AT DAWN HE’LL BE GONE AND YOU’LL BE HERE FOREVER.

Four years ago, five kids started a game. Not all of them survived.

Now, at the end of their senior year of high school, the survivors―Owen, Madeline, Emerson, and Dax―have reunited for one strange and terrible they’ve been summoned by the ghost of Ian, the friend they left for dead.

Together they return to the place where their friendship ended with one find Ian and bring him home. So they restart the deadly game they never finished―an innocent card-matching challenge called Meido. A game without instructions.

As soon as they begin, they’re dragged out of their reality and into an eerie hellscape of Japanese underworlds, more horrifying than even the darkest folktales that Owen’s grandmother told him. There, they meet Shinigami, an old wise woman who explains the rules:

They have one night to complete seven challenges or they’ll all be stuck in this world forever.

Once inseparable, the survivors now can’t stand each other, but the challenges demand they work together, think quickly, and make sacrifices―blood, clothes, secrets, memories, and worse.

And once again, not everyone will make it out alive.

Kristen Simmons is the critically-acclaimed young adult author of the dystopian Article 5 trilogy, The Deceivers boarding-school thriller series, and speculative fiction stand-alones, PACIFICA, METALTOWN, and THE GLASS ARROW. She has co-written the magic-wielding, gladiator fantasies, SET FIRE THE GODS and RISE UP FROM THE EMBERS. Next up: FIND HIM WHERE YOU LEFT HIM DEAD, the start of a yōkai horror duology.

Her work has received star reviews, librarian recognitions, and been nominated for the Edgar Award and Anthony Award for best young adult mystery. Several of her titles are included in junior high and high school reading curricula, and are used in reluctant reader programs nationwide.

Kristen’s writing is inspired by her work with trauma survivors as a mental health therapist, specializing with soldiers with PTSD and individuals in foster care. She currently lives with her husband and son in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she spins stories, herds a small pack of semi-wild dogs, and teaches Jazzercise.