“On the other side, yes,” Shinigami interrupts. “Like all the others. And, like all the others, there she remains. Not one returned. Even on pain of torture. Would you not return if I held a loved one at knifepoint?” She looks at me strangely and a thrill of panic shoots through my body. “I admit,” she continues, smiling, “I was at a loss.” She says all this as if reciting a poem. Lost in the cadence of her reasoning. “Until I heard about you. This Moon girl from Sol with powerful abilities.” She lets the “s” linger. “So I snatched you from your world and brought you here and sent you through the gate. And I waited. And waited. And finally I realised my mistake. We had caught the wrong girl. But at least we knew who the right girl was. Since then, my Reapers have been tracking you down, hunting you, driving you towards this moment.”

“What is it you want?” I snarl.

“Isn’t it obvious? I want you to step through the gate, Ana Moon. I want you to walk into Kronos and return. With or without your friend.”

“And what then?” I ask, staring into the darkness. “You’ll let us go?”

Shinigami throws up her hands. “Once you return, and the pathway flows so I may enter and return myself, yes. Then I will release you.” She looks at me. “You and your friends.”

The extended “s” sound, delivered by the sibilance in her voice, alerts me. Friends. Not friend. The plural matters.

Behind her, I see why.

Pushed into the room, bound and gagged, a knife at his jugular—Malik. He’s bruised. His nose is bleeding. It looks like he’s taken a beating. He blinks at me and sags in the grip of his captor, one of the Reaper-guards.

I try not to let Shinigami see the emotion in me. I allow no panic, no surprise on my face. I look back at her.

“Fine,” I say as calmly as I can. “We have a deal.”

Three things I know, with absolute certainty, as I say this. First, she’s telling the truth—Bea is in the seventh. I know it in my gut. Second, she’s lying—she won’t release us. Why would she? Third, I’m lying—there is no deal. But there’s also no choice. I walk to the gate, hair swirling, electricity in my skin.

I look at Malik. And I step into the dark.

Kronos