Rachel Vincent - Before I Wake

“What cold?” Nash sank onto the couch cushion next to me, like he’d forgotten how mad he was.

“Demon’s Breath,” I said, then immediately wanted to take the words back. Just saying them couldn’t push Nash into relapse, yet I felt guilty for bringing up such a touchy subject. But once I’d started it, I had to finish. “There’s Demon’s Breath in place of his soul. He wants to get rid of it, but if he does, he’ll lose his body, then Avari can do whatever he wants with Thane’s soul.”

Nash nodded stiffly.

“Is that all?” Tod asked.

Sabine nodded. Then, “Kaylee, you touch him.”

Both Tod and Nash looked like they wanted to object, but I grabbed Thane’s arm before they could, and Sabine closed her eyes again.

“He’s scared of you,” she said, almost immediately. “But not scared enough. He’s terrified that you can extract his soul, if he ever gets it back, but he knows that if Avari gets you, you’ll no longer be a threat. Before, he wanted to take you to Avari because he was scared of Avari. But now he wants to turn you over because he’s scared of you. ”

I should have been relieved by that—the big bad reaper was afraid of me. But knowing he was willing to drag me into the Netherworld to eliminate the threat I now represented was enough to wipe out any relief I might otherwise have felt.

“Avari wants us both?” Tod said, and Sabine nodded slowly.

“But for different reasons. He’s afraid that if the hellion doesn’t get you, he’ll never let Thane go free. And based on what little I know of Avari, I’d bet he won’t let Thane go even if he does get you,” she said to Tod. “He’s a hellion of greed, right?”

We all nodded, and if we hadn’t been looking at Sabine, we might have known Thane was awake before he grabbed her by the throat.

I GASPED AND Tod pulled me out of reach. Nash grabbed for Sabine, but Thane stood and pushed her backward with him. “Who the hell are you?”

“What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you?” Sabine croaked, clutching the hand that held her by the throat at arm’s length. “Did your dad beat you? Your mom leave you? Did your girlfriend kick your balls clear up into the back of your throat?”

Thane’s eyes widened, and I realized he was surprised into silence for the first time since I’d met him.

“Whatever it is,” the mara continued, her voice hoarse but audible, “I’m going to top it, if you don’t let me go right now. ”

Thane studied her for another second, like he was debating—or maybe waiting for verbal brilliance to strike. Then his eyes narrowed and he frowned at her, and I could see his grip on her loosen a little. “I remember you. You’re the feisty little firecracker I saw at Kaylee’s house.” When he’d been stalking me, in anticipation of reaping my soul.

Sabine frowned—she’d never seen him before—and her eyes darkened. Every lightbulb in the room seemed to dim, and chill bumps rose on my arms. “Know what happens when you hold a lit firecracker?” she said, glaring up at Thane, who didn’t answer. “It’ll take your hand clean off.”

Thane burst into laughter, and Nash edged around the coffee table, closing in on them both.

“Nash…” Tod warned, but he couldn’t make himself inaudible to another reaper. Not that it mattered. Thane had already seen Nash.

“Try it, and I’ll kill her,” he said. “Before you can even blink.” The reaper didn’t have to hurt her to kill her. All he had to do was remove Sabine’s soul, and he could do that in an instant. Much faster than I could retrieve a stolen one.

Nash shuffled backward a few steps, his jaw clenched in fury, hands curled into fists at his sides.

“And how long do you think that would last, in a room full of bean sidhes? ” Sabine demanded, her voice dark and low, but as fierce as I’d ever heard it. “How far do you think you’d get with my soul?”

“Hmm… Good point,” Thane said, and I exhaled slowly. But he kept talking. “Maybe I’ll take you whole, and let Avari pick and choose the parts he wants.”

“I’ll kill you,” Nash growled, and Tod edged closer, ready to back his brother up.

Thane laughed. “I’m already dead.”

“You could be deader.” Nash was so furious he couldn’t control the twist of fear in his eyes. I could see disaster coming like an out-of-control train, but I couldn’t stop it.

Sabine glanced at him, then at Tod, and something silent passed between them. Tod nodded, then lunged forward and grabbed Nash by one arm. Nash shouted and tried to jerk free, and I stepped in front of him, trying to warn him. Trying to shut him up. He was too scared for Sabine to see the danger he was putting himself in. Thane could kill him just as easily as he could kill Sabine. In fact, that may have been his plan, to draw Nash close enough to take them both at once.

If that happened, Tod and I could only save one of them.

When I finally got Nash to stop shouting and throwing punches that went right through Tod, I realized Sabine was talking. To Thane.

“…more fears than any reaper I’ve ever met, and I know what they are,” she whispered, and Thane stared at her, mesmerized. “You’re not afraid of your final rest—you welcome it. You crave it. You’re afraid of an eternity spent serving Avari. That’s the thought that leaves you shaking in your tighty-whities, cowering in the corner late at night. You’d do anything to get free from him, wouldn’t you? But taking me won’t help. He wants her. ” She let go of his arm to point at me with one hand, and a spark of fear shot up my spine.

Was she selling me out? Again? Or was this a distraction?

“You’re right. So let’s trade.” Thane pivoted with her still in his grip and looked right at Nash. “I’m taking one of them. You decide which.”

My breath froze in my lungs for the half second it took Tod to pull me to his chest. “No way in hell.” I tried to push him off—I couldn’t help Sabine if I couldn’t move—but he wouldn’t let go, and I didn’t know whether to feel loved or underestimated.

“You want her back?” Thane demanded, still focused on Nash—he knew better than to bargain with Tod. “Then give me Kaylee. Just scuttle over there and wrest her from the arms of your brother.”

Nash glanced at me and Tod, and the confusion churning slowly in his eyes scared me.

“That’s your brother, right? Cain to your Abel?” Thane asked. “I’ve pieced a few things together. They betrayed you, didn’t they—your brother and your girlfriend? They broke your heart and stomped all over your pride, but you can make all that end, right now. Give her to me, and I’ll let this one go. What’s it going to be? Which one will you save?”

Nash glanced from me to Sabine, then back, his irises churning with intense green twists of anger and brown swirls of fear, and I could practically read confliction in the frown lines etched into his forehead.

He didn’t know what to do.

Sabine could see it, too. She was waiting for his decision. And I saw the exact moment she lost patience. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

The mara wrapped both hands around Thane’s wrist, then tucked her knees to her stomach and let herself hang from his arm—for the fraction of a second it took for him to lose his balance.

Thane grunted and tried to let go of her, but she clung to him. He tipped over. She hit the floor and Thane fell on top of her, his arm still in her grip. Sabine gave his arm a quick twist and Thane howled as something tore.

He rolled away from her, and Sabine was on her feet in an instant, feet spread for balance, hands curled into fists. “Get the hell out of here before you really get hurt.”