees to work for you again, which I don’t think she should.”

Of course that hadn’t happened, because giving a speech about justice only worked in Trinidad’s manga. Mrs. Lau had huffed off without another word. Sofia had been furious, because she preferred the babysitting money to an apology, and because Mrs. Lau hiring her again would have been the best she could do to clear her reputation. Such a prideful woman would never retract her accusation. Far from thanking Trinidad, Sofia had chewed her out and stormed up to her room to plan a new way to make money.

Two months later, Sofia had returned from a school field trip to find Mrs. Lau in her front yard, frantically searching. Sofia might not have thought anything of it if she hadn’t seen the small smirk on Trinidad’s lips.

Dragging Trinidad inside, Sofia growled, “What did you do this time?”

“Nothing that will affect you. I talked to the Lau kids, and their mom is always taking off her ring because it’s heavy. She loses it once a month. She’s made police reports about it being stolen a dozen times. At this point, the police just toss her report in the trash bin. Just in case, I made sure you had an alibi.” Trinidad spoke so calmly, it reminded Sofia that her little sister could be a good actor when she bothered to lie.

Sofia grabbed her sister’s shoulders and shook her. “Unless someone finds where you pawned the ring.”

“The ring is where no one except a fish will ever see it again. I would never sell it.” Trinidad sounded appalled at the idea. “This isn’t about money. It’s about justice. Mrs. Lau punished you even though you didn’t take her ring, so I made her lies come true.”

Sofia should have been furious. It wasn’t worth the risk. But no one besides Trinidad would ever stick up for Sofia like this. Even Aunt Mary had asked Sofia if she was certain she hadn’t moved the ring somewhere.

So instead Sofia had taken her little sister into her arms and held her. For once, even if Sofia had cried a little, Trinidad hadn’t teased her for it.

Even if life would be easier as an only child, sisters had to look out for each other.

That was why, after Sofia had adequately complimented Alexa’s new haircut and let her pretend to help with their presentation, she’d said, “Dick’s younger brother is giving Trinidad a hard time, could you have a word with him?”

Alexa had shrugged. “I dunno, your sister has it coming.”

In this case, Trinidad had verbally eviscerated the boys in her class for making a sexist joke. She’d told ten funnier jokes and had the class in stiches. For someone so smart, Trinidad hadn’t yet figured out that it was dangerous to make people laugh at the popular kids.

“I know, but it looks bad for me if my sister gets bullied.” Sofia nudged Alexa’s shoulder. “Come on, for me?”

Alexa put an arm around Sofia’s shoulder. “For you, because we’re best friends.”

There was the secret reason Sofia had almost but not quite spoken when Trinidad had asked why she remained friends with Alexa: Because I need her to keep your dumb ass out of trouble.

If Sofia had said it, Trinidad would have only protested that she didn’t need any protection. Trinidad had no idea how bad bullying could get. And she never would, as long as she had her older sister. This was far from the first time Sofia had stepped in to protect Trinidad from the consequences of her defiant personality and sharp tongue.

If Trinidad knew about half the effort Sofia put in behind the scenes to keep her from being bullied…well, she wouldn’t appreciate it because younger sisters were all ungrateful.

Sofia taped a sticky note with cooking instructions on the lasagna dish before sticking it in the fridge. She was going on an overnight trip with her friends, so she’d made dinner for her little sister in advance.

A car honked outside. Her ride was here. Sofia grabbed her backpack, stuffed full of clothing and essentials. As she pushed open the door, she called, “Dinner’s in the fridge, try not to burn the house down.”

Footsteps pounded from upstairs. Trinidad called, “I downloaded the first season of that anime onto your phone in case you have time to watch it on your trip. We could talk about it afterward.”

“How do you keep figuring out my passcode?” Sofia rolled her eyes. “As if I have time, I have to study.”

“You should take a break now and then.” Trinidad ran down the stairs and hugged her. “Hope you have a great time. I love you!”

Sofia was standing in sight of the car, so of course she didn’t say she loved her sister back. That would be too embarrassing in front of her friends. Maybe Sofia was also a bit annoyed at having to make dinner for her sister when all her friends had parents to do that. With a grunt, she disentangled herself and headed for the car.

Dick was driving with his cousin Connor riding shotgun. Alexa was in the backseat. As Sofia slid into the car, Alexa whispered, “Connor looks cute in his new shirt, doesn’t he?”

Sofia carefully did not reveal her annoyance on her face.

Ever since Alexa had started dating Dick, she’d made it into her life goal to set Sofia up with someone. Sofia simply wasn’t interested in dating. All her time and attention were consumed by getting into a good college and passing her citizenship test. Besides, the popular boys who Alexa hung out with all expected sex. Sofia had tried to tell Alexa that Aunt Mary had strict opinions about premarital sex. Alexa had only giggled and said “My parents, too. We’re too cool to care about old people.”

They weren’t the same. Alexa’s parents would have been furious if they knew about her sneaking off with Dick (sometimes using visiting Sofia as a cover). But if Alexa got into trouble, whether an STD or unplanned pregnancy or a public indecency charge for doing it in the car, then her rich parents would have made her problems go away. Sofia didn’t have the same confidence in her aunt’s love and forgiveness. The fear had lingered in the back of her mind ever since becoming an orphan: if she was too much trouble, she’d be sent away. One wrong step might ruin her carefully planned future.

Sofia didn’t want to be uncool in front of Alexa. So instead of rejecting Connor, she’d made it her goal to be so annoying that he rejected her.

Sofia looked at Connor, then let out an earsplitting high giggle. He jumped in the front seat, putting his hands over his ears.

Burying her face in Alexa’s shoulder, Sofia whispered, “Oh, no, I did it again. I just get so nervous around him.”

“Aw, it’s okay,” Alexa whispered, rubbing Sofia’s back.

Although Alexa enjoyed playing matchmaker, she also liked being more successful with boys. Especially since Sofia got better grades, so this gave Alexa an area to feel superior in. Thus Sofia could keep up the charade without too much pressure or unwanted help.

Whether or not Sofia liked Connor had never factored into her decision, because there was no one cute enough to be worth jeopardizing her future law firm over. But she didn’t find him attractive. He talked too much, asked too few questions about other people, and bumped into other kids in the hallway because he never stepped aside for anyone else. Fortunately, someone like that thought he deserved the best, so it was easy to turn him off.

As they continued their drive, the suburbs turned into rolling green fields. A heavy mist clogged the air. Earthy scent seeped into the car. The sky overhead was dark grey and about ready to burst.

Dick and Connor talked about the football team’s prospects while Alexa had fallen asleep. Sofia pulled out her SAT vocabulary cards from her backpack. This trip would put her behind studying, so every free moment must be used.

When the car came to a stop, Alexa jolted awake. Sofia shoved her cards into her backpack, a little too late.

“You’re always studying, why bother when you get good grades?” Alexa rolled her eyes. “You’re a nerd, Sophie.”

Easy for Alexa to say, when she was guaranteed a spot in her family business. If Sofia would have to work twice as hard as Alexa to get ahead, then that just meant Sofia would work three times as hard. Someday she’d be a partner at her law firm, and everyone would have to suck up to her instead.

“Studying calms my nerves,” Sofia said with a shrug.

They got out of the car. Alexa nudged Sofia. “You should talk to Connor.”

Sofia bumped into Connor from behind. “Oops!” She ran and hid behind Alexa with a giggle. Connor hated people bumping into him, even though he did it to others all the time.

They’d left early, so it was still morning. The parking lot was completely empty except for their car. The fog was so thick that only a few scraggly bushes and yellowing grass at the base of the mountain were visible.

When Sofia had first heard they would be traveling up to the lodge by a funicular, she’d wondered what on earth that might be. Apparently a funicular was like a train car, except built slanted with the rows of seats like steps. It had been designed to take people up the tracks of a steep mountain. This particular one had been painted a deep maroon, with the company name flaking off the side.

An elderly man read a newspaper in the booth. Alexa approached and said, “We need tickets for four people. When do we leave?”

“We don’t.” He set aside his newspaper. “The funicular doesn’t operate when it’s this foggy.”

“What?” Dick exploded. “We already have reservations at the lodge!”

“You can travel up tomorrow.”

“We were only staying for one night.” Alexa twirled her hair. “Please?”

“The rules are the rules.”

Connor threw up his hands. “This is bullshit! We’ll sue you if we miss out on our reservation because of you.”

Sofia bit her lip. She didn’t want to cause trouble for someone only doing his job or act like a spoiled brat. Sometimes Alexa could be so rude at restaurants, it was an embarrassment accompanying her. On the other hand, Sofia couldn’t understand why the funicular would close down because of fog. It went straight up the railroad track, no turns or divergences, and no other vehicles, so visibility didn’t matter. She’d heard of trains getting delayed because of fog, but it wasn’t generally enough to cancel them. “Why doesn’t the funicular run during fog?”

“It’s a family tradition.”

“Tradition?” Sofia had been hoping for a better explanation than that. Skepticism entered her tone.

The elderly operator looked between the four upset teens. “My family has been running this funicular for generations. People sometimes vanish if they go up during fog. Not every time, but often enough for us to notice a pattern. They get on at the bottom, then never get off at the top. Legend says they were spirited away.”

Sofia lost all sympathy for him. Their plans were being ruined by some quaint local superstition? Who still believed in spirits in this day and age?

“Bullshit!” Dick cried. Connor growled his agreement.

Alexa planted her hands on her hips. “We’ll pay you double if you take us up.”

“We will?” Sofia frowned. She thought the fog reason was stupid, but she didn’t have money to throw around like the other three. She’d saved up for this trip for months by tutoring and working at the library. “I’m fine going home. Surely the lodge will refund our deposit.”

Dick scowled. “I didn’t drive all this way for nothing.”

Alexa’s smile turned mean. “If you don’t let us ride, then we’ll leave bad reviews everywhere.”

It was a stupid threat, in Sofia’s opinion. This funicular was the only method of travel to the lodge besides hiking up on foot, so people had to use it no matter the rating. Did funiculars even get reviewed? The operator looked more irritated than worried.

“Fine. It’s your lives.” He held out his credit card reader. Perhaps the bribe had moved him more than the threat.

As the other three paid, Sofia gnawed on her lip harder. She didn’t have the money to spare. Every part of this trip had been carefully budgeted. She’d have to skip lunch and maybe have a salad for dinner. But if she refused, she didn’t have a ride back home and she’d lose major coolness points. She supposed she could claim the altitude made her too nauseous to eat. Reluctantly, she pulled out her wallet. She was the only person to pay in cash—she didn’t have a credit card. It hurt to watch her hard-earned money vanish.

The operator opened the door for them. The seating was at an angle like stadium bleachers. Alexa took the seat in the front row, with the best view. Sofia quickly sat next to her because she didn’t want to be next to Connor. The two boys sat behind them.

From inside the building, the operator flicked a switch. The funicular started moving.

There was a place at the lowest point of the car with a steering wheel for the operator to stand. But he’d let the funicular depart without him. Presumably it didn’t need someone to steer, there was only one track for the single car to go up and down. Even so, it seemed odd. Shouldn’t the operator be coming with them in case he needed to throw the emergency brake?

Through the glass, Sofia met the operator’s eyes. What she saw there nearly made her open the door and jump out.

But the funicular was already moving. It didn’t go as fast as a train, or even a car, but if she threw herself onto the rocky ground, she’d probably be injured.

Sofia told herself that she was a logical person who didn’t believe in ghosts. Even if the man had believed the danger to be real, that only made him a fool. Her fingers clenched on her knees.

The funicular moved at an angle like a roller coaster car headed up. It rattled as loudly on the tracks as a skeleton dancing on a tin roof. The shaking and frequent stops and starts made Sofia even more uneasy. Was it supposed to sound this loud? Or was it in bad repair?

Alexa didn’t seem afraid at all. Raising her voice over the clacking, she complained, “This thing moves too slowly. I’m leaving a bad review anyway.”

The fog had grown even thicker, making the air heavier. The scent of dirt permeated the car. Each rattling movement vibrated to Sofia’s bones. Wishing for a seatbelt, she grabbed onto the railing in front of her. Briefly, she glimpsed the parking lot and station growing small below. Then the fog was too thick to see anything at all.

When the world went dark, Sofia screamed.

Alexa laughed. “We’re going through a tunnel.”

“Oh.” Sofia looked around, seeing the rocky walls of the tunnel and the sliver of light below. Her cheeks burned with humiliation. “Sorry, I’m jumpy.” She tugged on her sleeves, trying to cover more skin. When had it gotten so cold?

Alexa leaned over to whisper, “It’s okay, I don’t think Connor even heard you shriek over this loud track.”

Then they were out the other side. Light came through the windows, but the fog shrouded their surroundings from view.

“It’s cold.” Alexa turned around. “Dick, lend me your sweatshirt—” Her sentence cut off, then her voice trembled. “The boys are gone.”

Sofa looked too. The row behind them was empty, not even the slightest trace of Dick and Connor’s presence. Their backpacks were also gone. “Where did they go?” It was a stupid question, how would Alexa know? Sofia’s voice had gone high-pitched with fear. She wanted to scream again.

“It’s probably a prank.” Alexa sounded high-pitched and uncertain too.

“Yeah, they’d do that to scare us.” Sofia shouted, “It’s not funny! Come back here!”

The absurdity of her own statement made her stop talking. The funicular doors were closed and it still rumbled up the tracks. If Dick and Connor had leapt out, then the car would have moved too fast for them to get back on again. That was assuming they hadn’t broken bones making the jump. Surely Sofia would have heard a loud thump if they’d jumped out of the car. Instead they had vanished, as if they’d never been there to begin with.

Alexa was the first to ask the question: “Do you think they were…spirited away?”

Sofia opened her mouth to say no way. Then she recalled advice from the many books she’d read about being a good lawyer: never say anything before a judge that she wasn’t sure to be true. She scrambled up the seats, toward the front of the car. As the funicular jolted, she grabbed a seat to steady herself. Each clacking sound dug into her brain and made it harder to think straight. She was about ready to punch the tracks to make it stop.

At the front of the car, Sofia squinted at the impossibly even thicker fog.

A cruel giggle ran through the air. Force slammed against a lower window, making the whole car shake. Sofia whirled around. A white lace veil brushed against the glass. The air had grown colder. The rattling was too loud and she wished it even louder, to cover up that inhuman laugher. Bloody fingers scrapped against the side window, leaving trails of red.

“I want out of here!” Alexa grabbed the car door.

“Don’t!” Sofia cried. “Whatever is going on, it’s all outside the car, not inside! Don’t let them in!”

Fortunately, the car door was locked. Alexa grunted, yanked a few times, then finally let go.

A ray of light slipped through the front window. The funicular groaned, then jerked forward, through a gate in a high fence. They broke through the fog.

In the window behind, Sofia could only see trees. Too many trees, spreading from the base of the mountain across where there should be a parking lot. There was no trace of the car that had brought them here. Civilization had been erased by the thickly packed green leaves. Even in her dazed state, Sofia was pretty sure the trees had formally been conifers.

In front, a range of mountains stretched up into the sky. The white snow-covered tops blended with the clouds. Sofia gulped around a dry throat, because these mountains were far taller and more numerous than should be able to exist in this part of the world. They’d been traveling to a lodge, but instead an entire village spread out ahead: wooden buildings with brightly painted shutters and smoke rising from the chimneys. The largest building was rectangular and granite, one slanted edge curving out over a huge lake. There hadn’t even been a lake in the brochure pictures.

If not for the creepy spirits, Sofia might have been able to convince herself she’d misremembered the lodge. And the trees…trees didn’t suddenly change species. Sofia gulped. “Alexa, I don’t think the boys got spirited away. We did.”

The funicular rattled past stone statues of a fox and a wolf guarding the path, the latter with a scar over the right eye. Then it stopped in front of a log building with the front open to the air. Perhaps this was the ending station? The very last fog dissolved into the wind.

Alexa had collapsed back into the seats, whimpering. It felt hard to breath. The air had gotten thinner. Sofia pushed past her friend, headed for the steering wheel, determined to see if there was any way they could make this funicular go back down to where Planet Earth presumably existed.

The funicular steering wheel was gone. All evidence of technology had vanished, leaving only the window. The tracks behind them had melted away along with the fog. Sofia distinctly remembered the funicular being painted red, but now the paint outside was bright blue and the company logo gone.

Oh, god, she should have jumped out the car at the bottom of the mountain and hitchhiked home.

“There’s no tracks.” Sofia turned around to look at Alexa. “How are we supposed to get down the mountain if the tracks are gone?” She did not know why she was asking Alexa, except that there was no one else to ask, and she might be in a state of shock. She had a sudden urge to cry and scream at Alexa that she’d never even wanted to pay double to use the funicular, this was all Alexa’s fault. But that wouldn’t fair. Sofia’s only objection had been about the price. She’d never believed they were in any actual danger of being…spirited away…either.

This was insane.

Mouth gaping open, Alexa pointed. “Behind…you…”

Sofia whirled around. Strange people approached the funicular, all manner of appearances except all were young and beautiful. They wore the same light blue uniform, the shirt folded over and buttoned on the left side and silken flowing pants. Slitted pupils and hints of fangs flashed amongst the crowd. One dark-haired woman had four spider legs on her lower body. A mischievous green grin flashed from the closest tree trunk. Then all the nearest trees sprouted faces, talking amongst themselves.

“Two new humans? How long has it been?”

“At least a century.”

“More like a decade, silly! A decade is the shorter one.”

“I’d started to think that way through the veil had stopped working.”

More people talked in the crowd, in several languages Sofia could not understand.

A tiny blond woman with scales running down her neck opened the door. A short troll darted between her legs to enter first.

The door opened?! Perhaps the locks had vanished when the funicular had transformed. Sofia could not accept this last barrier between her and insanity gone. She backed away.

“Is this the latest human fashion?” The troll stroked Sofia’s denim jeans. “Fascinating fabric.”

Sofia had frozen, unable to even jerk away.

The scaly beauty grabbed Sofia’s backpack off the seat, then darted out of the car.

“Hey!” Sofia screamed. “That’s mine!” The loss felt all the worse at a moment like this, when her entire world had vanished. Now the last of her possessions were gone, too. Tears stung her eyes. She did not dare follow. The funicular had proven no safe haven, clearly the creatures could come inside, yet stepping out into their territory seemed even more daunting.

“Go away!” Alexa wailed as the troll grabbed her backpack.

The troll sneered at her, then leapt through the open door.

Alexa burst into loud, noisy tears.

The sound of crying brought Sofia back to reality. It must be an older sibling instinct. If her little sister had been crying, then that would have meant it was time to annihilate the threat. (Unless Sofia had been the culprit causing the crying, which happened more often than not.)

Sofia put her arm around Alexa and stroked her hair. She whispered, “We have to remain calm. We’ll find a way out of this. People always manage to return in stories.” She hoped she wasn’t giving false hope.

Raising her voice, Sofia called, “We’re lost, can anyone help us?” She adopted the good girl voice that made all the teachers like her. Sweet and gentle, but not annoying, designed to elicit sympathy.

It wasn’t clear if anyone heard her over the chattering, most of which she could not understand.

A deep, slightly accented voice called, “How dare you steal a lady’s belongings?” There was a slap and a squeal from the troll. The door flung open dramatically, bouncing off the wall hard enough to dent. A tall man with antler horns ducked inside. He wore a green doublet looking from a century ago, unlike the others’ uniforms. A golden chain hung around his neck. He offered Alexa’s backpack with a flourish.

“Oh, my! Thank you!” Alexa flushed, staring at his unnaturally smooth and symmetrical face.

“Yes, thank you,” Sofia said. “My backpack was stolen too.” She pointed at the scaly woman still amongst the crowd. “Could you please be so kind as to get it too?”

The horned man bent down and kissed Alexa’s hand, his eyes fixed on her. Alexa giggled.

“The thief is running away now,” Sofia said. “But you could still catch up to her. If you wanted to. You seem to be someone important. I bet she would listen to you if you ordered her to bring my backpack back, you wouldn’t even need to chase her. I would be very grateful if you could help me.”

Sofia might as well have been invisible and silent. Alexa tucked back a lock of hair behind her ear. The horned man offered her a handkerchief for the old tears still visible on her cheeks. The scaly thief vanished up the path, into a building.

At this point, annoyance had planted Sofia’s feet firmly back in reality. Because of course Alexa would have a powerful man riding to her rescue (as usual). Of course Sofia would be on her own. That, more than any other evidence, proved this was not a dream but rather all too depressingly real.

Chapter Text

No one had dared interrupt the horned man’s flirtation, confirming to Sofia that he must have some status. Up until a voice echoing like an earthquake had cried, “Hurry up and bring the humans to my office.”

Then suddenly the disorderly mob turned organized. They lifted Sofia off her feet and carried her out of the funicular car and up the dirt road on their shoulders. Sofia looked behind, but could not see Alexa. (It figured no one had dared grab Alexa. Even if there might be a bigger dog, her protector had shielded her.)

In short order, Sofia had been dumped inside the largest granite building. The air smelled sweet and slightly salty. Everyone else retreated. She looked around at the polished wooden floor and arched ceiling, trying to figure out where she was supposed to go. Then the floor rippled, carrying her forward, up a narrow flight of stairs that moved under her feet like an escalator, and into an office.

The cozy room had wooden rafters, a spiral wool carpet, and blue scale-patterned curtains framing the domed window. The walls were packed full of treasures: beautiful vases, gemstone-encrusted daggers, worn coins labeled in a foreign language, and so much more, all neatly displayed, rows stretching up to the ceiling. A massive walnut desk had a hutch of books with gold letters on the spines. The elderly woman sitting behind the desk had pure white hair curled and pulled into a bun under a ruby-encrusted net. She sat unnaturally straight, unbothered by the weight of the gemstones filling the bodice of her crimson dress. A pair of clear, brilliant blue eyes peered out from under her red hat with a golden spike in front like a crown. Every inch of her radiated queenliness. She appeared human, but there was something about those eyes…the shade of blue unnaturally bright…

“Where’s the other human?” the elderly beauty asked.

“A man with antlers took my friend.”

The elderly beauty clasped her head and muttered annoyed words in another language. “He acts as if this is his territory, that…” Her last syllable ended in a long hiss.

Sofia clasped her hands together and said in a meek voice, “Please, ma’am, I’d like to know where I am.” Belatedly she remembered from reading on how to influence people: always introduce yourself and remember other people’s names to establish a rapport. “What’s your name? I’m Sofia—” Right before she gave her last name, she recalled her little sister telling her that names had power for fae. Oops. Hopefully she hadn’t just sold her soul. Would a first name be half a soul? She clamped down her lips on either a hysterical giggle or a scream.

“I am Lady Lysbeth and significantly too important to explain this to you.”

Sofia took it as a good sign that the answer hadn’t been muhahaha, I own you now that you have given me your true name. “Could you bring someone else to tell me, then? If it’s not too much trouble, my lady.”

Lady Lysbeth continued speaking as if she didn’t hear. “Yet everyone else has been making fools of themselves, as if we don’t get visitors at the bathhouse every day, so I suppose I must. Welcome to the spirit world. Ours is a land of magic, pressed up against the edges of mundane Earth. Occasionally, humans slip through the cracks and end up here.”

“How can I return home?”

“Your oddly shaped train only goes one way. We have no tracks, only an abandoned car left when the hole first punctured between worlds. You would need someone with flying abilities to carry you over the Lost Woods and through the veil. I could do it. What can you pay?”

Sofia gulped. “My backpack was stolen by one of your employees. If you could please help me retrieve it…”

“How unfortunate for you.” Total indifference filled Lady Lysbeth’s voice. “Nothing you would have possessed in your small sack would have been enough to tempt me or any other dragon.”

Sofia bowed her head. From under her hair, she gazed up with the watery eyes that had gotten her out of trouble with teachers before. “I beg you to help me. I have to look after my little sister—”

“Don’t bother begging, it doesn’t give me any money. Can you work?”

Seeing that her pitifulness had no effect, Sofia switched tactics. She stood straight and spoke clearly. “I’m a hard worker. I’ve been working parttime jobs since I turned fourteen. I can cook, and I always kept my home clean.”

Lady Lysbeth nodded. “Good. Traditionally, I have allowed lost humans to work in the bathhouse for two years in order to earn passage home.” A stack of papers materialized in her hand from thin air. It seemed awfully long for an employment agreement. “This is the contract.”

Two years?! Sofia flinched. “What are my other options? I’m willing to walk home.”

“If you walk into the Lost Woods, then you’ll die.” Lady Lysbeth had a total confidence that dared anyone to doubt her word. “The ghosts there are wild and have lost all sanity. They would rip apart any living being except the most powerful of spiritkind. A human wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Sofia recalled the ghostly shapes, the unnatural wailing, and the bloody handprint. Unfortunately, she believed it.

“I have no food for layabouts. If you don’t work, then you don’t eat. If you prefer a quicker death than the lost spirits or starvation, then you could throw yourself off one of the cliffs.” The worst part was that Lady Lysbeth didn’t say it like a threat. She said it as if presenting a serious option, not caring if Sofia committed suicide or not.

Trying not to let her voice tremble, Sofia said, “I would like to read the job contract.”

“Everyone should read contracts before signing, but it’s too long for me to watch you. Step into the side room.” Lady Lysbeth flicked her hands, and the contract floated over to Sofia. “Nothing in the contract is negotiable. Take it or leave it.”

It didn’t seem like Sofia had any choice, but even so, a future lawyer knew better than to sign any contract without reading every last word. She used to irritate her sister by refusing to install any new software without reading the long licensing agreement.

She stepped through the wooden door side door, into a barren room with no windows or furniture. Was this an incentive to read faster? She tested the doorknob. It was unlocked. That made her feel a bit better.

The pages had been bound like a book, the cover blank and pure gold. With trembling hands, Sofia opened it.

For a moment the golden words were in an unfamiliar alphabet. Sofia nearly despaired. Then the characters blurred and shifted into Spanish.

Each new instance of magic made the butterflies in her stomach flutter wildly. She had to take a moment leaning against the wall and hyperventilating. Why Spanish not English? Because it was her native language?

The contract offered a job cleaning baths at the Enchanted Embrace Bathhouse, with the opportunity for promotion if she performed above expectations. A promotion meant working in reception or…cleaning the scales of dragons?! Sofia would rather clean the empty baths, thanks. That seemed less likely to get her eaten.

In addition to room and board, she would receive a pay of one drop of elixir a month. A promotion would mean more drops. The contract didn’t explain why she would want this stuff. If it wouldn’t get her home faster, she didn’t know if she cared.

She could be fired if she failed to show up for work more than three times without a medical excuse. She could be fired for failing to pass a cleaning inspection three times. Three demerits for any offense meant automatic termination. (Was three the magical number?)

The job had unlimited sick leave and nine weeks of vacation a year. Medical care and protection from noble customers were included in her contract. She would work four days a week with three days off. The work day was only five hours long, not counting breaktime. That was actually more generous than most human jobs. It certainly beat lawyer hours.

On the other hand, the contract detailed out corporal punishments for breaking the rules. Stealing from the bathhouse meant either triple in compensation or five lashes with a whip if she couldn’t pay it. Stealing from a fellow employee, double compensation or three lashes. Starting a fight outside of dueling, lashes dependent on damage inflicted. Drawing blood seemed to be the line that should not be crossed. Murder would be punished with execution. Betraying bathhouse trade secrets was punished with execution. Sofia shuddered. She’d be signing up for a job where her employer could legally kill her. What medieval bullshit was that?

She turned to the section on dueling, relieved to learn that if she didn’t accept a challenge to a duel, it couldn’t be forced on her.

There was no option to quit her job after she signed, unless she could buy out her contract or find another employer to do it. Interestingly, it went both ways: she could not be fired from her job unless she broke the rules or failed to perform to standard. Her employer was obligated to protect her from any harm. (How often did invasions by stray ghosts happen, for there to be a two-page section?) The policy preventing sexual harassment was three pages long, and human corporations could learn from it.

The contract didn’t list a penalty for running away—it said that those who did not belong to the bathhouse did not have any protections. That sounded worse, actually. It made it seem as if Lady Lysbeth could eat her for trying to run away if the spirit happened to be hungry. On the other hand, if Sofia managed to flee back to the human realm, she had her doubts if a spirit would be able to find her or care enough to search.

Sofia wondered how enforceable these contracts were. In the stories, magical contracts were totally binding. It seemed foolish to count on that. Names hadn’t turned out to enslave her. However, Sofia didn’t think anyone would put this much effort into writing an eighty-page contract if the contents didn’t matter. Someone as money-focused as Lady Lysbeth would only pay for this much legalese if the words had power.

It would have been better if Sofia could take her time to decide, wander the town, ask questions, and see if she had any other options. But she had two fears. First of all, the offer might be withdrawn. Sofia had the impression that this job offer was the closest Lady Lysbeth came to charity, not that human employees were particularly valuable. The bathhouse owner seemed busy. It was possible that Sofia wouldn’t be able to get in another time slot to see the lady before she starved for weeks. Secondly, the theft of Sofia’s backpack had taught her that she had no protection. The contract stated that it was illegal for employees to murder each other or customers. Implicitly, as long as Sofia was neither an employee nor a guest, any monster could hunt her for sport.

The contract seemed fair, better than an illegal immigrant could expect in most places. Except Sofia didn’t want to be here at all. She was an unwilling immigrant. Two years. How on earth would her naïve little sister survive without her for two years? Trinidad would definitely get herself into legal trouble or bullied! Why, Sofia would count herself lucky if she didn’t return to find the idiot in prison!

The door opened. Sofia dropped the contract and brought up her arms protectively. Her heart hammered, her nerves already on edge. She half-expected someone to try and steal her shirt off her back.

Instead Alexa sailed into the room, wearing a forest-green dress with laces up the front.

“You look pretty,” Sofia said. There was a hint of bitterness lurking behind it, because how had Alexa managed to already obtain new belongings while everything Sofia possessed had been stolen? Life was not fair.

As usual, Alexa didn’t notice it. “Thank you. Lord Faquer couldn’t bear to see me shivering.” She spun around, showing off the long skirt and flowing sleeves.

“The guy with antlers?”

“Yes, he’s noble and sweet.” Alexa giggled. “Would you believe he invited me back to his territory? He wants to court me!”

What about Dick? Sofia supposed a mere rich teenage boy couldn’t compete with a powerful magical being.

“He said you could come with me as my servant.” Alexa grabbed Sofia’s hands. “Don’t make that face! It’s only a pretense so I can take you with me. I’d never treat you like a servant. We’re friends.”

Sofia gulped. “It sounds like you want to stay in this world longer, but I don’t. I want to go home. I have my little sister to look after. I can’t leave her alone for more than a few days. Can you ask your lord if he could find someone to fly me back to our world instead?”

Alexa pouted. “Come on, Sophie, this is a grand magic adventure! Don’t be boring!”

“I’m very scared.” Sofia let the sincere emotion show on her face. “I don’t want to be here. Please, Alexa. Please ask for me.”

“Oh, fine.” Alexa left the room.

Sofia picked up the contract again. Interestingly, the letters changed to the unknown language when she took her eyes off it, then back when she touched it. Reading faster, she reached the end with the line for two signatures.

Alexa returned. “Lord Faquer says that it costs magic to take someone between worlds. He can’t justify the expense if you don’t work for him first. But it will be a short time.”

“Did he say how long? What about a contract?”

“Only greedy people like the bathhouse owner trap people in contracts! This would be a friendly arrangement.”

Sofia swallowed hard. “Alexa, I’m not convinced this is a good idea.” The bathhouse contract made it clear this was a world where the rulers held power over life and death. At least with a contract, she understood the rules. “The moment we step into Lord Faquer’s territory, he has absolute power over us. Without a contract, he doesn’t need to keep his promise to take us back home someday.”

“Contracts are how spirits entrap humans to work for them,” Alexa said. “We’re only getting special treatment because Lord Faquer feels a connection to me.”

“Yeah, that worries me too.” Sofia shook her head. “How old is he? He looks in his twenties, but he could be an immortal with centuries on him. You’re only eighteen. Doesn’t that strike you as sketchy?”

“So? I’m an adult,” Alexa snapped.

“You’ve known this guy for an hour.” Maybe two or three hours, Sofia had been reading the contract slowly and carefully. “It might be the last mistake you ever make to give him total control over you.”

“He’s a good man.”

“You have no idea if he’s a good man or not. Anyone can pretend flattery for a short period of time. Why would a wealthy and powerful lord want a human girl? It could be that your inexperience and powerlessness is part of the appeal for him. If so, then he’s not a good man. Spirit. Whatever.”

“You’re just jealous!”

“Honestly? Yeah, I was jealous of you at first.” Sofia’s sincerity seemed to silence Alexa. “But I’m worried for you too. We’re lost in a world we don’t understand, playing by unfamiliar rules, at the mercy of magical beings. See this contract?” Sofia opened it to show the first page. “It’s a guarantee that we can go home after two years. Even the bathhouse owner can’t sever the contract unless we break the terms. That’s a lot more secure than a man’s whim.”

“Two years?” Alexa recoiled with horror. “You want to be a servant for two years?”

“I definitely don’t. If your lord will offer a better contract, then I’d take it. But I don’t think it would be a good idea to accept a vague verbal deal with no end date.”

“Lord Faquer says that only nasty spirits who enslave people use magical contracts.”

“I disagree. A contract is a sign of respect and honesty.”

Alexa’s eyes widened. “You’d rather be some old woman’s cleaner than my companion? You’re abandoning me?”

“I’m not abandoning you. I think you should stay at the bathhouse with me.” Sofia summoned all her oratory skills. “This contract? It sucks, but at least it lays out rules and understandable terms. Lord Faquer is a gamble. Maybe he’s infatuated with you, or maybe he brings human girls back to his territory to eat them. I don’t like gambles.”

“He would never,” Alexa said with the confidence of someone who had lived an easy life where nothing truly evil had ever happened to her.

Whereas Sofia had stood over her parents’ graves as a child. The driver who’d sped through a red light and killed them had only gotten two years in jail, out in six months on good behavior. She’d checked. “Even in the best-case scenario, he invited you to come with him because he wants something from you. Probably sex. You need to think hard about what you’d be willing to give him in exchange for his protection and fancy dresses.”

“What does that mean?” Alexa’s eyes narrowed.

“Look, I wouldn’t blame you one bit for seducing him to get a way home, we all do what we have to in order to survive, but you need to make sure he’ll hold up his end of the bargain before you—”

“HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A WHORE?” Alexa slapped Sofia across the face.

Sofia reeled backward, more stunned than hurt. “I meant it as a warning, not an insult. You’re not someone special here. Humans seem to be at the bottom of the food chain. Just because he gave you a pretty dress doesn’t mean he sees you as an equal. If you don’t want to sleep with him, you’d be safer staying at the bathhouse with me. The contract has a great policy against sexual harassment.”

“I knew you were jealous of me,” Alexa hissed. “You always have been. But I never thought you’d ruin your life to spite me. Fine, then, I hope you enjoy cleaning baths.”

“I hope your lord turns out to be a good one,” Sofia said as Alexa swept out of the room.

They’d both lied. Alexa’s last words had been full of spite, and Sofia wasn’t quite noble enough to hope for Alexa’s hot lord to send her back home soon with gifts while Sofia herself had to work as a cleaner for two years. If it turned out Alexa only needed to flirt for a few weeks to get passage home, then Sofia would be full of regrets for not tagging along. Yet Sofia couldn’t bring herself to bet her entire future on Alexa’s love life. Several of Alexa’s high school relationships had lasted less than a week.

The choice had been made. There was only one option left.

As Sofia opened the contract to the last page, with the line for signatures, a golden quill pen appeared in her hand.

The additional evidence of magic made her shudder. She froze, quill resting just above the paper.

Was she truly about to sign away two years of her life?

How had a weekend vacation gone horrifically wrong so fast?

In two years, Sofia would forget all her SAT vocabulary. Seven hours of studying every week! All for nothing! Her college plans would be delayed. She would spend her entire life trying to explain the two-year gap in her resume. Employers would not be impressed if she claimed to have been spirited away. How would she become partner of a law firm before age thirty-five now?

“Why didn’t I tell Trinidad that I loved her?” Sofia whispered. Her last words to her little sister had been a grunt. “Who was I trying to keep up appearances for? Trinidad was right! I’m an edgelord!”

Tears brimmed up behind her eyes, threatening to fall on the contract.

Sofia dashed the tears away. Then she gripped the quill pen and signed—with her first name only, just in case. She wasn’t going to die in this place. She would survive and return home to her sister.

From the moment Sofia handed the contract to Lady Lysbeth, her muscles tensed. She half-expected a horrible trap. The lady signed immediately, then returned to filling out the other paperwork on her desk. The contract divided in two. One copy floated to a cabinet and filed itself. The other returned to Sofia’s arms (to her relief, she couldn’t have memorized it all in such a short time). Without looking up, Lady Lysbeth said, “You made the right choice. Your friend is a fool.”

Sofia’s fingers clenched around her copy of the contract. “Does Lord Faquer eat humans?”

“No, he’s just fickle in love. There have been other human girls in the past.”

“Oh.” Sofia hadn’t been noble enough to wish Alexa luck sincerely, but it turned out she wasn’t hateful enough to wish for misfortune either. A sick feeling formed in her stomach. If only she’d been more diplomatic and less angry, could she have persuaded her friend? What happened to the girls who got abandoned?

Before she could work up the nerve to ask, Lady Lysbeth rang a bell.

Seconds later, an employee opened the door, wearing the usual blue uniform. She had round flushed cheeks and a wide smile. “Hi, my name is Giul. Looks like I’m your new roommate and cleaning partner, so I’ll show you around the Enchanted Embrace Bathhouse.”

Immediately, Sofia switched to winning friends mode. “Nice to meet you.” She followed Guil into the hallway. “I like your hair clip.” Compliments made a good impression. In this situation, allies would be critical.

Guil touched the white tips peeking out of her brown curls. “These are horns.”

Sofia hoped she hadn’t screwed it up. “Well, I like them.”

“Thanks! Are you really a human?”

“Yes. I don’t know much, so I’d appreciate it if I could ask a few questions.”

“It’s my job to help you.” Guil led the way to a staircase that moved like an escalator, half up and half down. They stood on the down side. Sofia kept peering at the railing, looking and failing to find any signs of technology.

At least Guil seemed friendly. Sofia tried to smile. It made her sore cheek throb. “Do names have a special magical power? Should I keep mine a secret?”

“That’s a fae thing.” Guil shrugged. “You’re not a fae, so why would true names have any power over you? You’re fine.”

“Good to know.” At least Sofia hadn’t screwed up too badly failing to come up with a pseudo-name. Still…no one had asked for her last name, so she decided not to give it away for free. “I’m Sofia.”

“I’m not a fae either, I could be lying to you.” Guil immediately laughed. “I wouldn’t! Dishonesty is no way to start a roommate relationship. We have too many different methods we can use to torment each other.”

“I already signed a contract with my real name so I can hardly make it worse by telling you,” Sofia said. “What are you if not a fae? If it’s not rude to ask.”

“Not rude at all. I’m a dragon from the River Clan.”

Sofia was unable to conceal her gaping jaw in time.

Guil sighed. “What can I say? Not all dragons are rich. I racked up a debt at the bathhouse, so Lady Lysbeth told me that I either worked it off as an employee or she’d skin me and turn my scales into curtains.”

Recalling the scaly curtains hanging in the lady’s office, Sofia suspected this hadn’t been a bluff. “I’m actually relieved to know that humans aren’t the servant class.”

“Most spirits have to work for a living. There will always be more servants than nobles. You won’t see any human nobles, but that’s because a human taken into a noble family would surely have been turned into a spirit.”

Sofia choked. “Humans can become spirits? Um…by dying?”

Guil laughed. “No, silly, we’re living creatures like you. We are born, we grow older, we have children, and we sometimes die. A strong spirit can put a portion of their magic into a human to turn them into one of us. It takes a lot of magic, so it doesn’t happen often. Spirits only do it for someone very useful, for a debt, or for love.”

Even though the laugh hadn’t been malicious, Sofia hated feeling like a fool. She hated being in a world where she didn’t understand the rules. There were so many questions she wanted to ask. She didn’t even know where to begin. She’d better start with the basics. “Who rules this place?”

“Let’s go inside first.” Guil stopped at an identical brown door amongst a hallway of doors. She pressed her hand to the leaf-shaped mark above the doorknob, then the lock clicked open. “Come put your hand on the mark, too. I’ll teach it to recognize you. This is our room.”

The room was warm and airy, with wooden walls, a huge window, and two beds with bright blue covers. It was bigger than the space Sofia shared with Trinidad at home. There was no heater—waves of heat seemed to come from the walls. One bed had been made, the other covered in beauty supplies and clothing.

Touching the mark sent a brief tingle up Sofia’s arm, but no harm. She sat on the unused bed with a sigh of relief. Before then, she hadn’t realized how tired she felt. It was harder to breathe in the mountains, too.

Guil said, “If you wanted to know who rules the bathhouse and the Village of Cleanliness, that’s Lady Lysbeth. She’s a lone dragon, no clan, and powerful enough not to need one. She works us hard, but she’s fair. The entire spirit realm is made up of hundreds of villages, each run by a different noble clan. There’s a lot of complicated politics. Just try not to offend a noble.”

Sofia nodded. She didn’t need a local to tell her that. Powerful people always shouldn’t be offended. “Do humans appear in this village a lot?”

“You’re the first one here in a decade, but humans are always wandering into our world from places where the barrier weakens. Some spirits live in the human realm, too. Less now, because magic has gotten so much weaker in your world.”

“What’s the social status of humans?”

“It varies a lot by village. Here, you’re just an employee the same as anyone else. In the nastier villages, they’d eat you or enslave you. In the human friendly villages, they’d have treated you to a feast, asked for a few stories, then escorted you back home.”

Sofia choked. “I could have gone home? For free? And I signed a two-year contract?!”

“No, because you didn’t end up in a village where the clan head is a former human or soft on humans. It’s costly to travel between villages, much less between worlds. Even spirits are afraid to go into the Lost Woods without an escort.” Guil looked sorry she’d brought it up. “It truly does take magic to send a human back your realm, especially if you want to make sure you come out in your original spot not on the other side of the world. Most villages aren’t generous enough to do it for free. They might have taken advantage of your ignorance and tricked you into a decades long contract too. You could have done a lot worse than the Village of Cleanliness.”

And apparently Sofia could have done better, too. “It’s just…two years…I don’t suppose time passes differently here so I’ll return to my realm at the same moment I left?”

“Sorry, no, you’re still thinking about fae. You can shorten your contract if you make money.”

Sofia’s head shot up. “I can?”

“Yes, did you read the part about buying out your contract?”

“I did, but I didn’t understand your monetary system. I thought I’d have to be rich.”

“It won’t be easy, but you can save up money to get out early. We all get paid a drop of elixir a month. That’s barely enough to stop us from aging.”

“You can stop aging?” Sofia blurted out.

“Most spirits aren’t immortal, only the most powerful ones, but with elixir, a human or spirit can live until something kills us. That’s why nearly everyone works for a clan—to obtain elixir. But you’re just a kid, you probably don’t want to look so young forever.” Guil’s gaze swept over Sofia.

Sofia shuddered. “I most definitely do not want to look eighteen for eternity. I have acne.”

“Elixir also cures injuries and makes a spirit’s magic stronger. It’s valuable. If you return your salary to Lady Lysbeth every month, then time will be taken off your contract. I’d need a calculator to figure out how much.”

This was the best news she’d had since she’d ended up stuck in this hellhole. She could go home sooner! It felt wonderful to have a goal. She hated being helpless. “You have calculators?”

“I’m not rich enough to have one. Spirits love human goods, they’re valuable. You can sell anything you brought from the human realm, too. Electronics fetch a high price. I can find a trader for you, for a cut.”

Sofia’s shoulders sagged. “All my belongings were stolen when I arrived.”

“Tough.” Guil shook her head. “Before you were an employee, it wasn’t a crime to steal from you.”

Sofia had been afraid of that.

“Did the thief hit you?” Guil gestured at Sofia’s cheek. “You might want to save your first drop of elixir to put on that bruise. We’ve got an infirmary, but they’re stingy with elixir, you’d probably just get a cold pack.”

Sofia touched the light swelling. “The other human did this.” She didn’t know if she still wanted to call Alexa a friend. “Alexa was angry because I didn’t want to become her servant and I told her something she didn’t want to hear.”

“Oh, your friend who caught the eye of a lord from the Clan of Horns!” Guil’s eyes sparkled. “Such a romantic story! She’s very lucky. He might even turn her into a spirit and marry her. The stories are full of nobles who fall in love with humans, then spirit them away.”

The dark part of Sofia’s heart curdled to imagine Alexa swanning back into the bathhouse as a powerful spirit, bragging about how she easily could cross between realms now. Interesting how Lysbeth and Guil had opposite reactions. “Do these stories end well for the ordinary people who marry nobles?”

“It always has a happy ending in stories. In real life, well…” Guil shrugged.

Sofia still didn’t know what kind of ending she hoped Alexa would get. Whether a good or bad ending, she’d be unhappy about it for different reasons. Even if Sofia knew the horned dude might be bad news in the long run, she had a nagging suspicion that something would come along to save Alexa before she had to experience any consequences yet again. The Alexas of the world seemed to live charmed lives. Meanwhile, Sofia would have been stuck cleaning no matter which job she picked. “The servant job wouldn’t have offered a contract.”

Guil shuddered. “Good thing you turned it down, then.”

“I hope I made the right choice.” It angered Sofia to think that maybe she could have sucked up to Alexa for a few days, persuaded her to persuade the lord to take them to a human friendly village, then begged for help. Of course she wouldn’t have known about the human friendly villages and the plan might not have worked. Even so, when she stared down the horror of the next two years…

“It’s not bad here,” Guil said gently. “Employees get free communal baths and a discount on the private ones. Some humans prefer to stay in our world, especially because of the longer lives. You might like it here so much you decide to extend your contract.”

“My parents are dead. I have to look after my little sister.”

“I’m sorry. Family is tough.” Guil did look sorry. “My family wouldn’t pay off my debt because they said I have an addiction to scented baths. We do have lovely scents. I should get you a uniform and show you the cleaning routine.” She stood up.

“Before we go, is there anything else important I should know about this world?” Sofia asked as she shoved her copy of the contract under the mattress.

Guil thought for a moment. “Spirits value promises very highly. Only the fancy contracts, like Lady Lysbeth’s employment contract, are magically binding. But breaking a deal with anyone can turn you into an outcast. The worst insult is ‘oath-breaker.’ Loopholes are more complicated—some clans call that treachery and others respect cleverness. It’s also important that you don’t appear weak, especially because you’re a human. I’d say being weak is even worse than being untrustworthy. At least people will respect a villain.”

The bathhouse was enormous, with giant open-air communal baths, dark salt-scented boiling pits, a sauna, cold pools, private tower rooms, and a giant shared bath in the middle wrapped around a huge steel chimney. The water bubbled. Sofia would have been terrified to step inside for fear the temperature might kill a human.

Guil led Sofia to a round indoor pool surrounded by brick walls. The pool had already been drained. “One of our spider guests bathed here. They have poison glands, so this bath needs to be carefully cleaned. Put on these.” She handed Sofia a pair of plastic gloves.

How odd, to see plastic in the spirit world. (Though apparently they had toilets with plumbing in the spirit world too—Guil had taken her on the way over.) Even stranger, these gloves sparkled with an invisible light. Sofia’s new blue uniform (she got two a year based on her contract) covered most of her skin. The sneakers were surprisingly modern. She pulled on the gloves. “Do I need a mask?”

“You’ll be fine as long as you don’t take your gloves off, they have magical protection. The gloves will block any toxin—except the Clan of Poison, of course.” Guil ducked behind a brick pillar. “I’m immune if I shift forms.” Her voice turned slightly more high-pitched voice. “It feels good to stretch my wings.”

A little dragon as long as Sofia’s forearm with teal scales, a pearly underbelly, and two stubby white horns floated out from behind the pillar. Trembling, Sofia pointed. “Guil?”

“Not all dragons can be city terrorizers,” Guil said.

“I might be about to faint from terror.” It was all too much. Sofia had gone from a world of SAT studying to her roommate turning into a lizard with wings. None of this ought to be real. If it had been real, it ought to have happened to a girl who read fantasy stories and wanted adventures.

“You’re just saying that to flatter me.” Guil nuzzled Sofia. Her scales felt warm. “Time to get to work. I’ll scrub the ceiling. We’ve gotta make sure we get the cleaning fluid in every last corner, even if it doesn’t seem likely the poison would fly up that high, or someone might get hurt. You mop the floors. Then we’ll fill the entire bath. It’s important to get the fluid on every surface, then the magic will take care of the rest.”

Guil dipped her scrub brush into a bucket of pure white liquid, then flew up the ceiling. As soon as her roommate started cleaning, Sofia understood what she meant about magic. The strange liquid seemed to melt into the ceiling, vanishing and leaving it sparkling.

The mop next to the bucket was pure black, the head fastened on with a dark purple ribbon. Two sapphires gleaming from above the ribbon like eyes.

Sofia grabbed the ebony handle. As soon as she tried to dip it in the liquid, it jolted from her hand and scampered against the wall.

“Um, Guil?” Sofia hated how her voice shook. “The mop just moved.”

In a voice muffled around the brush, Guil called, “We confiscated that mop for unpaid fees. It’s a bit odd. Tradition says the newest employee has to use it. That used to be me, so I’m glad you’re here! There will probably be another newbie in a month or two. In the meantime, hold on tight.”

Sofia reached again. The mop hissed and thrashed its handle like an angry rattlesnake’s tail. Then it leapt out the door.

“Sorry, I forgot to tell you to always close the door or the mop will try to escape,” Guil said.

There had been a clause in the contract to extend Sofia’s service if she lost or damaged bathhouse equipment. “Mierda.” Sofia ran after the mop.

The soft bristles swished down the hallway. The damn thing moved surprisingly fast for cleaning equipment. Sofia skidded as she rounded a corner.

A man with cat ears opened the front door. The mop slid under his arm, into the sunlight.

How was she supposed to find the mop if it reached the trees?! Moaning, Sofia ran after.

It hurt her lungs to run when the mountain air was so thin. Her breath came out in white puffs. The cold didn’t help. It was difficult to tell the time of year. The bushes were blooming, but this high up the mountain, there was snow all year round.

The outside of the bathhouse was surrounded by bellflowers and alpine roses. Granite pillars supported the porch, leading to a giant rectangular outdoor bath sparkling blue under the sun. This bath was as long as a football field.

A silver dragon filled the entire space with long coils, the water sloshing. This dragon was more serpentine than Guil, with no legs. The giant batlike wings and spiky ridges still gave off an impression more European than Asian. The curling horns were five times Sofia’s height.

A dozen bathhouse employees surrounded the giant dragon, wielding surprisingly modern power hoses. The team at the tail had gotten out giant feather brushes the size of trees. Someone transformed into a giant cat held the brush between sharp teeth.

As the soft feathers polished the moonlight scales, the giant dragon clacked teeth like a happy budgie. The sound was loud enough to make Sofia stumble.

“Watch it!” A man carrying a bucket of soap dodged out of her way. “Lady Lysbeth’s bath must be our top quality.”

Then the giant dragon was Lady Lysbeth? Sofia mumbled an apology and made a mental note to never piss her boss off.

Spotting the wiggle of a ribbon, Sofia ran faster. The mop scampered up a tree.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Sofia grabbed a branch and climbed up. “I was tree-climbing champion four summers in a row.” She left out that her only opponent in this unofficial contest had been her little sister, and she’d quit in fury after she’d lost the last year.

The tree howled, “Get your feet off me!” A snarling face appeared in the trunk above.

“I’m sorry!” Sofia clung on as the branches shook. “I didn’t realize you were a person! Please forgive me. If you tolerate me a little longer, then I’ll get rid of that pesky mop for you.”

The mop poked the tree in the eye. She howled in response.

Sofia stayed still as the branches and mop tussled. It felt safer to be ignored in the wood-on-wood violence. From this vantage point, she could see most of the trees around them had hints of closed eyes. These trees were all green and healthy—up until the fence. The gate Sofia had entered through was now closed. Blackened ivy reached over the sharp tips of the fence like a threat.

A blonde with scales walked past the tree, pressing random numbers as she tried to open a phone—Sofia’s phone—the backpack thief!

Fear warred with rage inside Sofia. All of her pictures were in her phone, including information on her home and her little sister. She could not quite articulate why it terrified her so much, except that it felt as if this strange world should never intrude on her real life, or she would lose everything.

“Hey, that’s my phone!” Sofia screamed. “Don’t you dare look inside!”

The scaly woman looked up. Her gaze flashed red.

Sofia froze, every muscle in her body locking up. The tree froze, too.

As the branches went slack, Sofia and the mop tumbled down. The mop tried and failed to grip branches, instead getting tangled up with Sofia. Still frozen, Sofia landed on the mop with a sharp crack.

“That’s an extra year on your contract for destruction of bathhouse property.” As Lady Lysbeth spoke, a new page appeared on the contract with glowing golden letters.

Sofia stuttered. Her instincts said that she didn’t dare anger the dictator ruling this strange place. But on her very first day, her sentence had increased a whole year? It was all too much to bear. “The mop wasn’t even useful, surely I wouldn’t need an entire year to work it off.”

“I’m aware, but you’ve been even more useless.” Lady Lysbeth snorted, smoke drifting from her nostrils. “Enchanted cleaning equipment is expensive.”

“It wasn’t my fault. The person who stole my backpack did something to me, made my body freeze up so I fell.” Sofia’s voice broke, betraying how close she felt to tears.

“She said that you threatened her, so she used her paralyzing gaze involuntarily.” Lady Lysbeth shrugged. “I don’t get involved in minor disputes amongst the staff. There was no blood, so it’s not my business. Handle it amongst yourselves.”

Sofia’s side felt bruised, but she’d landed on a bush and avoided worse damage. She’d have rather broken a leg than gotten her contract extended. There did not seem to be any room for negotiation in the dragon’s cold voice. Head lowered, she slunk out.

Guil took Sofia to the infirmary to put a salve on her bruises. Medical care was part of her contract, and she’d been injured in the line of duty. There was no doctor—instead, the equipment moved on its own. The salve was very sticky but it gave her almost instant relief. A medicinal tea helped her breathe better, too, and partly eased her altitude headache.

The cafeteria was big enough to hold a dragon, though everyone showed up in human form. In addition to plumbing, this place had electricity—fake flames flickered on the wall torches and the giant stone fireplace. The long line for food wrapped around the wall. Sofia could not stop staring at the diners, watching for the hint of tail or animal ears. Were the elegant green women with leaves for hair perhaps dryads? She hadn’t even realized they could leave their trees. The chatter seemed to be in multiple languages. She recognized some French and German, but also a high, sibilant sound the human mouth probably couldn’t make.

The meal options included living flies, a dirt and nutrient smoothie, and raw meat. Sofia picked the most human-friendly option, fried potatoes in a pancake-like shape with cheese on top. She turned down the offer of strips of bacon because she couldn’t be sure what kind of meat it might be.

At first Sofia didn’t notice the scaly thief, until the other woman waved her own phone in her face and hissed. Most of it had no resemblance to English, except for the word “Sssshuman” spat out like an insult.

Even with the language barrier, Sofia understood. “I’m not giving you the code to my phone that you stole from me!”

The scaly thief shoulder-checked Sofia. She stumbled into the wall, her food smearing down her uniform.

In the public bathrooms, Sofia cleaned herself off the best she could. The restrooms looked similar to human ones if fancier, with marble sinks and black silk curtains around the stalls. Behind a curtain, Sofia cried silently with a hand over her mouth, so that none of the people coming in and out would hear. She washed off her face and rubbed her eyes to hide the puffiness.

Back in their room, Guil noticed anyway. In a worried way, the dragon said, “She’s coming at you like that because she thinks you’re weak. You have to show her that you’re not, or it will get worse for you.”

Sofia nodded, her throat too sore to speak. Before the last sunlight faded away, she pulled out her contract and reread it, specifically the sections on employee conflict.

She’d taken the wrong tactic from the beginning. This place didn’t respect good girls who followed the rules. It only respected strength.

Adapt and survive. Sofia had adapted to a new country. She had adapted to high school. If this new world rewarded strength, then she had plenty of it. And rage? She had a decade of pent-up rage.

While Guil snored in her bed, Sofia slipped out of their room.

In the supply closet, the broken mop had fallen on its side. It wriggled like a worm.

“Let me help you.” Sofia knelt down and tied a strip of cloth around the handle, holding the two pieces together. She’d sacrificed her stained uniform since she had a spare. “I’m sorry for falling on you. Though really, I think it was more the backpack thief’s fault for paralyzing me.”

The mop dipped its handle in a nod of agreement.

“We have a mutual enemy, then. I could repair your handle much better with my masking tape, but she stole my backpack. If you help me get it back, then I’ll patch you up and release you outside. I’ve already paid the price for you, so no one will care if I free you.”

The mop stood straighter. The ribbon vibrated.

“I don’t suppose you have the magic to take me back to the human realm?” It was a dim hope. She didn’t know if she’d even want to risk setting foot in that terrifying forest or the monsters following her home because of the broken contract.

The mop moved its handle in a circle as if shaking its head. Then it made an elaborate gesture with its ribbon that she could not understand.

“I had to ask. How do you feel about revenge?”

Over the course of her first day, Sofia had observed many things. Such as the room where the backpack thief went to sleep. That the doors locked but a lot of people left their windows open for fresh air as they slept. And that scaly’s powers didn’t work on the mop, probably because it didn’t have eyes.

Standing in the hallway, Sofia listened at a safe distance from the door.

From inside came a sleepy hiss, then the sounds of furious violence.

The door splintered, and Sofia’s backpack went flying out. She picked it up and dusted it off. Her phone had been tucked back into the front pouch. The masking tape was smooshed under some snacks. She slung her pack over her shoulders. It was not leaving her sight until she found a way to sell it.

The scaly thief staggered out, shoved by a mop handle. She had a black eye and blood dripping from her hair.

Sofia stuck out her foot to trip. “Whoops!” The scaly thief fell to the ground. “You startled me, I dropped this.” The ripped remains of her stained shirt fell down over the thief’s eyes, blocking her power. “You look injured, do you want help to reach the infirmary?”

“Sssshuman!” The word contained a furious hatred as the scaly thief reached for the makeshift blindfold.

Sofia grabbed her by the hair to stop her from removing the cloth over her head. “Careful, you’re shifting the bandage I nicely gave you. I’m not Sssshuman or Sophie. The name is Sofia.”

She lifted the thief up in what could have been interpreted as help to stand. It also conveniently lifted the thief into the right place to be cracked over the head by the mop one more time. The thief moaned, then went limp.

“We got off on the wrong foot—handle?—but you’re my new favorite cleaning equipment.” Sofia grinned as she tied tape around the mop, using plenty. “You seem to have somewhere you want to go. I hope you find your way safely.”

The mop gave Sofia a friendly fist bump, then hopped out the window, heading for the forest. Perhaps the ghosts there would welcome another angry spirit. The place was supposed to be dangerous to living beings but mops might not count. She hoped the mop would find whatever happiness might be for animated cleaning equipment—after all, she’d paid with a year of her life for its freedom.

Doors were opening down the hallway. Sofia grinned for her audience, teeth bared. Then she grabbed the scaly thief by her covered hair and dragged her toward the infirmary, leaving a trail of blood. Perhaps it was a bit dramatic, but who cared? Everyone watching had a lesson to learn—that no one messed with Sofia Aro Heim.

Just as they reached the infirmary, Lady Lysbeth finally arrived, wearing a long white sleeping gown. “What is this commotion about?”

“Mop-related violence, milady. A common hazard in cleaning business,” Sofia said. “Being a good citizen, I’m taking the victim to the infirmary.”

Lady Lysbeth arched an eyebrow. “I see you have your backpack back.”

“Yes, I found it in the hallway,” Sofia said calmly. “Since it’s my property to begin with, I could hardly be accused of stealing it after picking it up from a public place. I can honestly say I did not shed a drop of the thief’s blood. I even took her to the infirmary to show that there are no hard feelings. Do you think I might be eligible for an employee of the month award? The contract mentioned rewards for helping fellow employees on page twenty, line one.”

Lady Lysbeth rumbled in the back of her throat. For a moment, Sofia thought she’d misplayed her hand. Then as the rumbling grew louder, Sofia realized the dragon was laughing.

“Everyone, get back to sleep. I expect you all to be alert at work tomorrow.” Without another word, Lady Lysbeth turned and walked away.

Sofia had gotten away with it.

She did not let a trace of her relief show on her face. She tossed the thief into the infirmary, then walked back to her room with her head held high.

There would be more obstacles in the future. There would be no space for weakness in her long, hard battle ahead. She would crush anything that got between her and going home to her sister.

Chapter Text

ONE YEAR LATER:

Sitting behind the receptionist desk, Sofia said, “Welcome to the Enchanted Embrace Bathhouse. How may I help you?” Her eyes widened. “Lord Reed, you’re back early from the Lost Woods. Was it a successful trip?”

Lord Reed smoothed back the cravat of his embroidered coat. “We burned back an acre, which is the best we could hope for. The ghosts have gotten fiercer.”

It had surprised her that people in the spirit world often dressed in modern clothing. Her receptionist uniform was a light blue shirt with a black vest and pencil skirt. It had been handmade instead of in a factory, tailored to her measurements and much more long-lasting. Apparently a good portion of the spirit world had a fascination with human fashion, and imitating it was a status symbol. Yet it was also common to see spirits wearing old-fashioned clothing like Lord Reed. The older they were, the less they cared about showing off and the less they liked change.

Although Lord Reed dressed from 18^th century Europe, he appeared no older than thirty with his shoulder-length red hair and full beard. The first time they’d met, he’d asked her who had won the Great War and been appalled to learn there had been two world wars in the human realm.

“Did you stop the incursion into the Village of Sand?” Sofia asked. At the same time, she reached under her desk, where she had a string of colored cords. She yanked the dark blue cord. This would reverberate to an identical set of cords with the welcome crew in another building, telling them to prepare the largest dragon bath. While they worked, it was Sofia’s job to make small talk with the customers.

“Yes, the trees were setting down roots deep underground. We needed an earth dragon to get them out and my fire to make sure nothing was left. I obtained a new chalice for my hoard as a reward, but unfortunately it’s cursed.”

“Oh?” She grinned. “You can’t tease me like that, tell me.”

Old people had always liked Sofia, and apparently that included old dragons. She knew how to talk to them. Better, she knew how to listen as if she found their stories fascinating. They cooed over her, calling her such a polite and well-spoken girl, if only their grandchildren could be more like her.

It helped that as a human, Sofia did find dragon stories far more interesting than other dragons would. Trinidad would have loved to hear all of these stories even more. Sofia certainly wouldn’t have wished her adventure on her sister instead, but she was saving up the stories. If anyone back home might believe Sofia about being spirited away, it would surely be Trinidad, who ate up adventures where the main character ended up in another world.

Just as Lord Reed concluded, “There are plenty of magical chalices in the world, but rarely any so aggressively anti-magic, and I think that will be a different kind of useful,” the door opened.

Chiyo stepped in, hands folded. “Please follow me, milord.”

Although Sofia wasn’t supposed to get too far from her desk, she followed them to the doorway. She liked to watch this part, and she was saving dragon stories for her sister.

At the edge of the outside tub, the staff in blue uniforms held up a curtain. Lord Reed’s shadow behind the cloth seemed to explode. Then a massive golden dragon dove into the pool, the water levels rising and sloshing over the lip. Lord Reed was a European dragon with spiky metallic scales and wings wide enough to cast a shadow over the building.

More employees came out, carrying hoses and giant brushes. Among dragons, it was considered slovenly not to polish their scales at least once a month. Today’s dragon had a lot of scales. The buckets of polish came up to Sofia’s chest.

The Enchanted Embrace Bathhouse served all kinds of customers, in fact Sofia had checked in a family of cat spirits just this morning. Their wealthiest customers were the very old dragons who came here because no other bathhouse had large enough pools to fit them.

Lord Reed turned out to be the last customer of the day. To close up, she pressed her palm against the water drop mark on her desk. An impenetrable shield shimmered over the desk, in particular guarding the jar of elixir underneath.

The spirit world didn’t have one currency, trading in favors and treasure. The most important people like Lord Reed had a lifetime subscription. Most people paid in elixir per visit. The shimmering golden liquid could strengthen magic and extend life, what could be more valuable?

The sun was just starting to sink when Sofia headed upstairs. She no longer felt winded when she climbed stairs—she’d adjusted to the altitude. It amazed her a little how familiar this place had become. Once she would have been shocked to see a waist-tall wolf running down the hallway; these days she just stepped aside because she knew the bathhouse accountant was always running late for dinner, then transforming to his other form to get there faster.

Sofia knocked on the office door. “I brought the contract you asked me to look over, milady.”

“Thank you,” Lady Lysbeth called. The door opened without either of them touching it.

Sofia set the polish supply contract on the desk. “I found an error on page seven, it stated the deliveries would be only for five years. Everywhere else in the contract says ten years.” She did not know why the bathhouse owner had asked her to proofread a contract, but she’d been paid extra, and she seized every opportunity to make a little more in order to shorten her tenure here.

“Excellent. Your eye for detail in contracts is amazing, I would suspect you had fae blood if I hadn’t seen you touch cold iron.” Lady Lysbeth smiled toothily. “I confess I put that mistake in there deliberately, as a test. Sofia, dear, I would like to offer you a promotion to work as my secretary.” With a wave of her hand, another contract floated off the shelf. “I know you’ll want to read all the details, but I will give you the highlights. Pay will be seven drops of elixir a month. The contract is for ten years, and taking into account the year you’ve already provided, at the end I would transform you into a spirit.”

Sofia’s mouth felt dry. The extreme honor blew her away. It took a huge amount of magic to turn a human into a spirit, and an ancient spirit like Lady Lysbeth would use even more because those she transformed would be more powerful. Likely the dragon would hibernate for several months afterward. A noble spirit would not make such an offer merely as an employee benefit, only from sincere affection. “I’m blown away. This is an amazing offer, but…I’ll be leaving the spirit world in about a month.”

Sofia had turned back in every bit of her elixir to her employer. She’d worked hard to be promoted to receptionist for a better salary. She’d sold the contents of her backpack. As a side job, she’d told stories about the human world for elixir. In the end, she’d worked off her penalty for breaking the mop and nearly a year of her original two-year contract, too. Dependent on a successful trade this evening, she calculated a month left before she could return home.

“I’m aware, Guil and Chiyo came around collecting for your farewell party.” Lady Lysbeth pushed the contract forward. “This is your bribe to stay.”

Anyone in the bathhouse would have jumped on the contract. Secretary was a more prestigious position in the spirit world than the human world, as the person with direct access to the village lord or lady. Sofia enjoyed doing this type of work, analyzing contracts and striking deals. She’d be good at it, too.

The spirit world had proven more fun than Sofia would ever have guessed on her nightmarish first day. This place was so beautiful that some days she woke up in the morning and gazed out her window at the mountains in awe. She had friends here. She felt valued at work. Everyday magic fascinated and dazzled her. She missed Earth’s internet, TV shows, and fast food. But she would also miss this place when she left.

In the end, the human realm had one very important existence that the spirit realm did not: Trinidad. Sofia needed to return home for the sake of her little sister, who would always wonder what had happened to her otherwise.

Straightening her back, Sofia met the lady’s eyes. “I’m honored beyond what words can say, but I can’t accept. My goal has always been to return home.”

Fortunately, Lady Lysbeth did not seem upset. “Then I will send you off with a farewell gift worthy of your service. Walk with me.”

The lady opened the door behind her desk, the one enchanted to lead to different parts of the bathhouse. This time, it revealed a proper dragon’s hoard: hundreds of shelves in neat rows displaying treasures from around the world on stands. The hoard contained all manner of items, a rusted silver spoon displayed with the same gravity as a long spear covered in gemstones, the tip burning an unnaturally deadly shade of black. As expected of Lysbeth, each item had been catalogued with a descriptive plaque. Only the bed of coins in the center had been allowed to sprawl messily across the floor.

Sofia could barely even inhale. There was a power in this place, taking her breath away even more than the altitude. Some of the objects murmured, sang, or clacked like insects.

Lady Lysbeth said, “On your last day, I will allow you to pick out a single coin. Only those on the floor, not those on display. I will enchant the coin with a blessing for you: good luck, or health, or whatever you desire. Think about what you will want over the next month.”

It could barely be believed. Sofia felt almost as shocked as the first time she’d ended up in the spirit world. Which was more impossible: a dragon parting with an item in her hoard or Lady Lysbeth giving literally anything away for free? Either way, there could be no higher gesture of esteem. “I don’t know what to say.”

“You can say thank you, we’re not fae to take that as an insult.” Lady Lysbeth chuckled. “This gift has a selfish purpose. As long as you carry a coin from my hoard, if you venture near a place where the veil between worlds is weak, then it will guide you back to the spirit world—and guarantee that you end up in my village. As you grow older and the human world weighs on you, you might long to return. My bathhouse will always have a job for you, my dear. In all my long years, I’ve never before met a human who struck me as so much like a spirit. You belong here.”

Lady Lysbeth closed the door, and Sofia could exhale. “Thank you,” she said belatedly. Even though this gift in some ways felt like a curse. She knew herself too well to think she could ever throw it away, so as long as she remained in the human world, she would always have the temptation.

“This is so exciting! Your first time visiting another village!” Guil danced around their old bedroom. Sofia had moved to an individual room after her promotion, but this place had a certain nostalgia for her. Although not enough for her to want to return to having a roommate. Guil snored.

Chiyo sat on what had once been Sofia’s bed, before Chiyo had started working at the bathhouse and taken over the room. She’d replaced Scaly, who hadn’t been able to hack the hard work and had made a few more unsuccessful theft attempts. A small smile on her lips, Chiyo said, “We’ve gotta get you something better to wear than your receptionist uniform.”

Sofia shrugged. “The uniform will be fine.” In her year at the bathhouse, she’d never once purchased clothing or any other unnecessaries. Every last bit of her salary had been given up to shorten her contract.

“I’ll lend you one of my dresses,” Guil said. In contrast, she was always blowing her salary on baths and new clothing. She’d taken out two loans that had extended her contract. Sofia worried a little, but it wasn’t her place to tell her friend what to do.

“You’re three heads taller, your clothing won’t fit.” Chiyo assessed Sofia. “And I’m a head shorter.”

“I have an idea.” Guil snorted smoke in her excitement. “I have a long shirt that I think we can turn into a dress on Sofia, if you contribute one of your kimono belts and pair of leggings.”

That was how Sofia found herself striding down the path, wearing a sparkly blue dress (shirt) and Chiyo’s butterfly pin in her hair. As the sun set, red lanterns around the gravel paths floated up into the air.

The dryads’ trees chattered amongst themselves. There was a gap in trees before the fence blocking off the twisted dead trees in the Lost Woods. The pathway ended in a door that hovered in the air. A centaur collected three drops of elixir from each person who went through the disembodied doorway.

Travel to another village was expensive, although not as expensive as travel to the human realm. To her sorrow, Sofia had learned there was no cheaper way to get home besides her work contract. This was the very first time Sofia had splurged on a trip. Partly because she wanted one last treat before she left the spirit world, and partly because she had a deal to sell her phone.

Sofia’s hand found her phone inside her purse, a treasure she rarely let out of her sight. The spirit world had no outlets, but she’d paid several people who owned batteries to recharge it periodically. She’d justified keeping her phone despite it being her most high-value possession from the human world because the information inside could be sold as stories and used to entertain customers. In reality, the phone had been her lifeline. Some days, it felt as if high school had all been a dream and only the bathhouse was real. The pictures of her younger sister made her remember that she had another life outside the bathhouse and a reason to return.

For lack of anything better to do, Sofia had watched every last episode of the anime that Trinidad had downloaded to her phone. It had actually been incredibly suspenseful, funny, and good. Of course season one had ended on a cliffhanger. She needed to return to Earth no matter what to find out what happened next. She was even prepared to lower herself to admit to her sister that she’d liked it, to have someone to talk to about the story.

This morning, Sofia had deleted every picture and every last bit of personal data. She had backups of her photos in the human world, and she could buy a new phone. The phone would be the last item she would sell to get home.

The centaur collected drops from Sofia and Chiyo. Guil paid with credit instead, and Sofia restrained a wince.

The three friends stepped through the door. Chiyo called, “Puppet Village.” And they came out in the destination they had selected. This place had beautiful Asian-style hip-and-gable roofs and curved stone bridges. On a lamp post, they passed an advertisement for a dragon bathhouse staffed by beautiful, scantily clad young people holding soapy sponges. Sofia snorted. Her professional pride looked down on inefficient cleaning. Now that she was part of the business, she knew that younger and smaller dragons frequented such cheap bathhouses. But older dragons all came to the Enchanted Embrace Bathhouse, where the muscular staff had power hoses to wash entire acres of dragon.

Chiyo and Guil guided Sofia through a beautifully painted sliding door and into a tavern. They claimed a round elm table with a vase of peonies in the middle. A woman with spider legs sat in the corner, strumming her instrument with her many feet. The soft notes did not interfere with the conversation.

“I have the most stunning news.” Sofia took a deep breath. “Lady Lysbeth offered to promote me to her secretary and transform me in a decade.”

“Whoa!” Guil squealed. “You have a gift for charming crochety old dragons, Sofia. It ought to be a magic power.” She leaned over to Chiyo and loud-whispered, “My mom came to visit me once, then afterward she kept asking me if I found Sofia attractive and if I’d ever court her.”

“It’s quite an honor.” Chiyo leaned forward. “Are you tempted at all?”

“I was,” Sofia admitted. “But I have family to look after.”

Chiyo nodded. “Family is important.” She’d once told them that she’d come to work at the bathhouse because her mother had fallen ill and required expensive treatment. “You’d forget yours if you turned into a spirit.”

“I would?” Sofia frowned. Lady Lysbeth hadn’t mentioned that part. “I heard some stories, but I thought that only happened when spirits bewitch people they kidnapped.”

Chiyo said, “All humans end up with hazy memories after the transformation, and a sense of disconnect from their former lives. Although it’s true that you can lose more if the spirit transforming you does it on-purpose.”

“What kind of spirit do you think you’d become?” Guil asked.

Once again confronted with the limits of her knowledge, Sofia blinked. “If a dragon transformed me, wouldn’t I turn into a dragon?”

Guil shook her head. “No one knows what kind of spirit a human will transform into. It seems to be based on your nature.”

“Dragons are only the best in their own minds,” Chiyo said. “Sure, there are ancient behemoths, but there are also small, weak dragons like Guil.”

“Hey!” Guil cried.

“An ancient nine-tailed fox would be the equal to even Lady Lysbeth in a fight. For spirits, power is more about age and stockpile of magic than the type. I’d say there are more dragons running villages, because they’ve been around longer, but the strongest is the Poison Clan regardless of spirit type.” Chiyo propped her chin in her hand and grinned at Sofia. “I bet you’d be a fox spirit like me. You have the cunning and charm.”

“But she’s confident, ambitious, and loves money like a dragon,” Guil argued. Both friends looked at her. “Not all dragons are spendthrifts like me!”

“She’s collecting money in order to return home,” Chiyo said. “That’s not the same as a hoard at all. Foxes have very strong family values, dragons tend to be loners.”

“Which would you rather be, a fox or a dragon spirit?” Guil turned toward Sofia.

Sofia gulped under two intense stares and brought out her best diplomacy. “I don’t see how I could choose between two such amazing options, both would be too much for a lowly human like me.”

Chiyo raised a hand. “I’ll let you cuddle me in fox form if you pick fox.”

“Fox,” Sofia said immediately.

Chiyo blurred into a beautiful red fox with a white snout, two tails waving behind her. In her two-tailed state, she was only slightly larger than a regular fox. Dragons needed to remove their clothing to transform, but foxes did not, possibly because of their slightly different types of magic.

Sofia held out her arms, and Chiyo leapt into her lap. Burying her face into the soft fur, Sofia chanted, “Foxes are the best, foxes are love, foxes are life.”

Chiyo made a murr sound almost like a purr.

Letting her forehead fall to the table, Guil moaned, “No fair! If it was winter, she’d pick me for my heating abilities.”

The waiter came to take their orders, and Chiyo turned back to human form. Their server was meal tray on wheels with a small silver mouth on the handle. The Puppet Village was known for being inhabited primarily by sapient, animated objects. This waiter only spoke German, so Guil translated for both of them.

There was no universal language in the spirit world. Sofia had been fortunate that English was the most common in the bathhouse village, though not everyone was fluent. There were also several languages unique to spirits. She’d learned a few phrases in French and German, enough to welcome customers. Her human throat struggled with snake, dragon, or spider, though she’d adopted a few swears.

To try something new on her first and possibly last night in another village, Sofia ordered leprechaun soup. Spirits didn’t have a legal drinking age, so she considered the alcohol, but she didn’t know if spirit world drinks would be weaker or stronger. She thought it wiser to order a hot chocolate. Her friends were excited to see modern human food on the menu and both ordered hamburgers.

The soup mostly tasted like potato, but Sofia tried to convince herself that she felt a magical tingle on her tongue.

Offering her burger, Guil said, “Take a bite and tell me if this is authentic human food.”

Sofia took a nibble. “That’s high-quality beef, practically a steak. It’s too good for human fast food.” Seeing a bit of disappointment on her friend’s face, she added, “The ketchup and mustard is so real, it wouldn’t surprise me if they import from the human realm. Burgers vary in quality, I’m just used to poor ones from the high school cafeteria.”

“Tell us another horror story about high school,” Guil begged.

Chiyo’s fox ears popped out to indicate her interest. “Yeah, tell us about the dreaded final exams.”

Sofia grinned. “I can do even better. Have I ever told you about standardized testing?”

“Do tell,” a new voice called. A dryad turned to look at their table, her companion nodding too. The rest of the room took this as a cue to crowd around.

Sofia wasn’t surprised—she’d noticed examining gazes from the moment she’d stepped into the tavern, trying to assess her nature. Humans were rare enough in the spirit world to be an exciting novelty. Raising her voice, Sofia called, “Gentle spirits, have you ever heard the tale of human schooling? From age five to eighteen, human children are mandated to attend schooling away from home, six to seven hours a day.”

A man with goat horns gasped. “What could anyone have to learn that takes so long?”

The dryad placed a hand on her forehead. “That’s inhumane, keeping children away from trees and sunlight for such long periods of time. Are these children being punished for a crime?”

Spirits had a much shorter work day and more free time, perhaps a throwback to aspects of their society being pre-industrialized. “No, all children must attend school or their parents will be punished.” She lowered her pitch, causing everyone to lean forward. “In my part of the world, at the end of the twelfth grade comes a dreaded test…the SATs.”

Everyone inhaled, caught up in the moment despite having no idea what she was talking about.

“Two hours and fourteen minutes long. Locked up in a windowless room with no contact with the outside world, no food, no water. Relentlessly drilled on math and vocabulary, punished with point deductions for wrong answers. The most brutal exam of all brutal exams in a human student’s life.”

The spirits were wide-eyed and trembling. Someone called, “Are the children freed from imprisonment at the end of this test?”

Sofia shook her head. “Those who score the best go on to four more years of schooling at the minimum. As for those at the bottom…well…I don’t want to cause anyone to faint…”

The two dryads cried out and clung to each other in fear.

“This is the place you want to go back to?” Guil whispered. “It sounds dreadful.”

Out of the side of her mouth, Sofia said, “I might have exaggerated the end.” The fascinated attention of the crowd had put a devilish spirit in her, making her want to tell them about the horrors of law school next.

If Trinidad were here, she would have been able to tell the story even better. She’d always had a knack for dramatic voices. She would have known even more interesting and fantastical stories from her books and manga.

Tears suddenly stung Sofia’s eyes. If only she could get back home, she would pay more attention to her little sister’s stories. She would have agreed to watch anime together every night. Trinidad had always been reaching out, trying to share her interests and wanting to hang out, while Sofia had brushed her off. And for what? Studying? In a beautiful and dangerous universe where your future could change in a moment, what did the SATs matter compared to family? Only now, when Sofia desperately missed her sister, did she wish they’d spent more time together. When Sofia returned to her world, she would smother Trinidad with love and attention.

“Are you okay?” Chiyo put a hand on Sofia’s shoulder.

Guil said, “She must be overcome with trauma after talking about the horrors of high school.”

From the corner of the room, a familiar voice loudly cried, “Let’s have a traditional human song to lighten the mood!”

Sofia startled out of her grief. What in the spirit realm was Alexa doing here?

As Alexa belted out a pop song, the musician belatedly resumed playing, a light instrumental to go along with just about anything.

The crowd swarmed Alexa. Heart pounding, Sofia leapt on her chair to get a better look. She had not seen her old high school friend since their fateful disagreement. Alexa looked prosperous, wearing a light blue gown with flowing medieval sleeves and a huge diamond necklace.

After finishing the song, Alexa came up to their table. “Sophie, I never expected to see you here!” Jewelry covered her wrists and neck. Her dark roots showed, she must have trouble getting blond dye in the spirit world.

“You look well, Alexa. I’m glad.” A bit to her own surprise, Sofia meant it. When she’d been terrified of the spirit world, she’d resented Alexa always having it so much easier. Now that Sofia had found a place and was about to go home, she could be sincerely glad her friend hadn’t seemed to regret her choice. The nostalgia from seeing a fellow human made her feel warmer than the hot chocolate in her stomach.

Alexa twirled her skirt. “My dear Faquer gives me everything I want. I sometimes wondered if you might regret not coming with me. I worried a lot about you. The offer is still open.”

Although Alexa might be wearing a nice dress, she wasn’t in the human world, so Sofia had no regrets. “I’ve nearly finished my contract, and I’ll be heading back to the human world in about a month. I couldn’t possibly switch employers at this point. Do you have any messages you’d like me to pass on to your family?”

“Messages?” Alexa blinked. “Oh, I already asked Lord Faquer to deliver a letter to my parents. There’s no sense in bringing up the past, since I don’t intend to ever go back. We’re planning to get married.”

Sofia wondered if the letter had been delivered. If it had, she doubted the ramblings had been believed by Alexa’s parents. She was a bit appalled at Alexa’s callousness in not caring if her family thought her alive or dead. But not surprised. Alexa wasn’t malicious, exactly, but she didn’t think about other people. Just like how she knew Sofia had less money but hadn’t thought about it before offering to pay double at the funicular on that fateful day.

“Marriage?” Chiyo arched an eyebrow. “But he hasn’t turned you into a spirit. If he was serious about you, he’d transform you.”

Brightly, Guil said, “Sofia had an offer of transformation from our employer.”

Alexa flushed bright red. “Of course I have an offer…I…haven’t accepted it yet.” She stalked out of the tavern.

The fast retreat proved she’d been lying. Sofia murmured, “Wouldn’t he probably be serious if he’s stuck around for a year?”

Chiyo shook her head. “A year is a short relationship for spirits. That’s nothing except a fling.”

“Huh.” Now Sofia had returned to feeling worried about Alexa. “You didn’t have to throw it in her face.”

“I didn’t like how she treated you.” Chiyo scowled. “Everyone was listening to your stories, until she stole the stage. I’m sure she did it to take attention away from you.”

“That does sound like Alexa. She always has to be the center of attention. She doesn’t mean any harm. That’s just what she’s like.” Sofia shrugged, letting it go. She would be gone from the spirit realm soon. She could do nothing to help Alexa, who didn’t seem to want help anyway. “It might have been nice to talk to her longer, but I suppose we’re not friends now.”

Guil whispered to Chiyo, “That sssstiller hit Sofia the last time they talked.” Chiyo growled.

Sofia pushed away her finished bowl. “I still have time before the phone trade, what else is fun to do around here?”

Chiyo’s eyes lit up. “I wanted to see the puppet show.”

“I thought this place was called the Puppet Village because it was founded by a puppet who turned into a full spirit?”

“Yes, but they also have famously good puppet shows.”

This trip was going to wipe out Sofia’s emergency savings…but she was leaving soon, she didn’t need it. “I’m in.”

Spirit world puppet shows were amazing, as long as you didn’t think too hard about that creepy echo in the voices. Sofia was flush from a literally magical evening as she bade goodbye to her friends at the enchanted door. They wanted to get to bed, whereas Sofia’s contact could only meet later in the evening.

As prearranged, Sofia waited on bench under a giant willow tree. A river trickled next to her. Tiny lights danced on the wind, a few of them with faces.

Her contact was late, but Sofia had come to realize that spirits operated on a loose sense of time. Most of them didn’t wear watches. The bathhouse had clocks on all the walls and tried to enforce appointment times, though with ancient and powerful dragons, that was a lost cause. They considered that if they arrived on the right day, they were on time. Younger spirits considered that if they arrived at the right hour, they were on time.

Sofia had been prepared to wait an hour if need be, playing Scrabble on her phone for one last time. After half an hour, something tapped her on the shoulder.

Looking up, Sofia saw a handle leading to a spearhead tied with a dark ribbon. “Gah!”

The spear transformed into a familiar mop.

“Hey, you’re looking great. I don’t even see a trace of damage on your handle.” Sofia held up her hand, and the handle slapped a high-five. “Did you find your way home?”

The mop nodded. The cloth strands at the head turned into the number three. Did that mean it had taken three months? It amused Sofia to imagine a mop on a long journey like the animals in Homeward Bound.

“Are you here to take the sapience test?” Sofia had done some light reading on the Puppet Village before traveling here. The spirit world treated most animated objects like animals, and in all fairness most had an animal-level intelligence. The most powerful ones could develop intelligence and personality over time to eventually become full spirits. They registered themselves in the Puppet Village, the home territory of sapient objects, to legally acknowledge their promotion.

The mop nodded.

Sofia clapped her hands. “I wish you the best of luck.”

“Are you my contact? And you rescued Mopsy, too?” The soft, elegant voice came from a beauty with long black hair in a braid and a fiercely angular face. She was even shorter than her mop. Her round dark eyes looked older than her body.

“Shivali?” Sofia asked. Upon receiving a nod, she said, “Yes, I’m here to sell my phone.”

“I already owe you a debt,” Shivali said. “My idiot brother ‘borrowed’ Mopsy, my focal point. Then he lost it! I’m told you freed it at a cost of your own servitude.” The mop nuzzled Sofia affectionately.

Sofia coughed. “It was somewhat accidental, but I’m glad I could help.” She took a closer look. “Are you…human?” Spirits all seemed able to recognize humanity a lot faster than Sofia could. But she’d started to notice the world reacted a bit differently to humans. The sparks of light in the air would dart insubstantially through the trees and surrounding objects, but not humans.

Shivali smiled. “I am.” She held out her hand, and the mop transformed into a rope bracelet around her wrist.

“Humans can have magic?!”

“Through gift or training, we have our own kind of power. Some humans call themselves exorcists or sages or shamans. I call myself a guru.” Shivali placed a hand on her bracelet. “My focal point is a dear friend. I’m in your debt.” She sat down and lowered her voice. “I could take you back to the human realm. I have the power to travel there, but only on a full moon. The next one will be in thirteen days.”

Sofia could have screamed in frustration. If only she’d gotten this offer when she’d first arrived, she could have been home nearly right away and without causing her sister so much worry. Now it wasn’t useful. “My contract will already be up in a month, after I trade in the elixir from selling my phone.”

Shivali’s eyes widened. “You’ve done well for yourself. You should keep to the contract, then. I’ve heard horror stories about spirits who hunted down a human’s descendants in payment for a broken contract.”

“There’s nothing so harsh in my contract. Lady Lysbeth is fair.” The contract only said that if Sofia ran, she would no longer receive the bathhouse protection and her service would be tripled if she got caught. She had her doubts anyone would be able to find her in the human realm. She’d always been careful to never reveal the name of her hometown or her sister, not even to her friends. Even though she trusted Guil and Chiyo, this was a magical world where people had means of overhearing. Not that Sofia was so important—merely paranoid. “But if I leave in a month, I’ll have a farewell party and Lady Lysbeth promised me a gift from her hoard. I’d rather wait a short time longer.”

Although Sofia was too polite to say it, she also did not completely trust this stranger. She’d worked for Lady Lysbeth long enough to know the dragon always kept the terms of her contracts. For all she knew, Shivali might trick her into leaving the village and then sell her to one of the places that enslaved humans and weaker spirits. Sofia didn’t think it likely. Shivali seemed sincere in her gratitude. But why risk it when she had a sure way to get home that would only involve waiting two weeks longer?

Shivali nodded. “It’s not worth possibly getting in trouble for breaking the contract when you only have a little more time left.” Her lack of insistence made her more trustworthy. “I’d pay you more elixir than our deal if I had it. Instead, I will count myself in your debt if we meet again, or the debt of your family. Just in case you ever need me, take this.” She offered a worn black string. “You can tug on it to summon me.”

Sofia handed over her phone in exchange for the very small bottle of precious elixir. She kept the oddly warm liquid in her fist, unable to be pickpocketed, as she headed for the gate.

Seeing two humans in one evening felt like a good sign.

Sofia was off work the next day, and thus slept in until the bright light creeping through her curtains finally woke her. She grabbed a late breakfast (more like brunch) at the cafeteria. Then she turned over her elixir at the lady’s office, to see it added to her contract and the numbers finally change to a mere thirty days.

As Sofia headed down the stairs, a rumbling behind her sounded like an avalanche. She glanced over her shoulder. A horde of spirits ripped down the stairs just behind her.

Sofia flattened herself against the wall. A dryad’s branch knocked loose her hair ribbon. “Sssstiller!” she swore. She’d started using snake swears to blend in, but she’d come to like the anger behind the hissing sound.

Chiyo reached out from the mob and dragged Sofia in. “Come on, we need to get a good place by the window!”

Sofia let herself be carried along because she had no other choice now the mob had her. “What is going on?”

Over the eager chattering, Chiyo called, “The Head of the Poison Clan is visiting the bathhouse!”

The crowd smooshed against the window. Sofia was pressed between a cat spirit and a troll with spiky wooden hair that might give her splinters later. She could barely see the window over the troll’s shoulder. She called, “It’s just another dragon, what’s the big deal?”

The spirits around her exploded with:

“The Poison Clan is the royalty of the spirit world!”

“The strongest, most magnificent, and most magical!”

“And the most tragic…”

“Only Clan Head Koa is left now. It’s very rare to see him outside of his territory. I can’t wait to write home and tell my family all about this.”

“Sometimes I forget how little you know.” Chiyo shook her head. “The Poison Clan are the only people who can create elixir.”

Elixir was the most important substance in the entire spirit world: it healed injuries, created magic, and most importantly, it could extend the lives of non-immortals. Sofia immediately understood: “You’re saying he’s the most important person in the entire spirit world.”

“He’s what keeps the spirit world running,” Chiyo said. “If he’s in danger, every single person in this bathhouse would die to protect him without hesitation. Because we need him in order to keep our families alive.”

Sofia would not die to protect this guy, that duty was not in her contract, but she was diplomatic enough not to say that.

Everyone stopped talking as the Head of the Poison Clan flew down from the sky. Even the air seemed to hold still, the rustling ceasing in the trees. A shadow covered the entire bathhouse, and with it came a weight, the presence of being older than human history.

He had the massive length of an ancient dragon and a serpentine body with gleaming emerald scales. Two wings were feathered rather than scaly, a dazzling mixture of green, blue, and black with a hint of red. Feathers spread from the crest on his head down his back, to his fluffy tail. The air around him seemed to sparkle with power. Even Sofia stopped breathing for a moment.

The bathhouse employees this time wore hazmat suits covering their entire bodies. The dragon settled lightly into the largest outdoor pool, floating on the surface. The employees used giant bottles to spray him with a mist. This must be how a feathered dragon bathed.

Despite such a cautious amount of water, when finished the dragon’s feathers had turned spiky from the wetness and stuck out in all directions. Sofia raised a hand to her mouth to muffle her giggle. No one else seemed to be laughing, still held in awe.

The dragon shook himself off, hard enough to spray water across the windows. By the time the droplets ran down, the employees had surrounded the dragon with brushes to polish his scales and lanterns. They waved enchanted heat off the lanterns like a dryer on a very low setting.

For a brief moment, Sofia locked eyes with the dragon. He had multifaceted eyes like an insect, millions of colors dragging her in like a whirlpool. The gaze went over her without seeing her. The moment passed, and her heart resumed beating.

A group of young people had formed a line in front of the dragon. Chiyo’s eyes widened. “Oh, they’re being tested.” She raised her voice. “Everyone, clear a path, Sofia needs to be tested too.”

“I do?” Sofia asked.

As everyone pulled back to let her out, Chiyo explained, “The Poison Clan is unfortunately sterile, caused by their powers. They can only reproduce by placing their magic in someone else—a fellow spirit or a human.”

“Spirits can’t be transformed,” Sofia answered automatically. She might not have been in this world long, but she knew that much.

“The Poison Clan is the only exception. A spirit who receives a fragment of their power can start producing poison. Unfortunately, only a very, very tiny number of people can handle their power—only those who are naturally immune to their poison. We’ve tested every single person in the spirit realm, without finding a single new member.” Chiyo did not say how many that might be, because she couldn’t know. Spirits didn’t have a census. Sofia had once asked how many villages and how many spirits existed, and only gotten a shrug in return. But it must be in the thousands. Chiyo continued, “The Poison Clan used to rule over an empire of humans, that was how they found the rare people who could be transformed. That was also how they perished. They got involved in a human war and died, all except Clan Head Koa.”

A murmur of grief went up among the spirits.

“It shouldn’t have been possible,” Chiyo said. “The Poison Clan members were the strongest in the spirit realm. But magic in the human world had weakened so much, they could no longer use their true powers there. They did not realize until it was too late. That massacre led to a mass exodus of spirits away from human realm. It was the greatest tragedy in our history.”

Sofia nodded along, although she was reserving judgement until she knew why this war had been fought or what kind of rulers the Poison Clan had been over humanity.

Chiyo actually wiped a tear from her eye. “Clan Head Koa is now the only source of elixir. He’s immortal, may the ancestors be blessed. But he’s old enough to often hibernate. He can’t produce as much elixir as the spirit world needs. It’s vital for him to expand his clan, so everyone must be tested for immunity. The test is no big deal—he’ll use his poison at the weakest setting. It just causes a small mark like a bug bite on your arm. I got tested as a toddler.” She gestured Sofia away.

Sofia had no intention of applying to become a spirit just a month from her return date home. Even if it was a one in a million chance she’d be immune, she could make it a zero in a million chance by opting out. This test was not in her contract. Once again, she did not say so in front of the eager and worshipful spirits. She only smiled and left.

Once out of sight, she headed back to her bedroom. No one seemed to be enforcing this test. She planned to spend her day off reviewing her old SAT vocabulary cards. She hadn’t been able to sell them, and soon she might get to take her test after all.

Sofia had just finished her dinner and was headed back to her room when Lady Lysbeth’s voice drifted from one of the clocks. “Sofia, could you be a dear and take dinner to Lord Koa? I told him that there’s someone at the bathhouse who could speak Spanish. He’d be pleased to speak to someone in his native language, and you’re always excellent at entertaining customers.” Lysbeth’s human face briefly flashed across the clock face glass as she spoke. “I’d give you a drop of elixir for working on your day off.”

Another week off her contract! She straightened. “Yes, milady.” There had been many people in his line and apparently he tested people wherever he went, so he shouldn’t recognize her.

“Be careful not to touch him,” Lysbeth warned. “Direct skin contact with him will burn you.”

If Lord Koa couldn’t turn it off, that sounded horrible for him. Sofia wondered if dragons got touch-starved. Maybe, maybe not. As Chiyo had said, they were proud and solitary creatures.

The kitchen had already prepared dinner under a silver top. The chef seemed disappointed to hand it over to Sofia. She followed directions to the most extravagant guest suite up a tall tower.

In human form, Lord Koa had lightly curled brown hair, olive skin, and a thin beard and moustache. His eyes still sparkled with different colors of the rainbow, too bright to look directly at. He wore a red dressing gown. His aura of majesty simply wasn’t as strong in human form. Still, although she might struggle to tell some spirits from humans, she would always know him by his eyes. Taking the dish and setting it inside his room, he said in medieval Spanish: “I thank thee for bringing supper swiftly, yeoman.”

Sofia winced, because this was worse than SAT words. In Spanish, she said, “I’m having trouble understanding your pronunciation, can you understand me?”

He sighed and switched to English. “I suppose I shall have to relearn the language to communicate in it.”

“Your English is perfect.”

“I learned it more recently.” He sounded quite bitter. “First I heard French would become the universal language in both realms, then everyone briefly got excited about Esperanto, then I had to learn English.”

“I have some bad news for you,” Sofia said. “Mandarin Chinese is looking like the next universal language.”

His crest actually popped out of his neck. “No. Absolutely not. I refuse to learn to read and write characters.”

“Our native tongue may have a turn someday.”

“Spanish isn’t my native language—my native language is dead.”

He sounded so sad about it, she wanted to cheer him up. Old men loved puns almost as much as telling stories. “Want to hear a bilingual joke? Whenever I’m around my Spanish-speaking family, I always say mucho it because means a lot to them.”

He snorted. “Mucho…means a lot…ha!” As he laughed, a cloud of yellow gas exploded from his nose.

“Sssstiller!” Sofia leapt backward, not fast enough to flee the gas. It filled her nostrils with a sickly-sweet scent. She was all the way at the other end of the hallway by the time she realized she felt perfectly fine.

What did it mean, that she felt fine?

A million to one chance? Why now, when she’d almost made her escape?

Koa leapt in front of her with supernatural speed. His tone was weary. “Show me where you’re burned, I’ll give you the antidote.”

“I don’t need it.” Heart hammering, she turned away. She had to walk, not run, or it would only look more suspicious.

He moved to block her path again, not touching her. “I’m not Lysbeth, I won’t charge you for the antidote when it was my fault. Where’s your injury…you’re not injured.”

Rainbow eyes bore into her. She felt dizzy. He grabbed her arm, fingers lightly digging into bare flesh. She swallowed. “I, uh…I might feel a sore throat…” It was no good. He was touching her. He must know.

He spoke over her. “What’s your name?”

Sofia thrashed in his grip. He held her off the ground without effort, her legs kicking the air. Exhausted, she snarled, “Why should an ancient royal dragon care about the name of a human?”

His smile filled with more teeth than any human could possess, rows extending down his throat and razor sharp. “Starting from today, you’re my daughter.”

Chapter Text

Spirits were stronger than humans. Sofia had always been aware of it, but never more than when Koa tucked her under one arm and ran down the hallway with her legs kicking. She might have protested more if she hadn’t been too dizzy. People had stunned faces as they passed. Sofia didn’t know if it was because of Koa carrying her or because he was whistling a cheerful tune.

Koa kicked Lysbeth’s door when it didn’t automatically open fast enough. “I’ve found my new clan member!” He held Sofia in front of him by both shoulders, her feet dangling off the floor. Sofia scowled.

Lysbeth’s eyes snapped to where Koa touched Sofia’s skin, finger brushing below her short sleeve. The chair under her broke as her dragon tail popped out. “I wouldn’t tolerate anyone except you stealing my top employee. It’s such wonderful news, I can’t even be angry. I’m happy for you.” She stepped around her desk. Her hand raised as if to touch his face, stopping at the last minute. “Fate has brought you the perfect choice. Sofia will be an excellent heir, she has all the skills and smarts. I’m convinced she’s going to become a dragon.”

“The Poison Clan has never been purist, I’d love my daughter in any shape,” Koa said. “I came to buy out her contract.”

Lysbeth waved a hand. “Koa, darling, as if I could make you pay on such an occasion! Consider it my rebirth gift to the Poison Clan.”

He eyed her suspiciously. “Is there a week left on her contract and you’re trying to get out of a more expensive gift?”

Lysbeth huffed smoke. “Ridiculous, there’s definitely more than a week left. Before you call me stingy, I already promised Sofia a farewell present from my hoard.”

“It had better be from the main hoard, not a mere coin.”

“You’re just after my Book of Destruction. You’re never, ever getting it, Koa.”

“What if we bet on her spirit form? I’m personally hoping for fluffy for cuddling.”

“I’m not going with him!” Sofia screamed. She’d snapped out of her daze. Lysbeth being so calm about losing her top employee had fully brought home the horror of her situation. It meant Sofia had no allies. She had to stand her ground here. She tried to wriggle free.

Koa set her down, but kept both hands on her shoulders. His fingers trembled slightly. It was not a licentious grip—it was desperate, the first person he’d been able to freely touch in centuries. That scared Sofia. She could have chased off a perverted dragon’s attentions with a high-pitched giggle or an annoying verbal tic. But his desperate need would not be dissuaded.

Lysbeth rubbed her forehead, then met Sofia’s eyes. “My dear, this offer is far better than mine. You would become royalty. You should at least consider it.”

“I want to go home as a human.”

Silver flashed across Lysbeth’s eyes. “Your world overflows with humans. How many billions were there at the last count? There is only one member of the Poison Clan in existence! The spirit world would collapse if anything happened to him. We’ve been waiting to find another for longer than a human lives. We need you more than humanity.”

“I have fam—” Sofia cut off when she realized this might not be a weak spot she wanted to reveal.

Koa wrapped both arms around her from behind like a hug she couldn’t escape. “I cannot turn most humans, not like the other clans, but I can bring over your family as servants.”

Sofia stiffened. “Touch my family and I’ll kill you.”

He smirked, holding up her chin. “You have good eyes. You’ll be a strong clan member.”

Sofia wrenched away from his grip. “I have a contract that says I’m leaving in a month. I’ve read every last clause. Page 56, line seven: even Lady Lysbeth cannot end the contract without my permission. I don’t agree to you buying out my contract. I’m staying here until it ends.”

The lines around Lysbeth’s eyes tightened. “You cannot know what you are giving up. Your mortal life is a brief candleflame. You’re a child, too young to make such important decisions. How old are you? Fifty?”

“I’m nineteen.”

“Nineteen! You can’t possibly make decisions about your future at age nineteen. A guardian ought to be in place.”

“Funny, I was old enough to work at your bathhouse and sign a contract with you. A contract you have to honor.” Sofia bared her teeth.

Koa laughed, and the air shook with it, the contracts on the shelves rattling. His shadow expanded behind him, into something vast enough to swallow the entire building. The fingers grabbing her arms shifted, flesh one moment and claws the next. The air choked with his power. Not a molecule could move. The hunger and need felt like it might swallow her whole. Gods, he needed so powerfully, she could have wept from merely feeling it secondhand. His voice crackled, magic behind each syllable: “I requested to buy your contract as a courtesy. There is no force in the spirit realm that could stop me from taking you. They would not try, they know better. It would take me one second to kill everyone in this village, two seconds to melt the wood, and three to destroy the stone.”

While working as a receptionist, Sofia had brushed up against the power of ancient dragons, a magic they usually kept politely restrained. None of it had ever tasted so strong. The weight felt like an asteroid pressing down from above, implacable and unstoppable. She was nothing next to a force capable of washing away the entire world. Her animal instincts wanted to roll over and surrender in hopes he wouldn’t swallow her in one bite.

But even a frail human like her did have one power: a contract.

“You’re a bathhouse customer, so you signed your own contract not to cause destruction or harm an employee.” Sofia’s voice shook. Her throat ached. Yet she forced each word out, refusing to yield to the pressure. His need was matched by her own: her need to return to her sister. “Page thirty-one, line eight: a customer may not lay hands on an employee without permission. I don’t want you touching me. Let. Go.”

Koa moaned. Sweat dripped down his face. The air around him blazed golden. With a furious hiss, his fingers snapped open.

Sofia fled the office before she passed out.

Singing and cheering filled the air. Outside, people had already set up picnic benches with food. Lanterns floated down from the sky, a traditional spirit method of celebration. People cried with joy and hugged each other. The first person to see her pointed and waved. “The new princess of the Poison Clan!”

Sofia flung open the window and screamed, “Stop celebrating! I turned down the offer.”

A deadly silence rippled through the party.

Sofia stomped back to her room and slammed the door.

From the moment Chiyo asked if she could come in, Sofia knew this wouldn’t end well. But she didn’t run away from the conversation, because they were friends.

Chiyo stood near the door, twisting her hands. From the first word, it sounded like a pre-prepared speech. “You know I came to the bathhouse to make money because my mom is sick. Only elixir can relieve her pain. It’s expensive, because only one spirit can create it. All of the spirit world fears the inevitable shortages the next time Lord Koa hibernates. We need a new member of the Poison Clan who can create elixir. The entire spirit realm needs you. Please, don’t you owe it to everyone?”

Sofia had been groping for the most diplomatic words, but her temper snapped. She leapt up from her bed. “I owe no one here anything! When I arrived in the spirit realm, someone robbed me of everything I had for no other reason than because she could. No one helped me back then. No one would take me back home. I was told that I had two options: work or starve. So I signed a contract because I had no other choice. I fought for everything that I have. If I’d been a bit weaker, I’d probably be dead. Now, as soon as it’s convenient for the spirit world, you want to ignore my contract? You have no right. If the spirit world wanted to guilt me into being their savior, then they should have treated me better when I first arrived. This place gave me nothing for free, and now you’ll get nothing from me in return.”

Sofia paused, chest heaving, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. Before this moment, she had not realized how much bitterness she still held from her first day in the spirit world. Chiyo looked like she might cry, too. It took the edge off Sofia’s rage. She inhaled deeply. “I’m sorry about your mom. I lost my parents at a young age. In your place, I probably would have come here to persuade someone to help them too.”

There was nothing more that could be said between them. What one needed, the other could not give. They were not on the same side.

That night, Sofia slept uneasily. Despite the magical lock on her door, she shoved a chair under the door knob. Still her body refused to enter the deepest sleep.

When she’d first traveled between worlds, she’d been terrified and alone. Since then, she had carved out a place to feel secure. Now her security had been yanked out from under her like a chair removed just as she was about to sit.

The next morning, she slipped the guru’s rope into her underwear, the single least likely place to lose it. Her slumber had been haunted by dreams about what if she’d taken Shivali’s offer. It always felt like she made the wrong choice at the fateful moment, just like when she’d gotten on the funicular, not knowing the entire year it would cost her. But the instant she broke the contract, it would no longer protect her from Koa. In addition, the guru hadn’t been able to take her to the human realm right away, so she’d need to survive outside the village until the full moon. Her best bet still seemed to be outlasting the next month. (Ugh, she never did get the payment for taking dinner to Koa and wouldn’t because she’d left early.)

There was one other concern, of course…if she could trust Guru Shivali. Even if the offer of help had been sincere at the time, that might change now that there would be a giant reward for anyone who turned Sofia over. She did not know where a human who lived in the spirit realm would fall on this issue. Comparatively, she would rather trust an enchanted contract.

Heaving a deep breath, she opened her door and stepped out.

She’d been afraid everyone in the bathhouse would be angry at her. Instead, they cowered away from her in the hallway. Her former cleaning supervisor came up to her unsolicited to apologize if he’d ever been harsh with her. At the cafeteria, the staff gave her two desserts.

Guil sat down at her table ten minutes later. “I was going to congratulate you, but you don’t seem happy. I think you’d be a great member of the Poison Clan. The old ones didn’t have a nice reputation. They claimed excessive tribute from the spirit villages and did worse in their empire in the human world: war, human sacrifices as tests for poisons, even sleeping with human consorts knowing it would kill them. Lord Koa is a good one, though. He shares the elixir freely, and he doesn’t use it as leverage to control other villages. He’s happy with a few books as offerings. Everyone had to worry about if his future heir might be a tyrant, but you’re a good person. My mom’s going to be so mad she didn’t try to arrange a marriage between us when she had the chance.”

The tone was joking, but Sofia was not in the mood for humor. “Not when I go back to the human realm, she won’t be.”

“You don’t want to even consider staying?”

Sofia grunted.

Guil waved at Chiyo, who waved back and then took her tray to another table. Guil turned around with wide eyes. “Are you fighting with Chiyo?”

“Not a fight, exactly.” Sofia sighed. “Merely an issue where we can’t see eye to eye. I’ll try not to drag you into it, or…any of this mess. Why is everyone acting like I’m already exuding poison? If I’ll lose my memories in the transformation, I thought no one cared if I’m willing or not.”

“Humans do lose their memories, but a few of the strongest ones will linger. And you can retain your strongest emotional impressions of people, so no one wants you to have a grudge against them.” Guil examined Sofia’s face closely. “Is that why you don’t want to become a member of the Poison Clan? Because you’re afraid of changing? You’d still be the same person.”

Great, now even Guil wanted to persuade her. “That’s my second biggest reason.”

“Is it about the inability to touch people? Rumor says Poison Clan members get around that by doing it in a bath mixed with elixir. Though elixir is in short supply, it wouldn’t be for you. Is it because members of the Poison Clan are sterile? I bet Lord Koa would strike a deal to wait until after you had a child, if that’s important to you. Or it would be easy to adopt as a member of the most prestigious clan. I guess it would be rough not to be able to touch your own child, but you’d be rich enough for a wet nurse.”

Truthfully Sofia had never thought much about children, although she leaned toward no because she felt that she’d already raised her little sister. And why did the rest of the world always act so sex obsessed to the determinant of all else? “No to both. I want to go home. Why does everyone struggle to understand that?”

“Because it’s an awful lot of power. Not all clan heads are equal. The Poison Clan is the only clan who no one in the entire spirit world can afford to offend. As a human you don’t know what kind of spirit you might become, but the Poison Clan are always the strongest and most magnificent of spirits.” Guil’s brow furrowed. “I’m trying to think of the equivalent in your world…what would humans think if you got offered a billion dollars and you said no thanks, you’d rather be poor?”

“It’s not free money,” Sofia said. “The price would be everything that I currently have. Both spirit and humans would feel the loss of not being able to touch someone. It seems to be wearing on Lord Koa. Besides, nothing you’re offering has any value in the human realm.”

“Does the human realm not value power?” Guil asked skeptically.

“Of course we value power. But it’s the kind of power that I couldn’t take over there. I want to go home. I’ve always wanted to go home. You know that.” Sofia wasn’t about to mention her sister, so she threw in a half-joke. “I can’t live without my internet connection. No nobility would be worth it.”

Guil chewed on her lip. “I don’t understand, but I won’t bother you about it.”

“Thank you.” Sofia could use one lunch where she could pretend everything was normal. At times like these, she was grateful for her friend’s uncomplicated nature.

Sofia arrived at the receptionist desk early, but another employee was already there. “You’ve been reassigned as Lord Koa’s personal attendant.”

“Of course I have,” Sofia groaned. Unfortunately, it was within the terms of her contract to take on extra duties as needed.

When he opened his door, she grumbled, “I could make an argument that forcing me into your presence constitutes harassment.”

“Excuse me? You’re a baby!” Koa looked sincerely appalled. “And Lysbeth can testify that I prefer older women.”

“Too much information. Harassment doesn’t have to be sexual harassment.”

“You’re the only person immune to my poison,” he countered. “Any contract would agree that you’re the best qualified for this job.”

Unfortunately, Sofia didn’t think she could make a reasonable argument to get out of this using the terms of the contract. She grumbled, “What do you need? Can I fetch you something from far away?”

“At the moment, only the pleasure of your companionship.” He waved her inside. The pressure of his aura had been restrained today, he must be keeping it hidden. A chess board had already been set up on the coffee table, the marble pieces hand-carved with individual faces. “Would you like to play a game with me and bet on the outcome?”

Sofia stared. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

His lips quirked. “No, only stubborn. I would give you an advantage of five pieces, including my queen, and we need not bet on your transformation. Instead, I would ask you to tell me about yourself if I win.”

“Still no.” Sofia knew how to play chess but had not put any effort into becoming good. The only way to beat an immortal dragon was to not play.

“You’ve forced me to guess what you want, then.” He waved her to sit across from him. She reluctantly complied. “Lysbeth scolded me, but I had no intention of threatening your family. I offered an honor. To personally serve the Poison Clan is a higher status than nobility in some tiny village. Humans can live forever in the spirit realm. If you prefer, I could find another noble family to adopt any relative of yours. Indeed, they would compete for a connection to our clan.”

“I believe I told you to stay away from my family.” Sofia barely controlled her voice. Her nails dug into her knees.

He smiled as if savoring her rage. “If you truly believe your pitiful world of ants to be the superior place to live, then we could leave your family to their short lives but bless them with wealth and good luck. My power may be weaker in the human realm, but I am not without influence.”

She wondered if it was a backhanded threat. “Such a shame you don’t know where to find them.” If he did, then he’d have mentioned her sister by name instead of the vague mention of family.

He inclined his head, acknowledging the point. Her paranoia about never speaking of where she’d come from had paid off. “Perhaps you are not close to your family, since you’ve spoken of them only infrequently. Is it about the internet? I consulted an expert in cross-realm magic. Within the week, I’ll have internet installed in my castle. It can’t be instantaneous. Apparently it needs to update once a day. But you’ll be able to download these videos that the hatchlings get all excited about. I don’t understand the point of videos, isn’t it more interesting to picture stories in your own head?”

Sofia stiffened. She’d only joked to Guil about being unable to live without internet this morning. Had even Guil betrayed her? No, that was unfair. They had spoken in the cafeteria, countless people could have overheard. Goosebumps raised down her arms. From now on, she had to assume that every single person around her was her enemy.

“Well?” he demanded, tapping the table. “I have made an opening offer, what is your counteroffer?”

“This isn’t a negotiation. I already said no!”

“Arrogant brat. You should count yourself fortunate that I am lowering myself to negotiate with you at all!” His eyes flashed colors that spun around the room like a kaleidoscope ball. He took a deep breath, inhaling the purple gas only just starting to creep out his nostrils. “The Poison Clan has absolute power to take whoever we please. The modern obsession with rights and individualism has gotten completely out of control! No one ever bothered to ask me for consent before transforming me. I was a slave taken as a prisoner of war, do you think I was happy about joining the enemy? Of course not! I tried to kill myself repeatedly in the early stages of transformation, before the others put a stop to that by threatening to massacre my people.”

“Mierda.” Sofia gaped. “I’m sorry that happened to you. Now you would do the same to me? Are you sure you shouldn’t be called the Clan of Generational Trauma?”

He huffed. “I am not doing the same! I have avoided threatening anyone at all for this entire conversation. I’m attempting to get to know you. I’ve offered to negotiate. You should be grateful for such special treatment.”

Ah, the good old argument I had it worse than you so be grateful. A favorite of old people everywhere. “Weren’t you angry about what happened to you? How do you even remember it?”

“Sometimes the others teased me about my origins. And I remember my transformation more than what came before. There’s a clear before and after. The before doesn’t matter.” He shrugged. “You’re only a hatchling. You’ll understand someday.”

She did not like the certainty behind those last words. “You mean I’d stop caring about abandoning my family.”

“Your past life would not trouble you.”

“I don’t want that. Even if at times my family was a burden…it’s mine.”

“A good sentiment.” Her fierce expression only made him smile. “Then you’d better accept a deal with me, it’s your best chance to retain a connection to your past life. I could preserve whatever you desired.”

“Or would you lie to me?”

“I keep my promises.” He sounded offended that she would suggest otherwise. “My former Clan Head made a promise to me as a human that I would never be sent to fight my own people. Even that old asshole kept the oath. That’s the only reason I didn’t die in the same battle as the rest of them.”

Sofia wondered what it felt like, to be taken from everything you knew and forced into a new family, only to have your new family killed by your former people. His tone was difficult to read. She did not ask. She was not here to bond with him. She was here to resist his efforts to bond with her.

“I can even magically preserve memories in a book, if you give them to me in advance.” He shrugged. “If you do not, then you’ll only have whatever strongest memories might or might not linger.”

“Is that a threat?”

Koa arched an eyebrow. “Merely a consequence. Shall I show you my specialty?” He held out his hand.

“Is it poison?”

“So suspicious. My individual magical specialty, besides poison. I promise no harm or mental influence will come to you if you take my hand. You’re the only person who can. I’ll even offer you a single favor.”

This opportunity might not come along again. She thought fast, about what mattered the most. “Promise me that you’ll never threaten another person to get at me.” If he thought he might fail, his principles might erode, so she wanted it recorded.

“You’ve made a bad bargain, I already said I would not. I know how that anger can linger even after transformation. Done.” He did not wait for an answer, grabbing her hand.

Her vision shifted dizzyingly. She saw a massive cavern with walls as tall as a mountain, filled with books. Each had been carefully preserved in plastic wrap, then behind glass. Some looked ancient and bound by leather, others fresh off a printing press. Some books had covers that changed. Many leaked sparkles that pressed against the glass. All the books on one shelf had been chained down, the covers struggling to open. Another shelf had books with moss and vines growing over and out of the pages. In a golden cage, one book fluttered around like a bird.

My hoard is made of books, he told her in her mind. My magic controls knowledge. I can preserve a memory in an illusion. What would you most want to keep? What did you value the most in your past life?

The tone was so seductive, she nearly pictured in her head the last time she’d said goodbye to her little sister, the memory she’d turned around in her mind late at night so many times that she could no longer be certain it was accurate.

No.

This world would not touch Trinidad.

Her big sister would protect her.

Sofia jerked away. The room snapped back into focus. “You lied. You tried to trap me.”

“I did not. I merely made an offer.” Koa sounded like he believed his own words. He pressed the hand she’d touched to his own cheek, as if soaking in the heat. There was something pitiful about his desperation to touch another person. Except he was far too dangerous to pity.

“I’m taking my required by contract half an hour break.” Sofia knew better than to run in front of a predator, but as soon as she’d closed the door behind her, she fled.

The bathhouse had a break room with two sofas and a small kitchen. As soon as Sofia arrived, everyone vacated.

“They act as if I smell,” she grumbled as she boiled water for her tea. Instead of a stove, the kettle went on a flat stone enchanted to heat up. Sofia had never been a huge tea drinker back home. But she’d grown very fond of the free green tea bags in every breakroom.

The warm tea soothed her nerves and let her consider her options. So far, Lord Koa had remained bound by the contract. She got the impression he was sincerely giving persuasion a shot. That didn’t reassure her. She had no doubt that if persuasion failed, he would resort to any means at his disposal. In a sense she would rather it happen sooner so that she would know what she was dealing with.

Should she play along with Koa and let him think he might persuade her until the last minute? That would be a dangerous game. Ancient dragons did not take well to being deceived. It would be arrogant of her to think she could deceive him. Judging from his size in dragon form, he’d been alive longer than her entire country. She would hold onto that option for a last resort.

Once again, she could not help thinking how much easier it would have been if she’d merely had to handle a spirit with an infatuation. Koa needed her, and that was a hell of a lot more dangerous than want. If it reached the very last day and he feared he might lose, she did not know what he might do.

She’d been worried the staff might bully her or try to wear her down with hard labor. Fortunately, they seemed too cowed to even talk to her. There was a chance of that changing as it grew closer to the deadline and people became more desperate. She could handle anything they threw at her. She knew how to endure. Adapt and survive.

Lysbeth was definitely going over her contract looking for any loopholes. Tonight, Sofia should do the same. Stretching, she rose from the sofa. She washed out her cup in the sink, then placed it on the drying rack.

Maybe it would be best to grey-rock Koa. Give him nothing to work with, let him think that she was boring. It wouldn’t be possible to make him lose interest, because he didn’t have anyone else he could transform, but hopefully she could make him less personally invested in it.

At the same time Sofia reached for the door knob, the door opened. She startled to find Chiyo directly in her face.

“Sorry.” Chiyo averted her eyes.

“You’re good.” Sofia stepped backwards to let Chiyo inside.

“Not just about…I mean…” Chiyo twisted her hands. “I’m sorry about how I lectured you. I didn’t stop and think about it from a human point of view. You got forced into the bathhouse contract with very little choice, unless you wanted to walk into the Lost Woods and be ripped apart by hungry ghosts. I shouldn't have talked to you about duty or gratitude.”

A wave of relief swamped Sofia. She’d assumed she’d never be able to see eye-to-eye with Chiyo again. Maybe she wouldn’t lose a friend after all. “I appreciate that. I’m sorry, too. I should have spoken less harshly. It’s not your fault I got spirited away. And with your mom…I could have been more understanding.” Sofia still didn’t know what to do about that enormous sticking point lying between them.

Chiyo looked at the ground. “If you’d ended up in my village, someone would have escorted you home. We’ve got a lot of former humans living amongst us and a few still-human spouses. That’s how it should have been. You were barely more than a kid when you arrived, you shouldn’t have been forced to work.”

“You know what Lady Lysbeth is like. Be useful or you’re not worth the money to feed you.” Sofia shrugged. “It could have been worse, but it also could have been better. I’m not angry any longer. It’s not worth the effort to hold a grudge.”

“Ha, that’s why I keep saying that you’re more like a fox than a dragon. Dragons love grudges.” Chiyo laughed, bell-like. Her hair seemed to darken, her lips becoming more red. The air around her turned sweet. “You’d be a strong spirit. I’ve met enough humans before and after transformation to get a smell for who possesses the most inner strength.”

That was a slightly ominous thing to say. Sofia wondered if she should be concerned. In that moment, she couldn’t feel anything with the fuzziness in her head. Chiyo was very beautiful. Not that Sofia hadn’t noticed before, but it had never been so overwhelming. The purse of Chiyo’s lips created an intoxicating smack. A cherry blossom scent wrapped around Sofia like a cloud, a hint of wild fox musk underneath.

“There’s a trial in my village. To reach adulthood, we must live amongst humans and pass for a year. It’s an old tradition, not everyone follows it now that magic has gotten so much weaker in your world. Others will go to the human world for a full four years of college, just for the fun of it. Sometimes they return home with human lovers.” Chiyo touched Sofia’s cheek. The coolness of her skin felt amazing against the blush on Sofia’s face. “We foxes are possessive creatures. We will do what we can to make our human lovers accept our true nature, but if they can’t, sometimes it’s easier to just transform them. They’re always happy after the transformation.”

Chiyo’s brows drew together. The sadness on her face made Sofia long to soothe it away. Even while a voice in the back of Sofia’s mind screamed: RUN!

Sofia’s legs wouldn’t move. She couldn’t remember why she’d been trying to move. It would be lovely to stand here forever, gazing at such beauty.

“I’m sorry. This is for my mom. They promised me enough elixir to cure her.” Chiyo put her arms around Sofia, between a hold and an embrace. “I’d do it even if you’d never forgive me, but at least I know that you’ll be happy. You deserve more than a brief human life. You were born to be a princess. You’re already beautiful, but you’re going to become magnificent. Someday, it will be my honor to have been able to bewitch you just once.”

In a swift motion, Chiyo shoved Sofia into the closet.

The darkness washed away Sofia’s enchanted stupor. Shelves of employee uniforms and towels pressed against her back. There was barely enough space, the doorknob poking her stomach. Dust tickled her nose, and she sneezed. The loud sound brought her completely back to her senses.

“Hey!” She turned the doorknob. It wasn’t supposed to lock, but something had been done to stop it from moving. She banged on the door. “I can’t believe you would use your powers on me, what good does locking me up even do you, Koa can’t abduct me because I’m still protected by the contract—”

Sofia froze as she understood. Suddenly she felt ice-cold.

The contract said that if Sofia failed to show up to work three times without cause, then she’d be fired. This was only strike one in the coming war.

Chapter Text

Sofia pounded on the door and screamed for help. Footsteps passed by, but no one came. Although the breakroom should be packed at this time of day, it remained silent and empty. Of course no one would come to help her. No one in the entire spirit realm was on her side.

Wiping sweaty hair off her forehead, Sofia tried to think. Should she bust down the door? No, that was another trap. If she damaged bathhouse property, then it would extend her contract.

Could she even break down the door? She didn’t have enough space to get her legs high enough to kick. She might be stuck. Groaning, she pushed aside a bucket so she could sit with her knees tucked up to her chest.

She’d already missed her chance to return before her break. One demerit looked inevitable, but it would take three to fire her. It would be better to accept a demerit than pay for breaking the door. Should she wait for someone to let her out?

As minutes ticked by, a horrific thought occurred to Sofia: what if no one let her out? If she remained here for two and a half days, then she would obtain three demerits and be fired. She wouldn’t die of starvation or dehydration in two and a half days. In fact, she’d be conveniently unable to protest getting kidnapped if she’d passed out. She had little doubt that Lysbeth would be ruthless enough to do it, though she wanted to believe better of Chiyo.

Sofia groped around the shelves, looking for something she could use to escape. She found a water bottle—not an item usually in the linens closet. Depression swamped her. This significantly increased the odds that everyone planned to leave her in here until she got fired. She had no choice except to find a way to escape. Even breaking down the door might be necessary…if no other option could be found.

The closet didn’t naturally lock. It could have been sealed with magic, but they probably wouldn’t want to use such an obvious means that she could argue as a violation of the contract. Instead they’d make it look like the door had jammed.

In the darkness, Sofia felt around the door handle. Screws! Her fingers pressed against two screws on either side. If only she could work them loose…

As she tried to turn a screw, she broke a nail. Hissing, she stuck her finger in her mouth and sucked until the bleeding stopped. Then she got back to work. The first turn was the hardest. Slowly, painstakingly, she worked a screw loose. It dropped to the floor with a rattle.

This wasn’t enough for her to remove the door handle, no matter how hard she tugged. With a groan, she started on the second screw.

The handle finally yanked off. She was able to stick her hand through the hole and push the now-loose handle out the other side. It had been tied to a rope to keep the door closed. Finally she opened the door. Light hit her eyes, making her groan. She gulped in fresh air.

At this point, Sofia was already late for work. She refastened the door knob so that no one could blame her for breaking it. The screws were a bit loose, but if anyone had any complaints, she’d direct them at Chiyo.

From the moment Sofia stalked into the hallway, everyone fixed her with terrified glances and bolted.

Sofia stormed into Lady Lysbeth’s office. Chiyo was already sitting in the chair, which silenced her for a moment. They stared at each other, guilt meeting betrayal.

Calmly, Lady Lysbeth said, “You’re late to work, one demerit.”

Sofia exploded, “Chiyo placed me under the influence of seduction magic, then locked me in the closet!” She held up the rope as evidence. “I didn’t damage the door so don’t even try that one.”

“We take sexual harassment very seriously at the Enchanted Embrace Bathhouse,” Lady Lysbeth said. “If true, then the punishment would be half a dozen lashes for Chiyo.”

Sofia’s jaw dropped open.

The worst part? Chiyo looked completely calm, as if she’d expected this. As if it had been a price she’d been willing to pay for the elixir she needed to cure her mother. Sofia understood entirely too well doing whatever it took to protect your family. She was furious at Chiyo. She would have punched Chiyo herself. They would never be friends again. But she didn’t have the stomach to see Chiyo tied to a post and beaten half to death.

“I revoke my accusation.” She glared at Chiyo. “You’ve used up the last bit of our friendship. Come at me again, and I won’t hold back.”

With that last pathetic threat, Sofia left the office before anyone could see her cry.

Even at the time, Sofia had known she’d been exposing her friends as her weakness. The consequences arrived that evening.

Guil didn’t come to dinner. Already suspecting a trap, but unable to abandon her first friend in the spirit realm, Sofia knocked on Guil’s door. Crying came from inside. The door had been left carelessly cracked, so Sofia opened it.

In the form of a tiny dragon, Guil nested in a pile of blankets on her bed and sniffled. “Sofia, customers have been boycotting my family’s soap-making business. They think I haven’t done enough to persuade you. The whole spirit world’s awfully upset, everyone at the bathhouse has been pressuring me. My family said they’d disown me if I don’t lock you into a room to make you late. What do I do?”

A hot fury bubbled under Sofia’s chest. How everyone bully a young and weak spirit? Sofia should have seen this coming a mile off. It had been futile to make Koa promise not to take hostages. He didn’t need to. The entire spirit world would act for their own self-interest. If they’d known where to find Sofia’s home, a spirit who lived in the human realm would have already taken her little sister hostage. If not for Lysbeth having contracts with every clan head to protect her bathhouse, they would have already stormed this place and abducted her for Koa. Guil couldn’t possibly stand up to so much pressure forever. It was friendship enough that she’d been honest.

There was only one answer left.

Kneeling down in front of the bed, Sofia said, “I’ll tell everyone that you tried to lock me into your room and pretend to be mad at you. Your family wouldn’t disown you for failing.” Unspoken, Sofia knew that her family had never had high expectations of Guil. Nor did the rest of the bathhouse, who referred to her as a winged lizard barely qualified as a dragon. “We’ll act like we broke up our friendship and stop talking to each other. If anyone orders you to trap me again, you can obey. I’ll know not to trust you, so you won’t be able to harm me. Frankly, Lady Lysbeth could order anyone in the bathhouse to cause problems for me and certainly will, so one more person won’t make a difference.”

“I know no one expects me to succeed. They want you to feel isolated with no allies,” Guil said. “I don’t want to abandon you. We’re friends.”

“That means a lot to me.” Sofia took a deep breath. “But I’m going back to the human realm in less than a month. We’ll never see each other again. You have to live in this world after I’m gone, Guil. You can’t afford to anger powerful people.” Given Guil’s fondness for expensive purchases, Sofia expected her friend would remain caught in a contract at the bathhouse for a long time. “I won’t ask you to ruin your life to help me. Especially when there’s nothing you can really do to help. From now on, I’m going to ignore you in public and act cold to you. Please never think that I’m actually angry at you. I’m doing this for your sake. You’ve been a great friend. Thank you for guiding me when I first came here.”

Sofia stood up and left, before Guil had time to say anything. It would be easier on Guil if she never had to agree to it. In the doorway, Sofia screamed, “How dare you try to lock me into your room! We’re done. Never speak to me again.” She slammed the door and glared at everyone in the hallway. They fled out of her way.

Sofia was alone again. No allies. The whole world against her. That was nothing new. It would be just like when she first came to this realm.

Sofia spent the next week being paranoid. In her entire life, it had never before been more important for her to not make any mistakes.

She only traveled between her room and her work attending Koa. When she picked up food in the cafeteria, she took it back to her room to eat. She did not enter the breakroom or any other semi-private location. During her weekly rest days, she did not go outside at all. Alas, she had used up all her vacation in anticipation of her contract ending soon, and she didn’t think she’d get approved for sick leave no matter how awful her mental health felt.

In addition to the locks on her bedroom door, she’d rigged up a trip rope and stuck silverware between the floorboards to stab unwary feet. Her window had been boarded up. Marbles covered her floor, designed to roll and make noise if anyone stepped into her room, hopefully waking her up. Her morning routine had turned into a tripping hazard. She’d injured herself with her own traps twice. Poor sleep had destroyed her reflexes.

In the hallways, her fellow employees stared and whispered. Dozens of different people had come up to her to tell her to “Be reasonable about this” or that “you can’t understand how much you’d be giving up.” Some were friendly acquaintances, others strangers. It took a mental toll, to know that everyone was against her.

Chiyo’s family had bought out her contract and she’d gone home. Sofia avoided Guil like the black plague. On the rare occasions that their eyes met, Guil seemed sad, but she didn’t try to approach. Sofia was glad for that small favor. It would have only stressed her out more to need to act cold.

In the hallways, Sofia walked with her shoulders to the wall, wary of anyone trying to shove her into rooms. When people came too close, she leapt away. Fortunately, everyone remained nervous enough of her to give her a wide berth. To see them scamper, she would think she already had poison powers.

Public restrooms were a danger zone, too easily locked. Instead she held it in until she could return to her bedroom. Since her promotion to receptionist, she had a small bathroom attached to her new room. It was not large enough to have a bathtub, and the spirit realm hadn’t adopted showers yet. (Or at least Lady Lysbeth hadn’t, she probably considered them heresy). The staff had free access to the multi-person large baths, with private baths available for a discounted fee. Sofia considered the public baths too dangerous. She’d have to remove the guru’s rope from her person. The soothing herbs in the bath could be tampered with. Her clothing could be stolen. She’d be naked and surrounded by the enemy. Instead, she washed herself off the best she could in her sink. Her hair had gotten greasy.

Once someone opened a door too close to her face and too fast. Sofia had her fist raised in seconds, nearly punching, before she saw the frightened face with a scrunched-up nose and rabbit ears. It had definitely not been an attack. She’d mumbled an apology and fled in mortification. That time had very nearly been a deadly mistake—she could have gotten her second demerit for attacking someone.

When forced into Koa’s presence, she refused to give him a yes or no answer to any communications. It was an effective strategy to avoid interrogation and drove him insane.

“What do you like to read?”

“Anything is fine.”

“What is your family structure? Any siblings?”

“We all come from some womb.”

“What did you dream of doing someday back in the human world?”

“Dreams are nice.”

“What are your hobbies?”

“I like having free time.”

“What would you like to drink?”

“Whatever you have.”

“Do you want to play a game?”

“Sometime.”

“What language did you find hardest to learn?”

“I don’t know, how about you?”

“Do you like to collect any objects?”

“Your book collection is lovely.”

“How did you end up in the spirit realm?”

“I don’t know.”

“How did you start working for the bathhouse?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do! You signed a contract!”

“Did I?”

Threats and bribes received the same treatment.

“I could assign you to more unpleasant tasks than talking to me, if you can’t manage that.”

“That’s your choice.”

“I would let you pick a book from my hoard if you would answer a single question in a straightforward manner, and not in that slightly dumb puzzled tone either!”

“Would you?”

After that she had been briefly entertained watching him slam his head into the table. By the time he looked up, she hid her giggle.

One morning, after Sofia climbed up to the tower and knocked on Koa’s door, there was no answer. She hesitated. If she entered without permission, she could get in trouble, and if left she could be blamed for missing her shift. She knocked louder.

A snuffling sound came from inside the room. A snore? Then Koa screamed like a fire alarm. The metal door hinges melted. Sofia leapt away as the wood fell.

Grey mist with a salty scent drifted past, caressing her almost affectionately. Koa wailed, teetering on the edge of heart-destroying grief and rage: “She was only five years old, you monsters.”

Before he could bring down the tower, Sofia ran into the darkness. Following the screaming, she grabbed his shoulder and shook it. “Wake up!”

Koa’s eyes snapped open. It was as if the sun flickered back into existence. Light again poured through the open window, a breeze playing with the curtains. He must have dozed off sitting in his armchair before an end table holding a bottle of wine. The liquid had curdled into an unappetizing black mess. Several bloody scales lay on the arms of his chair—judging from the scratches on his arms, he’d grown them and clawed them off in his sleep. He inhaled deeply, sucking up the last of his poison back into his lungs.

Defensively, Sofia said, “I’m allowed to enter your room if I suspect you’re in danger or causing harm to the bathhouse. Page ninety-two, line thirty-five.”

“Thank you.” He rubbed his forehead. “Are you all right?”

His fingers twitched as if he longed to take her shoulders and examine her. She sat down across from him too fast. “Of course I’m all right. That’s why you’ve been relentlessly harassing me. If I ever develop a vulnerability to your poison, I would rush to tell you all about it.”

His gaze swept the melted metal handles on a cabinet. Everything metal in the room seemed to have taken damage. The clock had stopped working. “I’m calculating how much I’ll owe Lysbeth for this…she charges triple market value for guest damage…”

“Should you have a tower room if you’re prone to destroying it in your sleep?”

“I haven’t had nightmares in centuries.”

She nearly asked him what the nightmare had been about, then remembered her strategy. She shouldn’t let herself get drawn into a conversation with him at all. Her face turned to a stone mask.

“That look on your face means trouble.” Koa snorted. “You could never fool me.”

“Does it?”

He winced. “Really? Are we doing this again? You were talking like a person, not a low-level animated piece of equipment.”

“Was I?”

Dark splotches appeared down his neck, a sign of stress in dragons. He groaned, “At least I’ve learned one thing about you: you’re good at psychological warfare.”

“Am I?” Sofia asked blandly, sitting ramrod straight in her chair.

“Quite brilliant at it. I’m about ready to inject poison into my own veins.” He gazed morosely at his ruined wine glass. “Alas, it wouldn’t knock me unconscious.”

“If you say so.”

“I’ve asked everyone who worked with you at the bathhouse to tell me about you.”

Her pulse spiked, but she did not show it on her face. Yes, it was aggravating, but it was also expected. She remained completely still. “Did you?”

“I know that you’re smart. Very few people would rise in the ranks so fast, and it must have been even harder for a human with no experience in our world, no family backing, and no resources. You’re adaptable, and you have ambition.” He raised his head, eyes narrowed to focus on her, some of that draconic pressure leaking out. “I’m surprised you haven’t at least considered my offer.”

Sofia widened her eyes and said in her most dumb voice: “There was an offer?”

“Aargh!” Koa clamped both hands around his nose. Yellow gas leaked out. He took deep breaths, sucking it back in again. The gas didn’t bother her, aside from the slightly sour smell. She sat still and watched him, counting the seconds until she could return to her room. She didn’t feel safe there, nowhere felt safe, but at least she could get a little rest. She’d been sleeping so badly, her head throbbed and her eyes felt grimy.

Koa blew his nose, incinerating the handkerchief in the process. “Let’s strike a bargain. I will grant you the next three days off from attending me. In exchange, you’ll hear me out for this afternoon and communicate with me like a sane person. You can have the three days afterward to think about joining my clan. I’ll even promise no tricks, traps, or attempts to transform you for those three days.”

Sofia hesitated. His irritation proved that her strategy had been effective. If she gave him a break from her grey rocking, then it felt as if she would be handing him a victory. On the other hand, her body longed for a deep sleep without fear of an attack. If she kept this up, what if she collapsed?

“I want you to sign a magically binding contract. It must include a clause that you will not benefit indirectly from anyone else tricking me either. You can’t control everyone around us, I’ve noticed. And I want two weeks.”

He smiled. “I’ll agree to the contract and let you write the language. I will need to use Lysbeth’s writing materials and obtain her agreement to the deal, as well as a promise to rein in her staff, but I don’t anticipate any pushback. Three days is the maximum time I’m willing to offer. As an added incentive, I will allow you to use my private bath.”

The bath was a tempting bribe indeed. She snorted. “If I smell, then you don’t have to force me into your company.”

“You’ll need the bath afterward, to wipe my poison off you.” He raised a kingly eyebrow. “I am going to grant you a privilege that very few humans have ever received: a dragon back ride.”

As the buildings below turned the size of dollhouses, Sofia’s breath caught. She’d been on airplanes before. This was entirely different. There was no glass between her and the shrinking ground below. The air roared in her ears.

Trinidad would kill for this opportunity. Maybe that was why Sofia had agreed, even when she’d found out that Koa did not have a saddle and seemed offended at the mere suggestion. She’d heard her sister’s voice in the back of her head, calling her a coward if she didn’t seize this priceless chance.

Koa’s back would have been far too enormous for a saddle, anyway. She could have built an entire house up here. If sitting on the ridges along his spine, it would have been impossible to see anything except dragon scales and feathers. Instead, he’d seated her on his snout, close enough to the edge for her to look over. Part of her wanted to close her eyes. The rest couldn’t tear her gaze away. The trees were so tiny, it seemed like she could have plucked one from the earth and used it as a toothpick. She felt comfortable nestled in the feathers on his nose. They wrapped around her, protecting her from the colder air higher up. Koa’s magic wrapped around her as well, holding her in place so that she couldn’t fall. She would have to trust that he didn’t want her to fall. He couldn’t transform a corpse.

They rose up past a roaring waterfall, close enough for the mist to caress her face. Then they were high above the mountains as well. Dozens of waterfalls rippled down the mountains like silver-white threads. The tips had been dusted white with snow that lasted year-round.

In dragon form, Koa’s voice boomed like thunder. “Where would you like to go?”

Home. But he would not take her home any more than he would let her fall. “Just move slowly,” she shouted over the wind. She felt a little ashamed of the squeak in her tone. Hopefully the air currents would cover it.

Wings spread wide, he drifted on the current. It was a smooth ride. Even the passing wind died down. The trees below turned into the dark and twisted mess of the Lost Woods. She had never before realized a river ran through the cursed forest. The water looked black. At this height, she couldn’t tell if it flowed.

“We’re going to be stuck with each other for a very long time, so we ought to get to know each other,” Koa said. “It’s our fate.”

The feathers underneath her rippled when he talked. She clung on a bit tighter. Even though she had resolved to be as uncommunicative as possible, she replied just to get a break from the movement: “No, we’re not. You can’t create another clan member besides me. But I can still go home.”

“Even if I gave up, do you think the rest of the spirit realm would? They have entirely selfish reasons to desire another elixir producer. They would still seek to turn you, then present me with someone without any memories who would willingly accept the last bit of poisoned power from me.” The second time he spoke, his snout barely moved. Perhaps he’d noticed her grip and made her ride smoother on-purpose.

“Don’t pretend to be an innocent party here. You’ve done nothing to stop it. You want someone else to share your burden. You want someone you can touch without being underwater in a bath of elixir.”

“I have never pretended concerning my intentions. I was attempting to point out the futility of your situation. Humans in the past have evaded one spirit—you need to evade the entire spirit world.”

“I’m told your clan gets a lot weaker in the human realm.”

“Touche.” He snorted. If the reminder of the loss of his clan bothered him, he did not show it in his tone. “I don’t want to use methods as harsh as the Poison Clan has in the past. Even when memories are erased, negative emotions can linger. I’ve ordered the rest of the spirit realm to stand down on any future attempts to threaten human residents or people who you’ve become close to at the bathhouse. This includes indirect or economic threats like that disgraceful mess with the soap-making business that they bragged to me about.”

She tensed at the reminder. It was good news, but the self-righteousness grated. Did he want a medal for being not quite as bad as whoever had turned him? What if he changed his mind as the end of her contract approached? “There’s no one in the bathhouse I care about,” she lied.

“Spare me the lies, they aren’t necessary. I never break my promises.”

He’d promised once to turn her, so she hoped that wasn’t a prophecy. “You flew me up here to make a sales pitch. Is your offer only that you won’t use hostages against me? Because that’s barely above a veiled threat.”

“I do not know what a sales pitch means, but I have something to show you.” Koa turned, wing tilting slightly. Then they were past the Lost Woods and over a new village.

A massive white castle spread below, with a huge square tower holding a golden bell. The flag from the highest tower showed a pair of black antlers. Smaller buildings and homes surrounded the marble centerpiece. Sofia stared, trying to soak in every last detail. They were too high up to see people, except for the lone figure in the belltower, who bowed as Koa’s shadow fell over.

“Your former human companion lives in this village.”

“You promised you wouldn’t take hostages.”

“As if that one would have any value as a hostage!” He laughed, exhaling silvery droplets that melted the clouds. “She’s been living in luxury for the last year while you can’t afford books. I’d assumed you must be enemies.” He turned again, headed back over the Lost Woods. “I don’t know if your weak eyesight could see her below, but she bowed down like everyone else. As a member of the Clan of Poison, her status would become antlike next to yours.”

Now there was a truly delicious image, the first decent temptation he’d provided. Sofia had stored up years of small slights and places where she’d had to yield to the more popular girl. It wasn’t as if she wanted to hurt Alexa. Just knowing that Alexa knew Sofia was more important would have been the sweetest vengeance.

“She’s not worth it.” Sofia meant it. Although it was a lovely daydream, she wasn’t about to make her life decisions based around a high school annoyance.

“I have been struggling to know with what exactly to tempt a human,” Koa said. “I do not remember much of being one. The single strongest feeling that lingered from that time: powerlessness. I suspect you know what it feels like to be powerless, too. At the least, you tasted it when you first came to the spirit realm. It’s awful, isn’t it? Like a sickness in the heart. Humans can so easily become powerless. Even if you carve out a safe place for yourself, it only takes one accident or illness or natural disaster to erase your life.”

Koa wheeled higher. They shot past an eagle. Sofia gasped. They soared over the snowy peaks of mountains. At this height, everything except the peaks was obscured by the clouds. With a blast of gas from his mouth, he incinerated the snow off the mountain below. It roared down as half a dozen new waterfalls. His voice thrummed with the wind: “This is true power. Nothing could ever take it away from you. Spirits have hardships like humans, but if you accept the magic of the Poison Clan, you will never be completely helpless ever again. I do not know what you want. You’ve been careful to hide your heart from me. But nearly anything you desire would be easier to obtain with power.”

Here was the far more deadly temptation, a stiletto blade slipping through her ribs straight into her heart. Sofia had been afraid ever since she’d lost her parents as a child and realized the world was cruel and dangerous. She’d always been fighting to survive, hanging over hell by a single shaking bridge, knowing one mistake would send her crashing down. If she had power, then she would finally be safe.

The magic to burn mountains made a law firm seem like a small and petty goal.

But there was one thing power could not obtain for her: Trinidad. Her heart’s desire was to return home to her sister. Trinidad, with her strong sense of justice, would inevitably clash with a monster who had developed spirit realm questionable morals. Nothing would ever rip Trinidad from her world as had happened to Sofia, because Sofia wouldn’t allow it. And Sofia did not want to be separated from her sister either.

“I’m not expecting an answer now,” Koa said. “I promised you three days to think.”

He dove down. Air ripped at her hair. The stone bathhouse appeared below the clouds. With barely a bump, he landed in the grass by the outdoor pool.

“That was an amazing ride.” Amazing wasn’t an adequate word. “I’ll think carefully about what you said.” It had never been possible to change her mind, but there was strategic value in letting him think that persuasion might work. Perhaps he’d try this again, and she could get another deal.

He chuckled, one claw over his snout to restrain the gas. “I know when you’re lying. I remember, too, how I had petty mortal reasons to resist that seemed so very important at the time. Now everything that I ever wanted to protect as a human is dead and gone, but I’m still here. I adapted. You would, too. You remind me of myself when I was younger.”

Sofia had not felt cold for her entire trip up the mountains, but now a chill stronger than a snowstorm seeped under her skin. Koa’s words rang entirely too true. She’d always been a survivor. She could so easily see how she could become him, given time and that addicting power.

Sofia had always been good at reading others. It helped her know how to manipulate people, but on the flip side, it became easy for her to empathize with them. It had been a weakness when she’d sympathized with Chiyo’s reasons too much to be properly ruthless. It was why she’d never held onto anger at Alexa. Trinidad believed in justice and hated those who had wronged her. Sofia understood shades of grey. She understood Koa too well to hate him.

But she was not dumb enough to pity him, either. He had the entire devoted and adoring spirit realm to soothe him after she left. Even if he thought he needed her, there were other cures to his loneliness. The burden he carried came with plenty of wealth and prestige as compensation.

Grey rocking had been a smarter tactic. She regretted ever striking a bargain to speak to him.

A nice hot bath erased a lot of Sofia’s regret. The round brick tub had been designed to keep heat in, almost too much, but she enjoyed her bathwater very hot. The porcelain inside had been padded and had jets. Sofia sunk low with her back against the jet, using it as a massager. She had a crick in her back from sleeping on it funny. The water pressure melted her tension away.

A floral scent rose off the bath, mingled with the salty steam. Underneath, she could smell hints of the amber scent of elixir. Golden sparkles floated on the surface of the water. Elixir was the antidote to all poison. It would melt off every last bit left on her. The elixir had faded her aches and tiredness too. The last redness from where she’d hurt her finger escaping the closet was gone.

Sofia dried off thoroughly and dressed in a fresh uniform before stepping out of the bathroom. Her wet hair had been wrapped up in a towel.

Koa sat in an armchair, concentrating as a drop of gold emerged from his finger into a ceramic bowl below. He called, “I’m producing poison, stay away unless you want to hop back into the bath again.”

Lingering in the doorway, she called, “It looks like you’re creating elixir.”

“Elixir is generated from my most highly concentrated poison. Ironic, isn’t it? The greatest panacea originates from the most powerful poison. I isolate myself several times a day to concentrate my poison.” He fastened a lid over the bowl. “This drop can become a bottle of elixir. It needs to be refined and diluted using magic before it will be safe and useful, but many people can do that part.”

Whereas only Koa could produce the key ingredient, granting him the position of most necessary person in the spirit realm. “Is it hard to isolate yourself?”

“No, I like reading alone. It’s a great excuse to dodge messages from other clan heads.” He gestured at the end table. “I’m gifting you a few books for your vacation reading, that I’ve already finished.”

Free books were free books, even when they came from a monster who wanted to end her human life. She picked them up. “Shouldn’t you pretend to be desperately lonely to appeal to my sympathy?”

“That wouldn’t work on you.” His confidence bothered her—he’d come to understand a few things about her despite her best efforts to reveal as little as possible. “You’re not seriously considering my offer, are you?”

“Why would you say that? I’m expressing interest in your work right now.”

“Whatever your heart’s desire, it lies in the human realm.” He met her gaze, a cool calculation swirling in the rainbow depths. “It feels as if through a fog, but I can almost recall the days when events in the human realm mattered so much to me. I remember wanting to protect someone and going to war for that reason. You might assume I can do nothing to help you with a wish to protect or destroy humans, but you would be wrong. The spirit realm has connections to the human one. How do you think we acquired so much of your technology? Our power is weaker in your world but not useless. We can still bless or curse people. If you don’t want safety for yourself…would you bargain for it for someone else?”

Talking with him had definitely been dangerous. It took very little information for him to understand entirely too much. This whole deal might have been a mistake, no matter how clean and floral-scented she felt. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” She retreated behind her emotionless tone and neutral face, before beating a literal retreat out of his room.

The vacation from work was a brief moment of bliss. Sofia had expected Koa’s books to be full of pro-spirit propaganda, but apparently he liked to read mysteries. The spirit world had completely different police procedures: the stories revolved around using magic to uncover crimes and finding a way to get revenge on the culprit if the murderer had been a noble unable to be held accountable. Sofia had poured every bit of her salary into buying out her contract early, so she’d never purchased spirit realm books before.

Trinidad would love these stories, though if Sofia brought them back home, she didn’t know how she’d explain the illustrations literally jumping off the page. Perhaps the magic in the stories would stop working in the human realm? Or merely become less effective? It was tricky for her to say.

The shift from relaxing in her room to 24/7 paranoia was brutal enough that Sofia once again wondered if she’d misstepped in agreeing to Koa’s deal.

On Sofia’s first morning in the cafeteria, she slipped on a spill left on the floor and nearly fell behind the counter. Chest heaving, gripping the counter, she glanced around. Everyone in the cafeteria was pointedly looking away from her. If she’d fallen behind, she had no doubt she would have ended up mysteriously locked in a cupboard while everyone pretended not to hear her screaming.

Over the last three days, she’d gotten used to being able to eat without anyone attacking her. Her guard had slipped, nearly fatally.

Upon returning to her room, she noticed someone had swapped the numbers on the bedroom doors. Fortunately she recognized the putty she’d put on her door handle to catch anyone who entered while she was gone. “Nice try,” she growled as she swapped the numbers back.

Cleaning off the food stain on her skirt put her behind schedule. Fortunately, she always left extra time. Although spirits had a casual attitude toward time, she had no doubt that she would be punished for being one second late.

Sofia found an out-of-order sign on the moving stairs leading up to Koa’s tower. The perpetually thrumming stairs had gone silent. The clock on the wall said she had less than five minutes.

There was no other way to reach the tower. Sofia stepped over the rope with the sign, then ran.

People in the spirit realm averaged taller than humans. The stairs were a bit too far apart, just right for tripping and just wrong for running. After the second flight of stairs, her throat felt like sandpaper. By the third flight of stairs, the sandpaper had rubbed through her thigh muscles. At the top of the fourth flight, she gripped the banister, gasping like she was on life support. She sucked in a deep breath, then took the last flight two steps at a time.

Flinging open Koa’s door, Sofia growled, “I’m. Not. Late.”

“You’re just in time,” Koa said, closing his book. “Would you like a drink?” His smugness made her nervous. He didn’t seem to have any actual fear she’d escape at the end of her contract if his tricks didn’t work. For the rest of the day, she had her revenge by answering all of his questions with questions.

On the second day back at work, Sofia took a huge amount of breakfast back to her room so she wouldn’t need to visit the cafeteria for the rest of the day. She found a button in a closet where someone had turned off the moving stairs. They worked perfectly once switched back on. Someone had switched the stairs off again by the time she wanted to go down.

On the third day, Sofia’s breakfast sloshed around in her stomach. She shouldn’t have eaten that expired food. She’d arrived for work half an hour early, just in case. She opened the closet door, careful not to step inside. Using a stick, she pressed the button to turn on the stairs.

As the carpet purred to life, she whirled around, fists raised for anyone trying to shove her into the closet.

Green cloth flickered out of the corner of her eyes. Sofia punched.

Her fist caught on velvet. The curtains of a cracked window had been wavering in the wind.

Sofia swallowed down her nausea. She could have gotten a demerit if she’d attacked someone for merely passing by. Too little paranoia could cause her to fall into a trap, but too much paranoia could also be her downfall.

Leaning against the wall, she blinked away the threatening tears. Even now, she could not shake the fear that someone might sneak up behind her if she cried. Her stomach pinched.

Screw this, she was taking sick leave.

Lysbeth would not want to let Sofia spend the rest of her contract holed up in her room. Sofia marshalled her arguments as she headed for Lysbeth’s office, recalling all the sickness-related clauses in the contract.

At the door to Lysbeth’s office, Sofia heard her name, and she froze.

“Sofia…she didn’t give a last name, not even on the contract, and I didn’t think to ask because spirits don’t use them…no, I’m not certain which country, she speaks both English and Spanish fluently…in the worst-case scenario, I’ll have an exact location for you in a few weeks. I’d rather present her to Koa as a fait accompli. He’d believe it his duty to chase her down personally, and the current only member of the Poison Clan shouldn’t ever leave the spirit realm. Come to think of it, we do have one other option—one that Koa might like even less.”

Sofia froze, the acid in her stomach crawling up her throat. They were talking about going after her in the human realm. Her contract required Lysbeth to take her home—but that would mean that Lysbeth would know at least the rough area where she lived. The bathhouse had connections used to purchase human products. If she hadn’t been sleep-deprived and in survival mode, she would have realized it sooner. Just because she made it home didn’t mean she’d be safe. Once the contract ended, there would be nothing preventing the spirits from stealing her back.

Lasting to the end of her contract wouldn’t save her.

Sofia’s stomach betrayed her with a gurgle.

Lysbeth called, “One demerit for eavesdropping. What brings you here, my dear?”

Mierda, the clause against eavesdropping had been on page eight of the contract. Sofia was on her second strike, and it might not matter because she was doomed anyway. She opened the door. “I’m taking leave because I’m sick today.”

Lysbeth sat alone behind her desk, whatever magical means of communication she’d used tucked away. “I have the discretion to turn you down if I suspect you’re faking it. Page eighteen, line twelve of the contract.”

“I believe line twelve specifically mentioned sick leave being used excessively. I haven’t taken a single sick day since I arrived.”

“Line twelve states ‘Sick leave may be denied for reasons such as excessive misuse.’ It’s an example, not the only reason. You don’t have any physical symptoms.”

Maintaining eye contact, Sofia leaned over and threw up on the handwoven spiral wool rug.

Lysbeth’s nose twisted. In the brief moment before her face turned neutral, she might even have looked guilty. “Your sick leave has been granted.”

By the time Sofia had a drink of water and returned to her room, she felt much better. Whatever bad food had been voided from her stomach. She did not let herself lie on the bed, where she might fall asleep. She paced the bedroom.

Her original plan had failed. She didn’t like her odds of surviving the contract on two demerits. Even if she did, she could not allow Lysbeth to fly her home because then her location would be known. Adapting meant abandoning failed plans, no matter the sunk cost. She hated to think of all her wasted effort working in the bathhouse. But if that strategy would not work, then she would not continue to waste more time.

She removed the rope and called the guru.

At first it didn’t seem as if anything had happened. Then Shivali’s hazy face appeared in her glass of water. “I’ve been wondering if you’d contact me.”

“You already know about my situation?” Sofia wasn’t sure if that would be a good or bad thing.

“Rumors have spread like wildfire across the spirit realm. Everyone is talking about the Poison Clan obtaining a new member as if it’s a foregone conclusion. An anonymous spirit tried to hire me to kidnap you.”

“Sssstiller.”

“Every village in the spirit realm has a contract with the Enchanted Embrace Bathhouse, so only a human could target you there. I don’t know if it was the Poison Clan head, or someone who wants to sell you to him. I turned it down.”

Sofia rubbed her forehead. Her head hurt too much for diplomacy. “I know I’m asking a lot, but can you help me?”

The mop handle appeared in the screen, poking Shivali’s cheek. She batted it away. “I know,” she said to Mopsy. Turning to meet Sofia’s gaze, she said, “A promise is a promise. Humans in the spirit realm have to look out for each other. I can fly you back to the human realm on the full moon in a few days. But you have to make it to the Puppet Village on your own to meet me. If you get caught, please don’t mention my name. I can’t let anyone find out that I helped you.”

Shivali didn’t sound happy about it, which made it more likely she was sincere in her offer. At this point, Sofia’s options were limited. She had to risk a trap. “I promise to never reveal you, if you get caught with me then I’ll pretend you were kidnapping me. Thank you. Right now, I feel like no one else has treated me fairly since I came to the spirit world, so seriously…thank you.”

After they arranged the meeting point, Sofia finally allowed herself to collapse onto her bed. She could take sick leave and hide in her room until the appointed time. She still needed to figure out a way to get out of the bathhouse without being caught. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to close her eyes for a few minutes first.

There was a knock on the door.

Sofia called, “Koa, I’m on sick leave. Ask Lady Lysbeth why you don’t want proof that I’m ill.”

Alexa replied, “It’s me.”

Sofia had the unpleasant and sleep-deprived realization that there was one other person in the spirit realm who knew her name and home address.

Chapter Text

Golden bangles swinging on her wrists, Alexa stretched out her arms as if about to hug Sofia.

Sofia stepped backward. “I’m sick.” It was an excuse. She’d never been a huggy person, but right now her paranoia didn’t want to let anyone within grabbing range. “Why are you here?”

“I heard you had fallen ill, and I was worried about you.”

“You’re here to either persuade me or trap me into the transformation.”

Alexa’s face crumbled. For a moment it seemed as if she would deny it. Then she blurted out, “Why would you not want to become a spirit? I’ve begged Faquer to transform me!”

“Did you tell them my last name and where I live?” Sofia grabbed Alexa by the shoulders. “Did. You. Tell. Them?”

“I didn’t, since it seemed like you’d kept it a secret.” Alexa pushed off Sofia’s hands. “I didn’t promise to trap you either. I just said I’d talk to you. I don’t know why you’d assume the worst of me. You’re the one who abandoned me for some stupid bathhouse. Looks like that didn’t work out for you.”

“Promise you won’t tell them,” Sofia said desperately. Except how could she ever trust that promise? Lysbeth wouldn’t have pulled out the bribes or threats yet, waiting to see if she would be able to give Sofia a last demerit and end the contract early. Lysbeth never did spend a drop of elixir unnecessarily. If Sofia escaped, then the entire spirit world would exert full pressure on Alexa for information. Sofia had no faith in Alexa’s ability to stand up to even minimal pressure. This was a nightmare. Perhaps Sofia could change her name and move, but she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life on the run. She wanted to be safe.

Worse, what if she brought trouble down on her sister?

The best option would be to take Alexa back to the human realm where she couldn’t blab, but Alexa didn’t want to go and couldn’t be considered a reliable escape partner. This was a disaster. There was no good solution.

“I promise,” Alexa said. Sofia was barely listening at that point, caught up in a swirling whirlpool of thoughts. Until Alexa added, “There’s no need to brag about all the powerful and important people paying attention to you.”

Jealousy, at a time like this? Why did Sofia have to deal with this crap when her entire life was falling apart? “I wish I could give them all to you,” Sofia snarled. “At least you had a choice, Alexa! Our options weren’t great, but we both had a choice when we first came here. I picked going home, I earned my way home, and I want to go home!”

“Everyone keeps saying that you’re special, why would you want to go back to being an ordinary girl?”

“Have you completely forgotten about your family?” Sofia shouted. “Don’t you ever miss your home?”

“How could our boring little town ever compare to a spirit village? Why would I return to exams and work when I could be a lady? How could any human man ever be as good as the Lord of Horns?” Alexa shouted back. Her face crumpled. “And he’s…if he’s tired of me…I don’t know what I’ll do.”

As the tears started, Sofia’s anger melted away. She pulled Alexa into a hug. “What happened? Did that horned bastard hurt you?” All her old fears returned. She’d known that guy was bad news from the moment she’d laid eyes on him, or at least a couple moments afterward!

Alexa rested her head against Sofia’s shoulder, as if needing to hide her face before she could tell this story. “I thought everything was going wonderfully with Faquer. He adores me and always brings back gifts from his trips. Then a new human girl came to our village. Just some servant. She was trying to seduce Faquer by acting pathetic, he’s too kind to see it. I arranged to send her to another village. He was furious, said he can’t see me the same way, that I acted like a heartless villain. What if I’ve lost his love? My maid said I should have a child with him to secure my position, so he’d have to let me stay in the castle even if he ends our relationship. But I’m not ready for a baby! When I visited the Puppet Village, I was picking up a potion to prevent pregnancy. I’m not sure if I can trust my maid to buy an effective one for me. Faquer always says he loves me, but he puts me off when I talk about marriage. Now that he’s angry with me, I realized that I have nothing if he leaves. All the expensive items in my room, they belong to him. Everything in the Village of Horns belongs to him. Oh, Sophie! You told me that I wasn’t good enough for him, and I’m afraid you might have been right. I’m not a high enough status to marry him, and I can’t live without him. What should I do?”

“There, there.” Sofia stroked Alexa’s hair and brushed away her tears. It must cost someone as proud as Alexa a lot to ask for advice. This situation was exactly what Sofia had feared on their first day in the spirit realm. Sure enough, now that it had happened, she felt no vindication, only rage at that horned bastard. Lord Faquer ought to be strung up by his balls.

“Let’s sit down.” Sofia guided Alexa to the bed and sat. She kept stroking Alexa’s hair. “I never said that you weren’t good enough for Lord Faquer. I said that he was taking advantage of you and good men don’t target teenagers. We fought because you interpreted that as me looking down on you. But he’s the one who isn’t good enough. What is he, anyway? Just a lesser noble of a tiny village, a big fish in a small pond. He probably targets human girls because it’s easy for him to play the hero and rescue us. He’d have to put in more effort if he wanted to court a powerful spirit. How does that make him better? It makes him small and petty.”

“If I have even less than him, what does that make me?” Alexa mumbled.

“The only reason you have less than him is because you got abducted into another realm, and he arranged circumstances to keep you dependent. You’re only lower status than him in his village by his rules.” Sofia patted Alexa’s back. “Back in our world, you’re a wealthy young lady with a bright future someday managing your family company. Do you think Faquer could run a company? He probably doesn’t know what the internet is. He wouldn’t last a day in the human realm. He’d wander about ordering people around and wondering why they didn’t obey. Then he’d get shot by someone who mistook him for a deer.”

This won a small giggle from Alexa.

“Don’t marry him. Don’t have a child with him, you’re too young and you don’t want to be bound to the horned bastard forever. He’s proven untrustworthy. Time to plan your exit strategy.”

“Maybe I was too quick to get jealous of that girl. He kept telling me that nothing happened. He just wanted to help her. She tried to seduce him to get a meal ticket.” Alexa sniffled. “I’m the idiot for overreacting and making a fool of myself. I’ve turned into a jealous harpy.”

“I wasn’t there, but a man who falls in love at first sight doesn’t tend to be faithful in the long run.” Sofia bit her lip, trying to find the right words. Last time, Alexa hadn’t liked being told she was too young for Faquer even if it was true. Sofia also had her doubts about who had been seducing who and how willingly, but Alexa wouldn’t want to hear that either. “My sister downloaded an anime to my phone that’s about a romance story, but from the perspective of the villainess. Apparently this is an entire genre? Anime started out with stories about a prince who falls in love with a commoner, and his jealous fiancée who bullies her. Except over time, people realized that a cheating prince isn’t such a good catch. The villainess is trapped in a position where her entire future relies on an unreliable man, and she’s scared of losing everything. So people started telling stories where the villainess is the main character, finds her own strength, and kicks the prince to the curb.”

“You think I’m a villainess?” Alexa didn’t sound too happy about it.

“No, I think that you’re caught in a bad position. You saw a threat that could destroy your entire life, so you reacted. But you do realize that the other girl isn’t your real problem? She was also lost in an unfamiliar world and scared. The horned bastard is your problem. There will always be other women in the world. If he’s not a loyal man, then nothing you say or do will convert him into one. Don’t let him turn you into the villainess in his story. Make your own story and turn him into the heroine’s worthless ex-boyfriend before she finds someone better.”

“But I love him!” Tears exploded down Alexa’s cheeks.

With great effort, Sofia restrained from rolling her eyes. She’d never understood why people made stupid decisions over love, not in stories and not in real life.

Instead, Sofia held Alexa’s face until she calmed down. “Even if you love him, he’s not treating you well. He’s left you in a position of dependence on him, then he behaves in a way to make you feel insecure. You can love him and still decide that you deserve better.”

“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Alexa admitted in a small voice, her face turned downward. “He won’t take me back to the human realm. I did threaten to go home, when I first caught him alone with that girl, and he laughed at me. He said I’m nothing without him. Afterward he brought me a gift, and I said I forgave him. But I knew then that I was in trouble. I just didn’t want to admit it.”

“Would you leave him if you could?” Sofia asked.

“Yes!” Alexa grabbed Sofia’s hands. “Do you have a plan? You’re smart, you always have plans. I don’t want Faquer to get away with treating me badly! I want to make him regret it when he realizes I’ve left his world and he’ll never see me again!”

Sofia hesitated.

It would solve the problem of preserving her secrets. It would also be a risk to bring Alexa into the escape plan. Sofia couldn’t help being annoyed too, because Alexa wouldn’t be contributing anything useful. Back on their first day in the spirit realm, Sofia had suspected that even if Alexa ended up regretting leaving with Faquer, someone would show up to rescue her from the consequences as usual. It turned out that someone was going to be Sofia.

But at the same time…Sofia did want to help Alexa. She hated what Faquer had done, hated that no one had stopped him in this world where the strong ruled. Once Sofia had told Trinidad that friends were people who could be useful. But hadn’t there been some real friendship between Sofia and Alexa? There had been times when they’d watched movies together and debated alternate endings afterward. They’d gone to the bakery and gotten two slices of cake, splitting them in half so they could each try both. Alexa had let Sofia borrow her SAT preparation materials, even though she didn’t understand the value of studying, because she knew it was important to Sofia.

As Sofia looked into Alexa’s watery eyes, she couldn’t just leave Alexa behind. She couldn’t have left anyone in an abusive relationship, but especially not a friend.

“I might have a plan. Before I say anything, promise me that you won’t tell anyone, whether you decide to come with me or not.”

Alexa rubbed her eyes and said, “I swear it on our friendship.”

Sofia explained about how she’d come to realize that her contract wouldn’t be adequate protection, and her backup way to return to the human realm. She finished, “I’ll need to ask my contact about transporting two people instead of one. Can you pay?”

Alexa held up her arm, with four bracelets. “I’ll bring all my jewelry.” She kissed Sofia’s cheek. “I knew you’d have a way, Sophie. Thank you for everything. I was scared and didn’t know what to do, but I feel so much better after talking to you.”

“You’re welcome. From now on, could you please call me Sofia, not Sophie?”

Alexa blinked. “Do you not like the nickname? You never said.”

“I’ve come to feel more strongly about it. I never told you not to call me Sophie before, so you don’t need to feel bad about it. Everyone I care about calls me Sofia, so I’d like you to call me that too.”

Sofia meant it as a gesture of friendship. From now on, Sofia would stand up for herself if Alexa did something that upset her. That way, they could become real friends. They had survived another world together. That ought to create a lifelong friendship.

Nothing could avoid the need to wait a few days until the full moon. Sofia had already stocked up on bland, nonperishable crackers so she didn’t need to leave her room. Yet mere minutes after Alexa left, Koa was pounding on her door.

“Do you have a fever? Any spots? I brought elixir, enough to cure anything.”

Through the door, Sofia called, “I refuse to grant you permission to enter my room.” She leapt to her feet, muscles tensed to run.

“You’ll see me, or you’ll see a doctor. Upon this point, I must insist.”

Unfortunately, the contract did include medical examinations to prove the necessity of sick leave. A doctor could reveal that Sofia had nearly fully recovered from her food poisoning. Sofia calculated rapidly. “If I allow your visit, then it can’t last longer than an hour and you won’t dispute my sick leave for as long as I take it.”

“Yes, anything.”

Perhaps she should have bargained harder.

Koa rushed into the room. Books, blankets, pillows, and soup floated around him. He placed a hand on her forehead. “You don’t feel feverish.” She was nearly about to use the contract to get his hands off, but he let go on his own, turning to grab a very thick blanket out of the air. “This is enchanted to always change to the right temperature for your comfort. What are you doing out of bed? You need to look after yourself better, it only takes a minor illness to kill a human. I can’t lose you too. Go on, lie down.”

As the path of least resistance, she lay on the bed.

Two pillows floated over. He pushed them under her so she could sit half-upright, then handed her a vial of golden liquid. “Drink.”

Sofia gazed at the sparkling elixir. With this, she could have ended her contract. Money could have other uses in her plan, too. Could she save a few drops?

“Drink it all or see a doctor,” Koa growled.

If she tried, then she might get accused of stealing the liquid and obtain another demerit. Sighing, she let go of the idea and drank the entire vial.

Elixir tasted sweet and a tad fruity. It warmed her up from the inside immediately, as if she’d drunk a gallon of hot chocolate. The tiredness of many nights of uneasy sleep and paranoia faded away, replaced by enough energy to bounce off the walls.

However, Koa looked as if he might faint if she even tried to stand. Worry lines ran down his face. His shirt had been buttoned up one button off. He fussed over her blanket, tucking it up to her neck. “I brought chicken noodle soup. I’ve read that it can cure any human illness, even those of the soul.”

Chicken noodle soup had never been Sofia’s favorite food, but it would be a welcome change from crackers. She worked one arm loose of the blanket to grab the spoon floating in the air.

From the first sip, it tasted exactly as salty as Campbell’s chicken noodle soup. The nostalgia brought a lump to her throat. She had to inhale deeply so she wouldn’t cry.

“Is it terrible? The moment you saw it, you made the face of a girl who got a doll when she wanted a spear.” Koa twisted his hands. “I knew that anything that arrived in such an ugly metal cylinder must be unappetizing.”

“No, it’s great. It tastes exactly like soup from the human world. How did you get this?”

“A few rapid bargains with traders from the human realm and a teleportation spell. I’m glad it suits your palate.”

He spoke so casually of powerful magic. It was possible that this soup had cost as much as Sofia’s yearly salary. How depressing.

“You should drink water to balance out the unnatural salt content.” He held up a cup to her lips.

She took it from him. “You don’t need to feed me and you certainly don’t need to micromanage how I eat. I’m not a child.” The water was appreciated, though. She took a sip.

He ran his fingers through his hair. “I take your point. The last sick child I looked after was much younger than you.”

“You look after children?”

“No, I never associate with any children, I don’t know why I said that.”

Sofia might. In his sleep, he’d said, She was only five years old, you monsters. She could make a good guess at what he’d lost, along with his humanity and his memories.

She refused to pity him. But she told him, “Thanks for the soup.”

He arched an eyebrow. “You’ve been oddly capable of holding a conversation today.”

Because she’d given up on frustrating him now she had a solid escape plan. “I must be tired. Don’t get used to it.”

“You should rest, as soon as you’re done eating. I’ll read you a bedtime story.”

“I’m too old for bedtime stories too. Leave the books, I’ll read them myself.”

“Can you read all of these languages?” The books around him tilted to show titles she could not understand.

“Oh, fine.” She could let him win this round. The war would be hers.

After a very long year, Sofia was going home. If only she could be happy instead of terrified. Just thinking about her three obstacles made her sick again.

First, Sofia had to sneak out of the bathhouse without getting caught or followed.

Secondly, Sofia had arranged to meet Alexa at the bridge in the Puppet Village. Sofia had not revealed to Alexa the meeting point with the guru or Shivali’s name. Alexa’s desperation had been clearly sincere, but she was the type to fold under pressure if she got caught, so it would be better to tell her as little as possible. Shivali had agreed to take a second person, but it had clearly been more out of pity for Alexa’s circumstances than the jewelry. Sofia owed it to the guru and the mop to minimize their risk.

Thirdly, Shivali would be waiting for Sofia and Alexa at the gate to the Lost Woods.

Just three steps, then Sofia would go home and give her little sister a hug. There would be a lot of explaining to do. Trinidad would believe the truth, even if no one else would. They’d find a story to tell the rest of the world. Then they could finally talk about anime. Sofia had entire essays saved up. She’d watch anything else her little sister recommended next. She’d even let Trinidad have the last flan. Sofia would become the greatest sister ever, if she was given a second chance at it. She felt certain she could maintain this state of unconditional love for at least a few months before Trinidad pissed her off.

Enough reminiscing. It was time for action.

Sitting on her bed, Sofia pinched herself to stay awake. When the full moon completely rose, it was time to leave. She took nothing with her—a large sack would look suspicious, and she had very little. She would have to steal a disguise. By the time she broke the contract, she’d be in enough trouble that one more crime wouldn’t matter. If she got caught, they wouldn’t lash her. They’d only modify her mind and body without her consent.

Sofia put on an older blue cleaner uniform, then her receptionist uniform on top. She slipped out her window. She had no doubt her door was being watched, and the window too. But the watcher would follow her subtly, trying to catch her breaking the contract.

Sofia landed in a crouch behind a thick Arolla pine. After months of living in this room, she felt confident this one did not have a dryad in it. Probably because of the thick honeysuckle bushes growing around, choking the tree. Sofia stripped off her outer uniform and left a sleeve visible between the branches. Hopefully that would trick anyone watching into thinking that she was still hiding in the bush, possibly waiting for a secret meeting. She figured she had a few minutes. She would not count on longer than that.

Wearing the blue cleaner’s uniform, Sofia crawled behind the bushes, along the wall. She winced at each twig stuck in her hair, not because of the dirt but because she feared making a sound. Despite her lack of sleep and hot food, she still felt great. The elixir in her veins had granted her an unnatural energy.

Stopping near the front walkway, she cracked a window open and stole one of the scaly curtains. She wrapped it around her head.

Bright moonlight shone down over the bathhouse village. As Sofia walked past the trees, they had no faces, likely all asleep. Just in case, she adopted a rolling, fluid stride that she had observed in snake spirits.

The doorway to other villages was guarded by a centaur who had fallen asleep on his feet. Briefly, Sofia dared hope she’d gotten lucky. Instead, he jolted awake as soon as she reached for the door knob.

Immediately, Sofia lowered her arm and tried to look innocent. With her eyes on the ground, he could only see the scales on her head. She hissed, “Ssssssssssurgent. Shhhhhhtake credit?”

Her serpentine accent was good enough to fool a sleepy centaur. “Sure.” He held out a book.

In a moment of mischievous irony, Sofia signed the name of the thief who had stolen her backpack a year ago. Then she stepped through the doorway. She whispered, not wanting the centaur to be able to report where she’d gone later: “Puppet Village.”

Only when the door closed on the other side did her heart stop racing. She checked the door knob to make sure it had locked, earning a funny look from the centaur on the other side.

The first step had been the most difficult. At this point, if only Alexa hadn’t screwed up, they were home free.

There was no one on the street. Sofia gave up on a slithering walk and jogged for the bridge. When a cloud passed over the moon, she flinched.

As Sofia spotted the bridge in the distance, she ducked behind a tree. If Alexa hadn’t come, better for Sofia not to show herself.

A single hooded figure leaned over the railing. The cloud cleared. The full moon illuminated Alexa’s pale and nervous face.

Finally Sofia felt like she could breathe again. She swallowed huge gulps. In her mind’s eye, she could almost picture her little sister again. Had Trinidad grown taller? Did she still have braces? Soon the image in Sofia’s heart would be overwritten with the real thing. She was going home to her sister.

“Alexa!” The nervous cry came out a bit louder than Sofia had intended. She ran onto the bridge, catching Alexa up into a hug. “You made it. You’re safe now. He can never hurt or control you again. We’re going home.”

“Faquer’s not a bad person. I love him.” As Sofia stiffened, Alexa continued, “This is the best for both of us, Sophie. You couldn’t expect me to give up nobility and immortality, that would be very selfish of you. There’s no reason for you to be upset, you even got the more powerful spirit in love with you. Though mine is younger and more handsome.”

Sofia punched Alexa across the face.

Every last bit of betrayal filled the blow. That Alexa had promised on their friendship, that Alexa had only thought of herself to the end, that Alexa believed Koa had a romantic obsession and would have sold Sofia out anyway, that Alexa still couldn’t remember the right name. It granted Sofia a hysterical strength near what mothers used to lift cars off babies.

Her thumb burned with pain, maybe injured, but she didn’t care, she wanted to punch that traitor a hundred more times. She wanted to strangle the whining justifications away, then toss the corpse off the bridge. But she did not have time. Alexa tumbled to the ground, her eyes wide and stunned. Sofia burned that hurt face into her mind, determined to hold onto her hatred even if she lost all other memories. Then she ran. To the end, even when she had only the slimmest of chances, returning to her sister was more important than revenge.

Sofia ran straight into Koa.

He’d worn pure black, blending into the night. He caught her at the base of the bridge and pulled her into a suffocating embrace. He pinned her arms to her side and tucked her legs under his other arm, holding her off the ground. She panted, unable to even stretch her neck far enough to bite him.

His rainbow eyes swirled with tenderness as he looked down on her, the only color in the night. He brushed their cheeks as if offering comfort, then murmured into her ear, “I never once threatened that girl. Of course, I didn’t need to. An insignificant bribe sufficed to convince the deer to propose marriage to her and agree to transform her. With a few sweet words from him, she sang like a canary, as the humans say—though her voice is far less sweet. She betrayed you for nothing except her own benefit and her self-centered love.”

No wonder Sofia hadn’t been able to see through the lie, there had been no lie. Quite likely Alexa had been sincere when they’d last met—then Alexa had sold Sofia out as soon as she’d gotten what she believed to be a better offer.

“You don’t even want me. I’m a replacement for someone you lost.” It was futile, yet she kept trying to the bitter end. “I’m only here because of a freak immunity.”

“I’m well aware that you’re your own person. I will enjoy getting to know you. People don’t usually pick their families, so who cares how it happened? We can fill the void of loneliness for each other. You’re my responsibility and my family, so I will give you all my love.”

“I’ll never forget my anger at you,” Sofia vowed, struggling against his grasp.

“Ah, yes, I said the same once. Only humans say ‘never.’ Immortals know the weight of the word. I’ll be impressed if you even manage to keep your justified anger at the oath-breaker.” He smiled, all sharp draconic teeth. “Before she sang, I never would have guessed you had a backup means out of the spirit realm. You’re even more brilliant than I thought. You might have escaped. Your only mistake was your poor taste in friends. I’ll teach you better, daughter.”

His breath smelled acidic as he kissed her cheek.

Heat rippled from his lips, glowing lines spreading down her body like a web. The magic took hold under her skin. It was over. It had probably been over from the moment Koa had first touched her and discovered her immunity. She’d only been struggling pathetically against an entire world, all alone.

Trinidad, Sofia thought, then there was nothing.

Chapter Text

Sofia was on fire. Her skin felt hot. Her blood felt hot. Her brain felt hot. She would swear even her hair felt hot.

Moaning, she tossed on the enormous sleigh bed. The pillows piled high around her like a cage. She beat her arms against the softness for a few minutes. Then she got too tired.

Koa pressed a cup of ice-cold elixir to her lips. She latched on, sucking it up desperately. She drank two glasses while he stroked her hair.

When she’d finished, he placed ice packs around her body. The coolness eased her back into slumber.

Koa brought her food periodically and fed it to her by hand. He changed the sheets when she soaked them through with sweat. He carried her to the bathroom. He sang lullabies to soothe her, in Spanish, English, and other languages.

She hated him. Sometimes she couldn’t remember why.

The fever ate through her flesh to reach her bones. The cells of her body melted down and reforged. She could no longer see anything except the red spots dancing in front of her eyes. She screamed until her throat gave out.

“This will pass, my child. It cannot kill you.” Koa sounded almost on the verge of breaking into tears himself. Why had he done this if he hated to witness her pain so much? His hands trembled as he pressed the cold packs around her body. She could no longer move even to shiver.

Waves of fire roared across her mind. Everything was being erased. All her past, all her dreams, all her goals—it all burned away. Ashes of her fantasy law firm drifted away. The last year, all the struggles to reach this point, and her grudges came crumbling down.

A mischievous face flashed across her mind, with braces and frizzy hair. There was one thing she could not let burn away. Trinidad. Her little sister. The person she loved most in the entire world.

Hadn’t she vowed to go home to her little sister no matter what?

Sofia tried to sit up. The mere attempt at movement made her scream in pain.

“Lie back and try to sleep.” Koa brushed back her sweat-soaked hair. “Anything you need or desire, I will bring to you. What do you want?”

“I want…I want…” Trinidad.

“Just speak the word, and it will be yours. I will control any village in the spirit realm and even invade the human realm for you.”

“I want…” Sofia clamped her lips shut. This was her secret. Her treasure. What she had to protect at all costs. Nothing could erase her sister from her heart.

As Sofia fell back into delirium, she kept clinging onto that one and only thing she would never let be taken away.

The fever broke after three days.

When Sofia next opened her eyes, she felt freezing cold. She shoved the cold packs away from her body. They fell off the bed, hitting the rug with a clatter. Koa had fallen asleep kneeling on the floor with his head on her bed, holding her hand. She untangled their fingers.

Her legs felt strange. Not weak, as she should have felt after such a powerful illness. Instead she felt as if she could kick straight through the wall. Yet she also wanted to crawl back in bed and sleep for a year.

She put her bare feet down carefully. Running her hands down her chest, she felt a fluffy cotton bathrobe. She’d sweated her way through a dozen of them, as she recalled. She could use a bath.

Sofia laughed. She didn’t know what to call this feeling that the word “bath” gave her.

Looking around, she seemed to be inside a massive cavern but with a floor too smooth to be natural. The towering walls had been packed high with books, until shelves with glass in front even covered the ceiling. A dragon-sized cushion in the middle had been surrounded with shelves of more books. Her bed had been pushed up close to the cushion. She was inside Koa’s hoard.

This place seemed a little familiar. Had she been here before? Of course she’d been here before. This was home.

A sudden, stabbing pain made her grip her head. Jaw clenched, she did not cry out so as not to wake the slumbering dragon.

Something was missing. Something she needed. Something she’d never give up, no matter what.

Determinedly, Sofia marched across the giant floor, toward a door big enough to fit an ancient dragon. She did not know how to open it, but she had to try. Nothing would stop her. She had to find her most important thing. She didn’t know what she wanted, but she would know it if she saw it.

Halfway to the door, Sofia was breathing harder. A pain pinched her side. She might have underestimated her tiredness. She exhaled deeply, a puff of yellow gas coming from her mouth.

Oh, no.

She clamped a hand over her mouth. Still the gas leaked out between her fingers. A single tear fell from her eye. It was colored black instead of clear.

She could not leave the hoard like this, leaking poison. Anything that she tried to hug, she would only kill. Even though she did not know what she’d desired with all her heart, she understood it was lost to her.

The tears fell harder and faster.

Koa scooped her up into his arms. “Does it still hurt?” he asked helplessly. “Rest. I’ll protect you this time, I’ve gotten so much stronger since last time. You’ll feel powerful soon. I hate this part, but when it’s done, you’ll be one of the strongest existences in the world. Then nothing will be able to kill you.”

As he carried her, she clung to him because she had nothing else left.

Instead of the bed, he placed her down on the cushion. Air pushed backward with a rush as he transformed. Massive coils of scales and feathers wrapped around her.

There, nestled in his warm embrace, the last rush of magic filled Sofia. The air around her blurred, the transformation too fast for her to feel her body change. A sleeping fox lay in the dragon’s coils, fur black all over to the tip of her ebony tail.

The world was a wonder to Sofia. The smells? Divine. Each book on the walls carried scents from a different era. The overpowering ink and paper mingled with traces of very old dirt, food, perfume, and a hint of blood. The whole cavern bore investigating.

On four paws, she climbed up the dragon’s coils and landed on the other side. It was easier to walk in four-legged form, her balance more stable. His scent reminded her of maple syrup and made her stomach growl.

The sound woke Koa. He slithered over and nuzzled her with a cheek bigger than her entire body. “A fox! I knew you’d be a fox, my cunning girl. Suck it, Lysbeth, I win our bet! Awww, you’re adorable. The most beautiful, precious fox kit in existence.”

He kept rubbing his cheek against her until she batted him away, claws out. “Knock it off, Father.”

The title felt right. She instinctively knew that he’d created her. Their magic felt similar.

“You called me Father!” He collapsed to the cave floor in a puddle of tears that rapidly soaked the surrounding area.

She jumped away, walking around the shelves and sniffing them. When she spotted a title in a language she could read, she reached for it. Except she didn’t have hands.

“Why can’t I get my hands back?” she asked with a hint of panic.

“You’ll need a few days to adapt to your new form, then you’ll be able to shapeshift. It won’t take long, I promise. I’ll read any book to you.” He shifted to human form. “But first, food.”

Koa opened a human-sized door she hadn’t noticed between the shelves, leading up a flight of stairs. His footsteps went up. Indeterminate voices muttered. She made out him saying, “I don’t feel the need to hibernate, I had enough magic saved up that I didn’t use my full store to transform her.” Koa returned wearing a black T-shirt that read Fox Dad. A feast of food floated on plates behind him.

“Can I meet the people you spoke to?” She’d smelled a hint of bird and a magical scent she did not recognize.

“I can’t introduce you to the palace staff yet, you’re still leaking poison.” He patted her head. For the first time, she noticed the purplish gas leaking around her nostrils. “The staff all has charms of immunity, for our occasional mistakes, but no magic protections in existence can block our strongest poisons. It would be too dangerous right now. I’ll teach you how to control the poison, then you can explore all around my castle and the spirit realm.”

The food floated over and landed in a circle around her. The dishes were plated gold; the enchantments to keep the food warm and fill it with magical power must be even more expensive. They contained Kitsune Udon, deep-fried tofu stuffed with rice, liver and onions, roasted rabbit, chocolate covered peanuts, and an assortment of fresh fruit. All of these were foods traditionally loved by fox spirits. It was more than she could possibly eat. She had a vague memory that he was always going over the top, but any precise details slipped away.

“There’s far too much food,” she said. “You’re not going to throw out what I can’t eat, are you?” The idea made her hackles raise. Perhaps food had not always come easy to her in the past.

“Of course not. Magic can preserve food for a long time.” He stroked her back. “I have so much to teach you. The transformation can’t grant you any new knowledge. I’ll bring in a nine-tailed fox to tutor you in fox spirit tricks. You’ll get your second tail in no time. Since you have your poison, you’re already stronger than any other newborn spirit.”

Curled up next to him, she devoured a prodigious amount of food, more than she’d believed she could. He let her eat first, then finished the rest. She fell asleep with her head resting on his leg.

When Sofia woke up, she had curled into a furry ball on Koa’s lap while he read a book.

At the first sign of movement, he stroked her back. “How are you feeling, Sofia?”

“Well-rested.” She leapt up and stretched, her back arching. Her foot bumped a book stack. She narrowly nudged it upright in time.

At least a hundred books were piled around them. Many had titles that she couldn’t read, but the ones she could were all about fox spirits: fox parenting, fox care, fox grooming, fox history, fox magic, etc.

Seriously, he was always so extreme. A surge of affection ran through her. “How did you even find this many books about fox spirits? I count five fox-specific parenting books alone.”

“It turns out there’s only two parenting books. The others had fake covers.” He scowled. “I purchased them too hastily, and the inflated prices drew some scammers.”

“We’ll have to get revenge for that later.”

“Foxes are vengeful, according to my books. I’ll have to keep an eye on that.”

“As if dragons aren’t!” Her tail lashed.

“Not me, I planned to let it go since I’m not short on wealth.”

“That’s because you’re a recluse. You’re letting people take advantage of you out of laziness.” She shook her head. “I see that I’ll need to take the reins of the clan as your heir.”

“You’re going to shake up the spirit realm, I bet.” He chuckled affectionately. “Come over here, you need a grooming.” A soft-bristled brush with an ivory handle floated over.

It felt relaxing as he brushed her fur. Her bones melted into a puddle of goo. Judging from the pile of fluff on the floor next to her, she’d needed it. Even though the shed fur was getting all over his books, his full attention was on her. He checked her coat carefully for any signs of damage. How paranoid, she’d only just gotten this fur, when would it have had time to develop mange?

Afterward, she felt much lighter. She shook herself off.

“Better?” he asked, painfully hopeful, an ancient dragon waiting for a word of praise like a hatchling.

“A fox couldn’t have done it better.” She sprang into his arms.

He pressed his cheek against her soft face. “I missed touching someone else without fear of poison.”

She indulged him, letting him cuddle her. As he chucked under her chin, she made a murrr. He’d learned a few useful lessons from his books.

Sofia perched on a dragon’s massive coils like a princess on her throne. She exhaled, releasing a thin green gas.

“Good,” Koa rumbled from beneath her. “Can you make it even thinner?”

Sucking in a deep breath, she concentrated with all her might. Slowly, she exhaled only part of her breath. The gas was not visible this time, but she could still smell the wintergreen and taste it in the back of her throat.

“Excellent work. I’ll demonstrate a few more poisons for you to replicate. Then we’ll play a game, seeing how long you can last without exuding poison. When you can last a day, you’re ready to go outside.”

“What if I hurt someone?” she asked nervously.

“I told you, the staff all have charms of immunity and if you manage to burn through them, I’ll create an antidote. I’ll stick close to you for the first few weeks, so that I can throw up a shield and stop you if you lose control.”

“Mierda, I feel like an idiot for not being able to stop spraying poison around.” Her chin sagged against his feathers.

“You have nothing to be ashamed of—besides your foul language, kit. None of us have perfect control over it. A sneeze or a surprised laugh can make a bit leak out. It’s important for you to drain your poison alone on a regular basis. That way, the poison will be weaker if you have an accident. I will teach you to produce antidotes, too. When you become skilled enough, you will be able to direct your poison through the air so that you annihilate only those you target.”

“Will you teach me how to produce elixir?”

“In a few months, that’s one of the most difficult ones. I don’t want to drain your magic reserves while you’re still young. For now you should focus on increasing your magic. Today’s lesson will start with the basics.” A luminous orange cloud floated off Koa. “What do you smell?”

“It’s acidic.” Her tongue darted out. “A hint of citrus.”

“Good. Can you replicate it?”

Sofia scrunched up her snout and concentrated. She concentrated so hard, she hacked up a hairball. An orange cloud popped out with it.

He manipulated the hairball to float into a trash bin. “Good, that smells just right. That’s a paralyzing poison. It’s useful if you don’t want to kill your opponents. Let’s try another one.”

At first she thought he hadn’t produced anything. There was no visible change in the air, smell or taste. Yet a twinge of magic thrummed under her skin, resonating with something deep inside of her.

Sofia inhaled deeply, processing the poison, then breathed out an even stronger gas.

Koa’s laugh shook the books on the shelves. “You got it in one try! You’re a prodigy. I’m amazed at how fast you learn.”

Her tail bounced.

“Remember the scent of that one,” he said. “It’s a completely undetectable poison. It will create an effect that resembles a heart attack. No one outside our clan knows that it even exists. Since we usually melt skin and bones away when we kill, no one expects us to be subtle. We’ve favored flashy kills and deployed our secret weapon sparingly. We use that poison when we don’t want anyone to trace the murder back to us. It’s our clan’s secret.”

It filled her with pride, to have her father let her in on all the secrets. “Do you have a favorite poison?”

“I have a favorite flavor, though I have never had occasion to use it outside this room. This poison is incredibly deadly. It can linger on objects for centuries, still able to kill anyone who touches them. It kills with agonizing slowness, taking root in the vital organs and burning its way out like a million ants taking small bites. We have far better poisons to use, with less risk of causing collateral damage. But it does taste great. I’ll show you.” Koa floated off the ground. A magical bubble wrapped around them, protecting the floor, ceiling, and books. He roared. Inky blackness poured out of his mouth in waves.

Sofia opened her mouth wide, gulping it down. It tasted like dark chocolate, with a hint of creamy milk. The flavor crackled on her tongue, full of magic and power. She could not put the magic’s taste quite into words. The closest would be caramel. The flavor was so delicious, she moaned. Mouth wide and nostrils flared, she guzzled down more.

Koa released a rainbow gas that cleared away the darkness with a fresh antibacterial scent. Then he floated down to the floor. “Our gift has challenges and costs. We cannot easily touch people outside our clan. We must maintain a level of control. We bear a weight of responsibility for the entire spirit world. Yet it also has beauty and joy. No one outside the Poison Clan can enjoy that unique flavor. It would only cause pain to anyone else. This treasure belongs only to our family. I hope that you will find pride and happiness in being a member of the Poison Clan.”

She nuzzled him with the scent glands around her mouth, a sign of affection. “Of course I’m already proud, Father. Thank you for showing it to me.”

“The former clan head showed me all the most delicious flavors of poison when I first transformed, just like this. He sat on me the whole time because I was so angry.” Koa laughed. “The most delicious one finally calmed me down.”

“Why were you angry?” Sofia asked.

“I don’t remember.”

For some reason, this answer struck a chord in her. “I don’t remember either.”

Four days later, Sofia woke up in human form.

Koa was already prepared. “I have thirty-five outfits for you to choose from. I wasn’t sure what you liked.” A rack floated in with a wide range of clothing: dresses and pants, modern human clothing and traditional garb from around the world.

In the end, she selected jeans and a blue T-shirt that read Dragon Daughter. She’d wanted to make him happy, and judging from his grin, she’d succeeded. (Family had always been important to her, she felt pretty sure of that.)

“I read books on how to braid hair.” He waved her to sit down on a stool, then pulled out a brush and comb. He moved his fingers slowly and had to redo the braid. But in the end, he wound her hair into a braid crown around her head. He held up a mirror for her to see. “You look beautiful. I must have a natural talent at this.”

As if she hadn’t seen him practicing on a wig at night, when he thought she was asleep. She let him have his bragging. He’d also been reading books on modern Spanish and practicing it with a servant. He thought that was a secret, too.

Afterward, he brought her a laptop to use with her new human fingers. He seemed very proud of his internet, saying it was a gift for her. She quickly learned to appreciate the sheer vastness of entertainment available.

As if by muscle memory, she found herself typing in the name of an anime. She marathoned it over two days, resting her elbow on Koa’s giant dragon head. For the first season, she recalled the plot twists as soon as each episode started. The second season felt all new. Koa started out not paying attention, but grew enraptured. They cheered together at the final triumphant ending, all villains defeated and heroes happy. Not like real life, she thought for some reason.

From the moment the cavern door opened, Sofia bounded up the stairs. Her father’s hoard was great, but she felt ready for some fresh air.

She rounded the corner of the stairs, only to find…more stairs. In fox form, her tongue lolled out. She probably ought to shift human for longer legs, but she didn’t want to. An indistinguishable recollection of too many stairs made her feel more irritated than warranted.

Koa scooped her up and set her on his shoulder. “You’ll learn how to fly soon. In the meantime, I can walk faster.”

She was nearly indignant, but not enough to climb the stairs on her own.

He took her all around the castle, introducing her to workers who bowed or curtsied. Apparently Koa loved ceramic tiles almost as much as books. They covered the doors in a pattern of solid colors and decorated tiles showing birds and trees. Three-dimensional ceramic leaves covered the ceiling in lines connecting the pillars and domes. Shelves containing decorated pots had diamond tiles around and on the wood. Animal tiles wound around the windows. Decorations of warriors fought around the fireplace. She would find the tiles in hidden places, such as the crab under a staircase. The central hall had a stained-glass dome decorated with soaring dragons of all varieties. There, she met the steward and housekeeper. She mentioned the scammed book sales, and the housekeeper was quite pleased to have someone pay attention. “The merchants all overcharge us because Lord Koa doesn’t notice.”

Clearly, she’d have a lot of work to do.

The castle was surrounded by a garden, in some ways closer to a carefully maintained rainforest. The flower beds had been separated into many types of orchids, purple passion flowers, red poinsettias, and carnivorous pitcher plants. Rubber trees and Acai palms marked the boundary where the earth met sky. Koa’s castle floated on an island amongst the clouds.

Sofia ran up to the edge, peering at the very tiny landscape below. Only hints of green square fields could be made out between the clouds. What was she looking for? She wasn’t sure. She raced through the trees, seeking a better viewpoint. She had no fear of falling. Her father would catch her.

When she slipped a little too close to the edge, her ears rippled into feathers. She stopped, still a good distance away. What had that been? It felt itchy.

“You have shapeshifting!” Koa rushed over. “Now there’s a rare and powerful ability for kitsunes. An actual transformation is much stronger than their usual illusions.”

“Can’t everyone shapeshift?”

“Everyone can shift between two forms, but having more is remarkable. I think it may be your specialty in magic. Do you think you can turn into a dragon?” He reached into his pocket and took out a phone. “I’m going to tell Lysbeth that she won our bet that you would become a dragon, then let her find out the truth at your rebirth ceremony. It will be hilarious.”

Sofia concentrated. A memory came to her like a dream she’d forgotten: soaring over the mountains on a giant dragon’s back. The wings exploded from her back. Her body lengthened. A small serpent with bat wings lay on the ground, covered in black fur.

“I wanted scales,” she protested. “And I wanted to be a lot larger.”

A tear fell from Koa’s eyes. “You are precious and adorable. Hold that pout.” He held up his phone. “Electronic device, take a picture.” He shook it. “Why is this thing not taking a picture?” He jabbed the screen with a clawed finger.

An instinct of danger shot through Sofia’s wings: danger that he would snap the phone in two. She fluttered to the height of his shoulder. “You have to press the camera icon, Father. I’ll show you.”

After being the subject of a dozen pictures, Sofia regretted teaching him. She batted away the phone. “I want a snack.” It was an excuse he’d never ignore, he said that growing spirits needed a lot of fuel.

Koa sat down under a Brazilian nut tree. A nut floated down to his hand, and he cracked it open with his teeth. He tossed the nut into her jaws.

“I can’t wait to learn to do that.” She peered over the edge of the floating island. “I can’t wait to see all those small places up close.”

“I’ll give you the power to do anything you want. I’ll take you wherever you’d like to go, all over the spirit realm. This whole world welcomes us. Except the human realm, of course.” A muscle clenched in his jaw. “That place isn’t safe.”

Sofia searched herself for any particular desire to visit the human realm, but could not find it. In her father’s stories, it was a place of suffering. Her own feelings agreed with him.

Whatever she craved, it wasn’t a place.

On the day of Sofia’s formal introduction to the spirit realm, she wore a dark green formal ball gown. The skirt had dozens of layers of lace, puffing out around her body like a bell. The bottom had a trim of golden skulls, the traditional symbol of the Poison Clan. More gold crept up her skirt in a swirls, the style of a princess, but no one present would ever forget the danger underneath. The shoulder-less dress had two thin lace sleeves on either forearm. Hundreds of pearls decorated her bodice, surrounding the finger length star-shaped emerald in the middle. Jade gleamed from her dangling earrings and a green sapphire hung in the shape of a teardrop around her neck. For today, Koa had done up her hair in a bun with two braids crisscrossing on top, a tiara tucked into her hair. The crown had been made of bone—the bones of the Poison Clan’s enemies, more boastful than any precious metal. A dozen emeralds between the bone whirls glowed slightly, whispering in strange voices to anyone who stared into their facets for too long.

It was the most beautiful dress she’d ever worn, and not at all suited for moving around, so she felt glad that she only needed to sit on a throne of bone as every clan from around the spirit world paid their respects.

Koa sat on a throne next to her, close enough to periodically reach out and pat her shoulder. It was as much a reassurance for himself as her, she suspected. They couldn’t touch other people, and so had fallen into the comfort of frequent contact with each other.

Each Lord or Lady approached the throne, introduced themselves, added a rebirth gift to the pile, and bowed their heads. Not as low a bow as a servant, but indisputably an acknowledgment of a superior power. The others in each delegation bowed lower.

Elaborate politics that Sofia did not yet understand had determined the order that each clan approached the thrones. The Huyao Clan had sent the largest delegation and the greatest number of gifts, probably because they were entirely made of fox spirits. Leaning over to her throne, Koa murmured, “They’re a purist clan, they only accept foxes.”

“What happens if a child born from a mixed relationship or a turned human is not a fox?” she whispered back.

“Kicked out of the clan.” He sounded disapproving. “The strongest go to other clans. Rumor says that some have been abandoned in the Lost Woods.”

Immediately, Sofia decided she did not like the Huyao Clan no matter how they’d kissed up to her. Fortunately, they were not the only fox spirits, nor even the only clan primarily dominated by foxes. The Huxian, Gumiho, and Kitsune Clans all had a few non-fox members. They seemed determined to compete with each other in the glamor of their outfits and the number of gifts. Many other clans had a few fox spirit members, and if so, had selected them as part of the retinue. A third of the room must be fox, certainly not a representative sample of the spirit world. The majority of fox spirits were Asian, but she also met a Dutch, a Native American, and a Greek Teumessian Fox who stayed in red-furred form.

“I told them to figure out the strongest fox amongst themselves to be your tutor,” Koa whispered. “The competition has been quite explosive.”

“Why would you do that?” she hissed. “You know that’s just asking for chaos.”

“Because foxes love trouble, and if I don’t provide entertainment then they’ll find some other mischief to drag you into.”

Dragons were the second largest category in the room, despite being one of the rarer spirits, because they dominated the clan head positions. The white-haired Lady Lysbeth gave Sofia an odd feeling of familiarity. She could not figure out if it was good or bad. It seemed both, a combination of affection and irritation.

Lysbeth certainly seemed to know Koa. No one else dared walk up onto the dais and get so close to members of the Poison Clan, not even with their magical protections. She shoved a package at him, grumbling, “Here’s your winnings from our wager. If I’d turned Sofia, I bet she would have been a dragon.”

“You know it doesn’t work like that,” Koa said as he tucked the package next to his throne.

Lysbeth turned warm eyes on Sofia. “My dear, congratulations. You were an excellent employee, and I’m sure you will apply the same excellence to leadership. I look forward to getting to know you again.”

A former boss? This explained Sofia’s mixed feelings—the dragon lady looked like a strict employer. “Please come by our castle and tell me stories.” Perhaps it would help jog her memory, let her figure out what was missing.

“I promised you a gift from my hoard as a farewell present.” Lysbeth’s smile had the slightest twinge of sadness. “While I might be tempted to take advantage of your forgetting the promise, I’ve come close enough to breaking a promise to you already. This will be your farewell present, your rebirth gift, and settling my regrets. Therefore, I will let you select anything you desire from my entire hoard.”

Sofia’s breath caught, and she narrowly stopped herself before she exhaled a puff of poison. A dragon parting with an item from their hoard? Anything?! For a split second, she wondered if this might be an elaborate trap or a fox spirit in disguise as a dragon.

While Sofia was getting her breathing under control, Lysbeth handed her a catalogue. “You can take your time to pick, and tell me later.”

Sofia immediately flipped to the “books” section, which only had one entry. “I pick the Book of Destruction.” It sounded like an impressive enough title to be worthy of Koa’s hoard. He’d given her so many gifts, she wanted to give him something in return.

The color drained from Lysbeth’s face. “Did Koa put you up to this?”

“I didn’t say a word,” Koa said smugly. “She’s a very filial child.”

Lysbeth shook her head. “Koa has been trying to buy or trick that book off me for centuries. I’ve always refused.” The irritation on her face faded into a resigned amusement. “You two are well-suited for each other. Koa, the spark in your eyes has returned ever since you found her.”

Sofia’s smugness satisfied that single spark of negativity deep in her chest. It had been buried by the responsibility of the Poison Clan and glamor of her rebirth ceremony. Yet it lingered, a nagging irritant. Something had been taken from her. It hadn’t been a mere book.

Lysbeth leaned close to Koa’s lips, exhaling smoke. It mingled with his breath, almost a kiss. Her eyes overflowed with tenderness as she whispered, “I will get that book back from you if it takes me eternity, darling.” Then she sauntered away. Koa’s eyes clung to the curves of her hips with a fierce longing.

The other delegations paid tribute without any personal exchanges. Repetition soon grew tedious. Sofia’s eyes briefly lit up to see the Underwater Clan, who even in human form had hints of gills on their necks. She’d like to visit that village.

One of the last called was the Clan of Horns. From the moment Sofia laid eyes on Lord Faquer’s fiancée, rage swelled up in her chest like a typhoon. There was betrayal too, and loss. Something important to her had been taken away because of this woman. This anger was a force of nature, rising high above any sea wall. It did not matter if she did not know why. A disaster needed no reason to destroy. The poison rising up her throat burned like salt water.

Sofia raised her hand as if muffling a yawn and pinched her nose. It would have been so painfully easy to melt this throne room and use ancient spirits as kindling. But she refused to lose control of her powers on the day of her introduction to society. It would embarrass her, and worse, embarrass her father.

When Sofia could exhale only carbon dioxide again, she took another look. The young woman had blond hair with brown roots and a white-tipped deer tail. From the instability of magic in the air around her, she was likely another person recently transformed. Perhaps they had both been stricken with old emotions for reasons they could not remember. The deer spirit gazed at Sofia with naked jealousy. Her hands trembled as if she longed to snatch the crown off Sofia’s head and place it on her own.

“What are you gaping for, Alexa?” Lord Faquer grabbed Alexa’s head and forced her into a deep curtsey. “It’s an honor to greet you, Lady Sofia,” he gushed. Although normally only a clan head claimed the lord or lady title, all members of the Poison Clan held greater status than any village ruler. “I hope you and Alexa will become good friends. Do you perhaps feel a positive connection with her?”

Sofia still didn’t trust herself to speak without spewing poison, so she only waved a hand in a noncommittal manner.

“Enough,” Koa said sharply.

Faquer paled and sprinted away. He dragged Alexa along with him.

Placing a hand on Sofia’s arm, Koa murmured, “I’d love to let you destroy her right now, but her clan recently did ours a favor. I would not want your reputation stained if you appeared to act without reason. The likes of her will surely give you an excuse later, if you’re patient.”

Sofia could be patient. She had an eternity ahead of her.

When the ceremony had finished and the guests departed, Sofia stood amongst the pile of presents and felt empty. Whatever she needed, it could not be found inside any of these boxes. The irritating encounter with Alexa had only brought the itch back stronger. Something very important to her had gone missing.

Warm hugs and a Spanish “Bienvenida a casa” and an impish grin.

The face eluded her, but if she saw it, she would know it anywhere.

Her most important treasure.

The one thing she refused to let go of, no matter how else she adapted to survive.

What belonged to her had been stolen away. An unforgiveable insult. The princess of the Poison Clan would take her treasure back.

Koa came and put an arm around her. “I see that look in your eyes, kit. You’re plotting trouble.”

She transformed into a fox, trading the lace that had become uncomfortable for warm fur. Her most adorable form was perfect for persuasion. She leapt into his arms, putting paws on his chest and gazing up with wide eyes. “Father, I’m lonely. Would I be permitted to add another member to our clan?”

“Why would you bother using the fox eyes for such an obvious request?” He smiled, stroking her ears. “Of course we will continue to search for more clan members.”

“Not just anyone.” She smiled back, teeth as sharp as his. “I’ve always wanted a little sister.”