All Ava could think was that they were going home. She liked the Anahita, and maybe if she’d chosen this she would have been able to enjoy the traveling, like Jules obviously was. But she hadn’t signed up for this, and she was ready to be back in her own universe, back in her apartment, with her books, and her bed, and hours of sitcoms cued up on her laptop.

Still, she cleared her throat to get Nouresh and Jules’s attention and said, “Maybe we can say we lost the FINNA. Say it got eaten by a chair or something.”

Nouresh smiled at the scheming look on Jules’s face. “Some of my information is out of date, but I’d be happy to give you some pointers on traveling through the marejii.”

Jules turned their grin to Ava. “Pretty sure you can get fired for stealing from the job.”

Ava shrugged. Going home was good, but the thought of going back to LitenVärld was exhausting. Moreover, it was making her realize how draining her time there was; how much energy that shit job stole from her every day. “It’s not like they’re using it,” she replied. “And we can keep them from sending other workers to get eaten by chairs.”

“Worker solidarity, nice,” Jules said. They held their fist out, and Ava bumped it. As they shared a smile, Ava noticed that it didn’t hurt. For the first time in a long time, the sight of Jules’s grin didn’t press against something exquisitely painful inside her, or ignite a toxic well. Jules smiled because they were happy, and Ava smiled back, because it was good to see Jules happy. Simple as that.

They turned the corner and walked into a nightmare.

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER EIGHT

One of the Danas stood in front of them, dripping with seawater and black smears of grease. Her sky-blue polo clung to her ribcage, giving her a sunken, cadaverous look.

Ava’s fear didn’t have a chance to drag her down or cloud her mind. Her senses sharpened until she could see the individual lines of grease trickling down the Dana’s arm, hear the water drip off her clothes and hair and hit the floor. The Dana’s lips pulled back from her teeth, which looked like they’d gotten sharper. In the store, the Danas all had nice French manicures, but now there was muck embedded underneath the nails and in the beds.

“Where is my mother, shoppers?” she asked.

Nouresh shoved Ava back toward Jules, yanking a long, curved sword out of a sheath at her belt. She gave a shout and rushed at the Dana, who dodged away from her and hissed.