My heart beat harder in anticipation. The rush of adrenaline through my veins tried to overwhelm the pain in my bones. Any second, Regan and her soul would be reunited. We could claim success on the part of at least one Page sister.
We couldn’t help Addy—she’d made her own choice—but we’d done what we could.
Nash’s sudden wide-eyed, horrified expression was the first sign that something had gone wrong. “It doesn’t fit!” he breathed, and I wasn’t sure whether I’d actually heard him or read his lips. “It’s not hers!”
Suddenly the hellion’s unprecedented agreeableness and his amused expression made sense, and we all seemed to draw the same conclusion at once: Avari had tricked us.
He’d released Addison’s soul instead of Regan’s.
“N
O
!” A
DDISON SHOUTED
, her voice strong and shrill, powered by a singer’s trained lungs. Which I could have used in that moment, as my muffled keening thinned. But her protest meant nothing to Avari.
“This is my offer,” he said, softer than before, yet still his words sent cold, ethereal fingers over my flesh, making my goose-pimpled skin crawl. “The choice is yours.”
“Nooo.” Addison moaned that time. “No. Take me. You said you’d take my soul.”
Avari shook his head slowly, a cruel teacher scolding a naive student. “You misinterpreted my words. That happens more than you might think.”
As my wail wavered, my mind raced while I tried to remember everything the hellion had said. Had he actually said he’d trade Regan’s soul for Bana’s? Or just
a
soul? I couldn’t remember….
“Choose.” Avari clucked his tongue at Addison. “Your friends cannot hold your soul forever. Not with this one near death.” The demon’s gaze met mine, and suddenly his cruel truth sank in. I was dying. The poison had spread to my right
hand, and now flowed over my left side on its way to my heart. I couldn’t hold Addy’s soul for long.
My gaze pleaded with her as I struggled to keep the sound steady in my throat.
Addison’s eyes watered and she glanced from me to Regan, who stood frozen in terror, clenching her sister’s hand so hard it had turned purple. Then her gaze swung my way, and she focused on something over my shoulder. And I thought I saw some glimmer of hope in her grotesquely blank eyes.
Was that possible? Had she thought of something?
Addy turned to Tod and mouthed something I couldn’t interpret.
I was next, and what she said silently to me was “One more minute. Please.” I closed my eyes briefly, then opened them and nodded. I would hold on, for just a little longer.
Addison smiled her thanks, then she nodded decisively, again looking over my shoulder.
An instant later, Addy collapsed. Her legs simply folded under her and her head smacked the frosted marble floor. Not that it mattered. She was dead before she hit the ground.
“No!” Regan shouted, tears pouring down her cheeks. She lurched toward her sister, but Tod held her back, wrapping his arms around her shoulders to keep her still.
Surprise dried up the trickle of sound flowing from my throat, and Addy’s soul bobbed, until I keened again a second later. Then things got even weirder.
A figure stepped forward from behind me and to my right, her mouth open, already sucking in a long, thick stream of Demon’s Breath from Addy’s still form.
Libby.
My heart ached as I realized Addison had seen her over my shoulder. She’d nodded to Libby, not to me.
Then Tod spoke, Regan now sobbing on his shoulder, and I began to put the pieces together. “The deal has changed, Avari. If you want Bana’s soul, you take Addison’s with it and return her sister’s. Or else, we’ll leave with both of the souls in our possession, and you’ll keep only the one you have now.”
Damn.
Shock wound through me, blending with the pain now arcing across every nerve ending in my body. Somehow, Addison had known who Libby was and why she’d come. Had Tod told her, or did understanding simply come in the last moments of her life?
Either way, with a single nod of her head, Addison had asked Libby to end her life, to force the hellion into trading her soul for Regan’s. Because Addison’s was ready to reap now, and Regan’s wouldn’t truly be his until she died, likely decades later.
Avari’s face paled with rage, and the void in his eyes seemed to churn, though I could detect no motion when I looked directly into those dark spheres.
“Five seconds, or you’re out of luck,” Tod said as Nash continued to sweat, and my voice warbled. “We’re in a bit of a rush.” He gestured to me, and I realized he planned to get me home before I died. He was trying to save me, since he couldn’t save Addison.
All I could do was sing. And watch Libby claim the Demon’s Breath. And wait.
“Five…Four…” Tod taunted as Regan heaved with silent sobs and Avari bellowed in rage. The floor grew slick with ice beneath my feet, and my breath puffed visibly into the frigid air.
Then, just when I thought it was over—thought Addison’s death had been for nothing—the hellion spat one short, powerful exhalation into the room, and Regan’s soul bobbed near the ceiling.
At Nash’s signal, I let go of Addison’s soul and sang for her sister’s. Libby swallowed the last of the Demon’s Breath and popped out of existence without so much as a glance at the rest of us. Avari slurped up Addy’s soul in a fraction of the time it took Nash to guide Regan’s home. And only then did Tod release Bana’s soul into the room.
While Avari devoured it, Nash rushed toward me across the slick floor, tugging a shocked Regan by one hand. I had a moment to notice that her eyes were again beautiful, and blue, and normal. Then they converged on me, sliding so quickly they almost bowled me over.
“Now!” Nash whispered desperately, tugging me into an agonizing squat so that I touched both him, Regan, and Addison’s limp arm. “Take us back now!”
That time, intent to cross was no problem, and I was already keening. Avari’s roar of fury faded swiftly from my ears. An instant later I collapsed to the floor of a generic office full of cubicles and cheap industrial carpet. Addy lay at my side, and Nash and Regan stared down at me, a mixture of grief and relief coursing over their features.
A moment later, Tod popped into existence next to his brother.
“Are you okay?” Nash knelt at my side, but by then I could only shake my head. I’d lost my voice completely, and was in so much pain it hurt to draw a breath. “Call Mom,” Nash ordered, sliding one hand behind my back, the other
beneath my knees. He carried me out of the office and into the hall while Regan followed, crying and scrolling through the entries in Nash’s phone for a name she wouldn’t even recognize, because Tod carried her sister’s body.
Each second we waited for the elevator was pure agony. I hurt all over, and worse wherever he touched me. But I was grateful for that touch.
“You’ll be fine,” Nash whispered. “Your expiration date is in full effect here, so you won’t die. But you’re going to hurt like hell until we get this fixed.”
I’d guessed as much.
I’d just decided that Prime Life shut down their elevators after hours when the mirrored doors slid open with a soft ding. Downstairs, we crossed the eerily empty lobby and Nash set me on a burgundy couch while he kicked open the locked glass doors leading to the parking garage. It took him three tries, but I was still impressed.
Harmony answered her phone as Nash buckled me into the front seat, and Regan gave the phone to Tod as he closed the trunk, where he’d gently laid Addison. He explained the basics, demanding his mother meet us at my house with the necessary supplies. She said she’d be there in ten minutes.
It took us twenty, and once he’d dropped me and Nash off, Tod took the Page sisters home, where Regan would “find” her sister’s body on the floor of her own room. Then he returned Emma’s car.
My front door flew open before Nash and I even got to the porch, and my father took me from him without a word. His anger had momentarily been eclipsed by fear I hadn’t seen since that long-ago day I barely remembered.
The day my mother had died to save me.
“Not again,” he muttered, laying me on the couch. I moaned, and tears overflowed his eyes.
“She’ll be fine.” Harmony pushed him aside gently. I hadn’t even known she was there, but suddenly she was at my side, her fingers cold on my arm, a filled syringe ready in her other hand. “Tod said it’s crimson creeper.”
“Where the hell did she find crim—” His eyes widened in horror, and some of that anger returned. “Kaylee, what did you do?”
“She can explain it later, Aiden,” Harmony said firmly. The needle slid into my arm, and though it was blissfully cold, the medicine that invaded my body scalded like one of the original pinpricks from the creeper. “For now, let her sleep. She’ll need another dose of this in four hours.” She held a second syringe up for my father to see, and he nodded. “If the red webbing isn’t gone four hours after that, call me.”
But she’d be back to check on me before then. Nash would see to that.
“Come on, Nash,” Harmony said, and the hard edge in her voice said he wouldn’t get off easy, either.
“No…” I moaned, surprised when my voice actually produced the cracked, tortured sound. I grabbed his wrist with the last of my strength.
Harmony frowned at me, then at my father. “Can he stay, Aiden? She wants him to stay.”
My father hedged, and I begged him with my eyes. I needed them both. I’d never hurt so badly in my life, but Nash’s voice could help. I knew it could. “Fine,” he said finally. “But you have to go to sleep, young lady.”
We’d argue about the “young lady” part later. But I agreed with the rest of his statement.
The last thing I saw before sleep—blissful, pain-free sleep—claimed me were their faces, side by side, watching me with identical expressions of concern.
“T
HANKS FOR COMING
.”
Regan smoothed her black dress over her flat stomach. Her perfect blue eyes were red from crying, but her expression was pure strength and poise. Her mother stood beside the coffin, staring past all the headstones in a chemically induced oblivion. She was coping with Addy’s death the only way she knew how—with pills, and alcohol, and seclusion. She hadn’t left her house in nearly a week, and had only come out this time for the funeral. Because Regan made her.
“We wouldn’t have missed it,” Nash said, and I nodded. He spoke for us both.
Regan had made all the arrangements, choosing her sister’s favorite flowers, music, and poetry, as well as the coffin and the plot. It was a lot of responsibility for a thirteen-year-old already devastated by her sister’s death—her sacrifice—and it broke my heart that she’d had to rise to such a tragic occasion.
But she would be fine. The determined line of her jaw and straight length of her spine said that clearly. Whatever else happened, Regan Page would be just fine.
Addy had seen to that.
Regan glanced briefly at her mother, then at the crowd of paparazzi gathered behind a long barricade before returning her attention to me. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine now. Really,” I added, when doubt flickered behind her mercifully real eyes.
The red webbing had faded from my skin by the time the sun went down the day Addy died, but it took three more days before the last of the pain abated. And the puncture marks around my ankle left scars—a double ring of bright red dots. I’d missed school for the rest of that week, but Harmony had only let Nash miss Thursday, and only because we’d been up all of Wednesday night.
And since I was well enough for the funeral, I would be returning to school on Monday.
Addy’s service was private, but Regan got us in. Tod cried through the whole thing, but I think I was the only one who could see him. Addy’s death nearly killed him. Again. Levi had given him a couple of weeks off, and was personally covering his hospital shifts. And we hadn’t seen Tod once between that night and the funeral.
I think he was having a lot of trouble with the knowledge that Addison’s soul was now the property of a hellion of greed, and that the rest of her existence would be spent in agonizing pain, of every possible variety.
I wasn’t dealing with that very well, either. I’d really wanted to save her. And I would have plenty of time to think about my failure, because I was grounded for a solid month. My father was unmoved by our altruistic intentions. He considered nothing else on the face of the planet—or in either world—worth risking my life.
After he said that, I found it pretty hard to complain about being grounded, even though I would only see Nash at school and at
bean sidhe
lessons.
The only positive thing to come out of the whole mess—other than returning Regan’s soul—was the fact that we were never fingered for the “break in” at Prime Life. Thank goodness. That one would have been impossible to explain to the cops. It was no picnic to explain to my dad, either.
“So, what are you going to do?” I leaned into Nash’s chest for both comfort and warmth.
Regan shrugged and tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “Take care of my mom, I guess. And stay far away from John Dekker.”
I nodded. Regan had done us all proud. In honor of Addison’s sacrifice, she’d already broken her contract with Dekker Media and was pursuing other acting opportunities. Rumor had it the Teen Network—Dekker’s biggest competition—wanted her to do a pilot for them, but she wouldn’t even accept their calls until she’d laid Addison to rest.
The fact that the wolves were already nipping at her heels made me wonder if anyone in the entertainment industry remained in possession of a soul.
As for Dekker Media, as far as I knew, they couldn’t continue to provide souls for Avari without someone to ferry teenage stars to the Netherworld for them. So, for the moment at least, the adolescent population of Hollywood was secure. Though I still got a sick feeling every time I thought of all the soulless victims still waiting to suffer throughout the afterlife at Avari’s hands.
But there was nothing I could do about that.
My dad said I couldn’t save them all, and on my good days, I have to admit that he was right. Eventually, people have to learn to make their own choices, and to deal with the consequences.
Including me.
“I think that’s your dad over there,” Regan said, and I twisted to follow her gaze. Sure enough, my father—more handsome than ever in his dark suit—stood in front of his freshly washed car, waiting patiently for me.
“Yeah, I better go.” I stepped away from Nash as Regan opened her arms to hug me.
“Thank you, Kaylee,” she whispered into my ear, as she squeezed me so tight I could barely breathe. “Thank you so much.” She sniffed, and her next words sounded thick, as if she were holding back more tears. “I won’t forget what you did for me. What you helped Addy do.”
I hugged her back, because I didn’t know what to say.
No problem?
But it was a problem. I’d nearly died.
Anyone else would have done the same?
But that wasn’t true, either.
I’d helped Addy and Regan because I couldn’t
not
help them. Because in most cases, I believe that people deserve a second chance. And because I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d stood by and let them both die soulless, when I could have helped.
Finally, Regan stepped back and looked into my eyes, her own still brimming with tears. “I want you to know that I understand what Addy gave up for me. And I’m going to do my best to deserve it.”
“I know you will.” With that, I squeezed her hand, then turned toward Tod, who stared at the coffin from beneath the
skeletal branches of a broad oak. I needed to talk to him before I left, because I wasn’t sure when I’d see him next.
Or if Nash could see him at that moment. But then his hand stiffened on my arm when he saw where I was leading him, and I knew he could see his brother. “Kaylee, do we have to do this now? He’s really hurting.”
“So is Regan,” I pointed out, and my free hand slid into the pocket of my formal black coat, bought just for Addy’s funeral. “I have to know if he did this.”
“Does it really matter?” Nash asked, and I looked up at him to find his eyes swirling slowly, though I couldn’t quite identify the emotion. “What’s done is done, and justice isn’t always pretty. And, anyway, do you really want to know?”
“Yes. I need to hear it.” Because part of me couldn’t believe he’d actually done it.
Nash frowned, but tagged along. When we stopped beneath Tod’s tree, Nash’s body shielding us from the stragglers still loitering around the coffin, I pulled from my pocket a news clipping folded in half. “Do you know anything about this?”
Tod took the clipping and unfolded it. He couldn’t have read more than the headline before handing it back to me, his face carefully blank, though rage churned violently in the cerulean depths of his eyes. The fact that I could see it surely meant he harbored it deep inside his soul. And that thought scared me.
“Kaylee, don’t ask questions you don’t want answered,” the reaper said, his voice harder and more humorless than I’d ever heard it.
“You killed him,” I accused, glancing at the headline for at least the fiftieth time.
BILLIONAIRE CEO MISSING; SISTER FEARS THE WORST
“No. Death is too good for John Dekker,” Tod said without a hint of remorse. His ruthless expression gave me chills.
“Where is he?” Nash asked, when he realized his brother wasn’t going to elaborate.
“I dropped him off in Avari’s office.”
My heart jumped into my throat, and suddenly I could hear my own pulse. “You stranded him in the Netherworld?”
The reaper shrugged. “A live plaything is rare on that side. They won’t kill him.”
“They’ll do worse,” I spat.
Tod cocked one eyebrow at me. “Does he deserve any less?”
I had to think about that. John Dekker had been responsible for dozens of teenagers losing their souls, and he’d worked to keep Addy and Regan from reclaiming theirs. Did he deserve any less than eternal torture?
Probably not. But that wasn’t my call to make. The very thought of wielding so much power terrified me.
Though, it didn’t seem to have bothered Tod.
“I can’t believe you did that….”
“And yet you haven’t asked me to bring him back.” He ran one hand through his hair. “I think you have no trouble believing it. I think you wish you’d done it yourself.”
“No.” I shook my head, bothered by the spark of anger raging unchecked inside him. Was this why my father didn’t want me hanging out with a reaper? Because, as he’d always insisted, Tod
was
dangerous?
I shook that thought off. It was too much to think about with Addy not yet in the ground, and my failure on her
behalf haunting me. I took Nash’s hand again and shoved the clipping deep into my pocket. “I have to go,” I said, already turning toward my dad’s car.
“Kaylee, just say it,” Tod called after me, and I was glad no one else could hear him. Not even Nash, this time. I could tell from the relief on his face—he was happy to be walking away from his brother. “Say the word, and I’ll bring him back. I’ll rescue him from never-ending torture. It’s your call….”
Hot, bitter tears filled my eyes, as horror filled my heart. It wasn’t my call. He couldn’t put a decision like that on me. It wasn’t right.
Yet as I headed toward my father with my boyfriend at my side, my lips remained sealed, and I was more terrified than I could express by the thought of what my silence probably said about me, deep down inside.
My dad started his engine, and Nash kissed me gently before I sank into the front passenger seat. Then I tucked my skirt beneath me and he closed the car door. I put John Dekker and Tod out of my mind. Forced them to the back of my brain to make room for Nash.
I would only think about Nash. I trusted Nash. I loved him. I understood him, like I would never understand his brother.
Nash waved at me in the side-view mirror as our car pulled forward slowly, my father carefully avoiding stray members of the press. I leaned with my head against the cold window, watching as his image grew smaller and smaller in the mirror. Trying not to think about how long it would be before we could be alone together again.
Three weeks, five days, and four hours until my grounding ends.
Three weeks, five days, four hours, and fifty-four seconds. Fifty-three seconds…Fifty-two seconds…
But who’s counting?