“What’s wrong with Regan?” Tod asked over my shoulder, and she must have heard him.
“John Dekker offered her the contract, and she said yes!” Her voice rose in disbelief on the last word, and it echoed like a siren going off in my head. For a moment I wondered how certain we were of Addison’s humanity. “He’s on his way here now. He always brings the contract personally—he doesn’t trust anyone else with it.”
My heart beat so hard my chest felt bruised. John Dekker was coming to Texas, and he was bringing a soul-sucking demon with him.
The road swam before me as my horror and confusion crested in a startling wave of disorientation. Nash grabbed the wheel again, though I hadn’t let go of it, and I took a deep breath, forcing my thoughts apart. Each to its own distinct corner of my mind. That was the only way I could concentrate on one at a time.
I tightened my grip on the wheel, eased up on the gas, and focused on the road, nodding absently to tell Nash I was fine. Until a semi blasted past on our right, nearly blowing us off the highway.
Maybe I should pull over….
“Wait, your sister sold her soul?” I said, hitting the speakerphone button as I glanced over my shoulder to make sure there was nothing in the other lane. But the entire highway was blocked by Tod’s face, crinkled with fear—an odd expression to find on a reaper.
“Move!” I mouthed, handing the phone to Nash, and Tod immediately dropped back into the rear passenger seat. I swerved too quickly into the right lane—blessedly empty—then onto the shoulder of the road.
“She hasn’t actually signed the contract yet,” Addison continued, oblivious to my driving woes. “But she will as soon as Dekker gets here. You guys have to help me. Please. She won’t listen to me, but she can’t argue with you. She knows Tod’s dead. You all have to come tell her what you told me. What will happen to her when she dies.”
“Why won’t she listen to you?” I shoved the gearshift into Park, and Nash stabbed a button on the dash to turn on the hazard lights.
“She thinks I’m trying to hold her back.” Addy sobbed again and springs creaked as she sat on something. It sounded like a bed, rather than a chair. “She said she was tired of ‘singing in my shadow.’”
Nash spoke loudly, to make sure she could hear. “Addy, where’s your mom?”
Addison sniffled again, sounding much younger than eighteen. I guess true terror does that. “She went out, and she’s not answering her phone.” She didn’t elaborate, but I recognized the embarrassed, disgusted tone in her voice. Her mom was strung out again, and gone when she was needed most.
“Does she know what your sister’s about to do?” Nash continued.
Addison sobbed miserably. “Yeah, but she doesn’t understand. I tried to tell her Regan was selling her soul, but she thought I was speaking in metaphors.” She sniffled again. “I doubt she’d care, anyway. She’d just see dollar signs.”
I already hated Mrs. Page, though I’d never met her.
Tod leaned forward with his arms folded across the back of Nash’s seat this time. “Where’s Regan now?”
“We’re both at home,” Addy said. “My mom’s house in Hurst. Do you remember how to get here?”
Tod nodded, then realized she couldn’t hear him. “Yeah.” But then he faltered, obviously at a loss for how we could help.
But I had an idea—a stroke of genius, really—that sent adrenaline racing through my veins fast enough to leave me light-headed. “After she signs the contract, Dekker has to take her to the Netherworld like they did with you, right?” My small car rocked violently as another huge truck blasted past us on the highway, without bothering to move into the far lane.
Addison cleared her throat, and more springs groaned. “Yeah, but we can’t let that happen. We have to stop her from signing.”
“I know.” I held up one finger to tell Nash and Tod to wait—that I really was going somewhere with this. “But my point is that in order to take her to the Netherworld, Dekker has to bring along that reaper, right? The lady who took you to the hellion?”
“Yeah, I guess …”
“And, Tod.” I twisted in the driver’s seat to face him, though the steering wheel bruised my side. “Using your soul-wrangling abilities for anything other than reaping from the approved list is illegal for a reaper, right? Including taking humans to the Netherworld to facilitate the removal of their souls?” He nodded, and I continued. “Would you call that a firing offense?”
“Definitely.” His eyes lit up, as my point became clear.
“And would your boss be interested in the chance to fire such a reaper?”
His brows arched. “It would make his decade.”
“That’s what I thought.” I faced forward again to spare my ribs, just as the first drops of rain went splat on the windshield. “And without his pet reaper, Dekker has no way to get Regan to the Netherworld. Right?” My excitement grew as Tod and Nash both nodded eagerly. We had a chance to save Regan from making a huge mistake and bring justice to the rogue reaper involved. Plus, if I could peek into the Netherworld, I could at least get a good look at the hellion we needed to identify. “So, what do you think? Will it work?”
Nash grinned from ear to ear and made a gruff happy noise deep in his throat. “I think it might.”
“So, wait, you have a plan?” Addy squeaked over the line.
“Yeah, I think we do.” I twisted my key in the ignition, and the car rumbled to life, more like an ailing house cat than a purring tiger, but so long as my poor car moved, I wasn’t going to complain.
“What should I do?”
I rebuckled my seat belt and flicked the switch to start my windshield wipers. “Stall them until we get there.” The passenger side wiper stuttered across the glass once, then died without so much as a whimper.
Fortunately, I didn’t need to see through that side. “Say whatever you have to say. But don’t let her sign that contract, and do not let the reaper take Regan to the Netherworld.”
“Okay, I’ll try.” But she sounded less than confident.
“Try hard, Addy.” I punched the button to make the hazard lights stop blinking and glanced over my left shoulder before pulling into traffic again. “You only have one sister, right? And she only has one soul.”
“Yeah, okay.” She sniffled again, but this time determination echoed in her voice like a vow sworn in a cavern. “I’ll keep her here if I have to chain her to the kitchen cabinets.”
“I hope you’re kidding, but in case you’re not, that won’t work. Neither your cabinets nor your chain exist in the Netherworld, because they’re in a private residence.” Huh. Look at that. I’d actually learned something in how-to-be-a-bean-sidhe lessons.
“Yes, but the concept has some real potential,” Tod muttered from behind me, and I glanced in the mirror to see him grinning lasciviously.
“I’ll come up with something,” Addison said. She obviously hadn’t heard the reaper’s last comment.
“Good. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” I nodded at Nash, and he closed my phone, but held on to it, so I wouldn’t have to dig for it if it rang again. Then I stomped on the gas, and nearly had a heart attack when my poor little car hydroplaned a good ten feet before finding traction again.
“I’d rather be late-but-whole than punctual-but-dead,” Nash suggested, teasing me much more calmly than I could