“Where’s the real one?” she managed. “I know you have to have it.”

Venkat jerked, clearly startled. “The real one?”

The shock in his voice almost felt good. Like she still had some control. “I said it, didn’t I?” she countered. “Take me to my bracelet. Please.”

Venkat escorted Tanvi from the lift and into what looked like a giant dreamstone vial. “Welcome to my workshop,” he said. “Only Nayan knows it exists. Well, and now you.”

Tanvi almost ran back to the lift, her already-dazzled senses overloading. Incredible crushed-jewel blues and greens and purples blazed out from the equally incredible serpent and sea murals on the walls. The aerial view of the kingdom from the balcony made her feel like she was flying, and the shelves and shelves of dreamstones could’ve been a witch’s cupboard.

A feeling of recognition swelled up. This was everything her ten-year-old self had ever wanted.

But she didn’t care about that. She couldn’t afford to. Just like she didn’t care about all the guards they’d had to dodge on the way here—there really were a lot more roaming the halls now—or how much nicer Venkat’s tunnels were than the runners’. She only cared about her bracelet.

Venkat glanced shyly at her. Her cheeks got a little warmer, and she wished he’d look elsewhere. “This is where I use the dreams you bring me,” he said, sounding self-conscious. “The ones I don’t sell. I make things.”

Make things? She didn’t answer.

With a sigh, he took out a key and tapped it against one of the murals. A mini storeroom appeared in the wall. “That’s our private treasury. Coming?”

Relieved, Tanvi hopped in after him.

Cubbyholes lined one side of the cramped treasury. She scanned the nooks, her belly doing somersaults. A dented tricycle, a video game console, a deflated soccer ball—her stomach lurched. Indu’s soccer ball.

Tanvi had expected the real bracelet to be displayed on a velvet shrine like the box in her closet, not slotted in among random odds and ends. She’d been sure it would beam even brighter, so bright it washed out everything around it.

There. Her heartbeat quickened to warp speed. A gleam of gold peering out from the dimness.

“Do you want to get it,” Venkat asked, “or should—?”

Tanvi scooped the bracelet off the shelf before he could finish and stepped back into the sunshine. Her bracelet, finally. She’d waited so long for this.

She closed her eyes, afraid to believe it was real. Gold flashed behind her eyelids. The solidity of the cool metal in her hand—this was what all the nights of running dreams had really been for. She understood now.

Her limbs stiffened with anticipation.

Slowly, so slowly, Tanvi opened her eyes and gazed down.