“I mean, come on,” she says. “You can’t even give me detention here. I’m totally interdimensional. The Sunnydale I’m from is just hell-adjacent, not a hell colony.”

“For now,” the Snyder heads warn. The five of them smoosh their huge foreheads against the cage, doing what Snyders do best, making threats with very little follow-through. “If you’re here, Summers, then who is protecting your world?”

Buffy opens her mouth, willing a retort to find its way to her lips. But, inside, she feels the gnawing worry that’s followed her from dimension to dimension begin to grow. What if she was cast out of her dimension so that something evil could take over Sunnydale, the real Sunnydale, without her interference? Every moment she’s away, she’s leaving the people she loves at risk. What if she finds her way back and her home is just as broken and evil as the worlds the green gem has brought her to?

What if she erases every Hell on Earth that has ever existed and the gem still won’t show her the path home? How long will she have to run through realities, searching for answers?

Ten beady little eyes watch her with interest, the Snyder snake pleased with getting the last word. The Slayer lets him have it. The eradicating light let out by the Creation gem meeting the Black Flame is comeback enough.

BY THE TIME Anya, Andrew, and Jonathan made it down the steps of City Hall, the vampires were already halfway down the street. The group cast no reflection as they passed the giant picture windows of the Sunnydale Public Library.

“Hey! Wait up!” Andrew called, jogging to catch up.

Anya decided against telling him that getting his blood racing was a very dangerous way to win the vampires’ attention. She didn’t want to give the vamps any ideas. If the human boys died before she got her powers back, she’d never make any more money off them. There was no way she was going to devote an entire day to saving the world with no cash reward at the end.

What would be the point in living in this world without money?

Overhead, an owl flew in concentric circles. Owls were the only birds left under the sunshade. All the songbirds had migrated into Santa Barbara, craving sunlight. Instead of chirping, the trees in Demondale were full of screeches and squeaks. At least there were plenty of moths and crickets for the owls and bats to eat. The bug population loved the dark.

The owl dove for something that Anya’s eyes couldn’t make out. Unlike most demons, she didn’t have very good night vision. It was one of many things about her body that hadn’t upgraded with her vengeance powers. The majority of D’Hoffryn’s employees didn’t have to worry about obnoxious human limitations like skin that bruised or eyes that couldn’t see the fourth dimension. Other human-born vengeance demons like Halfrek countered this by working harder than any natural-born demon, constantly trying to prove that their limitations were a gift. Halfrek could infiltrate humans and trick them into wishing whatever she wanted.