"So we move somewhere else."
Jamie blinked. "What?"
"We move the store. Find a town, a city, somewhere with actual people who might want to buy books." Corin shrugged as if it were obvious. "The store is magical now. It can probably do whatever you need it to do."
Jamie stared at him. "You think it's that simple?"
"I think you're making it more complicated than it needs to be." Corin leaned closer, his hand moving to rest over Jamie's heart."You're scared. I get that. But running back to your old life won't make you happy, and you know it."
Jamie stared at Corin, something shifting in his chest. The fae's eyes held no judgment, no pressure—just complete certainty that made Jamie's insecurities suddenly feel transparent.
"You're right," he said quietly.
Corin's eyebrows rose as if he hadn't expected Jamie to cave so quickly.
Jamie's mouth quirked despite himself. Then he sobered. "I am scared," he admitted. "I like to make safe choices. This is..." He gestured between the three of them. "This is the opposite of safe."
"Safe is overrated," Corin said, though his voice was gentler now. "Besides, you've got us. We're excellent at handling chaos."
Azelon snorted softly. "One of us is excellent at creating it."
"Details." Corin waved a dismissive hand, then grew serious again. "Jamie, what would make you happy? If you could have anything, what would it be?"
The question caught Jamie off guard. When was the last time someone had asked him that? When was the last time he'd even asked himself?
"I want..." He stopped, the words feeling foreign on his tongue. "I want to keep the bookstore. But somewhere people can actually find it. Somewhere I can build something real."
"With us?" Azelon asked quietly.
Jamie met his gaze, then Corin's, feeling the bonds between them pulse with shared hope. "With you."
Corin's smile could have powered the store's lights. "Well, that's settled then."
"Is it?" Jamie asked.
"Of course!" Corin sat up straighter, excitement bleeding into his projection until the air around them shimmered faintly. "We just relocate the store."
"You really think that's possible?"
"Let's find out." Corin gestured at the walls around them. "Ask it."
"Ask what?"
"The store. You're connected to it, right? So ask it if relocation is possible."
Jamie hesitated. The idea felt ridiculous, talking to a building. But then again, a week ago the idea of magical bonds and Tideborn healing rituals had seemed equally impossible.
He placed his palm flat against the wall beside the bed. "Can you... can you move? Find somewhere else to be?"
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the room around them seemed to hum, a vibration Jamie felt more than heard. Books on nearby shelves ruffled their pages. The light fixtures brightened and dimmed in a pattern that felt almost like morse code.
"It's trying to tell us something," Azelon observed.
"Show us," Jamie said, remembering how the store had revealed the approaching creatures by making the ceiling transparent. "Show us what you can do."
The wall beneath his palm grew warm, then suddenly transparent. Beyond it, Jamie could see not the forest they'd grown accustomed to, but flashes of different places—a bustling city street lined with shops, a quiet college town with tree-lined avenues, a coastal village where the smell of salt air seemed to seep through the magical window.
"Options," Corin breathed, wonder coloring his voice. "It's showing us options."
