Then, fueled by adrenaline, she streaked up the last flight of stairs and toward the boy’s bed. After swapping the lozenge for a dreamstone, she swooped right into his dream—the boy and his friend had broken into an abandoned mansion at twilight to film their documentary. It was scary and silly both, with giant spiders that attacked from the ceiling before turning into plush toys.

The boy didn’t move while she was harvesting except to grunt when she corked the vial.

There. Tanvi had done it—and had two awesome dreams to show for it, dreams Venkat would be begging to buy. She coasted back down to street level.

No one burst out of the night to misidentify her as she raced toward the river. No one talked to her at all.

That, Tanvi thought, was more like it.

At Penn’s Landing, Tanvi leaned out over the railing and studied the murky water. The Delaware River wasn’t something she wanted to dive into at any time, but it was almost dawn. She’d stayed out too long as it was.

Tanvi fingered her pendant, a writhing black-and-gold serpent, and tapped it between its round emerald eyes. The river below immediately rose up, forming a sapphire doorway with shimmering arches. She leaped through it and landed on a sloping liquid platform that funneled her downward. The wavering walls surrounding her merged back into the water as she descended.

When she reached the bottom, no other runner was reporting to the guards flanking the cramped side entrance to the palace. Tanvi shivered. She’d never been this late before.

A younger naga beckoned her forward. Keeping her head lowered, she gripped her necklace.

“Name?” the guard barked, his voice oddly loud and grating.

Any other night, he would have faded into the background. Now, though, she could feel his smirk boring into her. He didn’t expect a reaction, and she didn’t give him one. Still, her hand trembled as she flashed her pendant at him.

“Tanvi,” she said, without inflection.

“Cutting it close, are we, Tanvi? I doubt Lord Nayan would like that.”

The mention of Nayan made her lapse sting all over again: If she’d been paying attention, that boy wouldn’t have run into her. That girl with the bob wouldn’t have seen her. Tanvi had already forgotten the girl’s face. Too bad she couldn’t erase their conversation so easily.

She’d been reckless. There was no denying it.

Her muscles stiffened with something new and awful. It took her a few seconds to name the feeling.

Panic.

Never again, she vowed, praying the guard couldn’t tell.

The guard waved her through without another word, unlike some of his colleagues, who inevitably demanded to see the wares. They couldn’t afford what Nayan and Venkat charged for a dream, so they tried to steal brief glimpses of what lay within the jewels the runners brought back with them.