Suddenly, light blinked back into existence. Another silver tunnel encased them. Everything passed by at hyper speed—faster than the time before—their surroundings a disorienting whirl around them. The force pushed Avery back against the seat. A scream ripped from her throat. “God, what is this?” she shrieked.

Conner—flattened back against his seat, too—slammed his hand down on her arm in a desperate grip. “I don’t know.” Horror etched itself onto his face. “We’re not on Earth anymore, are we?”

His words made perfect sense in a fucked-up way, and every iota of her being rebelled at such an idea coming to life. But this wasn’t Michigan or even the United States. Or even the world they called home. This she knew to the very tips of her toes. “I don’t think so.”

Darkness consumed them again. This time, it wasn’t unexpected, but it was still no less scary. In the dim illumination provided by the dashboard, she peeled herself from her plastered position and grabbed Conner’s hand, holding onto it tightly. She needed his comfort, as he needed hers. They were in this nightmare together.

“Where do you think we are?” he asked quietly, though his voice seemed loud in the complete silence of the car.

“Not…not a clue. More importantly, how did we get here?” The road-that-hadn’t-been-a road-before appeared culpable. What kind of god-forsaken magic was it made of?

He shrugged in a jerky manner. “Does it matter at this point?”

She didn’t reply, because there was no good answer. Several more times, they lived through periods of blackness and then glinting light that went as swiftly as they came. It was a disorienting mix that caused her head to spin and her stomach to heave. Each time, she squeezed Conner’s hand in a steel grip, which he returned in equal measure. They had nothing else but each other.

Once again, they lay flattened against their seats. At such moments, talking took effort but was still much easier than attempting to move. “Are we going to die, Av?” Conner asked, his voice strained-sounding through the roaring in her ears.

She blew out what would’ve been a shaky breath if it hadn’t whooshed out of her lungs instead. How to answer that question? Though the words caught in her throat, she forced them out. “I don’t know.”

“Me, either,” he whispered, though in actuality, it was probably more of a shout. “I just want to go home.”

So did she. Her heart clenched as realization punched her hard in the gut. What would Aiden do without her? And she without him, if she survived this by some miracle but couldn’t return home?

Suddenly, their breakneck speed slowed, and grayness surrounded them. It wasn’t the complete blackness of before. This was something different, something new. Whether it was a “good” new remained to be seen.

Conner moaned. “Now what?”

She shook her head as she stared at him, words deserting her. After a few seconds, she found the strength to speak. “This looks different. Seems lighter.”

Conner licked his lips. “Yeah. Don’t know what that means, though.”

“Same here,” she said with a helpless shrug.

Waiting was all they could do, though each second that passed seemed to stretch on into nothingness.