At first glance the netherworld bore a strong resemblance to the riverbank we’d just left. The vague, charcoal shapes I’d seen yesterday took on more familiar forms: the long prairie grass, enormous trees, and clumps of unruly wildflowers still crowded around us. Each piece of gray plant life, however, differed in slight but significant ways from those in the living world.

Here the tree branches twisted into sinister shapes, like claws and hooks; the wildflowers and grass snarled around each other, looking as if they were in some kind of angry battle. And, though the plants indicated that it was late summer in this world too, every surface shimmered and glittered with a fine layer of frost.

This netherworld, once illuminated, actually looked like some kind of creepy wonderland. Like a double-exposed negative of the living world: cold, dark, scary. And also unbelievably beautiful.

“Is it always like this here?” I breathed.

“No,” Eli answered, his voice low and respectful. “It’s always gray, and cold. But I have the ability to lighten or darken the scenery, if I want.”

“Are you the ruler of this world or something?”

Eli laughed loudly, breaking the spell this place had cast over me. “Are you asking if I’m a god, Amelia?”

“Not exactly the entity I meant,” I muttered, too low for Eli to hear.

“No, I’m not one of the higher powers here,” he said. “Although I do work for them.”

I pulled my eyes away from the fantastic trees and met Eli’s gaze. “Them? Explain.”

Eli settled back on his heels. “Well,” he said, “I guess I should start with my job description.”

I raised my eyebrows, and he sighed.

“I’m the . . . guardian, in a sense, of this afterlife. I’ve been commissioned to care for it. To grow it.”

“Grow it? You mean, with all the plants?”

For some reason Eli’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “With those, and . . . other things. Listen,” he commanded, and then cupped his hand to his ear.

I obeyed thoughtlessly, clamping my lips tight and focusing on the quiet around me. Initially I couldn’t hear anything, except perhaps the weird echo of silence, like the kind you hear when you press your ear to a seashell.

Then, just over the silence, I heard them. Faint at first, but growing in intensity.

Whispers. A chorus of them.

“Who . . . ?” I started, but Eli pressed a finger to his lips, indicating I should stay quiet.

The whispers continued, hushed and insistent. I couldn’t be certain, but after a few more seconds, I thought they sounded . . . desperate. Frantic.

Something about them frightened me.

“What are those voices, Eli?” I demanded shakily. “Tell me now.”

“I think you already know.”

“People?” I whispered.

“Well,” he said with a sly grin, “they used to be.”

I gulped, feeling strangely dizzy. “What exactly is your job here, Eli? Really.”

He sighed as if relieved I’d finally asked an important question. “I’m not only a guardian, but also a sort of recruiter. I’ve been chosen to usher certain newly dead souls to this place. Some of those voices you heard are my charges—souls I was ordered to bring over.”

“Other ghosts?”

Eli nodded. “I think you saw a few of them yesterday actually.”

I thought back to the flitting shapes along my peripheral vision. I looked wildly to either side of Eli, at the empty riverbank. “Where are they now?”

“I told them to stay away for a while so you and I could talk.” He jerked his head toward the line of weird trees behind him. “Mostly, they stay in there until I need them.”

“Are you . . . their boss or something?”

Eli shrugged, but the gesture looked prideful. Almost self-satisfied. “I recruit them for my masters. In return, my masters give me power over this place, and the recruited souls in it. The souls follow my commands and help me with whatever I need. On big missions they definitely come in handy.”

I tried not to shudder, thinking of what a “big mission” might mean to Eli. “And these ‘masters,’ the ones who gave you this job—are they in those trees too?”

He laughed as if I’d said something ridiculous. “No, of course not, Amelia. This is my realm. Over there, however . . .” He trailed off, looking over my shoulder. I followed his gaze to the place where the river moved sluggishly under High Bridge. To the space where the black hole had appeared yesterday.

A few details clicked into place in my mind, and I moaned. “You trap people in this world? On orders from whoever lives in that . . . that hellhole?”

“Only because this is where these souls belong. And that darkness over there isn’t hell. It’s just one of the places where the higher powers go when they’re not giving me my instructions.”

Eli sounded sincere. But I shook my head vigorously against his words. No soul deserved to stay in this dark forest, trapped forever, unable to move between worlds like Eli and I obviously could. No matter who, or what, had ordered it.

Thinking about what it might feel like to be trapped inside the dark forest or, God forbid, somewhere in that sightless chasm below the bridge, a thought struck me. A terrifying one.

I raised my eyes to his again, searching their pale blue depths. “What about me, Eli? What about my soul?”

The corner of his lip quirked upward. “Ah, now we get to the real heart of the matter. Isn’t that why we came down here in the first place? To talk about your nature?”

“Yes, and . . . ?” I pressed. “What does my nature have to do with this place?”

He gestured behind him with one arm. “Aren’t you wondering why I haven’t made you one of those shadows yet? Why I’ve let you wander, for far longer than I usually allow a soul to remain in the living world?”

I tried in vain to repress a shudder. “Okay, I’ll bite. Why?”

“Because you’re special, Amelia.” He began to take slow, deliberate steps toward me.

“Yeah?” I kept my voice as casual as possible, all the while moving backward, away from him. “How am I special?”

“Thanks to the grace of my masters,” he said, still moving forward, “I’m allowed to keep one newly dead soul for myself. As an . . . apprentice. When I saw you, when I watched you, I knew you’d be perfect.”

“Why?”

“Because you belong with me, Amelia. You’re a kindred spirit.”

Eli’s words echoed in my brain like repetitions of my earlier fears. So I was evil? Everything within me rallied against the suggestion. I didn’t believe it. I just didn’t.

“No,” I insisted, shaking my head again. “No, it’s not true. I don’t belong here.”

“But you do.” With just a few, quick strides, Eli closed the distance between us. He leaned over and placed his hands beside my shoulders, hovering above my skin without actually touching me.

“You’re fated to help me with my task—I knew it from the first moment I saw you.” He shrugged again, but this time the movement looked decidedly less casual. “You have to help me, Amelia. Otherwise I’ll have no choice but to trap you here and keep you from ever going into the living world again. Unless you’re obeying my orders, like the mindless wraiths back there.” He jerked his head meaningfully toward the forest again.

Anger and terror bubbled up inside me.

“No!” I shouted into his face. “I can’t stay and help you condemn people to this place. I won’t.”

Without waiting for his reaction—which would undoubtedly be unpleasant—I turned to flee. Of course, I had no idea where to flee since I was directionless in this world. I spun around, searching for some point of orientation, flinging my arms this way and that.

Something brushed my outstretched hand—Eli’s fingertips maybe. Whatever made contact with my skin, it plunged me into a brutal cold, shooting what felt like ice water through my veins. The cold came on so fiercely, so violently, my vision began to blur.