Tanvi hovered anxiously a few feet from the palace exit, her fingers securing the bag of dreamstones on her shoulder. She’d never come here before, never had any reason to. Dream runners were supposed to stay hidden when they weren’t harvesting. Her skin hurt at the thought of being on display like this, even if everyone assumed she was just another nagini in human form.

A large, boisterous family slithered past her and into the courtyard. Tanvi balked at the wide-open night and the masses of people celebrating in it. So many nagas. So many diyas and lanterns. She’d be too exposed.

But this was her one chance to carry out her plan, while Venkat was off at Asha’s engagement party.

Jai’s empty room plagued Tanvi’s thoughts, a warning of what was at stake. She couldn’t get caught dreaming. She wouldn’t.

All she had to do was find one buyer for one dream. Just one.

Tanvi picked at the waistband of the chaniya choli she’d found in her wardrobe. There’d been a few outfits like this, actually, along with some simple jewelry. Probably Asha’s castoffs, dumped there in some misguided attempt to get Tanvi to play dress-up, but she’d never seen them until tonight.

Not until Asha had pointed them out.

Tanvi scowled. She couldn’t wait to forget them again.

When the next group of nagas came by, she slipped into it. The guards on either side of the doors wished her a merry festival, and she forced herself to smile at them. Any second now, a hand would be seizing her wrist. She knew it.

In step with the oblivious strangers, she passed over the threshold. Her nerves screamed that she was making the worst mistake of her life.

And then she was outside. In Bhogavati proper, where no dream runner belonged.

The group kept going, but Tanvi couldn’t.

Her knees quivered. And here she’d thought the main corridor was big.

The palace grounds extended across the horizon, and she had to avert her eyes and glance back up as she walked. Avert her eyes and glance back up, until the overwhelming hugeness of it all receded.

But it didn’t recede. Instead, all at once, Tanvi’s senses activated.

The horizon wasn’t just a horizon, she realized—it was an infinite black sky with a crescent moon and way too many pale stars.

She shook it off and started walking. It didn’t matter. It didn’t. Once she invoked the boon, she wouldn’t notice anything like that ever again.

Tanvi didn’t dare approach any more groups, but maybe she didn’t have to. Watching naga after naga cross the bridge over the river, she decided to try there. The shade of the bridge seemed like a good place to set up shop.