Rachel Vincent - Before I Wake

“Who would he sell her to?” I asked, trying not to think about the fact that Tod could have easily been taken instead of Mareth. As could I.

Thane shrugged again. “Could be anyone. There are hundreds of other hellions in the Netherworld, and every one of them would pay anything for a single day spent on this plane. Avari has what they need to cross over. The prize goes to the highest bidder. And the demand far exceeds the supply.”

“And every time Madeline sent an extractor after Avari, she was just giving him another ticket to sell,” I said, unable to purge horror from my voice.

“He found that irony especially satisfying.”

“So, why hasn’t he taken me?” I asked, and Thane frowned like he didn’t understand the question. “I’m not a fighter. If he could take the other extractors so easily, why hasn’t he done the same with me?”

“He will. You’re part of the long game,” Thane said. “Until then, he’s playing with you. I think he wants to see just how deep your noble streak runs. He wants to see if you’ll really turn yourself in to save everyone else you love. While you resist, he feeds from your guilt and angst over the deaths you could have prevented. Once you give in, he’ll be able to feed from you directly.” Thane shrugged. “He can’t lose.”

“Bullshit,” Nash spat. “He’s not going to stop killing just because Kaylee turns herself in. I don’t care what he says. He’ll never stop killing.”

“True. Avari has never been in a better position to slaughter at will. But he can’t go back on his word. If she turns herself in, he’ll stop choosing his victims from the Kaylee Cavanaugh friends-and-family plan.”

Stunned and a little nauseated, I sank into my father’s chair and shoved hair back from my face. “What’s the long game? What is he doing, Thane?”

The reaper shrugged. “That, I don’t know. But he’s obsessed with it. Everything he’s doing plays into it. And you have a central role.”

“Okay, let’s go back to the basics.” Because if I thought any more about the people I could have saved—and the people I would have been damning in their place—I was going to lose what was left of my mind. “He’s using your resurrected soul to cross through the fog into our world. What about this second soul? The one that gives him a physical form. How does that work?”

“I don’t know all the details. He figured that part out himself, by accident, so—”

“Whoa, what does that mean?” Tod demanded. “Who figured out the first part?”

Thane shrugged. “Not to give myself too much credit, but… I did. Decades ago.”

“And you told Avari that he could use your soul to cross over?” I frowned, watching him through narrowed eyes. “Why would you do that? Why would you give him a reason to need your soul?”

“Your boyfriend didn’t give me much of a choice!” Thane shouted, pushing away from the countertop to gesture angrily at Tod. “One sucker punch from a rookie, and I’m staring at the business end of a hellion!”

“Yeah, he’s all about the sucker punches,” Nash mumbled.

“As long as Avari needs my soul, he’ll keep me alive. More or less. Anyway, it shouldn’t have mattered.” The rogue reaper shrugged. “What I showed him let him cross over, but gave him no physical form. Like a visitor’s pass, where you can’t touch anything. He figured the rest of it out on his own, when he was playing around with another soul.”

“Okay, so back to the part where Avari shows up in the guise of the dearly departed. What do you know about that?” My head was already spinning from everything he’d told us, but we had to get it all down now—there was no telling when Avari would call him back or Madeline would show up.

“I know that it’s a one-way trip. He needs a human soul and something that belonged to the deceased. He crosses over with both of those in his possession and takes the form that soul had when it died. Down to the clothes it was wearing.”

“The bracelet…” I said, and Tod nodded. “How did Avari get Heidi Anderson’s bracelet?”

“How the hell do you think? He sent me after it. But you’re missing the point. Once he crosses back into the Netherworld, that nonresurrected soul is useless. Gone. Poof.” He made an exploding gesture with both hands. “It can’t be worn again.”

“Disposable packaging,” Tod said. “It works for bottled water, why not for hellions?”

“I don’t understand.” And I wasn’t sure I really wanted to. “How does wearing a human soul give him a physical body?”

“I truly don’t know how it works. But his physical restrictions seem to be the same as mine, maybe because he’s using my soul as his passport. Selective corporeality and audibility. Transportation. But no hellion superpowers.”

“So he’s vulnerable when he’s here?”

Thane shrugged again. “As vulnerable as I am. But as you may have noticed, killing him doesn’t really kill him. When his physical body dies, he just gets sucked back into the Netherworld, along with my soul.”

“So, is there any chance we can get your soul back without having to cross over?” I asked.

“I don’t know. And I don’t really care. How you fulfill your end of the deal is up to you.”

“You said you’d help,” I reminded him.

Thane nodded. “But I’ve told you everything I know, so I don’t know how much more help I can be.”

“You can find out why my amphora doesn’t capture your soul from him when I take the others,” I said, picturing the two human souls that last sank into the hilt of my dagger. “And find out how to fix that.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

I shrugged and enjoyed throwing his own words back at him. “How you fulfill your end of the deal is up to you.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Nash said, before Thane could blink out in anger. “Avari’s going to keep showing up disguised as dead people, and while he’s here, he’s going to kill even more of them? Just for fun?”

Thane nodded. “At the moment, human souls are easy for him to come by, so he doesn’t mind losing them every time she stabs him, because her trauma is worth more than the lost soul.”

I shoved more hair back from my face and rubbed my forehead. Can dead people get headaches? “And since he’s sold a resurrected soul to Belphegore, we can expect her to show up any day, but we have no idea when, or what she’ll look like. Right?”

Another nod. “Though you may never see her. I can’t imagine she’s as obsessed with your shiny little soul as Avari is.” He glanced at Tod then—as near as I could tell, considering his eyes were featureless white orbs. “Just think. None of this would have happened if Avari and I had never met.”

Tod looked sick. “This is my fault. Avari would never have figured all this out if I hadn’t thrown Thane at him,” he mumbled beneath his breath.

The only comfort I had to offer him was my hand intertwined with his.

“That’s right, lover boy.” Thane obviously enjoyed Tod’s self-torment. “No good deed goes unpunished.”

“So, how do we stop him?” I said, fighting the overwhelming, numbing lure of despair.

“Stop him?” Thane shrugged. “I have no idea how to stop him, and I don’t really care.”

“But we had a deal!” I stood, furious. “I snatch your soul from the grip of a demon and you tell us how to stop him.”

“Uh-oh. Someone wasn’t paying attention. I only promised to tell you what I know, and I’ve done that. What you do with the knowledge is up to you. And if you even think about defaulting on your end of the bargain, keep in mind that your little ‘circle the wagons’ routine can’t last forever. I spent days following you around in advance of your death, and just because there were times you didn’t see me doesn’t mean I wasn’t there. I know everyone you know. I know where all your friends and family live. If you don’t produce my soul in very short order, you won’t have to worry about Avari killing everyone you love. I’ll save him the trouble.”