The city lights caught in Seraphina's eyes as she stood in front of me by the half-frozen pond. Her hand was cool in mine, and her face had gone very still, the stillness she wears when she has already decided. "Yes," she said. "I will come with you."
"Good," I said. "Then we leave now."
She blinked. That was all the surprise she allowed herself. "You said tomorrow."
"I changed my mind."
"The arrangements. The transport. My father will want—"
"We aren't taking a transport." I let go of her hand and put my arm around her waist instead, a firm, steady pressure. She went stiff for a fraction of a second, then let her weight settle against me. I looked from her face to the darkening sky. Mount Hua was thousands of kilometres away. To the Grey, it was the next page.
I didn't open a seam. I folded. I took the map of the world I keep in the back of my head, put one finger on a park in Avalon and another on the highest training ground of Mount Hua, and creased the page.
