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“Did that man hit you in the head?” he snapped.

“She’s good. She’s a good person. She doesn’t have evil, spite, and malice flowing through her veins, dictating every move she makes.

You’re stupid not to let her take over Tartarus,” he said through gritted teeth.

“She could change it for the better. Anna’s filled with compassion and kindness but is strong enough to enforce. ”

I rolled my eyes and took a sip from the drink in front of me. “Oh yes, so much good to be done in Tartarus,” I said sarcastically. When I looked back, he was glaring at me, and he didn’t seem as drunk as I had originally thought .

“I think your problem is you pick shallow battles, like bar fights and getting kittens out of old fae’s trees,” he said, taking another drink. “The big battles frighten you.”

“And what big battle is it that you speak of specifically?” I asked, slightly offended. I’d never turned down a fight in my life and had been in several large battles. I had the scars on my body to prove it.

“The battle within yourself,” he said.

I stared blankly at the philosopher. “Don’t you think, if you’re going to talk like that, you should have a scraggly white beard and a staff? Perhaps guard bridges from foot traffic or something?”

“Whatever, let’s get this over with,” he said, chugging the rest of the liquid from the bottle and standing. The bottles clanked loudly in his pockets as he rose.

We walked out of the tavern, and even though my gut told me to stay quiet and not anger the philosopher drunk with the deadly touch, I couldn’t help myself. “How come your powers still work here when no one else’s do?”

He let out a heavy sigh, obviously wishing I would shut up. He wasn’t alone in wishing that. “Because I’m not one of you. I’m not fae. I’m from the human realm. The laws don’t apply to me the same way.”

“Then why do you keep coming through the tiers? Why don’t you leave when you get to the tenth tier?” I asked. He was one of the most confusing people I’d met in a long time.

His voice trembled as he stopped, and there was a glimmer of tears being held in his eyes. “And where would I go?” he asked. “Where would I go? Back to the human realm? Look at me, they don’t want me. I can’t get into the Elysian Fields—I’m not pure enough. So I go back to Eromreven.”

“To drink your life away?” I said, and he started walking again. “How many times have you been through the tiers?”

“Enough,” he replied.

“But how do you know where we’re going or what we’re doing if the tiers are different for everyone? ”

He stopped and turned to me, his face flushed with frustration and alcohol.

“Because, as I’ve told you, I’m not faerie.

These tiers were built specifically for you.

Things you should be able to see right in front of your face, you can’t.

That’s how it was designed—to trick you, to keep you here, but not me. ”

We kept walking. “Don’t you want better for yourself?” I asked.

He turned on me quickly, tossing an empty bottle into a patch of flowers. “Don’t do this, Sunshine. Don’t pull me into your heroics.”

“Don’t call me that,” I said, exasperated. “And I’m not being heroic. I’m trying to help you.”

He burst out laughing, a harsh, almost maniacal sound that made me want to run in the opposite direction.

“You don’t get it,” he said between laughs.

“Heroism isn’t helping someone. Helping someone is what you do because you’re a good person and you want to.

Heroics? That’s what you do because you want to be liked, you want notoriety and for everyone to think you’re the good guy.

If you’re really the good guy, you don’t have to tell people you’re the good guy—they already know,” he added before walking off.

I followed a few paces behind him. “Oh, wise words from a drunk. Maybe you should turn some of that wisdom on yourself,” I snapped.

Again, he waved me off like I was an annoying fly, and I rolled my eyes.

“How do we get out of here?” I asked. I was tired of arguing. “We don’t.”

“You got out of here before. How do we all get out if only one of us can be chosen to move forward?” I bit out.

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’ll make it easy for you: I’m staying.”

“You’re what?” I shouted, surprised.

He winked in my direction. “I’m staying. This is the best tier by far. You annoy me. Don’t worry, you’ve secured my vote. I hope you leave and Anna stays. ”

Jealousy washed over me instantly, and I had to push it down knowing he was likely baiting me.

“So this is what you do? You go through the tiers, bar-hopping through all of them, looking for something new and exciting, only to return and do it all over again? Don’t you get tired of being so blasted all the time that you don’t even know what’s happening? ”

He turned on me, more serious this time. His voice was quiet, but the look in his eyes told me he’d already snapped, so I took a step back. “Yes, I want to forget. I drink to forget. I fly high to forget. I play pretend with stupid illusions like you to forget. And you know what?”

“What?” I whispered.

“Nothing works. I’m still a piece of shit that doesn’t belong anywhere.”

He walked off, and this time, I let him, following a good distance behind.

Eventually, we reached the platform, and I was surprised to see Anna already there with Walter and Eletha. Tensions didn’t seem much better between the three of them.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I asked Walter.

“Good until we had to come here,” he growled.

“Did you guys get the same message as us?” I asked him. “Yeah,” Walter and Eletha both mumbled. “The people we were with just turned into weirdos for a minute, told us what we had to do, and then their faces changed back to normal.”

“Yeah, that’s what happened to us too,” I said, looking at Anna.

I raked my eyes over her, making sure she was okay.

She had changed into a different set of clothes, probably from the people Eletha had been with.

She looked good. Really good. I pulled my eyes away from her new brown pants and attempted to calm my voice “Well, I don’t know how this works, but I guess we all have to figure out how we’re going to make it through. ”

“No shit,” Eletha said, exchanging a look with Walter. “You know what? We’re going to make it easy on everyone. We’re staying. ”

“What?” Anna and I shouted.

Walter raised his hands as if it would stop any incoming arguments.

“I know it sounds crazy, but the pack here needs us.” I heard Bexley snort out a laugh, catching my attention.

“No, Walter, it’s an illusion. Bexley, tell him.

” What was I doing? I needed them all to stay while I moved on.

This was going to work; I would be voted to leave.

Apparently my mind hadn’t embraced the fact that if I went on, that meant they all stayed here.

Confusion warred at me. Even though I needed to leave, I didn’t want them all to be stuck in the tiers forever.

We were friends.

Bexley mumbled to himself, pulling another drink out of one of his pockets.

I turned back Walter. “You can’t stay here. We have to get through these tiers. That’s the whole point—it wants you to stay here.”

“Well, good, because we want to stay here too.”

“What are you talking about?” Anna asked. “Eletha, Dad needs you. You’re the Shepherd. You have a job to do. You can’t just leave that all behind.”

Eletha and Walter exchanged guilty looks.

“Come on,” I said. “The door’s behind a berry patch.”

We walked over as my mind swirled, not knowing what was going to happen or what to do.

Sure enough, out of nowhere, an intricate iron door stood in the middle of the forest behind a small, raised garden bed framed in with sticks and brambles.

Had I not known better, I would have thought it was a decorative door.

For a moment, I wondered if we’d been tricked and this really was just garden decor, as I could easily see straight through to the other side.

“I’m staying,” said Bexley. Eletha nodded.

“You can’t stay,” Anna said. “Come on, this is the time.

We’re going to get you clean.”

He grumbled something under his breath.

Panic had begun to grip me. I couldn’t let them stay trapped here, but I needed to get out. I grabbed the door, unable to resist, and opened it to see what would be on the other side. Nothing changed. As the door swung open, I saw the forest on the other side exactly as it was.

“You have to make your choices before anything will change,” Bexley grumbled, crossing his arms.

“If anyone should get to go through, it should be me,” I snapped.

“I came here alone. You guys followed me. I’m the only one who really wants to go through.

Just let me through!” My eyes flicked to Anna and I realized that this might actually work in my favor.

If I left first, she would be so driven to catch me and the pendant that she would not only find a way out for herself but find me and hopefully, by then, I would be in the Elysian Fields.

“What?” Anna said. “You’re just going to leave? Why should it be you?”

“Oh, you want to go by yourself?” I said.

“Yeah, give me the pendant and I’ll go by myself,” she said. “What about you two?” I snapped at Walter and Eletha.

“Who do you vote to leave?”

“We think Anna should go through,” they both mumbled in unison.

“Ha!” she shouted at me.

“What?” I couldn’t believe them. “Why would Anna go through?”

Walter shrugged. “Well, because Kaohs needs her to help run things and it is her pendant.”

“And I’m the one tied to them. Doesn’t it matter at all what I want?” I yelled.

“You have to vote, and it can’t be for yourself,” Anna said to me with a wide grin.