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“What do you want to know about her?” I asked, looking out to the battlefield.

Walter held a man in front of him while Eletha beat the crap out of him.

It was oddly one of the sweeter moments I’d witnessed between the two of them.

They were even laughing together as crimson blood sprayed their faces.

Anna turned to face me, and it took everything I had not to turn back around with the weight of her full attention on me.

It was hard to think about anything else.

I would die three more times before I admitted it, but I couldn’t stop picturing her nearly naked body from the night we almost slept together.

Would she have gone that far for the pendant?

Had everything between us that night been just to get the pendant?

It sure hadn’t felt like it, but what did I know?

She was so pretty; this was probably her easiest manipulation tactic.

I couldn’t explain it. Something about the features of her face—the special light that sparkled in her eyes, the pinkness of her lips—when she was this close to me, it was hard for me to pay attention to anything else.

I also couldn’t help but imagine all the things I would have done to her that night had we not been stopped when we were this close.

“Why are you staring at me?” she asked.

I felt my cheeks heat. I was imagining what it would feel like to be inside of you.

“Because you had a bug on your face,” I said, flicking a spot of nothing off her cheek.

I regretted it instantly. The moment my fingertips brushed her soft skin, they wanted to stay there, and for a moment, my hand lingered.

She was too close. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, the chemistry between us had created tension.

“Why do you have to be so evil?” I whispered under my breath absently.

She shoved my hand away and turned back to face the violence.

“What have I ever done to you that was evil?” she snapped, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Two large moths, the same fuzzy pink-and-yellow kind that I’d seen before, fluttered around her.

“What are those?” I asked, pointing to them.

“They are my moths,” she grumbled, letting one of the larger ones climb onto her finger. She held her arm out, and the thing flew away. It was the fluffiest, cutest moth I’d seen, and somehow that only left me more confused. “Rosy maple moths. They follow me everywhere.”

“They match your hair,” I said absently as I watched her lift the second from her armor and repeat her process of sending it away, but not before giving it a little stroke on its fluffy yellow head.

I rolled my eyes at the obvious show. The rulers of the Underworld didn’t have fuzzy pink moths that they snuggled and kissed as their symbols.

It was an act, and an obvious one at that.

“Where are my monarchs, then? Where are Walter’s luna moths?” I asked.

She had the nerve to make her cheeks pinken. “Occasionally, the Unseelie moths hang out around Eromreven.”She shrugged. “The monarchs never seem to follow the Seelie down here.”

“But yours do?” I grumbled. “I don’t remember seeing those in Moirai with the other Artemi. Their moths were clear and glass-like.” The more I thought about it, the more perplexed I was. “Why would you have a different symbol than the Artemi?”

She looked at me for a minute as if she were deciding whether or not to answer me.

“Because I’m the only one with the rosy maple moths as a symbol.

Some say it’s because my power surpasses the Artemi and makes me something else entirely.

When my father Kaohs would tattoo his favorites, he would infuse protection and love into their tattoos to keep them safe with him forever.

With my mother, he said he added so much love into her mark that it turned my hair and my moths pink.

I like to think he had something to do with my creation, whether it’s true or not.

” She smiled into the distance with the most genuine, sweet-looking grin.

“Back to why you think I’m evil,” she said, throwing cold water on the moment.

“Oh, let’s think; you seduced me and tried to steal my pendant,” I said, pretending to count on my fingers.

“My pendant,” she volleyed back. “And you seduced me. ”

“I what?” I said, completely taken aback. “You pretended to be a prostitute to rob me!”

“Oh, and I’m sure that’s the first time that’s ever happened to you,” she snapped.

“That’s not the point.”

“What else have I done to you?” she questioned.

“Let’s see, you killed harmless animals for fun.” I continued ticking off my fingers.

“I told you, I put them to sleep. I stunned them. They’ll awaken more powerful than they were before they went to sleep. Those lightning bugs will be able to power the light in three rooms,” she stated matter-of-factly.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I said loudly. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?” she said louder. “Telling the truth about what? Cal? What does it matter?”

I rolled my eyes, always a very mature response.

We sat down on the ground on opposite sides of the black cactus thing, maintaining absolute silence for a moment as we watched Eletha and Walter, as if we were at a sporting event. Occasionally, Anna would giggle when Eletha did a specific move or something that made her really light up.

“When will they stop?” I asked, feeling eager to leave this tier and move on. “And where’s Bexley?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve been wondering the same thing. I figured since we dropped in before you did that he would be with you. And to be honest, I don’t know if they’ll stop.”

“What do you mean?” I didn’t like the way that sounded.

She snorted. “They’re Unseelie. This is their bread and butter.

Violence is in their blood. Combine that with the lupine nature of them being shifters and a shitload of pent-up attraction and tension between them; we’ll be lucky if they don’t get carried away and come after us. ”

How could she say things like this so calmly? “I beg your finest pardon?”

“That’s the point of the tiers,” she said with a laugh.

“You can’t move on if you don’t want to.

The longer they stay and fight, the more this battle will ingrain in their blood; the more they’ll continue.

They’ll be so bloodthirsty, they won’t want to stop until they’ve won. And they’ll never win.”

“So why aren’t you stopping them?” Panic laced through me. Why had we let them continue for so long?

“Because, again, I’m not trying to get out of here.

I’m trying to get the pendant,” she stated.

I caught her eyes on my chest, where the pendant lay under my armor and shirt.

“So what? They’ll stay here forever. We’ll never get out.

” This wasn’t going to work for me. I was getting away from her and heading straight to the sunny, peaceful doors of the Elysian Fields one way or another.

“Typically, when a fae comes to Eletha, she senses what their weakness is, the sins they’ve committed, if any, that caused them to arrive in Tartarus for reasons other than being Unseelie.

If they were just being fae and Unseelie, they go to Eromreven.

If they have something they need to learn, they go to the tiers.

” “How does she know if there’s something they need to learn? ” I asked.

“She just knows. It’s like a sixth sense. She doesn’t even know why; she just knows she’s supposed to send them to the place that fits them best. As the Shepherd, that’s what she does.” “How could she know that but not know what happens down here or how to get out?”

“She senses what it is they need to learn and sends them to the appropriate tier. Didn’t they teach you this in school?

Why are you looking at me like that? If they cannot pass through and learn anything, then they stay forever, likely dying or turning into a part of the tier.

If they learn something and continue to pass through, most of the other levels aren’t a problem for them.

If they can pass through all the way, they’re welcomed into Eromreven again, where they are met with parties and fun,” she stated.

“So what would happen to these two if we can’t get them to leave? I have to go. I have to get out of this liar-infested black hole. I need to go to the Elysian Fields!” At some point, I had begun shouting.

She shrugged and then gave me a little smile. She was wicked; that was obvious, but not in the way that I had originally thought. At least, I didn’t think so.

“It seems we’ll be here for a while,” I said, watching the two, choosing to remain confident that they would wear them- selves out. Nobody could fight forever. “What do you want to know about your sister?” I asked.

She perked up, and I fought away a smile.

It was impossible to picture her as the leader of the sinful Underworld, even though I’d experienced firsthand a taste of how powerful her magic could be.

I knew my fair share of devious, slaughtering women I’d never guessed were evil—my mother, sister, and best friend all fit in that category—but there was something about Anna that didn’t seem fit for villainy.

Perhaps it was my own mind simply not wanting her to be, but she just seemed too gentle and soft to command the Underworld.

“I don’t know; tell me about her. How did you two meet?” Anna asked.

A heavy breath left my chest. “Well, as you know, my mother?—”

“Oh, yes, I know your mother,” she said, interrupting me.

I continued with an accompanying eye roll.

“Took Cal under her wing after she killed you and your mom.” It felt so weird to be saying that and talking to her.

The number of times Cal had cried on my shoulder, missing her sister, made this incredibly surreal.

“Yes, I’m quite aware of all of that,” she said with understandable shortness.