The next day, when she returned to the menagerie with lunch for the guards, the door was shut, but that no longer stopped her. She checked once to make sure she was alone, then slipped inside. Her hand was steady on the handle, but her breath was fast and shallow, and not from running.

  Herman was waiting. Curled on the sofa like a lump of shadow, his whiskers twitched as the door creaked shut.

  He let out a soft, almost inaudible purr. “Didn’t think you’d come back so soon,” he said, voice low and lazy. “Your little chat with him went better than I expected.”

  He licked his paw, grooming between the claws.

  “You’ve got something to you, Minnie,” he ventured eventually. I’ve never seen him that calm. Not since... well, not since before.”

  Minnie swallowed. The echo of those huge, ruined eyes was still with her. The way he had leaned in, not pleading, but intimate, had folded itself around her like a second skin.

  Herman’s voice dropped to an almost conspiratorial whisper. She had to lean in to catch it.

  “Used to be the god of winds, that one. Top of the food chain. But now?” He flicked his tail. “He’s just an animal.”

  His gaze shifted, and for a moment, something flickered across his face. Regret, or maybe mischief. “Can’t tell you his name. Forbidden and all. But I’ll give you a hint.”

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  He paused, dramatic. “Starts like finish, ends with a T. Figure it out?”

  Minnie frowned. “Starts with finish,” she murmured, thinking aloud. “Ends with… so… finit?”

  “Don’t say it!” Herman’s hiss cracked through the air, sharp enough to make her flinch.

  “Are you stupid?” he snapped, rising halfway to his feet. “You want the Crone to come running, spitting fire out her nose? I just told you the name is forbidden!”

  His fur bristled, eyes bright with real fear. He shoved at her legs with surprising force for his small frame.

  “And you got it wrong, too,” he hissed. “You dullard. Now go get yourself killed in your own room and leave me out of this.”

  A moment later, Minnie was in the corridor, her mind still turning over the makeshift riddle. She could tell she’d been close with her first guess, the false name had stirred something inside her, a faint ripple through her thoughts.

  “So… starts like finish,” she mouthed silently. “Something like…”

  The guard’s footsteps echoed around the corner. She hurried down the stairs, her thoughts racing ahead of her feet, but stopped at the bottom when the answer came to her.

  Finist.

  The name rearranged everything. It uncoiled in her mind like a storm, pressing behind her eyes, squeezing her heart. It was a key turning in a lock she hadn’t known was there. Every step she’d taken, from Greengrove’s dusty paths to the searing courtyard stone, had led to this moment. Her soul remembered what her mind had only just begun to understand.

  It had always been him.

  There was no confusion now. No flinching from the truth. A tear slid down her cheek, unbidden. Not from sadness, but from a pressure that had finally found its release. She didn’t need to ask what she was here for. Not anymore.

  She would set the sky god free.

  Even if it meant her life.

  Even if it meant bringing the whole world down with her.