Goodbye...and Hello?

When Essie decides to run away from home she has no idea where her journey will lead her. Instead of getting a fresh start in another city like she'd hoped, she enters a parallel universe in which she'll soon come to the realization that catty friends and violent high school bullies are the least of her worries. Because, the world that she has entered has no laws, and brutality overrides everything.

In other words, to not be hunted you must become the hunter- something that Art N'eréumias tells her from the very first moment that they cross weapons.