“When I sent you to go spy for us, you came back with the truth,” Stella said. “Ethan and Olive fooled you because they were telling the truth too. They really don’t know where she is.” She leaned forward to see around the group, focusing on the person sitting at the end of the line. “Jewel doesn’t win until we find her, and neither do we. It’s time to call it quits. I’ve laid my cards on the table, and it’s a wild royal flush.”

A shot suddenly rang out.

FEARLESS

Luna had never heard gunshots in real life before.

Everything happened so fast—the shouting, the screaming, the scrambling. Alex had tackled her to the ground, covering her body with his.

The rapid-fire pop pop pop pop sounded fake. The squishy, wet splatter sound that followed did not.

“What’s happening?” Luna clutched at Alex’s shirt as he picked her up. One second, she was on the ground and the next he carried her, running with Harlow and Nicole. Both of them screaming, “Go! Hurry! Go! Run!”

Alex ran through an open dark doorway. Luna looked over his shoulder just in time to see the secret passageway close behind them. The electric string lights clicked on, as weak as she remembered—barely enough light to see five feet in either direction. Security guards pounded on the door from the other side. “Open this door! How do you open this door?”

“We have to run,” Alex whispered as he put her down. “Which way?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know.” Each inhale felt like an uncontrollable gasp. “I don’t have the map for the secret passages. My codex is only to find the door.”

He grasped her hand. “Come on.” And with that, they ran to the left, leaving the angry shouts behind.

They ran and ran, turning every corner and following the paths whether they sloped downward or tilted upward. Luna’s lungs stretched and filled with the cold, damp air. Everything smelled like dirt and dust, filling her up and wrapping around the endless what’s happening stuck on repeat in her head.

Security had shot at them.

They were alone.

They had left everyone else behind.

“Alex,” she panted, “I can’t—”

While they ran he had taken the lead, keeping his back to her. A quick glance over his shoulder later, he slowed to a stop, still holding her hand.

There in the almost dark, Luna could finally see his face. Pinched with worry and uncertainty. Straining and failing to hide it from her. His shoulders rose and fell with each deep breath he took, but he wasn’t winded like her. She leaned against the wall, chest heaving and throat burning.

“What do we do?” he asked. “What do we do now?”