“Thea, are you okay to go now?” Eleanor asked. The girl hadn’t said anything, just stared down at her shoes. She nodded without looking up. “Everyone else?”

“Let’s get this over with,” Pip said.

“Barry and I will hold down the fort,” Ben said.

“Can you check in on my family?” Otto asked.

“We’ll keep an eye out for them. Don’t worry,” Ben pledged. He put his hands on Eleanor’s shoulders, stooping down to look her in the eye. “Eleanor. Be careful, okay? I need you to come back. I need you to bring Jenny and Naomi back. I need my girls.” His voice cracked.

“I will,” Eleanor promised him. She wrapped her arms around him. He felt different from the last time she’d seen him—less substantial, less soft—but his hugs were still the very best.

“I’m hitching a ride, too,” the cat-of-ashes declared. Eleanor looked at her in surprise. She yawned. “Someone’s got to make sure you humans don’t cause any more time paradoxes with all your blundering around. If anyone asks, I’m spying on you.”

Eleanor snorted. “Fine. The more the merrier.”

The kitten-of-ashes hissed from her spot in the hedgewitch’s bag. “Have some respect for your elders, puffball,” the cat-of-ashes snapped, and the kitten flattened her ears back and hunkered down.

“Be safe, kiddo,” Ben said. He reached out and ruffled Eleanor’s hair, and then he gave her a friendly little push, like he was sending her on her way.

Eleanor took a steadying breath. And then, blinking away tears, she turned and reached for the Wending.

Library, library, library, she thought, trying to fill her mind with that one, singular thought. But others snuck in. Mom—the Stories—time’s broken—Thea—

THE LIBRARY OF ENDERSEA, she thought firmly, and the road rippled out from her fingertips, unfurling through the Great Room.

The road was paved with white stone, and to either side of it was white sand, gleaming in the sunlight as a sapphire-blue sea lapped at its shores. The path led up toward towering white cliffs, where seabirds wheeled and called to each other in an excited gabble. At least it looked more pleasant than the Pallid Kingdom.

“Here we go again,” Pip muttered. She took Thea’s hand and walked past Eleanor. Otto and the hedgewitch followed, the kitten-of-ashes still safely stowed in the hedgewitch’s bag. Eleanor cast one last glance back at Ben and Bartimaeus. Ben raised his hand in a wave and cracked a smile that looked out of practice.

“See you soon,” Eleanor pledged, and started to step onto the road.

Her heels had barely crossed the barrier between one world and the next when Ben and Bartimaeus began to fade from sight.

In seconds, Eden Eld was gone. There was only the blue sky and the white sand. And a single building, crouched against the pale stone of the cliffs.