Kaylee counted the days on her fingers and stopped at six. Six days until the harvest moon. Six days to free the boy she loved from the underworld, or lose him under the earth forever. She stood at the gate of a crooked stone manor, its windows glowing green and orange in the dark. She had knocked on every door in three villages. Every one had turned her away. This was the last house left. The front door opened before she touched it. A girl in a black hood stood inside, boots laced to the knee, blue nails tapping the frame. She looked younger than Kaylee, but her gray eyes held something old and cold. "You're the girl asking about the dead," the witch said. It wasn't a question. "They call you Morgan," Kaylee said. "They say you walk through shadows. They say you've been down there and come back." Her voice cracked. "I need to go down. My love is trapped in the underworld. The harvest moon takes him in six days." Morgan didn't move from the doorway. "Everyone who comes here wants a door down. Nobody thinks about the way back." She looked Kaylee over, from her nose ring to her shaking hands. "You have no map, no charm, no coin for the crossing. You'd die on the first stair." "Then take me," Kaylee said. "Walk me through the shadows. I'll give you whatever you want." Morgan tilted her head. A slow smile crossed her face. "Whatever I want is a dangerous thing to promise a witch." She stepped back and swung the door wide. "Come in before you say it twice." Inside, candles burned in cracked jars. Morgan pressed her palm flat against the stone wall. The shadow under her hand spread and deepened, until it opened like a black mouth in the rock. Cold air poured out. Kaylee smelled wet earth and something older beneath it. "There's your door," Morgan said. "I can walk you to the bottom. But the shadow road closes behind us the moment we step through. I can open the way in. I cannot open the way out." She met Kaylee's eyes. "Getting your boy back is your problem, not mine. Still want it?" Kaylee stared into the dark. Six days. The boy's face. She thought of his hands, and how the earth had swallowed him. "Yes," she said. Morgan took her wrist. Her grip was ice. "Then keep hold of me. Let go, and the dark keeps you." They stepped into the shadow together. The manor's candles winked out behind them. The stone mouth sealed shut with a sound like a closing coffin. Kaylee stood on a narrow stair of black rock, falling down into nothing. She had her way down at last. And no way back up.

The stone mouth had sealed behind them. Kaylee stood on the black stair, Morgan's cold hand still gripping her wrist. Below, the dark fell away into nothing. She had her way down. Now she needed a way back up, before the harvest moon rose in five days and buried her love for good. "You said you can't open the way out," Kaylee said. "So tell me who can." Morgan pulled her down the stair. Their boots scraped the rock. "Not me. The road only runs one way for a witch." She stopped at a landing where two passages split. "But someone crossed before you and found a door home. A girl. She's been down here longer than she should be." Kaylee's heart jumped. "Take me to her." They walked until the tunnel opened into a cold hall lit by pale light. A girl sat against the far wall, knees pulled to her chest. She was maybe sixteen, in a jean jacket that didn't belong in the underworld. Brown hair hung past her shoulders. When she saw them, she didn't stand. She just watched, tired and wary. "Ahmya," Morgan said. "I brought you company." "You brought me someone else who's stuck." Ahmya's voice was flat. She looked at Kaylee. "Let me guess. She promised you a way in and left out the rest." "She told me the truth," Kaylee said. "I came for someone I love. I heard you found a door home." Ahmya laughed once, without joy. "I found where a door should be. I never opened it." She got up and led them to a wall of smooth black stone. A ring was carved into it, faint under Kaylee's fingers. "It only opens for a soul the gods release. Otherwise it's just rock. I've pushed it for weeks." Kaylee pressed both palms to the stone. Nothing. Her breath caught. "Then how does anyone leave?" "The festival," Ahmya said. "The gods judge the mortal children who come. If you win their favor, they send you home. It's the only door that opens." She met Kaylee's eyes. "That's how I get out. That's how you get out too. Both of us, or neither." Kaylee's hands slid from the cold stone. There was no witch's trick, no shortcut. The way home ran through the gods themselves, and through a contest she had never heard of until now. Morgan folded her arms. "I got you down. The rest is yours." She turned back toward the split in the tunnels. "Win the crown, Kaylee, or stay. That's the whole map." Kaylee looked at Ahmya, the only other person alive down here. Four days now. Not one door, but a contest to win. She had come to save one soul. To leave, she would have to face the gods and beat every child they judged. "Then show me where the festival is," Kaylee said.