I held the door in place for him with my gloved hand, so he could hack at the vines through the crack. “I always knew popularity was a survival skill in high school, but here, it’s really an issue of life and death.” And with that realization, I suddenly felt a little calmer. A little more in control. Yeah, this place still sucked, but it also made sense, in a weird kind of way.

Here, just like in my own world, popularity was power; survival required the occasional sacrifice of a damaged limb—or a damaged cousin—and alliances were crucial. At home, Laura and I needed each other to overthrow Peyton’s tyranny, a concept I’d recognized in her as soon as we heard about Alexander the Great in world history. Here, Luca and I needed each other to hack our way through the carnivorous landscape and dodge flesh-eating bunnies. Or whatever.

It wasn’t the game that had changed—it was just the venue. Fortunately for us both, as demonstrated by my social triumph in spite of overwhelming odds, I was damn good at the game.

“I guess.” Luca cut through the first vine and both halves of it fell away from the door. “But I doubt that being voted most likely to succeed will save you from a two-headed monster who wants to eat you alive from both ends at once.”

“You’re right.” He severed another vine, and I jumped out of the way of the yellowish spray without letting go of the door. “That sounds more like the homecoming court than the Who’s Who. Especially if you consider the Carter sisters to be a two-headed monster. Which, having been nearly eaten alive by them, I do.”

Luca laughed and glanced at me over his shoulder.

“Seriously. They’re creepy, even with their mouths closed, and that hair would shame Medusa.”

“Okay, I think this is the last one.” He reached overhead to slice through the only vine still visible, and it fell away with another spurt of yellow fluid. But instead of throwing the door open, he closed it and turned to me, his brown-eyed gaze steady and serious. “Sophie, I have no idea what’s on the other side of this door. It could be an empty courtyard, or a death trap full of monsters waiting to devour us slowly while we scream.”

“Like the judges’ panel at regionals. Got it.”

“No.” Luca frowned at me and his hand tightened around the doorknob. “This isn’t some stupid dance competition, Sophie. This is real life, and if you miss a step, you don’t get a bad score. You get dead. Like, bleeding, screaming, eaten-alive dead. Do you understand?”

I nodded slowly as fear rolled over me, triggered more by the look in his eyes than by anything he’d said. He was scared. And if he was scared, I should be too. But survival wasn’t something I’d ever really thought about before. It had never been an issue. “So, what’s the plan?”

He exhaled and looked a little relived that I was taking him seriously. “Cautious steps. Open eyes. Fast feet, if necessary. We stay together, and we stay calm. There are creatures out there that can smell your fear. The best way to survive is to stay out of sight and keep your emotions in check.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, and nearly choked on it. “Are you trying to scare me?”

“Yes. In the interest of keeping us both alive.”

My head spun, and the room seemed to tilt around me, just a little bit. And that’s when the reality sank in. Hard. I’d made it so far without freaking out because the whole thing felt like some kind of bizarre dream that I would wake up from any moment. Maybe I’d be in my bed at home. Maybe I’d be on the floor in the school hallway, where I’d been laid out cold by a classroom door.

Intellectually, I’d known this was real the whole time, but because this place didn’t feel real, the consequences didn’t feel real either. Until I stopped to truly think about the possibility of my own death.

“I don’t want to die. I want to go home,” I said, hating how weak the truth felt. How pathetic it sounded. But Luca didn’t laugh at my fear. How could he, when I could see it reflected in his eyes.

“Me too. You ready?”

“Not even close. Let’s go.” I pulled the glove tighter on my left hand and Luca nodded. Then he pushed the door open, and I followed him into the quad. Which looked almost exactly like it did in our world. The only real differences were the lack of wooden picnic tables and the presence of crimson creeper vines trailing down two walls from the roof of the school.

I exhaled deeply in relief. “You’re right. This is terrifying,” I said, jogging down the three concrete steps to the grass, which was a darker, more olive shade of green here. Maybe school was the scariest part of this Netherworld. Maybe the hard part was over.

Luca frowned over my sarcasm. “Just because you can’t see a threat doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”

“Same thing goes for eavesdroppers in the bathroom. This place is just like high school.”

“If that’s true, I’m not sure I want to go to your school after all,” he said, clomping down the steps, glancing around cautiously for any new threat.

“Okay, so, now what?” I asked as I followed him across the quad, picturing the missing tables in my head. And suddenly the hush felt fragile. False. There were no birds chirping and no traffic sounds. No hum of overlapping conversations. No cell phones buzzing on silent because they weren’t technically allowed in school. It was like someone had pressed the mute button on the soundtrack of my life, and my ears were ringing with the silence.