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guilty.
    “Okay, okay. Let’s be better friends, deal?”
    “You’re lucky Avalon is with us to vouch for you,” Ava said, but her tone held no bite. “Ah, well, friends it is, then. Just no more putting us in perilous situations for your own benefit, okay?”
    Hunter bit back a remark and nodded. Avalon placed her hand back into his, and they quietly warmed each other by the dying embers.
    Ava realized that her eyelids were lowering of their own accord. Pulling out her small blanket and collecting some branches for a pillow, she bid the two lovebirds goodnight and found a tree to sleep under for the night. The weather had been perfectly mild since she had arrived. She wondered if it was always so temperate, or if they had seasons here. So many things could be different in alternate universes—a million variations of life, all happening at once. As she stared up at the stars winking at her through the trees, Ava wondered just how much they knew, and if they were the same stars she’d seen before.
    She imagined Mason’s arms around her, and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Four
    AVA WOKE TO a wet snout sniffing at her face.
    “I want apple!” George whinnied.Ava sat back away from him and checked her bag. The ruby apple was still there, right on top. She glanced at George.
    “You didn’t eat it. You could have just stolen it while I was sleeping, and you didn’t,” she said. If horses could shrug, she imagined that was the gesture he made in response.
    “What? You think a unicorn who saves a bunch of people from the fairies has no honor? What kind of beast do you take me for?”
    “Obviously an honorable one. Are the other two ready to set off?” she asked. George lifted his head and pointed his horn at their camp, which had been packed up. Hunter and Avalon sat munching on some cold pastries and cheese, casting heavy lidded glances at one another. Gross. Ava rose and stretched weary muscles. She may have been active before, but that was nothing compared to the last twenty-four hours. Hunter and Avalon stood as she approached.
    “Ready?” Avalon asked. She was positively glowing. Hunter looked shy but happy. Ava decided not to ask.
    “Ready. Lead the way, George!”
    “Apple!” George said and trotted into the woods. The three humans smiled at each other as they fell in step behind the unicorn. Ava’s stomach rolled with nerves. Avalon took her hand.
    “It’s okay, Ava.”
    “How do you know?” Ava asked. Avalon shrugged.
    “I don’t know. But we’ve made it this far, right? And as rude as George is, he really wants that apple,” she said with a smirk. Her quiet confidence was almost reassuring enough to settle Ava’s nerves. The trees thinned, and as George trotted through a small clearing, he circled his head, casting a thin shimmery glow that turned into a rounded iron door. He looked expectantly at Ava.
    “This is the part you need humans for, unfortunately. Open up. I want apple.”
    Ava glanced at Hunter and Avalon, who shrugged. What else was there to do? Ava opened the door and stepped through. Her ears popped. The air was thin, and Ava knelt to catch her breath. When she looked up, the wind whipped her hair. George pulled ahead of her, taking the lead once more. Somehow they had gone from a flat forest floor to a mossy green mountaintop overlooking white, towering cliffs and a sea-green ocean. On the pinnacle of the mountain stood a small cottage not unlike Avalon’s, surrounded by a small picket fence. Beyond the fence was a lush, beautiful garden, full of herbs, vegetables, and fruit—the normal kind, not bejeweled.
    Ava stared out at the sea. So vast. So much bigger than herself. For the first time in all of this, she felt truly small, like the universe was so much grander than she could have possibly imagined or even conceived. Ava heard the door close behind them, and as she turned she watched as the stone portal closed in on itself and disappeared, leaving nothing but ocean views