As she walked the hospital’s twisting hallways, a curious feeling came over Ava; that she almost didn’t need the FINNA. To go where she wanted, she had to get lost, and it seemed almost instinctual to do that now. She’d been lost for a long time, rudderless.

Still, she wasn’t so brave or so stupid as to rely on instincts alone. She looked back down at the FINNA. The bubble, where she’d placed a tassel cut from the scarf she’d knitted for Jules, glowed a bright, verdant green. The color seemed appropriate: something new, different, and just beginning to grow.

Ava chased that particular sense of disorientation, recognizable now; somewhere between the feeling of falling in love and falling out of it, of pursuing and fleeing, of not knowing and still going forward. Ahead of her, she saw the crackling energy of a split in the world she knew, a doorway into a world that she didn’t. Ava ran through it and kept running.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, thanks to my agent, DongWon Song, who helped maneuver this book into Tor’s hands, where I always hoped it would be. Carl Engle-Laird is a fantastic editor, and was infinitely patient when I was editing this in between teaching and defending my thesis. Much gratitude to the team at Tor.com for their hard work, including Irene Gallo, Christine Foltzer, Mordicai Knode, Caroline Perny, and Amanda Melfi.

Lara Elena Donnelly gave me the premise for this story when she had the perfect answer to “Where would a wormhole in IKEA lead to?”

This story was originally written as a screenplay for Darren Canady’s workshop at the University of Kansas. It was shaped by his brilliant feedback, and by my classmates’.

Nibedita Sen is the best human, you will not change my mind. She made sure I had adequate caffeine, water, and snugs to finish the initial draft, and told me never to start a story with a character being sad and mopey on a bus. She is very wise.

Karin Tidbeck was my Swedish consultant and came up with the name for the FINNA. Mar Romasco Moore and Meg Ellison were amazing beta readers, and Rivers Solomon provided a stellar and insightful sensitivity read. Birch Harlen and Jay Wolf helped me come up with fake corporate brands, and Birch is responsible for Pasta and Friends, which is perfectly loathsome.

Jessica Fujan and Zoë Lukens helped me survive my first-ever trip to IKEA. k8 Walton helped me survive, period.

I would not be here, be me, or be writing without my mom, Ellen, or my sibling, Leah.

This book is dedicated to my grandmothers: Phyllis Simons, Vera Anderson, and Elma Connolly, whom I love dearly and miss deeply. I wish they were alive to see their names written here. I am so lucky to have shared as many years as I did with them.