Fiona had planned on going home. She had a near-perfect track record getting to and from the Nexus—No key, no song and dance, just a moment's concentration and she got where she wanted to go, regardless of which door she used. Her assurance in this was so solid that for a brief moment, she didn't register that she'd ended up someplace she hadn't intended.

This was definitely not Chicago.

Despite being out in the open the place felt close, like it was pressing up around her on all sides, murky and dim. Her bare forearms tickled with the brush of falling snow, but there was no chill, no wet melt against her skin. Fiona blinked toward the sky and then brushed the flakes from her eyelashes, only to look down and see the smear of ash across her palm.

Yeah, she really did not need to be here.

Swallowing down a spike of anxiety, she turned back to the door she'd entered through and pulled it open again and again. She thought of home, thought of the Nexus, thought of anyplace else, to no avail: it only opened to a decrepit storefront. Now genuinely alarmed, she turned and squinted into the haze, her dark hair crowned in ashy white.

She spied a trail of fresh footprints and began haltingly after, calling, "Hello? Is anybody out there?"