Rachel Vincent: My Soul to Steal

“It means ‘disguise.’ As long as you wear them, the silk will disguise your energy signature, both here and in the Netherworld.”

“What does that mean?” Emma asked. And if she hadn’t, I would have.

“Think of yourself as a cell phone,” Harmony began, tying the second bracelet on Sabine’s left wrist. “Constantly broadcasting a signal—your energy signature. That signal identifies you as a human female, about sixteen years old. Specifically, it identifies you as Emma Dawn Marshall. This bracelet—” she held up another one and waved me forward, as Sabine frowned at her new accessory “—is like a jammer. It’s going to jam your signal. And for the rest of you—” Harmony glanced at me, Nash, and Sabine in turn as she wrapped the stiff length of cord around my arm “—it will disguise your species, as well.”

“So…no one will know I’m a bean sidhe? ” I asked, as she tied the first knot.

“Not just from tasting your energy signature.”

“And that’ll keep Avari from possessing us?” Nash said, holding his arm out for his bracelet.

“It’ll keep him from identifying you. And if he can’t find you, he can’t possess you. Right?”

“But he knows where we live,” Sabine pointed out, frowning skeptically. “It’s not gonna be hard to find us, if he’s looking in the right place.”

Harmony nodded solemnly. “And that’s where these come in.” Without further explanation, she opened the box on the coffee table, reached inside, and pulled out a small, quaking ball of fur.

I frowned at the creature, and at the faint gamey smell emanating from it. And when Harmony shoved it toward me, I took a step back.

“He won’t hurt you,” she insisted, and pushed it toward me again. This time I held out both hands, and she deposited the furball in them. “This is your new best friend.” She brushed blond curls back from her face, then reached into the box again and pulled out another ball of fur, and handed this one to Nash. “They don’t have a name that I can actually pronounce, so you may as well just think of them as puppies. Very special puppies.”

“They’re dogs?” Emma asked, and Harmony smiled.

“Not fully. They’re a mix of a Pomeranian and a small Netherworld critter. They’re very expensive and difficult to breed. So don’t take this responsibility lightly.”

“Responsibility?” Sabine said, holding her “dog” at arm’s length.

“Yes. It’s very important that you bond with them over the next couple of weeks.”

“So, what?” Emma said. “Hellions are allergic to fur?”

Harmony laughed and stroked the small creature in my hands, which had begun to sniff my fingers with a tiny, wet nose. “No. These little guys are Netherworld guard dogs. If they sense a hellion anywhere near you, on the other side of the world barrier, of course, they’ll start yipping up a storm. So…if you sleep with him in your room, he’ll wake you up before you can possibly be possessed.”

“So…the cure for hellion possession is a pet?” I asked, running one finger down the creature’s thin, trembling spine.

“Well, it’s more preventative than actual cure, but it’s the best I could come up with.”

“My mom won’t let me have a dog,” Emma said, looking worried as she cradled hers to her chest.

Harmony was unconcerned. “Tod can talk her into it, can’t you, Tod?” The reaper nodded. “And, Sabine, I’m sure Nash can talk to your foster mother for you.” Their Influence should pave the way toward pet ownership before the poor mothers even knew what hit them.

“But I don’t want a dog,” Sabine said, still staring at hers like it might bite her. Or vice versa. “I didn’t even want a bracelet.”

Harmony frowned. “Do you want Avari in your body?”

“No.”

“Then you want this bracelet, and you definitely want this dog. Name him. Feed him. Bond with him. He’s the only thing standing between you and serial possession. Got it?”

Sabine nodded hesitantly, and I laughed out loud. I couldn’t help it. She couldn’t have looked less comfortable if Harmony had demanded she cha-cha in a pair of three-inch heels.

“What about Alec?” I asked, pushing my new bracelet up my arm, to keep the pup from chewing on it.

“I dropped his off at his new place. Sophie’s getting one, too, though I don’t know how her dad’s going to explain it.”

“So…this is it?” Nash asked. “We’re using jewelry and puppies to ward off evil?”

Harmony nodded. “Right now, guys, these puppies and bracelets are all you have standing between you and the Netherworld. Well, these little guys, and one another. For whatever reason, the dominant hellion of this area has literally moved into your high school, just across the world barrier from where you spend most of your waking hours. And he’s not alone. Such a concentration of power is like a lighthouse in the dark. It’s going to attract others, and your school is going to be at the heart of whatever trouble moves into the neighborhood. “If you’re going to take on the entire Netherworld population, as some of you seem determined to do, you need to at least know what you have going for you. So take a look around this room. This is it. These are the people in your corner. So I suggest you all find a way to get along. I have a feeling someday your lives are going to depend on it.”

I glanced around my living room, one face at a time, thinking of everything we’d been through together. Everything we’d fought and survived. Hellions. Possession. Toxic vines. Demon’s Breath. Walking nightmares. Was Harmony saying it would get worse from there?

A chill shot through me at the very thought.

But as I watched Sabine watching Nash watch me, I realized something I should have understood much sooner—as horrifying a threat as the Netherworld represented, learning to trust again in my own world might just be the scariest thing I’d ever had to do.

Thanks first of all to my editor, Mary-Theresa Hussey, who knew just what this book needed. Her suggestions challenged me to find better solutions, and the book is so much better for it.

Thanks to Natashya Wilson, for so much enthusiasm and support.

Rinda Elliot, for the lightning-fast critique, and for being the first to love Sabine.

Thanks to #1, who made fajitas and helped me figure out how to hurt a hellion.

Thanks to Ally, Jen, Melissa, Kelley, and everyone else in the YA community for advice, camaraderie, and for making me feel so welcome.

And most of all, thank you to the readers who have given Kaylee and her friends a place in this world. Without you, none of the rest of it would matter.