I nodded. I had no plans to take crazy risks. I just wanted my dad back.

My uncle must have seen some of that in my eyes, because he turned to Tod next. “If this goes bad, get her out of there.”

Tod nodded. “Count on it.”

He and I took up a position near the outermost wall of the large basement, not so close to the cinder blocks that anything growing on them could reach for us, but close enough that we were unlikely to suddenly appear in the middle of a crowd. Or a piece of furniture.

My palms were starting to sweat. Tod took my hand and squeezed it. “It’s going to be okay, Kaylee,” he whispered. “One way or another.”

I let him cross us both over so I wouldn’t risk losing touch with him in the process.

When I opened my eyes in the Netherworld, I was nearly blinded. Not that the light was that bright, but after the darkness of the human-world basement, any light shining in my eyes was a shock to my system. I stood as still as possible while my eyes adjusted, clutching Tod’s hand, and the first thing I noticed when I could see again was that the light was dancing. Shadows jumped and stretched. Light flickered over grimy cinder-block walls, odds-and-ends furniture, and an assortment of bizarre creatures sitting, standing, and lounging all over the large room.

Candles. Avari had lit his creepy basement lair with hundreds of tiny candles, unlike any I’d ever seen. Tiny flames licked the air from shallow, irregularly shaped bowls of thick liquid, but I couldn’t see a single wick. The liquid itself was on fire.

Tod squeezed my hand, and I nodded in silent acknowledgment that yes, I saw it. I saw it all. I wasn’t willing to speak or move, because no one had noticed us yet—an advantage I hadn’t expected but intended to use.

The reason no one had noticed us yet was that they were all busy noticing some kind of bloody spectacle at the other end of the room, where one large creature appeared to be systematically devouring another, slightly smaller creature, complete with a disturbing array of crunchslurpgulp noises.

I gagged, then slapped my free hand over my mouth to hold back the lunch I now regretted eating.

Tod squeezed my hand again, and I sucked in a deep, silent breath to calm myself, mostly out of habit. I didn’t really need to breathe anymore. I made myself scan the large room, my gaze stumbling over misshapen limbs, backward-bending joints, and more kinds of horns, scaly wings, and twitching tails than I could even count. But I saw no sign of my father.

I decided no sign was a good sign.

“Find what you’re looking for, little bean  sidhe?” Avari’s voice crawled over me like an army of spiders marching beneath my skin, and as I turned to find him watching us from the nearest corner, a series of soft shuffles, scratches—like claws on concrete—and the whisper of fabrics Icouldn’t identify told me that everyone else in the room was now watching us, too.

I didn’t look at them. I couldn’t without losing my composure—just knowing they were there was bad enough. I’d been in a larger Netherworld crowd, once, but I’d hidden my fear and mortality behind a mask. This time I was exposed, no longer mortal, but as vulnerable as ever.

I might have been full of rage earlier, but standing there, surrounded by at least two dozen Nether-creatures, any one of whom would gladly snap off my head and suck out my insides, it was hard to focus on anything more than my own paralyzing fear.

I swallowed, then let go of Tod’s hand. That gesture of independence wouldn’t hide my fear, but hopefully it would expose my spine. “Where’s my dad?”

Avari stalked closer, and it was obvious from his smooth, menacing gait that he was pleased to have me back on his turf, where my options were limited—in the Netherworld, I couldn’t become invisible, inaudible, or incorporeal. The hellion looked just like he had the first time I’d seen him. Tall, with dark hair and a dark suit that would have looked normal in any accountant’s office in the human world but looked absurdly out of place in the seething pit of bizarrely shaped evil that was the Netherworld.

His featureless black orb eyes seemed to be watching me as he stalked closer, but I couldn’t be sure with no irises or pupils to indicate the direction of his focus. “I’ve put your father away for safekeeping.”

“I want him back.”

“Of course you do.” He stopped and clasped his hands behind his back. “And you know the price. Have you come to discuss the terms of your surrender?”

“Yes.”

Avari actually chuckled. “Hellions cannot lie, but we are all fully aware that little dead bean sidhes can. So I assume you understand my disinclination to take you at your word.”

“Whatever.” On the edge of my vision, something slithered closer, and chills crawled over my skin. “Here are my terms.” I would ask for the world. It didn’t matter whether or not he agreed—what mattered was that I kept him talking. “First, send my father home. Second, swear you’ll never attempt to contact any of my friends and family ever again, through any means. Third, swear that you’ll stay away from my school and all of its students, past, present, and future. And the staff. When you’ve done all of that to my satisfaction, I’ll hand over my immortal soul. That’s what you want, right?”

He needed me to give him my soul of my own free will. With it in his possession, I could not escape. Ever.

“Surrender your soul, and you have my word that your father will be returned to the human world.”