Rachel Vincent - My Soul to Steal

A current of surprise and relief twisted through the fear churning in his irises. “Good thinking.”

“Thanks.”

Nash was usually the calm, cool one, but he wasn’t thinking clearly at all this time. It’s Sabine . He wanted her back as badly as I wanted Emma back, and I couldn’t help wondering if Tod was right. Were Nash and Sabine meant to be together? Was I the only thing standing in their way.

No time for that now… “Give me your hand.”

His fingers tightened around mine and a lump formed in my throat. I’d held his hand so many times before, but it had never felt this…bittersweet. Sabine needed him, and he needed to go save her. And he needed me to get him there. But what did I need from him?

“Kay?” Nash’s forehead furrowed in fear and concern. “You ready?”

I exhaled heavily. “Nope. Let’s go.”

Calling forth my wail was much too simple that time, because of how easy it was to picture Emma dying—again. I’d promised her I wouldn’t let that happen, no matter what. And I was not going to break my promise.

When the wail faded from my ears and the pain in my throat subsided, my eyes flew open and I scanned the Netherworld-version kitchen around us. Thin tendrils of creeper vine had snaked in from the cafeteria but, though they reached for us, slowly slithering along the walls and floor, they hadn’t grown enough to completely overwhelm the room yet.

The sink faucets dripped typically rank, gloppy substances, but few of the other appliances had bled through the barrier.

Emma and Sabine stood in the middle of the kitchen, exactly where they’d crossed over, only now my best friend was back in her own body—and obviously in shock. Sabine held Em’s forearm, and I couldn’t tell whether the mara was trying to protect her or control her.

Avari and Invidia faced them from separate sides of the room, so that Sabine couldn’t keep an eye on both hellions at once.

“Kaylee…?” Emma’s brown eyes were wide, but not truly focused when her gaze slid to me from Invidia, whose long, sizzling hair flowed rapidly now with excitement. Drops of it rolled down her clothes without damaging the material, then fell to bubble and burn little holes in the linoleum tile. Emma winced at the sizzle. “Where are we? This is hell, right? I’m in hell?”

“It’s the Netherworld, Em.” My version of hell. “It’s gonna be fine. I’m going to get you out of here.”

“Am I dead, Kay?” Her words were slurred with shock, and my heart broke. She’d fallen asleep in history class and woken up in hell, and she thought I’d let it happen. That I’d let her die when I could have saved her.

“Soon, my dear…” Invidia crooned. “Very, very soon.”

“Don’t listen to her, Emma. Don’t even look at her,” I insisted, and for the first time, I wondered why neither hellion had simply charged them both. Or us.

“Sabine, cross back,” Nash said. “Take Emma back to the human world, and we can all work this out there. You don’t have to sell your soul to get your life back together.”

“He’s wrong,” Invidia insisted, her green-tinted eyes flashing, while Avari stood silently by, apparently content to wait and see how things played out, at least for now. “You’ve tried it on your own, and how well did that go?”

“It went fine!” Nash shouted, irises churning furiously as he stepped forward. I followed him, reluctant to let him out of arm’s reach in case I had to cross over quickly. He turned back to Sabine. “You can do this on your own, and I’ll help. I’ve been helping.”

“You threw me out.” Her hand tightened around Emma’s arm, and Em flinched, but didn’t try to pull away. “You kicked me out of your house and told me not to come back.”

Nash hesitated, and I read confliction on his face. He couldn’t deny what we all knew had happened, but passing the blame on to Sabine, where it rightfully belonged, would only push her further toward making a proverbial—and almost literal—deal with the devil. “I take it back,” he finally said. “I was frustrated and angry, and I acted on impulse, when there was probably a better way to handle the situation,” he said, and I wondered if that was a direct quote from his mother.

“He’ll do it again.” Invidia swept a rivulet of hair over her shoulder, and drops of it splattered the floor behind her. “As long as she’s in the way, he’ll abandon you again and again. Sign over your soul, and I’ll make all that go away. I’ll make her go away.”

And suddenly I was out of patience.

“Okay, look,” I started, and when all heads turned my way, I had to swallow the lump in my throat before continuing. “Your soul is your business, Sabine.”

“Kaylee…” Nash started, warning me with his tone.

“She’s a big girl, Nash,” I insisted. “She can handle the truth.” I turned back to Sabine, uncomfortably aware that I also had the full attention of two hellions. “What you do with your soul is up to you. I personally think you’d be an idiot to sign it over to someone who plans to torture you for all of eternity, and that is what she’s planning. Ask her, if you don’t believe me. But I won’t let you drag Emma down with you.”

I propped my hands on my hips and shot Sabine a challenging glance. “You let her go right now, and then if you still want to sell your soul I’ll prick your finger myself, so you can sign in blood. How’s that?”

“Kaylee!” Nash snapped, but I could only shrug, hoping my attempt at reverse psychology didn’t backfire. Sabine typically did exactly what I wanted her not to, so maybe if she thought I wanted her to sell her soul—or at least that it wouldn’t bother me—she’d run in the opposite direction.

“Let her speak,” Avari said, hands in the pockets of his suit jacket. “I find her honesty…blissfully chaotic.” He was dressed like any human corporate monkey, which should have made him look harmless and…normal. But his eyes…

I couldn’t stand to look at those solid black orbs; they seemed to suck the light out of the room, rather than reflect it. His eyes were windows not into his soul—he didn’t have one—but into a void so deep and dark it was the very definition of despair.

“Good. Here, let’s get this over with.” I marched toward Sabine, hoping a show of aggression on my part would push her into action.

Sabine took a step back, pulling Emma with her. Nash called my name, but I didn’t stop. And when I was halfway between him and Sabine, a sudden wink of motion drew my attention to my right. My head swiveled, eyes searching for the anomaly.

Avari was gone.

Nash yelped behind me. I spun to find Avari holding him by one arm, and suddenly I understood why neither hellion had made a move until that moment—I’d gotten pretty damn good at crossing over in a hurry, and based on what I’d seen minutes earlier, Sabine could do it nearly instantly. Neither hellion was willing to risk us crossing over and depriving them of four victims.

But once Nash was out of my reach, he was fair game.

I froze, stuck between my maybe-boyfriend and my definitely best friend, unsure what to do.

“One move, and I’ll kill him,” Avari said, and since hellions can’t lie, I was pretty sure he wasn’t bluffing.

“Kaylee, go!” Nash shouted, face already twisted with pain, and I understood that he was feeling exactly what I’d felt in the nightmare Avari had given me. “Take them and go!”

But I’d no more leave him than I’d leave Emma, and the hellion obviously knew that.

Avari glanced past me at Sabine. “Let’s make a deal, Ms. Campbell.”

“No!” Invidia screeched, and Emma gave a startled yip. I followed her gaze to see that the hellion of envy now sported several rows of razor-sharp, needle-thin teeth, the yellowish white of aged bone. “No deals. The mara is mine, and so is the lovely Emma-body. Mine! ”