“Just...don’t do anything heroic, okay?”
I nodded. I had no plans to take crazy risks. I just wanted my dad back.
My uncle must have seen some of that in my eyes, because he turned to Tod next. “If this goes bad, get her out of there.”
Tod nodded. “Count on it.”
He and I took up a position near the outermost wall of the large basement, not so close to the cinder blocks that anything growing on them could reach for us, but close enough that we were unlikely to suddenly appear in the middle of a crowd. Or a piece of furniture.
My palms were starting to sweat. Tod took my hand and squeezed it. “It’s going to be okay, Kaylee,” he whispered. “One way or another.”
I let him cross us both over so I wouldn’t risk losing touch with him in the process.
When I opened my eyes in the Netherworld, I was nearly blinded. Not that the light was that bright, but after the darkness of the human-world basement, any light shining in my eyes was a shock to my system. I stood as still as possible while my eyes adjusted, clutching Tod’s hand, and the first thing I noticed when I could see again was that the light was dancing. Shadows jumped and stretched. Light flickered over grimy cinder-block walls, odds-and-ends furniture, and an assortment of bizarre creatures sitting, standing, and lounging all over the large room.
Candles. Avari had lit his creepy basement lair with hundreds of tiny candles, unlike any I’d ever seen. Tiny flames licked the air from shallow, irregularly shaped bowls of thick liquid, but I couldn’t see a single wick. The liquid itself was on fire.
Tod squeezed my hand, and I nodded in silent acknowledgment that yes, I saw it. I saw it all. I wasn’t willing to speak or move, because no one had noticed us yet—an advantage I hadn’t expected but intended to use.
The reason no one had noticed us yet was that they were all busy noticing some kind of bloody spectacle at the other end of the room, where one large creature appeared to be systematically devouring another, slightly smaller creature, complete with a disturbing array of crunchslurpgulp noises.
I gagged, then slapped my free hand over my mouth to hold back the lunch I now regretted eating.
Tod squeezed my hand again, and I sucked in a deep, silent breath to calm myself, mostly out of habit. I didn’t really need to breathe anymore. I made myself scan the large room, my gaze stumbling over misshapen limbs, backward-bending joints, and more kinds of horns, scaly wings, and twitching tails than I could even count. But I saw no sign of my father.
I decided no sign was a good sign.
“Find what you’re looking for, little bean sidhe?” Avari’s voice crawled over me like an army of spiders marching beneath my skin, and as I turned to find him watching us from the nearest corner, a series of soft shuffles, scratches—like claws on concrete—and the whisper of fabrics I couldn’t identify told me that everyone else in the room was now watching us, too.
I didn’t look at them. I couldn’t without losing my composure—just knowing they were there was bad enough. I’d been in a larger Netherworld crowd, once, but I’d hidden my fear and mortality behind a mask. This time I was exposed, no longer mortal, but as vulnerable as ever.
I might have been full of rage earlier, but standing there, surrounded by at least two dozen Nether-creatures, any one of whom would gladly snap off my head and suck out my insides, it was hard to focus on anything more than my own paralyzing fear.
I swallowed, then let go of Tod’s hand. That gesture of independence wouldn’t hide my fear, but hopefully it would expose my spine. “Where’s my dad?”
Avari stalked closer, and it was obvious from his smooth, menacing gait that he was pleased to have me back on his turf, where my options were limited—in the Netherworld, I couldn’t become invisible, inaudible, or incorporeal. The hellion looked just like he had the first time I’d seen him. Tall, with dark hair and a dark suit that would have looked normal in any accountant’s office in the human world but looked absurdly out of place in the seething pit of bizarrely shaped evil that was the Netherworld.
His featureless black orb eyes seemed to be watching me as he stalked closer, but I couldn’t be sure with no irises or pupils to indicate the direction of his focus. “I’ve put your father away for safekeeping.”
“I want him back.”
“Of course you do.” He stopped and clasped his hands behind his back. “And you know the price. Have you come to discuss the terms of your surrender?”
“Yes.”
Avari actually chuckled. “Hellions cannot lie, but we are all fully aware that little dead bean sidhes can. So I assume you understand my disinclination to take you at your word.”
“Whatever.” On the edge of my vision, something slithered closer, and chills crawled over my skin. “Here are my terms.” I would ask for the world. It didn’t matter whether or not he agreed—what mattered was that I kept him talking. “First, send my father home. Second, swear you’ll never attempt to contact any of my friends and family ever again, through any means. Third, swear that you’ll stay away from my school and all of its students, past, present, and future. And the staff. When you’ve done all of that to my satisfaction, I’ll hand over my immortal soul. That’s what you want, right?”
He needed me to give him my soul of my own free will. With it in his possession, I could not escape. Ever.
“Surrender your soul, and you have my word that your father will be returned to the human world.”
“You first.” A tentacle slithered past his foot, headed in my direction from the crowd at his back, and I had to concentrate to still my pounding heart before he heard that evidence of my terror. “And that’s only my first demand.” Stand strong, Kaylee. I couldn’t afford to let him see anything but confidence. And anger. “You’re not getting what you want until I have everything I want. Starting with my father’s return.”
“Immediately,” Tod said from my side. “Unharmed.”
Avari lifted one dark brow. “Even I cannot undo what has been done to the living. But if you’d like me to kill him, I can then return his undead form to its previous glory. Of course, he would have to remain here....”
“No. Send him back as unharmed as possible, physically, psychologically, mentally, and in any other states of health I may be forgetting.” That tentacle still moved in my peripheral vision, but I resisted the urge to actually look at it. “And I want your word that you won’t try to hurt him again. Ever.”
Odd breathy titters and deep beastly grunts echoed from the crowd at the hellion’s back, and another chill ran through me when I realized I was hearing monstrous sounds of amusement.
“You aren’t in the position to make so many demands, Ms. Cavanaugh.”
“The hell I’m not. I am in possession of my own soul, and we both know you’ll do anything to get it. So give me your word, or I’m out of here.”
“Little bean sidhe, your lies are transparent.” Avari was on the move again, pacing in front of his assembled audience, stepping over tails and through trails of sludge I hoped never to identify, and I could no longer ignore the dozens of eyes, ears, and assorted snouts and muzzles aimed my way. “You would never abandon your father to torture and eventual death. To be followed by yet more torture. I don’t understand that about you, but I don’t doubt it in the slightest.”
“I never said I’d abandon him. But if I surrender without your word, you’ll torture him anyway, which means I’m better off retreating and regrouping.”
Avari scowled. I could practically see him searching for a loophole in what I’d told him to swear. He wanted my soul, most of all, but if he could find a way to keep my father, he would. And if he got Tod in the bargain, too, well...he was a hellion of greed.
But I’d left no wiggle room.
“It’s your turn to talk,” Tod said when several seconds had elapsed in pensive, angry silence from the hellion. “Negotiation is like playing tennis with words instead of balls. I thought you’d be better at this, consideri
ng your apparent lack of balls.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or tell Tod to quit poking the lion with a stick.
Avari’s blank gaze narrowed on him, and the hellion gestured to a nearby cluster of those weird candles. “Human fat puts off a nice glow, don’t you think?”
I stared at the fiery, viscous substance, fresh horror crawling beneath my skin.
Human fat. Taken from human beings. Dead humans, hopefully, but thanks to Avari’s fondness for torture, I couldn’t be sure of that.
“Take a nice, long look at your future, reaper. You’ll soon be burning as fuel for hundreds of tiny fires.”
Tod laughed out loud. “If that’s your way of saying I’m hot, rest assured, I already know.” He spread his arms, inviting Avari and his monstrous court to look him over. “But I’m going to have to keep lighting up the room with my dazzling personality, because you couldn’t scrape enough fat off me to fill even one of your sick-ass human candles. And, based on the crowd behind you, I’m guessing most of your friends look better in the dark anyway.”
The hellion’s eyes narrowed. His rage-filled voice slid over me like a blade under light pressure, constantly threatening to draw blood. “Someday soon, reaper, your mouth will be the source of your own destruction.”
“That does seem likely, doesn’t it?” Tod glanced at me and shrugged. “Until then, it remains a source of my own amusement.”
“So are you ready to send my father back, or should I pack up my soul and go home?”
Avari’s gaze fell on me with malevolent focus, and I remembered every time he’d come after me. Every life he’d destroyed to get to me. He wouldn’t stop until he had what he wanted, and when I slipped through his grip again this time, he would only get hungrier. Angrier. More desperate, but no less focused.
His rage made him more dangerous. Mine tended to make me stupid. Ira was right about that.
“Fine. Once we’ve come to an agreement, your father will suffer no further and I will return him to the human world immediately—after I take possession of your soul.”
If this were a real negotiation, I would have argued. “Fine. And you will have no further contact with him, nor attempt to harm him in any way or bring him to the Netherworld, through any means, including but not limited to force, threat, or coercion, personally or through a third party, ever again.”
“Wow.” Tod whistled. “Where’d you learn all that lawyer-speak?”
“Internet user license agreements. They’re almost as hard to navigate as the Netherworld,” I said, and Tod chuckled. “Avari? Give me your word, or this discussion is over.”
The hellion’s jaw tightened, a surprisingly human reaction. “I do so swear. Now hand over your soul.”
“I’m not finished.”
“You most certainly are!” he roared, and I jumped, startled. I couldn’t help it. A thin, lacy sheet of ice formed on the floor beneath his feet, flowing out in all directions. Excited murmurs and soft grunts spread throughout the audience. I couldn’t understand any of the actual words—if they could be called that—but the gist was clear. They were eager to see him lose his temper with me.
“Careful. You’re close to the goal,” I taunted, ignoring the fear crawling slowly up my spine. “Do you really want to blow it now?”
“Every word you speak brings your agony closer to hand,” Avari warned, and the ice spread until his audience began to step and slither toward the other side of the room, still watching. I wanted to back away from the ice, too—I’d once seen his temper freeze Addison solid—but this was not the time to show weakness or fear. “You will suffer more for the insolence you spew, and I will drink your pain straight from the source, for all of eternity.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so.” I met his black-eyed gaze as boldly as I could. “I think you already intend to hurt me as much as you possibly can, regardless of what I do or say.”
Avari scowled, and I think if he’d had normal eyes, I’d have seen realization dawn in them. I was right, and he’d just then realized it. Which meant he had nothing left to threaten me with, except...
“My friends and family.” I stood as straight as I could, framing my demand with confidence and determination I didn’t really feel. “I want your word that once you have my soul, you will never bother them again in any way, through your own efforts or by enlisting help. And that you won’t help anyone else hurt them or even contact them. Any of them.”
The sheet of ice thickened and spread in a burst of hellion anger, and on my right, one of the nameless Nether-creatures made a strange choking sound. I glanced over to see a small, vaguely humanoid woman—greenish in tone, with gray claws instead of hands—freeze where she stood. Literally. At her back, another monster cackled with echoing laughter, then shoved one huge fist through her frozen torso. The ice-woman cracked into several large chunks, which crashed to the floor amid splinters of ice and tar-colored frozen innards.
“You’ve outlasted my patience, little bean sidhe. Death and the attentions of your dark lover have already eroded your innocence. What makes you think you are worth the demands you’ve made?”
Eroded innocence? Seriously?
I glanced around the room again, looking for some sign of Harmony and my uncle or Nash and Sabine. For some indication of how much longer I should keep the hellion talking.
“The fact that we’re still having this conversation makes me think I’m worth it. The fact that you haven’t actually said I’m not worth it. But you know what? You’re right. I should go. I need my father back, but I don’t necessarily need you to give him to me. If I’m going to have to pay for his return either way, I think I’d rather pay someone else. Someone who’s already had a taste of me and my ‘eroded innocence’ and would be happy to have another.” My skin crawled at the very thought, but I refused to let that show.
“No one else can get to your father while I have him. You will deal with me, or know that you are responsible for his pain.”
“I don’t know, Kay,” Tod said in a stage whisper. “I think Ira offered you the better deal.”
“Ira?” Avari stalked closer, but I held my ground, though fresh thick ice formed beneath his feet with each step. “Another lie. You could never survive an encounter with the hellion of wrath.”
“Oh.” I frowned, pretending to second-guess my own memory. “Well then, I guess I never summoned him, either, did I? And I have no way of knowing that he’s powerful enough to answer a summons, but you’re not. And if none of that really happened, then I guess I never let him kiss me, either. Or taste my blood. Or feed my rage. If none of that was real, then you won’t mind if I leave you here and go imagine another encounter with Ira, who seems more than willing to work with my demands.”
“The king of rage gets my vote,” Tod said. “Hell, I may make him an offer myself.”
Avari threw his arm out, index finger pointed like a weapon, and a thick spear of ice shot across the room to impale a creature in the far corner, who squealed, then collapsed. “The next one goes through your reaper lover. I will not play these games with you, bean sidhe. Offer up your soul or go home, and rest assured that your father will suffer in your stead....”
The hellion’s words faded and his head turned to the left. He stared at the long south wall of the large room, and unease churned in my stomach. A closed door stood in the middle of that wall. And with sudden cruel insight, I realized he was hearing something we couldn’t.
Avari’s hand shot out again, and the muscles in his neck bulged above his stiff white collar. The wall to his left exploded in a shower of huge ice daggers and broken cinder blocks. Dust spewed in all directions, and I gasped, choking as Tod pinned me between his body and the other wall. The tension in his entire frame said he was seconds from crossing over, with me in tow. And he might have done that very thing, if not for...
“Oh, no...”
I shoved him back so I could peer through the choking gray haze to see what he’d seen.
/> As the dust and debris settled, I saw that Avari had blasted through not only the interior wall separating our room from the next, but through part of the ceiling of that other room and part of the floor above it. Through the gaping hole above a pile of still-settling chunks of concrete, I could see the Netherworld sky, a sickly shade of orange at the moment, like pumpkin soup that has started to spoil.
But then my gaze followed the wreckage and I saw what had upset Tod. What everyone was staring at. What Avari had heard through the wall.
In the other room, my uncle Brendon stood with his feet spread, a sledgehammer clenched in a two-handed grip, ready to swing. On the ground in front of him were three bodies, each misshapen and somehow wrong, with grayish skin and inverted knee joints.
One had obviously been smashed by the falling debris, when Avari blew the wall in. The other two were the source of the weird grayish blood—or maybe some other bodily fluid—dripping in congealing glops from the hammer my uncle must have found in that room full of old machinery, which had probably never functioned at all in the Netherworld version of the mental hospital.
For a moment, no one moved. My uncle adjusted his grip, eyeing the horde of monsters now twitching, wheezing, and slithering forward slowly in anticipation of some cry of attack by Avari.
I saw no sign of my father. So why was Uncle Brendon still there? Why hadn’t he and Harmony crossed over the instant Avari blew out the wall?
Then I saw Harmony’s long, pale curls trailing over a large cracked brick on the floor. The rest of her was there, too, surely, but so covered in gray dust and bits of brick that it was hard to see anything other than glimpses of color—blond hair, blue T-shirt, red blood pooling on the bricks downhill from her head.
Harmony wasn’t moving.
Chapter Fourteen
“Mom!” Tod shouted, and heads turned our way. He pulled me toward the hole in the wall. Hands reached for us. Fingers brushed my arms. Claws caught in my hair. Tails and tentacles tugged at my shirt. My heart beat harder than it ever had, even before my death. But we dodged and slapped and kicked our way through the crowd as it coalesced around us, almost casually slowing our progress, as if they were in no hurry to actually kill us.
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