The Ten Thousand Doors of January

As she crosses the Threshold, January feels Locke’s hand grab her ankle, and Bad attacks him. She sees terror and uncertainty in his face, and watches him disappear as the darkness engulfs him. She steps into the sea air of the Written, and suddenly feels overwhelmed by the pain in her arm and hip—both places where Locke shot her. January uses the compass from Ilvane to find the stone house her father wrote about, and her father’s parents answer the door. They haven’t seen their son for almost 20 years, and January realizes her father never came home.

When she enters the house, January sees her mother. It takes a moment, but when Ade recognizes January as her daughter, her face fills with both joy and sorrow. Now, January sits in her father’s room, writing this book. She has been waiting for him alongside her mother for 16 days. For the last 17 years, Ade has been traveling, looking for a Door back to Yule. She comes back to the stone house a few times a year to rest. Her years of wandering taught her that freedom doesn’t mean anything unless she has someone to share it with.

January gives her mother The Ten Thousand Doors in hopes that she can understand Julian, and in time, forgive him for leaving January to look for her.