“Now we find someplace safe to hide while we figure out how to get back home,” Luca said.

“Safer than an empty quad?”

“Yeah.” We reached the corner of the building and to the left, stretching out behind the school, were what should have been the baseball diamond and the football practice field. But the Netherworld version only had the football goalposts. “At least, somewhere less exposed.”

“So, any idea how to do that? Go home?” I turned away from the missing sports complex, unnerved by the inconsistencies between my school and this one. Creeped out by the humanish figures hanging from one goalpost. Upside down. I wasn’t sure if they could see us, but I was sure I didn’t want them to.

“There are several ways to cross over,” Luca said, tugging me steadily away from both the quad and the athletic fields. When we rounded the next corner, we’d see the street, and the front of the school, but suddenly that didn’t seem like a very good idea either. If there were creatures hanging from the football goalposts, what would be driving the streets in this Nether hell?

“But none of them work for me,” Luca continued, and I began to drag my feet. “I can’t cross over on my own. I don’t have…what it takes. But maybe I could get us back, if I could figure out how we got here in the first place.”

“I’m a bit curious about that myself,” a strange voice said from behind us, and I froze. Luca’s hand went stiff in my grip. We turned slowly, and I had to let go of him. But then his gloved hand wrapped around my gloved hand and I felt a little better because of the connection, even if my skin was no longer touching his.

However, that comfort evaporated when I got a good look at the man standing where we’d been a few steps earlier. My heart jumped into my throat and threatened to choke me. Where had he come from? What the hell was he?”

He wore a suit, like he’d just come from the office, and his voice was educated. Cultured, like the men who worked with my father. His face wasn’t young or old, or anything in between, but somehow he felt…ageless. Not ancient, but eternal. I couldn’t have explained what gave me that impression, after just seconds of staring at him, but I couldn’t shake the certainty that that was true. He was timeless. Infinite.

But the worst part was his eyes. Not white and empty like the dead guy in the hall, but solid black and featureless. The dead guy’s white eyes were creepy because they looked like the iris and pupil had been sucked out of them. This man’s eyes were creepy because they’d never had irises or pupils in the first place. Somehow, I knew that at a glance.

“Sophia Cavanaugh,” the man said, and my hand tightened around Luca’s.

“Sophie. How the hell do you know my name?” I demanded, and Luca stepped back, pulling me with him. I didn’t dare look away from the man withthe black eyes, but on the edge of my vision, Luca looked tense. Ready for either flight or fight.

“He’s a hellion,” Luca said, his voice steady but thick with caution. I had no idea what a hellion was.

“And you are…” The hellion’s black eyes narrowed, and though I couldn’t follow his gaze since his eyes had no features, I was sure he was staring at Luca. Studying him. “Necromancer. You are special,” the hellion finished finally, his dark eyebrows bunched, his forehead wrinkled, like he was thinking. “Useful.”

The hellion’s head moved almost imperceptibly, and I felt the weight of his gaze, even with no obvious sign that he was looking at me. “You are something ordinary, with useful connections.”

“Sophie, I’m so sorry,” Luca whispered, and the hairs on the backs of my arm stood up.

“Why?” I whispered back, though this hellion could clearly hear us.

“Because I can’t get us out of here. We’re not going home.”

“Oh, you are going home, as soon as I can arrange for your transport,” the hellion said to him, and goose bumps rose on my arms, making those tiny hairs stand up even taller. “Because you are more use to me in your own world. But she is not.”

“Okay, this is ridiculous.” I dropped Luca’s hand and ignored him when he hissed my name. I wasn’t sure what a hellion was, but he didn’t have claws, or sharp teeth. He didn’t even have poisonous thorns, like those damn vines. How dangerous could he be?

“Who the hell are you to tell me where I’m not going?” I demanded. “For your information, I’m only in this festering hellhole of an alternate dimension because I don’t know how to get out of it, not because you want me here. Once I figure out how to get home, there’s not a damn thing you or any of the other assorted creepy-crawlies out there squirming through poisonous underbrush can do to keep me here against my will.”

The hellion stared at me for a moment. Then he burst into deep, creepy laughter that sounded nothing like the ominous “mwa ha ha” I would have expected, if I’d known monsters could laugh in the first place.

“Miss Cavanaugh, your indomitable spirit and foolish bravado are both highly entertaining and deliciously familiar. I believe we’re going to have a lot of fun together, at least until your usefulness has passed.”

“What the hell does that—”

Before I could even finish my question, the hellion waved one smooth, pale hand in my direction, and the Netherworld swam around me. Luca shouted my name as I crashed to the ground on the olive-colored grass. I had less than a second to blink up at the sky—a sickly yellowish color instead of blue—before Luca’s face appeared, staring down at me in concern.