“What the hell does this have to do with Lydia?” I demanded, but instead of answering, Avari looked around through Addison’s eyes at the group he’d assembled, then nodded his approval.

“If you want answers, you know how to get them,” he said with Addy’s voice. At her nod, Thane disappeared with Lydia in tow, and Belphegore disappeared with Sophie. And just like that, Aunt Val’s soul was gone, disintegrated and distributed across both worlds like dust scattered in an explosion for however long it would take all the bits to coalesce so she could be given a final rest. Or doomed to torture once again.

“Wait!” Tod shouted, and Avari turned to him with Addison’s wide-eyed look of expectance. “You said you wouldn’t cross if I didn’t go after Kaylee! You can’t go back on your word!” That no-lie rule was to hellions in the Netherworld what physics was to humans in our world—a law that could not be broken.

“No, what I said was that if you went after Kaylee, I would cross over. And that was no lie.” With that, the Addison-monster disappeared with Emma, and Em’s scream echoed even after her body was gone.

Tod shouted, a wordless expression of rage and despair. Addison was gone. We’d failed to save her. Again.

Then, for a single, tense second, Tod, Nash, Luca, and I stared at one another in shocked silence. Luca was the first to break it. “We’re going after them, right? We have to go after them!” But he couldn’t cross on his own, and neither could Nash.

“Yes, of course,” I said, closing my eyes. Trying to think. “But rushing in would be suicidal.”

“It’s not like we have any choice!” Luca cried. “They have Sophie and Emma. And…that other girl.”

“It’s a trap,” Nash said, running one hand through his mussed brown hair. He looked like he wanted to hit something, but all the bad guys had disappeared.

“How do you know?” Luca demanded.

“Because everything Avari does is a trap, and I’ve been caught in a couple of them.”

“They took our friends so we’d follow them into the Netherworld. Right where they want us,” Tod explained. “They’re looking for resurrected souls, like me and Kaylee.”

“You don’t know that,” Nash said. “Maybe this time they want Sophie and Emma and…”

“Lydia,” I supplied.

“Right,” he said. “Why would they bring Lydia here, when Sophie and Emma would have been plenty of bait on their own? The hellions brought them here for more than that.”

Tod and Nash started to argue, but I cut them off, beyond grateful that Nash was clean and sober. I’d almost forgotten how smart he could be. “Nash has a point,” I said. “Any one of them would have been enough bait. And if the hellions just wanted us in the Netherworld, Invidia would havekept me there earlier, and Avari would have let you cross after me.”

Tod nodded, grudgingly conceding the point.

“It doesn’t matter whether they want us here, or there, or in the next damn galaxy. They. Have. Sophie. Take me, or I’ll find my own way to cross,” Luca said, brown eyes blazing in fury and fear. I had no idea how he’d get himself there, but I didn’t doubt he could do it.

And his determination to save my spoiled, bitchy cousin was so damn sweet I almost wondered if I’d judged her too harshly all my life. Almost.

I glanced at Tod, and he nodded. Then Nash nodded. We were in agreement.

“Okay,” I said. “But we can’t cross here—this is where they’ll be expecting us. And don’t forget that Tod and I don’t have any undead abilities in the Netherworld. We can cross back over, and I assume we can function as bean sidhes, but no invisibility, inaudibility, or blinking from one place to the next. Understand? No shortcuts.” That thought terrified me beyond reason, especially considering that I’d been to the Netherworld a dozen times before I even had any undead abilities.

“I don’t care.” Luca glanced around the clearing. “Where should we cross?”

I looked around, thinking of my brief visit to the Nether minutes earlier. “Away from the water and out of the sand. Um… Over there. Beneath the trees.”

“You guys meet us there,” Tod said, one hand on my arm to catch my attention. Nash scowled, but when I didn’t object, he led Luca out of earshot. Tod stared down at me, his eyes swirling with nerves. “Kaylee, this isn’t going to end well. It could be worse than what happened with Alec, and I need you to promise me that if this goes bad, you’ll run. Just get the hell out of the Netherworld. I’ll be right behind you with Nash and anyone else I can reach to cross over with.”

“No. This is all or nothing, Tod. I’m not coming back without everyone.” What good would my afterlife be if I had to live it knowing I’d let my best friends die?

Tod exhaled slowly, obviously frustrated. “Fine. But I had to try.”

“And I love you for it.” I took his hand, and we blinked over to the trees just as Nash and Luca got there. “Ready?” Tod asked, and everyone nodded.

I sucked in one last deep lungful of human-world air and took Luca’s hand while Tod took Nash’s forearm. Then we crossed.

The Netherworld version of the tree limbs we stood beneath were heavily laden with fat, knobby purple fruit and long, thin leaves with serrated edges. Luca reached up like he’d touch one, then thought better of it. He was smarter than I’d been during my first trip to the Netherworld. Then I remembered that he’d been there before, with Sophie. Which was good. Experience counts for a lot in the Netherworld.