She blinked, watching me in concern. “You gonna be okay?”

“Honestly? I don’t know.” I looked down at my hands, fiddling with the wrapper of the bar, feeling her gaze on me. “It’s just...everyone is counting on us, you know? And there’s a lot that could go wrong. We have to find Annwyl, who could be anywhere right now, convince her to come back with us, and somehow make it to Keirran, who is probably on the other side of a freaking army. And if we do manage all that, if we somehow make it to Keirran without dying, we have to convince him to destroy the one thing that’s been keeping Annwyl alive. So that she can die. So that he can get his damn soul back.” I scrubbed a hand across my eyes, shaking my head. Kenzie continued to watch me, saying nothing, though her eyes were sympathetic now.

“I haven’t seen my parents in months,” I muttered. “I don’t know what they’re doing, what’s going on in the mortal world or how much time will pass before we’re finally done here. Everything is so screwed up. My sister is going to war with my nephew, my best friend killed me so the Lady could rise to power and the only way to stop all of this is to let another of our friends die. And I...” Have somehow become the champion of Faery itself. No pressure there, right?

Leaning my head back, I stared up at the canopy of the wyldwood, feeling the ugly truth steal over me. I was exhausted, I was sore and my head ached, but truthfully, I was just scared. So much rested on us finding that amulet and destroying it, but what if we couldn’t? What would happen to my family if I couldn’t bring Keirran back? If the First Queen actually won?

I heard Kenzie take off her backpack, set it on the ground and pick her way over the roots to stand beside me. Putting her hands behind her, she leaned back against the wood, gazing into the forest. Razor climbed out of her shirt, muttered, “Grumpy boy” in my direction and scampered up the trunk, disappearing into the branches.

“I’m scared, too,” Kenzie said after a moment. Surprised, I glanced down at her, but she was staring into the trees, her gaze distant. “I know I’m not as close to this world as you are, but I do know what’s at stake. I’m worried for you, my parents, Alex, Razor and...and I can’t even think about Annwyl right now. I keep hoping there’s another way, that we’ll find another solution, so Annwyl doesn’t have to...” Her voice shook a bit on that last part, before she took a quick breath and turned back to me.

“It sucks,” she admitted, her eyes going dark. “Sometimes the world is like that. Sometimes we just have to play with the hand we’re dealt. But let me ask you this—would you trust this to anyone else? You said the Nevernever itself chose you, a human with no special powers, no magic or glamour or anything. There has to be a reason for that, and I think it’s because no one else can do it. It has to be you, tough guy.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in fate or destiny.”

“I don’t.” Kenzie shrugged. “There’s always a choice, Ethan, even if between running away and facing the thing that scares us head-on. Even if all paths lead to the same place.” She paused a moment, staring up into the canopy, her voice going soft. “How we get there, and what we do on the way, that’s always up to us.”

“Humans.” Grimalkin appeared on a moss-covered stump. He didn’t saunter around the tree; I hadn’t seen him hop onto the log. He was just there. “I am going on ahead,” he stated, blinking at us languidly. “Our thin friend should be able to take you the rest of the way.”

“What?” I scowled at him. “You’re leaving? Now? Why?”

“I must meet with our contact and make the necessary arrangements for your crossing into the Deep Wyld, since it appears I must do everything around here,” the cat said in a weary tone of voice. “Worry not, human. We will meet again soon.”

Leaping to the ground, he stuck his tail in the air and trotted toward the brush. “I trust you will be able to go on without getting into too much trouble,” he said as he slipped beneath a clump of ferns and disappeared. “The River of Dreams is not far. If you could refrain from tedious human chatter and the tendency to fall all over each other, you might reach it before nightfall.”

* * *

Night did fall before we reached the River of Dreams, and it fell quite suddenly. As in, one second we were walking through the hazy gray twilight of the wyldwood, the next, it was dark. Like someone had flipped a switch. Kenzie startled, and I immediately went for my swords, certain that whatever had killed the lights was waiting in ambush, and we were seconds away from an attack.

“Don’t panic, Ethan Chase,” the Thin Man said as I turned in a wary circle, scanning the darkness and shadows. “This is perfectly normal. Do you hear that?” He tilted his head, and at that moment, I heard it, too. A dull murmur filtering through the trees, the sound of moving water in the distance. The Thin Man smiled. “We are very nearly there.”

I didn’t know what to expect from something called the River of Dreams, but whatever I had imagined—stars and dreamers and pirate ships floating down a lazy current—it was nothing compared to the real thing.

“Wow,” Kenzie breathed a few minutes later, her gaze awed as she stared over the water. “That’s just... I think wow covers everything.”

I didn’t answer, feeling like my eyes weren’t big enough to take everything in. We stood on the bank of an enormous black river, the inky surface reflecting the night sky, until they seemed to merge together. The water was full of stars, moons, constellations, and the longer I stared at it, the more I felt like I was in danger of tumbling into the void. I couldn’t even see my own reflection in the glassy surface. Though I could see other things beneath the water or floating along the top. A violin, a stuffed bear, a huge fat goldfish the size of a basketball. A log drifted past, spinning lazily in the current, and a red fox peered out at me with bright orange eyes. Spheres of light, either balls of faery fire or gigantic lightning bugs, hovered over the surface as well, only adding to the dazzling confusion.

“The River of Dreams,” the Thin Man said, standing at the edge of the water with his hands clasped behind him. He sounded...not sad, but contemplative. Wistful. Eyeing me and Kenzie, his mouth twitched into a smile. “Do you know how many mortals have stood on these banks, Ethan Chase? How many have seen the River while awake? None in my lifetime, and I have lived a very, very long time.”

“It’s amazing,” Kenzie whispered, unable to tear her eyes away. Razor, perched on her shoulder, seemed entranced, as well. The Thin Man blinked as she took a step forward.

“I would not stand too close to the edge, my girl,” he warned. “This is not the nightmare stretch, but that does not mean you want to lean too far over the water. If you fall in, the river might be unwilling to let you go.”

A loud gurgle interrupted him. I looked up, just as a portion of river boiled, and a freaking house rose out of the water, pointed yellow roof stabbing into the air. The house was perched on the back of an enormous turtle, which turned its head to stare at us with glassy black eyes. I was frozen, but the massive reptile blinked lazily, as if we were beneath its notice, turned and swam off, carrying itself and the house down the river, until it sank into the depths once more and was lost from view.