I stepped out of the veil and into the dark basement at home, Max's farewell echoing in my head. Frustration made me stomp as I crossed the concrete floor to the stairs, tension across my shoulders giving me a whopper of a headache, one I'd carried with me all day after leaving the Fates with Iepa.

Once we left Ameline, we spent the rest of our time searching planes for the pieces of Creator. I'd never been part of a more intensely unsatisfying ...