“Stay here,” Tod said, and I could tell from his bold volume that no one but me could hear him. “I’ll check the back rooms.” Which included the only bedroom, the bathroom, and a single small storage closet.

I stomped after him. “This is my job! I’m not gonna stay behind while you—”

“Kaylee, wait!” Tod tried to hold me back from the bedroom doorway, but it was too late. I saw it over his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around me and tried to walk us back into the living room. I saw it all. Blood streaking the walls and Alec’s unmade bed. A small lump of bloody fur on the floor, too mangled to recognize.

“Falkor…” I buried my face in Tod’s shoulder and he led me toward the living room, holding me up when I backed over my own foot and nearly tripped. “Who did this?” I whispered, blinking back tears I didn’t want to let fall.

“It was him or me,” a familiar voice said from behind me, and Tod stopped walking as I twisted in his arms.

Alec stood in the middle of his own living room, a bloodied, broken broom handle in his right fist while his left arm dripped blood onto the floor from the jagged, gaping wound on his forearm. Only it wasn’t really Alec. It couldn’t be.

Avari couldn’t take Alec’s shape unless he already had Alec’s soul.

Alec was dead.

“No…” I whispered, and this time I couldn’t stop the tears. “No, not Alec,” I said through teeth clenched against an agony I couldn’t possibly express in mere words.

Alec, who’d helped me rescue my father and Nash from the Netherworld. Alec, who’d made me tie him to a chair so he couldn’t hurt me if Avari possessed him in the middle of the night. Alec, who’d proofread my history term paper, and listened to my French recitation, and shared the last chocolate-chip pancake with me, even though he’d called dibs fair and square.

Tears pooled in my eyes until I couldn’t see clearly, mercifully blurring a face Avari had no right to wear. They poured down my cheeks, scalding against the cold of my own shock and denial.

Alec couldn’t be gone. Not after everything he’d already suffered at Avari’s hands. Lost youth. Dead parents. Avari had used him to kill three teachers just a couple of months earlier.

Alec was supposed to be okay now. He was living the life he’d missed out on. He was supposed to get a happy ending, not death at the hands of a hellion who stole his soul and wore it like a costume.

Then Avari smiled coldly at me with Alec’s beautiful mouth, displaying malice where there had only ever been kindness before. His dark eyes shined with greed as he drank up my pain and abused the memory of my good friend.

I choked on sobs, trying to collect myself and my thoughts so I could do what needed to be done. The only thing I could still do for Alec—reclaim his soul from the monsterwho’d stolen it.

“Alec…” Just saying his name brought more tears to my eyes, and I blinked them away. “You soul-stealing bastard,” I hissed, and the Alec-monster shrugged.

“Is this about the dog? He was a ferocious little beast—tougher than his size would indicate. He reminded me of you, and I didn’t want to kill him, either. Not that quickly, anyway. But he gave me no choice.” Avari held up his injured left arm. Both his sleeve and his flesh were shredded, and still dripping blood. “Your true death will last much longer. I’ve given the matter serious thought, yet I can only imagine it one way. Your pain will be elegant and beautiful, your screams crystalline and fragile in tone, but robust in volume. I have always wanted to hear a bean sidhe scream in pain. I’m positively glowing with anticipation.”

“Kaylee, give me the dagger,” Tod said, his voice low and dangerous, threaded throughout with a thin ribbon of fear. But I pulled the knife out of his reach.

“No.” This was my job. Alec was my friend. The least I could do was give his soul some peace.

“You shouldn’t have to do this. He was your friend, and I can’t watch you do this.”

“Then close your eyes.” I stepped away from him, and he let me go, but I could feel how badly he wanted to pull me back again. To protect me from what I was about to do.

“I warned you,” Avari said with Alec’s voice. He stood his ground as I advanced, knife gripped tightly, eyes still wet. “You could have prevented this.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Tod said at my back, and I realized he was closer. Within arm’s reach. He wouldn’t interfere with my job, but he wouldn’t let me assume the risk on my own, either.

“A stranger in the mall. Then a boy from your class. Now a personal friend. Can you see the progression at work here?” Avari lifted one of Alec’s dark brows at me in question. “It’s a crescendo of death, all building toward that powerful note at the finale that makes the audience gasp and hold its collective breath. You are that last note, Kaylee. You are my finale, and the symphony of pain we create together will echo throughout eternity before finally fading into an agonized silence. Much like the bean sidhe’s wail itself. Unless you’d like to cut this whole production short and skip to the end.” The hellion shrugged with Alec’s shoulders, still holding his injured arm. “Normally I’m fairly patient—I suppose I have eternity to thank for that—but there is something to be said for instant gratification.”

“I’m gonna be gratified the instant she shoves that knife into your gut,” Tod said at my back. “And if you even look like you’re gonna touch her, I’ll take your head off myself.”