Every Heart a Doorway

Every Heart A Doorway  is a novel written by Seanan McGuire, and the first book in the Wayward Children series.

Description
Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she's back. The things she's experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West's care understand all too well. And each one of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy's arrival marks a change at the Home. There's a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it's up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of things.

No matter the cost.

Part I: The Golden Afternoons
The book starts by describing how Eleanor usually meets the guardians of the children who enter the school, and how they want to help their children but refuse to believe their stories. Eleanor would inform the parents that her school would cure the children of their "delusions", though she was lying. She would say that it was a "rare but not unique disorder" that happens to young girls (or boys, if that's who she was talking to.) About one in three children had their families reject the school, but for those who did come, Eleanor helped them, hoping that one day she would also be able to return to where she belonged.

Nancy Whitman soon arrives at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. She wore black and white clothes, though her suitcase was pink with daisies painted onto it. She is seen by Eleanor West, who leaves to greet her and thinks about how she had first found her doorway, when she was seven and saw the opening between the roots of a tree. Nancy, standing the foyer, thinks about how she didn't expect it to look so fancy. Nancy then meets Eleanor, who thinks that Jack and Jill will be pleased to meet her, as she appeared to come from a dark world, but apparently not one with vampires. Nancy says that vampires aren't real, and Eleanor informs her that in this house, "real" is a word not to be used. She then asks if Nancy was in an Underworld or a Netherworld, since she couldn't be from an Afterlife, as nobody returns from those. When she sees that Nancy is upset, she explains that she went to a Nonsense World six times before she turned sixteen and never learned to reign her tongue in. Nancy eventually admits she went to the Halls of the Dead. She got there when she was looking for a bucket in the cellar of her house, and went through a door to a pomegranate grove. She had been in the Halls for years and had not wanted to return.

Eleanor then takes her to her room. It was on the first floor, and an old elm blocks all the light from the window. Nancy notices that half of it- the half with the window- was a jumble of items, and the other half was very neutral. Eleanor says that most Underworlds fall under logic, but she can move Nancy if she and Sumi don't get along. She opens the window and calls out to Sumi, asking her to meet her roommate. Sumi hangs upside-down from the tree, looking in and asking if Nancy is a servant of the Queen of Cakes, come to punish her for her transgressions against the Countess of Candy Floss, and that she doesn't feel like going to war at the moment. When Nancy responds that she's just Nancy, Sumi calls her name boring and asks "Eleanor-Ely" if she's sure she was supposed to be here and not at a school for bad dye-jobs. Nancy takes offense to this, and informs her that she did not dye her hair; her hair used to be all black, like her mother's, but when she danced with the Lord of the Dead, he ran his fingers through it and all the hair around the touched hair turned white out of jealousy, and it would be disrespectful to dye it. Sumi then says she likes Nancy and that she's crazy, and thinks she's going back, informing her that once they're thrown out, they never return. Nancy refuses to believe this. Eleanor diffuses the situation by asking Nancy to unpack and get settled, and asking Sumi not to inspire her to murder her. Sumi climbs back up the tree as Eleanor leaves.

Nancy stands still; this calms her, as she had worked as a Statue in the Halls of the Dead. She opens her suitcase and is shocked to see that the diaphanous dresses and black shirts she'd packed were gone, replaced by colorful fabrics. There is a letter on top from Nancy's parents, apologizing for tricking her but saying that they wanted their real daughter back, not "wallowing in what [her] kidnappers did to [her]", and reminding her that she used to be their rainbow. Nancy starts to cry, knowing that the clothes aren't for her. Sumi asks why she's crying, and refers to her as a "ghostie girl." Nancy informs her that she didn't die, she only went to serve the Lord of the Dead, and he had told her she had to return until she was sure. Nancy thinks she is sure, and doesn't know why her door hasn't arrived, and she just wants to go home. Sumi knows that she doesn't mean her home in Reality, but her Home in another world, but she can't return. She tells Nancy to stop hoping, and says her clothes are pretty but too small for her to steal. Nancy tells them to take them away, and Sumi acknowledges that they're "somebody else's rainbow." She then tells Nancy to follow her, as they have someplace to go.

Sumi tells Nancy to hurry, and asks if Dinner in the Halls were more interesting. Nancy thinks of the feasts they had in the Halls, and how amazing it had been. Sumi explains to her that Kade will get her fixed up very soon. When Nancy asks who he is, Sumi explains that Kade has been in the school a long time, as his parents don't want him back. She adds that her parents didn't want her back either, unless she was going to be good and stop talking nonsense- except now they're dead, and Sumi wants to live in the school attic. They reach Kade's room, which has a "Keep Out" sign that Sumi promptly ignores. They enter Kade's room, which has piles of books everywhere, and furniture that looks to be made of books; the only thing made of another material is the wooden bookshelves, and the fabric on top of the books. Nancy sees Kade and thinks that he's the most beautiful boy she's ever seen. He speaks with an Oklahoma accent, and asks Sumi what she's doing here, having banned her for re-organizing his books by color. Sumi hands him Nancy's clothes, and Kade offers to exchange the clothes. He explains to Nancy that he spent three years in Prism, until the Goblin King made him his heir as the Goblin Prince-in-Waiting. The Court of the Rainbow Princess had thrown him down the next wishing well, as they had assumed he was a girl, and he woke back up in the real world. Kade gives Nancy some clothes he believes to be more suited to her, which is the right colors but Victorian. Nancy thinks that her world looked more like the works of Waterhouse. Kade offers to make her Custom Clothes for a price, though the price could be information on her world instead of cash. When the girls leave, Sumi asks if Nancy wants to have sex with Kade. Nancy almost falls down the stairs and shock and firmly tells her "No!" Sumi explains that she looked like it, and Jill had, too, until she found out he was born biologically female and misgendered him until Eleanor chided her. Nancy informs her that she wasn't bothered by his gender expression, and Sumi says that if she doesn't like Kade like that, she should inform her that she is also take, by a Candy Corn Farmer on the far reaches of Confection. Nancy explains that she is asexual [though not aromantic], and doesn't feel sexual attraction. Sumi asks if she'll be bothered by her masturbating, and Nancy responds that she isn't as long as she doesn't have to watch. Sumi then climbs out the window, and Nancy sits on her bed.

They later go to dinner, and Nancy is impressed by how large the room is. She sees there are about forty students, who turn to look at her. Eleanor then asks her to escort her to a table, and asks about how she's finding her living situation. She explains that in Sumi's world, stopping was what got people killed, so Sumi learned to keep moving in the ten years she spent there. She finds out that Nancy's clothes were re-packed, and says she will write to her parents to get her original clothing. Eleanor introduces Nancy to the others, explaining that she'll be rooming with Sumi until one of them attempts to murder the other. Nancy notices the students are overwhelmingly girls; there are only four boys, including Kade. Nancy grabs her food from a buffet, and sits next to Sumi, Jack and Jill. Jill notices she's not eating much, and mentions that she herself is on a diet to get Iron-rich blood. Sumi mentions that they can't go back to a High-Logic, High-Wicked world, and Jack explains the World Compass to her. Jill asks how long she's been back, and Nancy responds that she'd been back for seven weeks and four days. She'd been gone from reality for six months, but in her world, she'd been gone for years. Jill explains that they all had ways of keeping up hope, to which Jack leaves.

After dinner is Group Therapy, and Nancy is surprised to see what looks like an eight-year-old enter the room. She introduces herself as Lundy, who would be helping them through the Recovery Process. Kade explains to her that Lundy went to a high-Logic, high-Wicked world where they kicked out visitors once they hit eighteen. Lundy didn't want to leave, so she asked an apothecary to turn her into an eternal child. Lundy explains that she was not an eternal child, but was aging in reverse, but was thrown out of her world anyway for breaking the rules. The students start to talk about their worlds; the night's theme is Wicked worlds, and Nancy notices that slightly less than half were in Wicked worlds. Jill recites a song about the moors, while Jack just says something about burning windmills and fire safety in the lab. A few more students talk- such as a girl with moonlight-colored hair and Seraphina- until Kade mentions that Wicked and Virtue labels didn't mean anything, as his world was a Virtue world and yet had cast him out once they found out he was a boy. Everyone looks to Nancy, and she says that though she was in an underworld, the Halls were very fair, and though they did have rules, the Lord of the Dead took care of everyone. Lundy explains that whether the worlds were good or evil, they were Home, and ends the session, and tells Nancy to meet her the next morning for orientation.

Orientation is strange; explaining again the World Compass, along with minor directions like Whimsy and Wild. Nancy asks why the school has a female majority, and Lundy explains that since society expects boys to be loud and girls to be quiet, girls are more easily misplaced into worlds. The school was open to male children, they just didn't receive them often. She also explains that they have different schools in different countries, and two in North America. Their sister school in Maine took children that hated their worlds; Eleanor's School taught their students how to move on, without learning how to forget. Nancy asks how many students have returned. Lundy explains that some people go back and forth between worlds several times, while some only take one trip. Should students withdraw, the teachers don't know whether they go back or not. Lundy only knew of three students who returned, and warns Nancy that she'll likely live out her days in Reality.

Part II: With Your Looking-Glass Eyes
Nancy runs outside, sitting in the shade of the trees, crying. Jill comforts her, having been perched on a root. She explains how hard it is to be in school surrounded by people who went to pastel, pretty worlds, while they went to dark underworlds. Nancy glances at Jill's pastel gown questioningly, and Jill explains that her Master liked it when she dressed in pale, because they showed the blood better, and asks if that's why Nancy wears white. Nancy explains that the Lord of the Dead wasn't her master, and color in the Underworld was reserved for the Lady of Shadows and her entourage. She would like to join them, but until she can prove herself, she serves as a statue. The only color she had earned was the pomegranate ribbon in her hair. She asks about Jill's master, and she explains that he was good to her, showering her with gifts and compliments, while Jack learned unladylike things from her doctor. She believes she is going back, and they are only there because Master wanted to get rid of Jack, and she only accidentally returned, and he would open a door for her soon.

Jill leaves, and Nancy finds that Kade is sitting in one of the tree's branches, when he says, "And that, children, is why sometimes we don't let the Addams twins out into the general population." He explains that instead of crying in their rooms like normal children, the school's children would go to tall trees and deep holes, and since there were not very many of those, they tended to spend a lot of time together. He also explains that Prism was definitely never taking him back, but Eleanor returned to her world a lot. She had gone back and forth between worlds, going between her home and her parents, but adults didn't thrive well in Nonsense, and going back once nearly broke her. While it slowed her aging- Jack found record books in town and found out she was almost a hundred- Eleanor was waiting to get senile so she could return to Nonsense. Nancy asks why Kade is at Eleanor's instead of the sister school, and he replies that while he couldn't go back, he didn't want to forget Prism. He walks her back to school, and informs her that she looks pretty when she smiles.

In school, Core Classes were taught by adults who drove in from town, teaching them the standard education but not informed about what was going on with the students, while the Electives were less dull. Sumi informs her that if she's tired, she can skip Group, but not to make a habit of it, because Eleanor says that Words were important. Nancy asks Sumi how old she is, and Sumi replies that she is "older than I look, younger than I ought to be." She then skips off, and Nancy falls asleep. She awakes to the sound of screaming.

Upon hearing the screams, Nancy rolls out of bed and throws on a nightgown before running off. She sees half a dozen girls in the hallway. Nancy pushes past them, only to see Sumi, dead, with her hands cut off. Eleanor and Lundy enter, and while Eleanor inspects the body, the girls turn to look at her suspiciously, which doesn't surprise Nancy. She only holds up her hands, showing no blood. Eleanor tells them to leave Nancy alone, as "no daughter of the Underworld would kill someone who hadn't earned their place in those hallowed halls." Lundy covers Sumi's body with a sheet, as Jack arrives. She asks who was under the sheet, and Loriel accuses Jack of killing her, as she had killed Angela's guinea pig. Jack explains that it had been a cultural mix-up, and she had offered to put it back together. Kade arrives and tells Nancy to show Jack her room in case the other students try to riot.

They go, and Jack starts wiping her fingers, as she'd touched Nancy's hand and it affected her OCD. Jack explains that the reason her and Jill's stories about their world don't match up is because their experiences were different. She tells her about how her parents had expected a boy and a girl, and they'd decided that Jill was the "smart one" and Jack had been the "pretty one", and they had been stuck in their roles until they found their way into the Moors when they were twelve. She had chosen to be Dr. Bleak's apprentice, learning everything about the human body and how to reanimate it. Jill went to the Master, who promised Jill she could be his daughter if she only obeyed him. When a mob had advanced on his castle, Dr. Bleak had sent him and Jill back, though Jill had to be sedated before she went through. They'd ended up home, finding their parents and four-year-old brother. Their parents sent them off to Eleanor's schoolwithin a month.

Kade enters and asks Jack if she killed Sumi. Jack says she's offended- not because of the murder accusation, but because he assumed she would have left a body. The children were supposed to stay in their rooms while Eleanor brought in the coroner. Nancy asks if they will have to return, scared that she would have to return to her parents who were trying to fix her. Kade says that they will probably not get shut down, as Sumi was Eleanor's ward and the local authorities know what's going on in the school. The children then box up Sumi's belongings, to take up to the attic. While taking care of the items, Nancy finds a shoebox of photos. Some of them show Sumi as a sad-eyed girl in a school uniform; it was clear that she had been overlooked, forced to be still, until one day she found a world where she could be happy. Kade offers to spend the night, as Nancy shouldn't be alone, though Jack says she can't, as Nancy's room gets too much sun and Jill sleepwalks without her. Kade warns her that she will probably be a scrapegoat for the murder.

While morning classes were cancelled, they resumed after Lunch, as a way to give the students a distraction in routine. At dinner, Loriel dumps her soup on Jack's head. Jack freezes, and Jill is horrified and asks why she would do that. Loriel says that it was an accident, like how Jack 'accidentally' took apart Angela's guinea pig and 'accidentally' murdered Sumi. Jack and Jill run off, and the other students either laugh or seem satisfied. Nancy tells Loriel that she's horrible, and she would have hated Loriel's world, as apparently it didn't teach its tourists manners. She walks away.

Kade catches up with her, and they head to the top of the stairs that lead to the twins' basement. Kade explains that Jack will simply get cleaned up as she doesn't like being messy (due to her OCD), but he's more worried about the fact that if people attack her, she'll fight back. The two head off to Group, where Lundy tells the children to stop speculating about the killer. Loriel says that it was horrible her body was mutilated after she died. Jack then enters, saying that she probably died from her injuries, as corpses didn't bleed as much as living beings. Jack defends her position as innocent, asking the students if she really would have left a body. Even Loriel realizes this, though she stubbornly mentions she's keeping an eye on her. Lundy tells them not to go anywhere alone, and Loriel asks if this also applies to if they find their door; Lundy says this does not. This is when Nancy realizes that Lundy believes none of the girls will ever find their doors. Christopher suggests travelling in groups of three, in case of door finding. Loriel begins to talk about her world; she found her tiny door, carved into the lintel below her porch light. She had knocked on it, and shrunk so Webworld could pull her in. She had lived in a world of spiders, and had sharpened her eyes so much that she had to wear glasses of carnival glass to keep the world from being painfully magnified. She had been adopted by the Queen of Dust, but Loriel wanted to inform her parents first. Once she had returned, she had been searching for her door. She had looked for two years. Loriel's parents hadn't believed her and thought she went through some trauma and sent her to Eleanor's. Eleanor enters, telling Loriel that she'd known five children pulled into Webworld; two of them had found their way back. She explains that not all of the children will find their doors again, though she hopes that they all find their doors. Christopher asks Eleanor why her door stayed while theirs disappeared. Lundy explains that while there are Stable Doors, most children who go through don't return.

Afterwards, Loriel is found dead on the front yard. She would never find her door- which was in the corner of her bedroom at home. Angela finds her body, screaming upon seeing it. The students are gathered in the dining hall. Lundy explains the situation, including that Loriel's eyes were missing, and had been removed with a sharp object. Eleanor was deciding what to tell her parents and the authorities. The children were to finish breakfast and then return to their rooms, never going anywhere without a body. After Lundy leaves, Jack and Christopher suggest Eleanor lie and say that Loriel ran away, to prevent them all from being sent home. Angela doesn't support this, not wanting to stay in a place where dead bodies would disappear. Jack argues, informing her that someone in her world would have to make bodies disappear when they fell from rainbows, and if they told the truth, all the minors would be sent home, half of them on antipsychotic drugs by the end of the year, the other half on the streets. Eleanor enters and confirms that she will say Loriel ran away, asking Jack and Kade to make the body disappear. Angela, in horror, accuses Jack of murdering Loriel. Jack responds that she has no use for eyes, and not the equipment either. Nancy and Christopher offer to help with disposing the body.

The children go find the body, though Kade freezes, not knowing what to do. Nancy tells him to keep watch, while the children from Darker Worlds would take care of the body. They take her to the basement, to dissolve the flesh and turn her to a skeleton. Christopher says that he may be able to figure out what happened to her by talking to her skeleton, as he came from a world full of them; he hadn't mentioned this because he didn't want the suspicion of the other children. Jack inspects Loriel's body, deducing that someone knocked her down from behind, enough to disorient her so her eyes could be removed, and Loriel was killed by the shock. They put her body in a tub of acid, and Christopher says that he can use his bone flute to make her skeleton dance. Jack jokes that him and Nancy should get together and make more creepy-world-travelling children. They then exit the basement while waiting for the body to dissolve, so Jack can find Jill before she's blamed. She says that she and Jill aren't even really friends, and had only stuck together out of a defense mechanism. Christopher mentions that he'd tried to talk to her when they'd first arrived, and Jill had stuck him down. Jack explains that she used to be friendly, but the Master got jealous and killed the kids she'd tried to befriend: the only reason Jack was alive was in case Jill needed a blood transfusion. They split up to find Jill and agree to meet in the attic to go through Kade's books. Jack goes to search the dining hall with Christopher, while Nancy goes with Kade.

Kade and Nancy go to the grove of trees, not finding Jill. Nancy gets nervous, wondering if Kade wants to kiss her, and freezes into a statue. Kade is impressed, and Nancy lets him know that she freezes when she's scared. While they walk, Nancy mentions that someone might be trying to take away something the students treasure most; For Sumi, her hands, and Loriel's eyes. When they go to enter, Lundy opens the door and asks where they were. Kade explains what happened, and Lundy tells them to stay inside. It's only after they are inside that Nancy panics, realizing that Lundy suspects her, acknowledging that it does make the most sense, as she's from an Underworld and people only started dying after she arrived. Kade explains to her that Lundy thinks in stories, and assures her that Eleanor wouldn't let her get hurt. Jack arrives, not having found Jill either, and the children regroup in the attic.

Jack had made hot chocolate for them; Nancy is surprised that hers tastes like pomegranate. Jack explains that she'd added pomegranate molasses to hers, while Christopher's has a pinch of cinnamon and Kade's had some clotted cream fudge Jack had stolen from Eleanor's supply. Hers had three drops of warm saline solution and a pinch of wolfsbane. As they settle in, Christopher says that the other guys- excluding Kade- all went to "sparkly worlds", and he can't relate to them. Jack admits that she'd tried to make friends, but they all thought their worlds were superior. Kade redirects the conversation to figure out what's going on, as if the school shuts down he'd probably be homeless. Christopher says he'd probably be welcomed back, but his parents still think his "world" is an imaginary outlet for trauma associated from "running away." Nancy agrees that she can't go home, as her parents never understood her even before she left, adding that they always tried to get her to go on dates with boys. Kade seems a touch upset at this, and Nancy assures them that she doesn't want to go on dates with anyone, explaining it as "People are pretty, sure, and I like to look at pretty things, but I don't want to go on a date with a painting."

They attempt to figure out what Sumi and Loriel's deaths had in common; while the two girls weren't even friends, and Kade mentions what Nancy figured out, that they were both the most important things to them. Jack says that each child had an attribute that attracted the attention of their door, something that allowed them to survive, like Nancy's musculature, Angela's legs, and Seraphina's beauty. She hypothesizes that the murderer is trying to collect something missing, as she'd used to do odd jobs for Dr. Bleak that involved getting a perfect animal by taking multiples of the animal and sewing the parts together. Suddenly, Jill enters, having been looking for them. Jack realizes that the acid must have finished with Loriel, and her and Christopher leave, as Jill asks for cocoa.

Jack and Christopher make it to the basement, and Christopher uses his flute to raise Loriel's skeleton. The flute played no sound that the living could hear, only the idea of sound. They guide the skeleton outside, to bury her somewhere she won't be found. Jack pleads for Loriel to tell her who murdered her, and Loriel slowly points to a space next to Jack. Jack sighs and asks Christopher to bury her. He does so, and the two living students return to the school.

After Lunch, the students go to an assembly in the Library, where Eleanor announces to them that she can hide the Nonsense Students in her own world, causing the students to go into shock. Kade explains to Nancy that Eleanor almost never lets anyone in her door, as everytime she sends someone through, she risks being replaced; the fact she's offering to let her students inside means she's scared that she can't care for them. By this point, most students are crying, even Jill. Kade adds that only about Half the Nonsense students would be able to survive in her world. Eleanor then adds to the students that if they want to call their parents to take them home, to please not say why. Angela is offended by this, as it's too late for her friend Loriel. Eleanor dismisses the students, but Kade goes up to comfort her. It's then that Nancy finds out that Kade is Eleanor's Great-great-great-nephew. He says that he's the first of her neices/nephews to find his own door, and it took him a month to admit he'd gone to a Logic and not a Nonsense, and if the school doesn't close, someday he will be in charge of it.

Christopher and Kade come to spend the night with Nancy. Kade is the first to awaken to the sound of screams. He wakes up Christopher and Nancy, and they go off to find Lundy dead outside. While she still has her eyes and ears, her brain had been cut out. Angela then arrives with several students as an entourage, accusing Nancy of killing Lundy and kidnapping Seraphina, who went missing. Kade tells Angela to go to bed, and the odds were that Seraphina had been let through Eleanor's door. Angela threatens the trio, saying that she'd kill them if they hurt Seraphina, adding that they're all suspicious as they went to strange worlds, letting slip an insult towards Kade, calling him a girl pretending to be a boy. Everyone is shocked by this, and even Angela claims she didn't mean this. Eleanor arrives, dismissing the children to go back to their rooms. As the trio arrives at the school, Angela turns on Kade again, claiming it's sick that he pretends to be "something he's not." Christopher tells her that she did a good job pretending to be a decent human being. Angela storms off with her friends, just missing Jack approach, drenched in blood, saying that she needed assistance before fainting.

While Kade and Christopher help her away, Nancy freezes, finding safety in stillness, her heartbeat slowing to one beat per minute, becoming motionless. She is just about to move when Jill walks past, also covered in blood, not noticing Nancy as she walks. Nancy finally breaths and runs, bursting into the kitchen, where Kade, Christopher and Eleanor are dressing Jack's stab wound. Nancy reveals that she saw Jill, and Jack confirms that Jill is the murderer. She stands, and reveals that Jill always blamed her for them leaving the Moors, but Jill was the reason the Villagers revolted, as they saw her becoming just like the Master and found out "what she was doing." Dr. Bleak knew she'd never be forgiven and sent the twins through. She explains that Jill is trying to build a Skeleton Key girl, and all they head to the attic with the exception of Eleanor, who knows she can't keep up with them.

They make it to the attic, where Jill is standing with the books and a knife. Seraphina is gagged tied to the table, surrounded by jars of Sumi's hands, Loriel's eyes and Lundy's brain. She says that she won't stop killing until she gets her Skeleton Key, the perfect girl: the smartest, prettiest, fastest and strongest girl. Every door would open for her, and she would kill her once she got to the Moors. Nancy approaches, informing her that she was disrespecting the Dead, as she was using them as tools, asking why her happy ending was the only one to matter. Jill says it is because she's the only one willing to work for it, and threatens to kill Seraphina and blame them if anyone comes near her. Nancy tells her that the dead are angry at her, and Jill says she doesn't care, as the only things she cares about are her Master and herself. She then stops, looking down to see that Jack had stabbed her with scissors, killing her. Jack tells them that Dr. Bleak locked the door against Jill, and Jack was always welcome back if she left Jill behind or changed her. The undead couldn't become Vampires, so Jill's Master wouldn't want her anymore. She slashes the bloody scissors through the air, and uses them to open a doorway to the Moors. She grabs Jill's body and the two enter the door, which closes behind them.

Loriel's body is buried in the tree grove, along with Sumi's hands and Loriel's eyes. The police close the murder case of Sumi, admitting that it went cold. Kade began stepping in to fill the void left by Lundy, as Nancy moves into the basement. Seraphina had informed the other students of what had happened, so they began to tolerate Nancy more.

On the last day of school, Nancy is packing when Kade arrives with her old suitcase. He heard she was going home, and Nancy confirms; she doesn't want her parents to have an excuse to pull her out of school. Kade gives her the suitcase, so her parents wouldn't think they'd been encouraging her. Kade tells her that him and Christopher have been working on more directions, adding Vitus and Mortis as minor directions. He leaves, and Nancy allows herself to be still. She wonders if she could be happy teaching at the school with Kade, but knows it won't be home. She opens the suitcase of bright clothes, only to find an envelope on top of the clothes. Nancy opens it, reading a note written by Sumi:

"You're nobody's rainbow. You're nobody's princess. You're nobody's doorway but your own, and the only one who gets to tell you how your story ends is you."

Nancy repeats the words aloud: "Nobody gets to tell me how my story ends but me." Suddenly, the air shifts, and Nancy turns, to see that instead of stairs, there is only a solid oak door. She walks towards it, dropping the letter. She opens the door, to find herself once again in the grove of pomegranate trees. Nancy steps through, leaving her shoes behind as she walks down the path. The door disappears, and she breaks into a run. Nancy found her way home.

Characters

 * Eleanor West
 * Nancy Whitman
 * Jack Wolcott
 * Jill Wolcott
 * Sumi
 * Kade Bronson
 * Loriel Youngers
 * Angela
 * Seraphina
 * Christopher
 * Lundy
 * Queen of Cakes (mentioned)
 * Countess of Candy Floss (mentioned)
 * Lord of the Dead (mentioned)
 * Lady of Shadows (mentioned)
 * Goblin King (mentioned)
 * Court of the Rainbow Princess (mentioned)
 * Candy Corn Farmer (mentioned)
 * The Master (mentioned)
 * Dr. Bleak (mentioned)
 * Moth-Eyed Girl (mentioned)
 * Chester Wolcott (mentioned)
 * Serena Wolcott (mentioned)
 * Jack and Jill's Brother (mentioned)
 * Wasp Prince (mentioned)
 * Skeleton Girl (mentioned)
 * Skeleton Girl (mentioned)

Worlds

 * Reality (main setting)
 * The Halls of the Dead (briefly)
 * The Moors  (briefly)
 * Eleanor's World (mentioned)
 * Confection (mentioned)
 * Prism (mentioned)
 * Goblin Market (mentioned)
 * Webworld (mentioned)
 * Mariposa (mentioned)
 * Angela's World (mentioned)
 * Seraphina's World (mentioned)

Trivia
-The working title for Every Heart a Doorway was Every Heart a Doorway, Every Word a Prayer, but Seanan's editor said that he would like to change this to a title that didn't make people think it was religious book since it isn't, and that he thought she was underestimating how commercial it may be so he would like it to have a title that people can actually say with a straight face.