The thought gave me chills, but Nash stepped up before I had to admit that.

“Not sure how much good it’ll do,” Tod said as his brother pulled back on both of Thane’s eyelids at once. “He doesn’t have a soul.”

“Wow.” Sabine stared into the plain white in the reaper’s eyes. “I’ve never seen that before.”

Nash frowned. “Wish I could say the same.”

“You’re right, that doesn’t help,” she said, and he let go of Thane’s eyes. “Okay, let’s try something else. His conscious mind is asleep, but the subconscious never sleeps. Let’s see if we can guide his thoughts, to lead me to his fears.”

“How?” Tod asked.

“Um, touch him. We know Avari wants Kaylee’s soul, but we don’t know what he wants with you. Even unconscious, Thane’ll know it’s you touching him, and hopefully he’ll think about you, which will lead me to fears related to you.”

“Tod’s a rookie. He’s like a baby reaper. Why would Thane be scared of him?”

“I said fears related to Tod, not fears of Tod,” Sabine said, and Nash scowled, but kept his mouth shut.

“Okay.” Tod pushed Thane’s sleeve up and laid his bare hand on the other reaper’s arm. “How’s that?”

Sabine closed her eyes again and took a long, quiet breath. Then she started to speak, softly, like she was afraid she’d wake up the unconscious reaper. “He’s afraid of failing. He’s terrified of what Avari will do if he can’t bring Tod to him.”

What?

“Anything else?” Tod whispered, and Sabine’s eyes flew open, her hand still tight around Thane’s.

“He heard your voice,” she said, and though her eyes didn’t close again, they lost focus, like she was looking at something none of the rest of us could see. “He’s cold, deep down inside and he’s afraid of the cold because it’s foreign. It shouldn’t be in him, and he wants to get rid of it, but he can’t. But as much as he hates the cold, he’s even more afraid of losing it, because once his body’s gone, he’ll truly be at Avari’s mercy. And that’s what he’s afraid will happen if he doesn’t bring Tod.”

“What cold?” Nash sank onto the couch cushion next to me, like he’d forgotten how mad he was.

“Demon’s Breath,” I said, then immediately wanted to take the words back. Just saying them couldn’t push Nash into relapse, yet I felt guilty for bringing up such a touchy subject. But once I’d started it, I had to finish. “There’s Demon’s Breath in place of his soul. He wants to get rid of it, but if he does, he’ll lose his body, then Avari can do whatever he wants with Thane’ssoul.”

Nash nodded stiffly.

“Is that all?” Tod asked.

Sabine nodded. Then, “Kaylee, you touch him.”

Both Tod and Nash looked like they wanted to object, but I grabbed Thane’s arm before they could, and Sabine closed her eyes again.

“He’s scared of you,” she said, almost immediately. “But not scared enough. He’s terrified that you can extract his soul, if he ever gets it back, but he knows that if Avari gets you, you’ll no longer be a threat. Before, he wanted to take you to Avari because he was scared of Avari. But now he wants to turn you over because he’s scared of you.”

I should have been relieved by that—the big bad reaper was afraid of me. But knowing he was willing to drag me into the Netherworld to eliminate the threat I now represented was enough to wipe out any relief I might otherwise have felt.

“Avari wants us both?” Tod said, and Sabine nodded slowly.

“But for different reasons. He’s afraid that if the hellion doesn’t get you, he’ll never let Thane go free. And based on what little I know of Avari, I’d bet he won’t let Thane go even if he does get you,” she said to Tod. “He’s a hellion of greed, right?”

We all nodded, and if we hadn’t been looking at Sabine, we might have known Thane was awake before he grabbed her by the throat.

9

I GASPED AND Tod pulled me out of reach. Nash grabbed for Sabine, but Thane stood and pushed her backward with him. “Who the hell are you?”

“What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you?” Sabine croaked, clutching the hand that held her by the throat at arm’s length. “Did your dad beat you? Your mom leave you? Did your girlfriend kick your balls clear up into the back of your throat?”

Thane’s eyes widened, and I realized he was surprised into silence for the first time since I’d met him.

“Whatever it is,” the mara continued, her voice hoarse but audible, “I’m going to top it, if you don’t let me go right now.”

Thane studied her for another second, like he was debating—or maybe waiting for verbal brilliance to strike. Then his eyes narrowed and he frowned at her, and I could see his grip on her loosen a little. “I remember you. You’re the feisty little firecracker I saw at Kaylee’s house.” When he’d been stalking me, in anticipation of reaping my soul.

Sabine frowned—she’d never seen him before—and her eyes darkened. Every lightbulb in the room seemed to dim, and chill bumps rose on my arms. “Know what happens when you hold a lit firecracker?” she said, glaring up at Thane, who didn’t answer. “It’ll take your hand clean off.”